IBERIA - the worst OW partner?
 

I had a total of 8250 points on my Iberia account. I was saving it for a time to redeem it properly. But as their award looked dreadful ( I got the points from the fly 5 get 100K promo - but in IB's case it was 8000 points), and there was no service centre in the USA - at least there wasn't one listed on the website, I didn't think too much of it.

Imagine my horror when I found out that IB Plus had cancelled all my points because my account had remained inactive for a year. I had only arrived into the UK on 4th Feb to receive this email from them today :


Thank you for your e-mail regarding the situation of your Iberia Plus account.

Unfortunately your points have alredy expired 10 days ago, on the 02 February. Have you flown with Iberia on the last three month?
If so and you can provide any proof of it, tickets anb bording cards, we can try to request to our Head office in Madrid to reinstate your points into your account. Just note again that is not guaranted as it is under their discretion.

For your information please note our telephone number when calling from outside the UK is 00 44 207 830 0066.

We do have an office in the US, based in Miami. Their telephone number 1 305 267 7747. I hope this would be helpful.

If you would like to change your current IB Plus address, you can send us an e-mail with your new address and telephone number and we will change it for you.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any more queries.

Yours sincerely,

Gloria Mascaro
Iberia Plus Service Centre


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I wrote back and told them to stuff it - and that I already hold EMERALD with AA, SAPPHIRE with CX and RUBY with QF, that I don't like their program, nor their airline nor their airports ... (I was getting annoyed).

I think Oneworld should dump them altogether.

Hmph!

Anyone have any ideas on how I can even imagine getting my points back?

I would keep on calling them until they give you the points back. Iberia is for sure the worst oneworld airline what comes to service. But still, for their Spanish mentality, they are more likely to also break the rules every now and then. I got once a free upgrade for a lang haul flight from them, because of overbooking. That was a nice experience, although the food in Iberia-biz is still worse than on other oneworld airlines in economy. But the seating was great. For me, as an European, they are still an important partner in oneworld, because they have an extensive network in Latin America. If they left oneworld, I would lose a lot of miles.

Guy Betsy

You got your bonus points credited and you got an answer to your email!!!!!

Who did you sleep with?

I have no bonus credited and no answer to 7 emails and 2 letters.

those smaller partners are in general quite awful. i am talking about the airport ad inflight service, which even the non FT'ers care.

i flew EI once, and do not want to recall it.
i showed my BA Gold card, and they let me stranded at the airport for 4 hours, let other people board the flight. when i inquired at the counter why i did not get to go, they said becuase those other people are OW sapphire http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif) and began to SHOUT at me!

they sd dump EI as well IMO.

3544Quebec - obviously they didn't like my performance! For they tooketh it all away!

But I got another email after I told them to stuff it saying that they have forwarded that email to their Madrid Office and hope that they will reinstate my points back.

We shall see but I am not hold ing my breadth for it. I should have just credited those flights under another BA account or something.

I would have to agree that IB is the most pathetic OW partner - from their miserable food to their stingy policy of not crediting AAdvantage miles on discount fares. Not to mention anything of their tear-enducing seat pitch on European services. Whenever possible, I avoid IB like the plague.

I do have to say, though, that I disagree on EI. I have always found them to have the most outstanding ground services - friendly, courteous and efficient. Their in-flight service could do with some spit 'n' polish. Perhaps once they start paying their flight attendants more than $16,000 a year, things will shape up.

Sure they credit AAdvantage miles ... at the super generous rate of 30%! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

FewMiles..


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Unofficial Guide to AAdvantage: http://home.webflyer.com/fewmiles/AA/
oneworld comparison chart 2001: coming soon

Miles for discounted fares are good only for trans-Atlantic and not on European flights. IB imposed the latter restriction in early Nov. 1999 w/o warning for BA EC Canada and AAdvantage when I had bought tickets and was flying for the 1999 bonus.

Exactly. European discount fares get you zip. I really don't understand that at all - most restrictions of this type apply only to long-haul. Witness the old Cathay rules, etc. Iberia (greedy bunch that they are) want it both long-haul and short-haul. Defeats the purpose, or at least eliminates the biggest attraction to passengers, of being in an alliance.

That said, if you're persistent enough in asking AA to credit the miles, in my experience, you have a 50/50 chance of getting your way. Better still, why not skip Iberia completely and give your business to some other airline who appreciates it a bit more.

I flew IB on the AA Codeshare (AA7454) JFK-MAD this past summer and was disgusted. Not to mention the ugly planes, the service and arrogance at some times was intolerable.

I noticed in a magazine (either Conde Nast or T+L) that IB had new flat seats in their first class. Does anyone have any experience with it? I really enjoyed LA's service but have no experience with IB.

I am surprised at your bad experiences with IB. Living in MAD I use them a lot, and prefer their short haul BC over LH and BA. Compared with Asian BC or US FC, all European seats are small, but the attitude of the FA (at least for Spanish Speakers) is better than LH or BA.

Regarding the mileage points awarded to other programs for IB travel, I believe that there is a significant asymmetry in points and awards, but working both ways. IB uses points , not miles, but a BC MAD-LHR for example gets you half the points on IB Miles if you fly BA, but requires you about 50% points if you want to redeem on BA. Similarly, if you want to redeem on 1W carriers, you are so restricted that redemption is almost impossible. I recently tried to get a FC BA award MAD-HKG (obviously coonecting in Lon)for me and my wife, and the distance would require 16.600 points each (which equates to about 300.000 miles each). Ourageous as it is I did not mind, acruing these points faster than I can possibly spend them.

I threw a fit however, when I was quoted 23,000 points on the grounds that (incredible!!!) BA does not fly FC from MAD to LON, and therefore no through ticket could be issued, but two mile awards would have to be doen, the first on BA in BC to LON, and another one from Lon to HKG in FC.

The consolation they offered,(which unfortunately did not work for availability reasons,and aforced 20 hours connecting time) was to Fly LA from MAD to FRA (they have F/C), and then CX to HKG.

The reason seems to be that IB came late to the club and hadto swallow so much from BA and AA (including put options on the stock at privatisation)that they have to reciprocate where they can. I believe that the 1W is anyway much less of an integrated club than *A.

Zorro

I have friends that live in BCN and are stuck flying IB domestically and within Europe. They would never dream of flying them internationally, even in J - they fly DL if they have to go to NYC, or BA otherwise.

They regard Iberia as a national embarassment, and have instructed all of their friends to never fly Iberia unless no other flights exist.

IB has never gotten back to me about my points so I can only assume that it's gone for good.

Well, they won't be getting any of my J/F class business from now on!

Besides, they're always on strike anyway.

I've never flown IB. However, I have seen the boarding procedure IB uses for their daily flight from ORD-MAD, which leaves out of a gate at the end of K concourse-- it is consistently chaotic.

A Chicago friend of mine who has a jv headquartered in Madrid and travels there on a regular basis cited the IB trip as the worst part of his business venture (this comment was completed unsolicited by me).

[This message has been edited by HKG_Flyer1 (edited 04-25-2001).]