After a couple hours of fitful sleep, I was jolted awake by my iPhone at the ungodly hour of 4 frigging 30 AM. Oh the crazy things I do for points and miles… It took a lot of will power to drag myself out of bed, but soon enough I was ready to go.

The clerk at the front desk was as disinterested as his colleague the evening before, answering my “good morning” with a grunt. I thought his demeanor might have been due to a language barrier, but he spoke near flawless English when he told me their credit card machine was broken. Whiskey tango foxtrot. Fortunately, I had gotten ripped off by Travelex in exchange for some Euros before I left Heathrow the day before. I had just enough to settle my hotel bill and pay for the airport shuttle. The clerk then tossed my receipt and shuttle voucher across the counter, and wordlessly disappeared in the back room. Service with a smile this certainly is not.

The term “airport shuttle” is generally associated with a fourth hand rickety van or mini bus with a few hundred thousand miles on it. Imagine my surprise when the shuttle driver led me to a beautiful newish black Mercedes S class. Not too shabby for €5, and it was, with a doubt, a much better deal than my € 14 taxi ride the night before.



We reached the terminal less than 10 minutes after I left the hotel. I have to admit, I felt like a big shot when I stepped out of the car. Hey, not all of us are First Class Terminal regulars. Once inside, I had a bit of trouble finding the Iberia check in counters as signage was lacking to say the least. So I asked the Alitalia agent standing in front of their counters, who gave me directions with a smile. That was the first smile I saw since I landed in Lisbon. Grazie.

Unfortunately, it was more of the same when I reached the Iberia check in counter. The economy class line had a few people in it, but the Business Class/elite line was wide open. I strolled up to the counter and handed my passport to the indifferent agent. She printed both of my boarding passes and tagged my bags. Just as she was about to send my bags down the conveyor belt, I noticed that she didn’t put priority tags on them. I pointed that out to the agent, who responded I was flying economy so I couldn’t have the priority tags. I was connecting to a oneworld Business Class flight, and it is a published benefit for Emeralds so either way I should get them. The agent shook her again once more and said, “No, Iberia is different.” That response foreshadowed what I was going to experience onboard, as Iberia is very different from every oneworld carrier I’ve flown on. At any rate, I figured this really wasn’t a battle worth fighting, so I just left. It really isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but on the off chance that the priority tags do work I appreciate the time saved.

Security was quick and painless. It’s amazing how much more efficient security is when passengers are allowed to keep their shoes, belts, and light coats on. Lisbon’s airport does have the standard duty free shop maze right after security, but there is also a pretty cool sculpture at the entrance.



From researching online, I knew there was a third party lounge, the Blue Lounge, that British Airways and Iberia Business Class passengers could make use of. But since there wasn’t a oneworld carrier operated lounge at Lisbon, I figured I was SOL with respect to lounge access that morning. I was surprised to find the Blue Lounge with oneworld Emerald and Sapphire logos in front. So I decided give it the old college try.



I presented my boarding pass and elite card to the surprisingly cheery agent, who wrote down my information and welcomed me into the lounge. The lounge wasn’t much but at least it had free wifi, restrooms, and a small food spread, which consisted of pastries and bacon rolls. There was also a nice selection of juices and an espresso machine, which was much appreciated. Seating was naturally limited, and the lounge filled up not long after I arrived. It is certainly not the best lounge I’ve been to, but it’s not a bad spot to spend an hour.



About 10 minutes before departure, I packed up and made the trek to the gate. The gate agents were setting up the boarding lane when I arrived. There was already quite a crowd in the gate house. Boarding began soon after, beginning with Business Class and what sounded like oneworld elites. Interestingly, all announcements at the gate were made in Spanish only. Obviously, Spanish is expected, after all Iberia is flagged in Spain. But lack of Portuguese announcements was a bit surprising as Iberia is a major international airline, operating a flight from Portugal.

Not entirely sure what group was boarding, I made my way into the boarding line. The gate agent scanned my boarding pass and said, “Gracias, Senor dat4life.” I grinned because I could use one of the five words of Spanish I know. “De nade.”




Iberia 3107
Lisbon (LIS) – Madrid (MAD)
Depart: 6:55 AM
Arrive: 9:25 AM
Aircraft: Airbus A319-100 (EC-KBX)
Seat: 9F (Economy)

This was the flight on my itinerary I was most curious about. While trip reports on British Airways economy are easily found available, there isn’t a heck of lot of trips reports on Iberia’s economy class available on the net. As soon as I stepped on the plane, I could see why. The cabin was bright, and the gray leather seats looked to be modern. Seat pitch looked tight in Business Class, and then when I crossed the barrier into the coach cabin… Holy crap. “Tight” didn’t even begin to describe how bad the seat pitch is. Seat Guru lists seat pitch at 30 inches. I call some serious bovine feces on that. I’m not tall, but my knees were firmly pressed up against the seat in front of me. The seat itself was very thinly padded, and not very comfortable. Recline was non-existent.





Contents of the seatback pocket were fairly typical, consisting of the airline magazine, duty free catalog, and a beverage menu. The menu, at least to me, was fairly atypical as I do my best to avoid all of the likes of Spirit and Allegiant Air in the U.S. Nothing was complimentary. €2,50 for a can of Coke? That’s the stuff of Doug Parker’s dreams.


Pushback was performed on time. After a quick taxi, our 7 year old Airbus A319 raced down the active runway and climbed quickly into the pre-dawn sky. I fell asleep shortly after takeoff, and woke up just as we began to descend. The sun was rising at this time, making for a picturesque end of the flight.



Overall, I can’t say I won’t fly Iberia again, though I definitely won’t go out of my way to do so. We left and arrived on time, and service wasn’t hostile. It was perfectly adequate for a short hop, but I’m not sure I’d like try Iberia long haul unless I absolutely have no other oneworld option.

The cabin door was opened a couple of minutes after the engines were shut down. An American college student seated in front of me was struggling to get her massive, i.e. American sized, carry on out of the overhead bin. So I lent her a hand as I stepped out of my row. A clumsily spoken “Gracias” was offered in exchange for my help, to which I responded “no problem”, causing both of us to laugh.

We chatted as we walked toward transit passport control. It was decent walk, made even longer by yours truly who got us a bit lost but eventually found our way. I blame it on the poor signage… Anyways, she’s a grad student at a major university in the U.S. and did a study abroad program in Portugal the year before. She loved it so much she returned to visit over the last week of winter break. As she was on the American 10AM departure to Miami, I offered to guest her into the lounge after we made it through passport control, which she accepted. But when we got to the lounge, both of us were turned away by a pleasant agent, who explained because we were on U.S. bound flights, we had to go to the American transit desk first for a very important security check before she could let us into the lounge. Ugh.

We made the trek over to the transit desk, which is located pretty close to the gate American uses.

The very important security check went like this:

Agent: I have three very important security questions to ask you. Please answer them truthfully.
Me: Ok. I packed my bags myself. They have not been out of my possession. No one has asked me to take anything on the plane for them.

And then he proceeds to ask me the questions that I had just given the answers too. Alex, I’ll take pointless security questions for $1,000, please.

Satisfied he was able to ask his important questions, the agent then reprinted my boarding pass. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw it. You see, I’ve been having trouble getting the Pre Check logo on my mobile and printed boarding pass despite having both Global Entry and eligible airline status. Over the last few months, it’s been about 50-50. The Pre-Check logo on your boarding pass when there is no Pre-Check lane? I’m sure even Alanis Morsette would find that just a little bit ironic.



My new companion wrapped up with her agent just a couple of minutes after I did, and we headed back to Iberia’s Velazquez VIP Lounge. This particular location was interestingly located smack dab in the middle of the duty free shop. I suppose even premium passengers need a place to blowoff a few more Euros.



The agent who had turned us away a little while earlier, recognized us and waved us through after scanning both our boarding passes. As we walked away from the reception desk, my companion remarked, “You must fly a lot.” Yeah… Something like that. Anyways, we just had enough time for a quick bite to eat, over which we chatted about her field of study, which I find pretty interesting. We parted ways soon after, but not before exchanging Facebook info and email addresses. Since my flight wasn’t until 1PM, I had a few more hours to kill before I had to board.

The lounge itself was awesome. It was large, bright, and airy. I really liked the color scheme of the lounge, which consisted of a variety of earthy brown tones which worked with the large windows and the sunlight streaming in from those windows. The lounge did get crowded as I visited during the peak morning bank of flights, but there was plenty of seating available though it took some time to find it. Attendants were constantly clearing tables, so there were never too many dirty dishes sitting around.









There was large variety of both soft and alcoholic beverages available, including several flavors of Fanta. Drink stations are found in both sides of the lounge. An espresso machine was available as well.



Food spread was also very good as well with a selection of hot and cold items. I arrived during breakfast, so omelets, grilled tomatoes, sautéed mushroom, beans, and bacon were available. Cold items were fairly typical of European continental breakfasts, consisting of cold cuts, smoked salmon, cheese, and fruit. A variety of pastries and breads were also available. Another impressive part of the offerings was a large cooler stocked with packaged foods, such as sandwiches and other munchies, which appear to be intended for passengers in a hurry.





After a very pleasant couple of hours in Iberia’s lounge, I packed up and headed to the gate. Aeroport Internacional Madrid Barajas is a large and aesthetically pleasing facility, with high ceilings and lots of wood, metal, and glass that is typical of modern design. Improvements appear to be still ongoing with large areas of the terminal under renovation.





I arrived at gate 60 about 10 minutes after I left the lounge. Boarding hadn’t begun yet, but a good size crowd had already formed around the boarding lanes. A gate agent was walking around checking boarding passes. When he saw mine, he directed me into the roped off Priority Access lane where a couple of other Business Class passengers were already waiting. A couple minutes later, Business Class was invited to board. As I made my way down the jetbridge, I caught a glimpse of our aircraft, the almost 20 year old N386AA, who was wearing the attractive livery of the new American.





American Airlines 37
Madrid (MAD) - Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
Depart: 1:00 PM
Arrive: 5:25 PM
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER (N386AA)
Seat: 3B (Business Class)

A FA enthusiastically greeted me as I entered the aircraft and directed me to my seat, 3B. After flying over the pond in the new Business Class, the old ”Next Generation Business Class” seats looked far less inviting. The seats were angled lie flat arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration on the Boeing 767-300ER, a far cry from the 1-2-1 configuration on the 777-300ER. But for a daytime flight, the seat was perfectly comfortable and there was plenty of legroom. An amenity kit, pillow and blanket, and a set of slippers were already at my seat, which is great but the lack of storage space in the seat itself made it difficult to logically place everything where I can easily access them in flight. I ended taking my laptop out of my bag, which I put in the overhead compartment. My laptop was placed in the tiny storage slot underneath the tray table. Then I tossed the pillow and blanket underneath the seat in front of me, and stuffed the amenity kit in the tray table extension area.





It was nothing fancy, but the contents of the amenity kit were useful. And the bag was perfect for storing small electronic equipment and various chargers.



I could already this was going to be a very good crew. In addition to the enthusiastic FA who greeted me at the door, the rest of the crew in Business Class was very friendly and active hanging coats and greeting all passengers who walked by. The FA working my aisle was trying to reshuffle some of the smaller items from the outboard bins, which are larger, to the center bins, which are substantially smaller, to make room for a couple of passengers’ rollaboards. She was of a shorter stature and was struggling to reach the center bins as they are also a few inches higher than the outboard bins as well. So I volunteered to help her do some of the reshuffling, for which she was very grateful. I don’t know if my actions earned me some extra brownie points with the crew, but I received near flawless service for the duration of the flight.

Just after the cabin door was closed, El Capitan gave his welcome aboard announcement over the PA. Our flight time was announced as a shade over 11 hours due to strong head winds. The safety video began playing as we started taxiing to the runway. While not particularly interesting or exciting, I find American’s safety video to be nicely paced and to the point. Unlike some other U.S. airlines who have their smug CEOs do an introduction to their safety video, American has a couple of smiling pilots/FAs/agents/rampers telling me they’re glad I’m there and thank you for choosing American Airlines, which in my opinion is a much nicer touch.

We took off to the east, and made a climbing turn to west northwest, setting course for our assigned trans-Atlantic track. FAs were dinged out of their seats not long after we climbed through 10,000 feet. Service began with the distribution of Samsung Galaxy tablets and Bose Quiet Comfort headsets. They’re a bit of a pain with the power cable plugged into the power port, located in the seat in front of me. So whenever the gent in the window seat needed out, it took a minute or two to untangle the cable, unplug the tablet ,and find a place to stow it, only to repeat the process when he returned. That said, the tablets are much appreciated given the lack of built in IFE on American’s Boeing 767-300s. And since the 767s weren’t configured for in seat IFE when they were manufactured, the tablets are likely here to stay even after the upcoming refurbishment of the cabin as it is too costly to add the necessary wiring.



The purser then came around greeting each passenger by name while passing out menus for the flight. I was actually addressed as Mr. dat4life at every interaction during the flight, probably because I was the only one in Business Class who looked remotely Asian and had an Asian last name. So it really wasn’t hard to pick out who I was.

The lunch menu read as follows.

Lunch

STARTER

Smoked Salmon
With spring pea blinis and cream cheese

SALAD
Seasonal greens with fresh vegetables, asparagus and pesto boccocini
With your choice of honey Dijon dressing or premium extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Assorted gourmet breads will be served with your meal

ENTREES

Grilled Fillet of Beef
In shallot sauce served with truffled potato gnocchi and vegetable medley

Chicken Provencal
With wild mushroom reduction, wild rice, and green beans

Seared Scallops
Enhanced by line Champagne Sauce, leek rice pilaf, and mushroom and asparagus sauce

Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagna
With feta béchamel, capers, and olives

DINE UPON REQUEST
You may choose one of the featured entrees to be served with an appetizer and dessert, presented all at once, at any time you wish.

DESSERT

Traditional Ice Cream Sundae
Vanilla ice cream with you choice of hot fudge, butterscotch or seasonal berry toppings, whipped cream and pecans

Gourmet Cheese Plate
An assortment of fine cheeses with garnishes

Drink orders were taken shortly after. I ordered a Cuba Libre and a glass of water, which was delivered with the wonderful tradition of ramekins of warm nuts. The purser came by again a few minutes afterwards to take lunch orders. For some reason my pre-order didn’t come through, but seatmate’s did. Weird, but a non-issue since I got my choice of the filet anyways. I also requested the sauce to be on the side, if possible, to which the purser happily agreed to.



The appetizer cart rolled down the aisle just I finished my nuts, followed by the purser with the bread basket. I enjoyed the smoked salmon, which is hard to screw up. But I can’t say I cared too much for the blinis. The salad was crisp and fresh, though the asparagus was a bit chewy and I wish there was something else besides iceberg lettuce in it. There was a variety of breads in the basket, but I can’t remember what I chose, just that it was warm, soft, and perfectly edible. I stuck with water throughout the meal service.



The FAs cleared the appetizer plates and salad bowls by hand, at each individual passenger’s pace. Entrees were delivered individually soon afterwards. I’ve had plenty of steaks on planes, including quite a few on American. Personally, I like my steaks on the rare side, but airline steaks are generally overcooked, chewy, though edible. There are a few gems here in there, most recently on my JFK-LAX flight in November 2013. But for the most part, a good airline steak is quite rare, pun intended.

The dish delivered to me that day was well presented, with a good size helping of gnocchi. The vegetable medley turned out to be a colorful assortment of sautéed peppers. I was very pleasantly surprised to cut into the steak and find it cooked to a beautiful medium rare. Seat 2A has mentioned once or twice in his legendary trip reports that nicely done airline steaks start with a good cut of meat. This was certainly the case here. The meat was very lean and tender, with just a hint of fat around the edges. It was also perfectly seasoned and delicious as well. The gnocchi was tasty and not at all gummy as it often is reheated in an aircraft oven. The peppers were also very good, and even still a slight crunch to them.

My only (very minor and picky) complaint about the meal service was the tin foil ramekin used to put the sauce on the size, which looked very United-esque. In the not so distant past (i.e. my flight last November), small ceramic ramekins were loaded for such purpose. Here’s to hoping this isn’t a harbinger of things to come with the AA/US merger.

Now enough with the complaining. The meal was excellent, and was the best overall meal I’ve had on a plane since my Singapore Airlines First Class flights nearly two years ago. My seatmate had the scallops entree, and it looked very good as well.





Completely stuffed from the onboard meal and breakfast in the lounge, I turned down dessert. My aisle FA unsuccessfully tried coax me to order dessert several times, and seemed quite disappointed when I turned her down. After lunch, I unwrapped the pillow and blanket and napped for a few hours. The seat was comfortable for a short nap, but the sensation of sliding down can sure be bothersome on a long redeye.

When I woke up, I found a bottle of water next to me on my drink tray and the plastic wrapper from my blanket already cleared. While something like removing a plastic wrapper without asking may seem like small potatoes, it’s attention to little things like that separates a good crew from a great crew. The FAs remained very attentive throughout the flight, constantly roaming the aisles refilling water bottles and offering other drinks. While the menu indicated snacks were available in the galley, I didn’t check out the spread. But the FAs did offer a selection of packaged snacks along with fruit and cheese plates about halfway through the flight. I did take them up on a fruit and cheese plate, minus the cheese, and a Coke with lime.

Not feeling like working on anything, I fired up my tablet to find something to watch. The user interface is intuitive and is the same interface found on the 77W built in IFE. The touchscreen was very responsive, and the resolution of the screen more than acceptable. While the content selection is more limited what I found on the 77W, there was more than enough available to satisfy most tastes. Feeling fairly nostalgic at the moment, I settled on a classic, An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere. I can’t say it was a great movie, but it was entertaining and interesting for a military buff, such as myself. I followed that up with The Avengers, which I’ve seen far too many times thanks to my little sister. But it’s still a very entertaining movie, nevertheless. Throughout all of this, my Coke never stayed empty for every long.

Time flies when you’re having fun, and before I knew it we were feet dry over the northern coast of Canada and crossing into U.S. border just as finished up the excellent Los Angeles episode of No Reservations. One of the downsides of not having built in IFE is the lack of a moving map. I only knew our position as the featured film on the main screens had wrapped up, so the moving map was displayed momentarily. Not long after, the familiar sounds of dishes rattling in the galley signaled the eminence of the second meal service.

Light Meal
Offered prior to arrival

ENTREES

Uno’s Four Cheese and Pesto Pasta
Served with a green salad

Tandoori Chicken Cold Plate
Accompanied by potato salad

DESSERT

Chocolate Caramel Mousse

While I was watching a very entertaining episode of Elementary, the FAs began coming down the aisles taking orders for the second meal service. When she got to me, my aisle FA immediately said, “Mr. dat4life, I think you’ll really enjoy the Tandoori Chicken.” “Many passengers have said that they really enjoyed it.” Normally, I would think that the FA was either saving the other entree for themselves or trying to play off a catering mistake. But this cabin crew had been so all around great that I thought she was genuinely trying to make a good recommendation. Either way, I was going to order the Tandoori Chicken anyways for two reasons: 1. I’ve never had a horrible chicken dish on American. 2. The cheese on the pizza wouldn’t do me any favors. So I told her I’d take what she recommended.

And I wasn’t disappointed. When my tray was delivered, I found a generous portion of chicken breast which was tender and very flavorful. It was served cold, but I think it would work well as a hot dish as well. The potato salad ok, but had a little too much mustard for my taste. The chocolate caramel mousse was delicious, as expected. I continued with more Coke during the meal, as I was trying to stay awake because I had some driving to do after the flight. I enjoyed an episode of The Big Bang Theory during the second meal service.



After the meal service, the U.S. arrivals video was played, once in English and once more in Spanish. Tablets and Bose headsets were collected soon after that. Another downside to the tablet system is the lack of gate to gate IFE. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if I had a window seat to enjoy the views during approach. But unfortunately, I picked an aisle seat so I could come and go without disturbing my seatmate during the long flight. Therefore, I missed out on excellent views of the downtown Dallas in the fading sunlight.

We approached from the north and circled back and landed smoothly on Runway 35R. After a moderately lengthy taxi to Terminal D, we parked at gate D23. I was one of the first ones off of the plane, thanking the stellar crew on the way out and handing each of them an AAplause certificate. Service throughout the flight was excellent, and it was by far the best international flight I’ve ever experienced on American Airlines.

Thanks to Global Entry, I was through immigration and at baggage claim in no time. I got there just as the baggage from my flight hit the belt, beginning with PRIORITY TAGGED bags. Apparently today was that off chance. I waited there for a solid 20 minutes, as batch after batch of bags were claimed but still no sign of my bags. Finally, the last batch of bags arrived and my bags were the very last two to hit the belt. Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

It was back to grind for a couple of weeks before I head back across the pond for another adventure. I’ll have those sections up very soon. Thanks for reading so far!