globalste

Was looking at flights in November and noticed that a lot of flights between London and Madrid are either changing time or carrier, there are also a couple of additions:

London-Madrid
Madrid-London
Annoyingly, the new BA0463 at 19:50 is not available with any internal Iberia flight and so we still have to code-share onto the last flight of the day on Iberia, makes you wonder what the point is in adding the flight also makes me think they are not bringing back the LGW flights


I noticed that even though BA said they were going to bring Cityflier's prices in line with Iberia when a connecting flight is involved, they seem to have chosen not to and still have the compulsory Club Europe/Full fare price and also had the cheek to stack up the price on Iberia's website where LCY is involved. I also noticed that any connecting flights through madrid booked on Iberia.com in Business Class are no longer cheaper and have instead been increased by up to 75% to be brought in line with BA.com

So overall, pretty poor and the current sales are just masking the price increases.

ThatT1Feeling

Well for me it's good to see the 19:50 MAD-LHR is on BA. I hate, hate, hate the IB experience in economy late in the evening after a hard day.

Moving the 09:30ish flight LHR-MAD is a pain though. I could just drop the children at school, drive to LHR, park in Business Parking at T3 and get the flight at 09:30. The earlier time messes this up completely.

The whole IB merger has been an unmitigated disaster from my perspective being a very regular pax to MAD. Prices have rocketed, standards on IB are p*** poor in economy unless you can get an exit row (a whole other story of course even as an Emerald), it's €2.00 for water and the seating has such poor legroom it reminded me of XL Airways.

Get the IT right, provide drinks at least for free, allow seat reservation for Elites, provide some legroom, bring the prices down and I might think there is a slight benefit in the merger. Otherwise can see nothing in it for me....

(rant over for the moment!)

globalste, still hope to see you at Barajas one day!

cornishsimon

LGW-MAD would get my vote as well !
something missing from the BA/IB combined flights i think !

cs

BA6501

What was the reason for them being axed a 1-2 years ago?

Hannibal Lecter

I see that you don't have much to complain about
I on the other hand have all of the above + the following
- you can't buy one way tickets with BA LHR-MAD, and I almost always
want to fly to/from different places.
- IB doesn't sell any oneway tickets at all, so in Spain I fly Spanair(*A) or Air
Europa(skyteam)
- on top of everything there's the Vueling deal, ie a lot of IB flights are now
operated by Vuleing= no miles or points and no codeshare with BA

OneWorld and Spain, the only hope is Air Berlin (although I'm not holding my breath)

Camflyer

Just how bad is that last 20:50 IB flight from MAD? I'm taking it next week - I'm going out on BA CW but only economy is available at a reasonable price on that flight coming back.

FlyerTalker688786

Are you frustrated by the situation of IB and Vueling? Because I am. It is sort of like Qatas and JetStar. But the former death star is getting better. However with IB and Vueling. IB is useless as you have to pay for water on board. Vueling is extreme without mileage and statues...

You have to pay me to fly on IB.

ThatT1Feeling

Really depends on your seating. As a Sapphire you can do the following:

1. Go to finnair.com, Manage my Booking, enter your PNR and you should be able to assign a seat as far forward as possible, possibly exit row ( as an Emerald I may be able to see exit rows when you can't - I don't know). I'm 6'3" which isn't an issue on BA metal as I always know I can assign a seat in Economy but in the convertible section further forward with the better legroom.

2. Go to iberia.com MMB and confirm that your seat assignment is showing in their system.

3. Print off the MMB from Iberia.com which shows your seat reservation and keep it!

4. Check in directly on iberia.com as early as possible the day before you fly and get that seat. OLCI appears to open up very early the day before your flight - not at T-24 like on BA. If you have been moved, phone them and complain and don't complete checkin!!

4. Eat in the lounge before you fly. The food on IB is actually pretty good but you have to pay for it. What really riles me is that you have to pay for coffee & water when you have already paid BA prices for your flight..

5. Be prepared for delays that late on during the day. Something will have knocked the schedule out. This week for me it was a late inbound aircraft from Tenerife..!

Really, it's not that bad. But the IB and BA systems integration is non-existent which makes seat selection and OLCI a pain in the backside. The upside is that you will depart from the real MAD T4 so won't need to schlep to the satellite terminal T4S.

ThatT1Feeling

I think you can - but they're about £800 a pop in my experience!!

ian001

Operating carriers seem to have been switched so BA is no longer leaving a LHR aircraft and crew at MAD overnight.

Camflyer

Thanks. I had already done the MMB on Finnair.com and got an exit row. This must be the best tip I have ever learnt on FT.

It doesn't bother me that there is no meal service on such a short flight but charging €2 for a bottle of water (http://www.iberia.com/ibcomv3/conten...umenu_1106.pdf) is a bit cheeky

Anyway, I can enjoy seat 1C on BA going out so I'll just be prepared to grin and bear the return leg while hoping for an OpUp.

ThatT1Feeling

... you're welcome - but be careful. Even if you get the exit row then it's likely to change. When it's time to OLCI be prepared to call Iberia if your assignment has changed, before you confirm seats and check in.

Last week this happened to me - I got moved, Iberia told me it was BA's issue as it was booked on a BA codeshare. I went to the BA First desk in T3 on the outbound checkin (my IB sector was on the return), and asked them. They had to get the BA duty manager to harangue IB to change it back. IB told me that they thought I would be more comfortable in another seat as the exit row didn't recline and then said I would have to pay! Then they told me it wasn't available, then amazingly it was available. Bit of a battle but one I wasn't prepared to lose!

Hannibal Lecter

Following the successful introduction of its own Connects programme through Barcelona, last July, Vueling is now commencing its international phase connecting Iberia’s intercontinental flights from Barcelona airport. Starting March 28th, Vueling now connects Barcelona El Prat airport with Miami and Sao Paulo, providing a total of 44 routes through Barcelona. Vueling intends to extend this operation to other international airlines such as American Airlines or British Airways, expecting 1 million passengers to be carried in connection by the end of 2011. ¿Qué?

http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages...igo-connection