AA or Iberia in J??
 

I'm looking at flights to DUB via MAD.

Choice I have is MIA-MAD with either AA or IB in Business.

Who has the best seat / service for overnight flight?

Thanks




Mark.

We flew IB J from MAD to JFK earlier in the year, and we found the fully flat seat on IB's A340 was vastly preferable to AA's 767 J seat. It was hard (i.e. not well padded), but flat is flat. I recall that we enjoyed IB's food and AVOD as well, and the service was perfectly satisfactory. The lounges in MAD are probably the same irregardless of which OW metal you fly.

Definitely take IB metal. The product and service is much better than the AA counterpart (and this is coming from an AA elite!)

IB service is HORRIBLE. There bed may be better but there service is the worst I have ever experienced.

Better than anything I can get on US domestic....

Another vote for IB. I've had both good service and bad service from them (nothing horrible), but as AA_EXP09 and jbalmuth mentioned, their hard product is definitely preferable.

The IB MAD lounges are also quite nice, whatever you decide about which OW carrier.

In business ib food and drink is fantastic! I found the service also very good

I'm looking to compare on the ORD-MAD route, whether to go IB or DFW-MAD with AA. I originate in Kansas City. Right now, there are no J awards available for Oct. 23 on either AA or IB. Whichever comes available first is the one I'll take. if I can get the seats on AA I might be able to change to IB if the seats open up later.

Main object TATL sleep: IB
Main object TATL eats/drinks: IB
Main object TATL pampering: AA (IB rather arrogant 3 out of 5 flights)

One more vote for IB especially if the seat is the most important element in your flight experience.

The fact that IB sometimes cancels intl. flights (close to departure) and the inferior service would cause me to choose AA. I had read about IB cancelling flights, thinking I'm glad that has never happened to me. Recently it did. Luckily AA put us on their MAD-DFW flight. Also, if something went wrong at the airport prior to departure, I'm not sure how accomodating IB would be.

No question IB has the better business class product.

Now I find that fascinating. I don't need pampering. I'm there for some number of hours, not weeks. Plus, this is AA or IB J, not CX F. That said, though, arrogant? Arrogant is never acceptable.

What are the reasons IB cancels flights frequently? If they are not full? Mechanical issues? No explanation? How often does this happen-weekly? Daily?

Obviously. US domestic is terrible by definition.

I don't know, perhaps flights aren't full enough. Others here can probably answer this better than me. It appears to be fairly common. I have read threads on FT discussing this, not realizing it would affect us. IB wanted us to return 1 day later; due to our work schedule this was not a possibility.

Look to the AA forum. There is lots of discussion about choosing AA or IB and a few threads about cancellations, see:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ed-iberia.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...+cancellations

Also there a lot more readers of the AA forum than this one who can offer their thoughts and feelings about IB and AA. FWIW, I find IB J to be just fine and in most situations to be superior to AA J, some people agree with me others do not. Will you like IB J? We don't know until you fly it.

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After reading all of this I think I'll try to get on the AA flights for the TATL segments. I'll need one segment Lisbon-Madrid that will have to be on Iberia to connect withh AA flights to the US. Maybe IB doesn't cancel their domestic flights like they do their TATL ones.

What kind of nonsense is this about IB canceling it's TATL flights more than AA? Where are you getting this from?
Don't waste a cent on AA TATL... The seat is awful (neither the 757 nor the 767 are comfortable), the food meh, IFE pathetic. One thing is that onboard service is good... But so is IB. Dress/behave like a slob and any European service will seem 'snobby'.
I am an AA flyer but not in J internationally- not
to Europe or Asia.

In my case, I'd rather have slightly inferior seat/service and be able to return on the day you want. Can you imagine being on an overseas trip and getting to the airport to learn that your IB flight has been canceled and you've been put on the flight the next day? In all my intl AA flights, this has never happened, and I've travelled alot overseas on AA. This happened on my first scheduled IB flight. Coincidence? If you read the horror stories from other IB passengers, it appears this was not an isolated instance. For me, a slightly better seat is not worth the risk.

Absolutely IB. Better seat, food, IFE, wines. Never had an arrogant FA in my 10+ or so transatlantics with them, although many have been less than charming.

As far as cancellations goes, this is news to me, and none of the posters provided any data. So I looked it up on FlightStats, which has the last two months data:

JFK-MAD: AA scheduled 61 flights, cancelled 1; IB scheduled 114 flights, cancelled NONE; DL scheduled 58 flights, cancelled 1.
MIA-MAD: AA scheduled 83 flghts, cancelled 1; IB scheduled 57 flights, cancelled NONE
ORD-MAD: IB scheduled 60 flights, cancelled NONE.
LAX-MAD: IB scheduled 21 flights, cancelled NONE.

IB was the only airline which cancelled NO flights. So one more reason for IB in my book.

We're not talking about day of flight cancellations (that's the reason you see no IB cancellations), but rather cancellations several days to weeks prior to departure, when IB decides for whatever reason (in most cases, probably low flight load) it will not fly on a particular day. It's up to the individual whether they want to take this risk.

Then I'm even more confused, given the recent history of a significant amount of AA int'l cancellations (some done with just a few weeks' advance) and the potential for even more due to restructuring.

I actually quite enjoy AA in J, however, recently did JNB-MAD on IB in J and have to say was very impressed on all fronts except IFE - so would add my vote to the IB supporters.

Biz class twice on each between JFK and BCN/MAD and I prefer AA. Food was better on AA, wine better on IB, entertainment better on AA, seats for sleeping were equal (I sleep on my back on a firm mattress regularly), seat organization when eating and not sleeping, IB felt like it provided more room, on board staff more preferential to European travelers than Yanks (but maybe it was me). Missed connecton in MAD by two minutes was treated very poorly by very indifferent IB reconnection staff. In fact, without getting political and mindful of complaints on the AA boards, IB indifference by its staff of customers was very indicative of the problems being experienced in the Euro-zone.

I'm flying from JFK --> AMS on AA to LHR and BA to AMS in February and I intentionally avoided any flights through MAD or on IB in my selection process.