Hannibal Lecter

On the IB site it says that their own Gold/Plat have lounge access Boarding card valid on the day for an Iberia flight with code IB5XXX operated by Vueling
Regarding other OneWorld Saphire/Emeralds it's a bit cryptic,. on the one hand it says
1. For IB-5000 flights, guests must carry with them a valid boarding card for that day for any IB-5000 flight.
2.Guests must be flying with Iberia or oneworld, except for the stipulations in Point 1.
so it sounds like you get access, on the other hand
(3) A flight is considered to be a "oneworld flight" when the operator and marketing companies are member companies of the alliance.

http://www.iberia.com/OneToOne/v3/pr...ANONYMOUS=true

Hannibal Lecter

I´ve just flown MAD-ALC operated by Vueling, they let me in the lunge and I
also asked the lounge dragons to make sure it was not a one-off, so I´ll answer my own question,
yes OneWorld Sapphire will get lounge access when they fly Iberia flight with code IB5XXX operated by Vueling.
(But I didn´t get any miles or TPs for this flight)

Time traveller

There has been discussions further up in the thread about seating assignment for BA codeshare on IB.

I am curious if AA codeshare flights flying on IB metal can have pre-assigned seats. When I called AA, I was told they could make a request to IB, but they were not sure if it would go through. I was given a 5-digit record locator number on IB and then transferred to an IB phone The IB agent said they use a 6-digit record locator number, but can still look up the reservation using the 5-digit one provided by AA except they could not make any changes. The agent said she could not give me pre-assigned seats and seat assignment would have to be done at the counter upon check-in at MAD.

Has anyone had any experience with this? I wonder if the IB agent (TA or GA) in Miami can help prior to my TATL flight on AA before connecting on IB at MAD. The IB flight is a 3 hour flight, so I would like to get a comfortable seat, preferably an exit row seat, but it seems I am stuck for now.

I will see if it is worth it to connect at MAD vs. LHR for my future trips to Europe. I found the Velasquez Lounge to be fairly decent, though I don't know how the Dali or Goya lounge is like. I don't think the Velasquez lounge was on the same level as the BA First Lounges at LHR, but still not bad. It's probably not a fair comparison though since IB doesn't have a First Class lounge.

globalste

Time traveller, it is a pain in the a*se trying to book seats (even though their own website says it can be done for OW Sapphire and Emerald) but you are always best doing it by calling Iberia directly.

You are best reserving a seat on Finnair.com and then just hoping that you get a decent seat at T-36.

The Dali is just as good as the Valaquez lounge in my opinion, but with the added bonus that it doesn't get rammed full of long-haul passengers who like to sprawl over 12teen seats and talk loudly (thank god smoking is banned now!). The Goya is a domestic lounge and rarely used in my experience, but it does have a nice relaxing room in it if you need some shut-eye

ewrfox

Can someone tell me, what the baggage allowance is from the US on IB in Y?

Flying Doctor

For seats just go to Finnair. Just worked for me with an IB booking!

FD.

Time traveller

Would you need a six-digit Iberia Record Locator Number to get seats using Finnair's website?

JDiver

The page with the pieces, weight and dimensions for Iberia travel is here; it currently stipulates USA-Spain passengers in Y can check in two standard bags without charge, and Business Plus pax can check in three bags.

"Standard" means a bag weighing 23 kg / 50 lbs or less, and measuring no more than 158 cm / 62" total diameter.

yeki89

You need to ask aa for te Iberia reference#

yeki89

Correct

george 3

If you are elite AA, call Iberia directly and they will provide seating assignments over the phone. We were able to do that on a JFK --> Madrid --> Rome flight on June 25/26. However, other than access to the Iberia lounge in the Madrid terminal, elite AA gets you nothing. When you are bumped from your flight because you miss the 10 minute boarding cutoff by 2 minutes, they put you on the last plane of the night. A phone call to AA Platinum Desk yielded a supervisor comment that "once our partner airline gains control of the ticket, they will assign the replacement flight. There is nothing we can do."

sk3

Could you elaborate please.

Which flight were you bumped from (what airport were you in)? And why were you late to board - was your previous flight late? And you say you were put on the last flight with a negative inference - are you saying there was an earlier flight with available seats that you could have been placed on but weren't?

JDiver

Unfortunately, in my experience, Iberia can be difficult as far as ground passenger service goes. They will often decline taking responsibility, and once they decide on an action become quite obstinate in insisting that is all they can do. Getting upset back only hardens their position - it takes patience, persistence and pleasant demeanor to try to get anything further done. And once they have control of the ticket, well, they have control of the ticket.

My recent experience was flying to LAX and dealing with obstinate counter agents in the TBIT - they had no problem issuing me a boarding pass, but for three hours they told me my wife she could not fly, though we were on the same PNR etc.

We finally got change by calling the AA EXP desk, who called the AA - IB liaison, who called the TBIT IB counter who finally issued my wife a BP (fortunately, since we were off to celebrate our 45th anniversary in BCN and a cruise, not so easy without her).

On the return, no problems in FCO and MAD, but AA hiccuped at LAX - but it only took a couple of minutes for the ticket agent to figure the problem out and issue our boarding passes onward.

I think the key here for us was that there IS an AA-IB liaison, and fortunately it was during business hours and the EP agent knew this and how to contact the liaison.

Oh, our bags arrived late at LAX (though I hardly ever check bags, this time... I did, to my regret.) and IB let them sit there until the next LAX-MAD flight, so though we arrived at BCN on time Tuesday, we received our bags late Friday (our cruise ship departed Saturday, so at least we didn't have to spend Saturday morning shopping). Apparently, though our ticket was AA issued and we were connecting from AA, IB chose not to try to forward our bags on other than on their next flight, two days later. Just be aware and more proactive than we were...

tugokc

Great info. Does anyone know if there is a 24/7 AA-IB liaison? JDiver your post implies it is working hours US only.

JDiver

(In reply to the above, I do not know - but I think the AA liaison to IB is probably sitting in Dallas - Ft. Worth.)

In the meantime, I will little by little put together some links and resources for Iberia Plus Awards info. Maybe we can even get a Wiki going... ?

Link to Iberia Plus site

Fare codes for IB+ award redemption: Z=First; U=Business and X=Economy

Link to IB Mile Plus redemption table