Iberia is clueless when it comes to OneWorld matters
 

I'm glad to read in RichLond's RTW trip report that I'm not the only one who found Iberia totally clueless when it comes to OneWorld matters.

I was in London last week, and flew BA roundtrip LHR-MAD for the weekend (one airline down, four to go for the 100,000 bonus - I got to London on United, so that doesn't count!). In Madrid I went to buy tickets on Iberia Shuttle to Barcelona (cheapest roundtrip). When I mentioned I wanted AAdvantage and British Airways credit (one each way - I'm going for the 100,000 on both airlines), three different Iberia agents told me I had to buy my ticket on AA & BA!!. Off to BA to make sure; they agreed this was ridiculous. Admittedly, Iberia probably doesn't sell many tickets in Madrid to passengers wanting other airline mileage.

So I went back and bought the ticket from Iberia, waiting until check-in to mention mileage. The agent seemed unsure what to do, and just wrote my account number on a slip of paper. What's worse, the ticket is "open" (i.e., no date or flight number) since they don't take reservations for the shuttle, and the seating is á la SouthWorst, with plastic boarding pass that you hand back at the gate. That means no receipt showing flight # or date or (most important!) frequent flyer number.

I was so doubtful that I'd ever see the credit - or that I'd be able to convince AA and BA that I really had flown on IB, that Saturday I called IB to book the cheapest roundtrip on Sunday to anywhere except Barcelona. That way I'd get a dated ticket, with a real boarding pass. (A second $200 to Iberia, but cheap "insurance" considering that 50,000 miles x 2 were at stake.) Unfortunately, when I got to the airport on Sunday, the reservations clerk had made my reservation for Saturday, so I had to start over (the flight to Valencia I thought I had booked was now sold out). But eventually I made a turnaround to Bilbao (never even left Bilbao airport) and now have boarding pass receipts with frequent flyer #'s in my hot little hand. This time the Iberia check-in staff seemed more aware what to do with my non-Iberia frequent flyer numbers; maybe part of the problem earlier was shuttle staff.

By the way, the Iberia ticket salesman gave me incorrect tickets (wrong destination - it's a long story). I didn't notice until after I had signed for them, so I had to go back and exchange them for correct ones. He pulled out my signed receipts and tore off my signature, assuring me that now they wouldn't be charged. Given that the tickets were computer generated (albeit on those ancient multi-part forms), I was pretty sure the charges had already gone through the system, and insisted that he do a full credit of the incorrect tickets. Otherwise I wouldn't have any receipt showing I'd returned them. Sure I could have disputed the charges when they showed up, and Iberia couldn't have produced a signed receipt, but I saw no reason I should have to go through that given his mistake.

Next week: American Airlines SFO to PSP round trip; that will leave two more (Cathay and Canadian...maybe this weekend on an Internet fare to Vancouver?) to go!

All I can say is that they are "new" members- maybe, and hopefully soon, things will improve quickly and dramatically!

I flew Iberia one-way Granada (GRX) - Madrid, and at the time of purchase, the agent in the Grenada city centre ticket office refused to put on my AA number, saying that I must do it at the airport. Actually, she was really confused about it, she thought I wanted to know my AAdvantage account status (# of points, etc), and couldn't pull it up on her computer. Good thing it wasn't a shuttle flight, I do have a boarding pass with the AAdvantage number, but just how long will it take them to post it with AA ? I flew them Oct 3, and it is still not on AA site.

The checking agent at GRX did let me use the business class line when I flashed my CP club card (O/W Ruby)...

good to know this info. i was going to do the shuttle in december, but i think i'll go to seville instead.

everybody is buying y class fares, right?

If you book your tickets through a travel agent they can enter your FF# into the flight segments for you. For domestic flights in Spain, C class is only slightly higher than Y class and you get better service and the mileage bonus.

I pulled up flights between BCN and MAD and Iberia does have non-shuttle flights that you can book in advance. These are paper tickets with seat assignments. The shuttle flights show up by you can't book them. BCN to MAD offers the most amount of flights and if you take a non-shuttle (air bridge) flight you should not have a problem.

Yes, full-fare Y. I believe AA only credits full-fare IB flights. At CAD$ 187 one-way for GRX-MAD, it was actually a deal as the train time between the two cities are cumbersome and near CAD$ 100 (much more if you take the AVE Sevilla-Madrid)...

As for paying extra for business class, intra-Europe business is pretty pathetic. Same seats on the 3-3 MD-88, but the middle seat is blocked out. Scheduled flight time was 50 minutes, not worth the extra 10-20 %.

an aa rep gave me these codes for credit from ib

y,m.d,n (anywhere)
l & w (transatlantic only)
b & s (bitner aviation - either balearic or canary islands partner)

Delete duplicate message

[This message has been edited by roti (edited 10-16-1999).]

This is the first I've heard about Iberia's Barcelona shuttle. Can someone provide a link to more info, or simply tell me what the fare is and what restriuctions apply? Thanks.

I spoke with an Iberia Plus representative who assured me all fares qualify for the promotion, however; she couldn't vouch for the other oneworld carriers.

Thanks very much Anne.

i was about to book my flight from jfk to mad on iberia when the agent gave me the sale fare code of VLXSAL1($429). i then checked with both ib and aa. each agent told me this fare does NOT accrue mileage in your aadvantage account!!! your best bet is to book it under aa fare codes (N is actually around $406) and then fly your way around spain on Y class fares.

[This message has been edited by lonman (edited 10-19-1999).]

I booked this code share on AA in N-class with AA last night for a flight in late November. Will then fly IB from BCN to Mallorca for an overnight. The cheapest IB return fare is 14500 pasetas in K-class, the full Y-Class is 24200 daytime and 18200 on night flights (20800 in business, C-class). I will book one of these tomorrow after confirming eligible IB fares, both for the 100K promo and for crediting mileage to both Cdn+ and AA. From reading the various messages on IB, I am uncertain about one of the discount fares on a single ticket, and might rather opt for two one-ways on separate tickets and files so I can credit one leg to Cdn+ and the other to AA without hastle.

Hi Shareholder

I already checked with Canadian Plus and their response was that with Iberia only full fare tickets were eligible for mileage accumulation. But full fare on Iberia is not too expensive. I'm flying BCN SVQ via MAD in full fare coach for CAD489 to get my four segments (and yes, I was able to ticket and select seats for BCNMAD legs so I guess the flights I was booked on were non-shuttle). And of course it will be much cheaper for a two segment full fare ticket! So be sure and get Y fares!

Cheers!