Iberia from Gatwick
 

I am looking at booking a flight from Gatwick to Spain late November / early December through BA, which happens to be on Iberia, although will have a BA flight number..

I just realised I have never set foot on Iberia metal.

I am Silver, but will be Gold by then

Can I still use the BA desks if necessary?
Fast track, lounges etc
Will this flight appear on my BA MMB as usual and can do online check-in as if BA?

Is there anything different, except the plane and crew?

Yes treat this as you would any BA flight.

Yes to fast track.

Yes to lounges.

I had an IB metal operated BA flight in April, and the crew were very good.

Is it a BA flight that happens to be operated by Iberia Express or is it an actual Iberia flight but with a BA codeshare (if unsure we can tell you based on the flight number).
Basically if it's the former it's considered a BA flight that BA just happens to be outsourcing due to being short staffed. In that case treat it like a BA flight, everything including the catering is BA standard.
If it's the latter then it's considered an Iberia flight, In that case you will check in using Iberia web site or at the Iberia desks. No problem with lounges as Iberia is oneworld too so you can access the BA lounges. Catering will be Iberia standard.

My experiences so far have not been that good. I booked a BA operated outbound from LGW but will return tonight on an IB code share (so it was sold to me with a BA flight # but it is operated by Iberia)

So far:

• Free seat selection did not work for the return sector - not at time of booking (3 weeks ago), nor from then to my flight today. When I try and select my seat it rightly takes me to the IB website and selection should be FOC being Silver....but it tries to charge me.
• On both the BA app and using my laptop, when I tried to select my seat and today to do OLCI, the BA App / website auto-direct me to the IB equivalents but the whole thing is then in Spanish with no option to change to English. I looked everywhere on the IB website and App (and asked for the help of two other Spanish speaking colleagues).....but nowhere is there the facility to change to English. Bizarre!

So my experience is really not good of the "seamless experience" that airlines often market code shares and alliances under.

I've found IB app is best to select seats for IB bookings.

Anyone know where the IB check in desks are at LGW South, in relation to the BA check in area?

I'm 4 months into to trying to get my Tier and Avios points from IB Express.

That's exactly what the BA App on I-Phone and BA website do though. The auto-direct you to the IB equivalents.

If I recall correctly, when trying to select what should be a free seat on IB website/app with BA status - selecting the seat would display a price. However at no point was any payment requested, and the seat selection would stick.

To conclude my first IB experience, I took the 18:40 IB flight from Madrid to LGW yesterday. All was right on time, even though it was a rammed flight with only about 3 spare seats.

One thing I noticed compared with BA was that IB pro-actively managed the carry-on luggage (well sort of!). When the plane was almost fully boarded (circa 20 pax to go) an announcement was made at the gate that, "the luggage bins are now full and all further bags that cannot fit under the seat in front of you will now be checked into the hold". And they did just that.....here were no exceptions despite the predictable howls of protest. It did also mean we were spared the farce often seen with BA of seemingly letting all pax board (even when it is already known the bins are full) and only then removing excess bags....usually resulting in a departure delay. But we left at 18:40 on the dot :tu:

However, when disembarking it was clear that the GA's had not been so vigilant and pro-active at checking in items much earlier in the boarding from some pax who had clearly taken the pi$$ on what they took on board. I spotted quite a few fax who were really struggling to get off with one large rollaboard, plus one very large rucksack / carry bag, plus a lap-top bag too.

A consistent hand-baggage policy from IAG is so long overdue and the frustration is that it's so incredibly variable and selective.

My experience was all good, LGW>SVQ In CE. A flight cancellation a couple of months prior led me to rebook (online, with no human intervention!) a BA flight operated by Iberia express. Seat selection worked immediately and I then got row 1 when it became available about 36 hours prior to the flight. Priority boarding worked as intended as far as I could tell, food was decent enough, checked bags arrived, cabin crew were fine and we got upgraded into the first lounge at LGW for an additional bonus. This was a redemption flight so I can’t comment regarding TP’s etc.