My wife and I recently bought 4 sectors (2 long haul and 2 short) on IBERIA. There were other choices of course but we wanted the one world points and thought an established "full service" government carrier like IBERIA a safer bet on our long awaited South American holiday. Whilst the planes (A340 & A320) and on board service were good, the ground service and company attitude is the worst I have ever seen. We will never ever buy anouther ticket on IBERIA. Heres' why:

1. Both long haul sectors overbooked with no communication from IBERIA. the panicky and non commuicative check in staff at Madrid caused us a lot of stress...
2. Lost our bags on first short haul sector. The baggage reclaim staff were the rudest I have ever seen, using quite insulting language and then never delivered the bags to our hotel as promised, nor did they inform us of their arrival. We had to chase our lost bags with expensive phone calls and in the end get a taxi to the airport to collect them.
3. IBERIA "re-timed" our final short haul sector to 3 hours before our check in time and then NEVER INFORMED US (They had 2 email and 2 mobile phone numbers on our booking which was months prior). So we missed our flight which had to meet another long haul connection to get home. The ticketing staff dealing with us were rude and dismissive. They couldn't have cared less and made no effort to assist us and basically said "your bad luck, try for a refund and find your own way there". We had to buy tickets on a Spanish "low cost" carrier (From whom we ironically, recieved much better service).
4. We asked for complaint and refund forms upon arrival at Schipol but IBERIA had run out (surprised?). So complained via the IBERIA website. After 6 weeks and 3 emails and 2 long distance calls to IBERIA they have not even had the decency to acknowledge the complaint.

Locals later told us, "oh thats just IBERIA - you are lucky you got your bags back at all".

After waiting a month for IBERIA to reply we emailed the EU transport commission, and were told whilst we should never have to put up with such treatment that "re-timing" is not a cancellation or "denied boarding" so we probably won't get a refund. I cannot see the difference when an airline "re-times" a flights departure to many hours before the original check in time and then doesn't inform the passengers concerned. You have lost your sector because the airline was negligent in its lack of communication - common sense says to me that puts a moral and ethical onus upon them. Apparently IBERIA feels no such obligations...

I am frequent flyer with One World, Star Alliance and Sky Team etc, and of course I know that there can be problems - thats life after all. But in my view IBERIA fell a long way short of any acceptable standard. In my view IBERIA's ground staff were rude, dismissive, and their service is unreliable and incompetent. I will never buy a ticket with them again.

In my many many sectors and many years flying around the globe as a paying pax IBERIA's ground handling, ticketing and customer service performance is the WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN. In my view they should be ashamed of their behaviour.

Be warned!

Thanks for the details, but it is well known here that IB ground service is very bad. And IB is a private company now I believe. Even a profitable one.

Yes after posting that thread I did a search and discovered that IBERIA ground service is regarded very poorly by others too. Wasn't aware they are now private... However given the aggressive nature and better attitude / ground service of some of the new low cost airlines in Europe I have my doubts as to whether they will remain profitable. Hotel staff and family in Valencia both told us they have also been scr**ed by IBERIA and now go out of their way to use other Spanish airlines.

Not a huge variety of alternatives to choose from if you're based in Spain (if schedule and coverage are important).

Thanks virtualtroy. But there were quite a few out of Valencia. "Vueling Airlines" had a direct flight to Schipol (To meet our long haul connection to SIN) leaving about 45 minutes after our debacle with IBERIA ticketing. (not that IBERIA's ground staff gave us any help finding alternative means...) I must say that Vueling was great; friendly efficient service and a smile from everybody. The planes were spotless A320's and we left and arrived on time for less than the cost of the lost IBERIA VLC-MAD sector! So its not a "Spanish" thing - its an IBERIA thing. Looking on the departures board there were a few large carriers in there, including Ryanair etc.

Air Nostrum -- IB's regional airline subsiduary, 100% owned by IB -- has superb service. Perhaps that is why it is run like a separate airline. Rather ironic to have the regional flights having much better service than short-haul mainline. I suppose the difference is that Air Nostrum started from scratch and doesn't have a legacy labour force. IB ground staff definitely have the attitude that they are doing you a great favour if they happen to do anything for you. However there are many airlines that are worse than IB for ground handling (much worse), but none are based in Singapore.

To the OP - I sympathize with your horrible experience. I have had similar experiences with other airlines, and now I always reconfirm 24 hours before any flight purchased more than a week in advance. I agree that they should tell us when they reschedule flights and we have given them contact information, but if they don't, we suffer, not them, so I do their job for them.

IBERIA - the worst ground service ever?

Maybe, but there are, I can assure you, several airlines providing great competition these days!

Mark

Thanks "gemac"... probably good advice, however we did call to reconfirm prior to the 2 return legs. Was told it wasn't neccessary and no mention made of the retimed sector... For us its not so much the events that occured (lost bags, etc) that upset us - it was the attitude. I work for the airlines and can tell you that if I ever swore at or insulted a passenger I would be in very very big trouble indeed, and if a senior manager ever saw the absolute debacles I witnessed, somebody would be getting retrained or replaced. And I would be sure of at least receiving an acknowledgment from customer services for my complaint... Not IBERIA though.

BTW regarding the Air Nostrum "great service" post; the "re-timed" sector we lost was actually being operated by them! However I imagine its the IBERIA reservations at fault - not Air Nostrum. But never mind, we are off to Europe again soon will not be using IBERIA - EVER!

3 months since this debacle and still no reply from IBERIA customer services. What a joke! As time goes on and I do more flights the more I realise how poor and completely unacceptable IBERIA's behavour was. NEVER AGAIN!

WOW! You reconfirmed and they never mentioned it! That's abysmal.

If you bought the ticket through one of Iberia's OneWorld partners, I would send that partner a letter of complaint, not really expecting them to do anything about your situation, but letting them know how their partners are treating their customers. If we don't tell them, there is no way that they can know.

We are known by the company we keep. So is OneWorld. This reflects on them.

Good advice GEMAC, but we bought direct from IBERIA's website.

In hindsight I should have used QF/BA ex SIN and thereby had some extra comeback. As you say - "by the company we keep". IBERIA's customer and ground services IMHO in no way compare to the other One World carriers I have often used (QF,LAN etc). I feel sorry for the tech & cabin crews we had on our sectors - they did a good job, but have been let down by the other rubbish in the company.

Next time I fly Madrid to South America I'll use someone else for sure. I have heard a competitor "Aero Madrid" is good value and much better ground service...

What do you expect from a relic of Franco's Spain... Most of the Spaniards I know take AA to MIA then connect to S America in order to avoid IB (especially now that BA dropped its routes to Colombia and Venezuela).

I once sent a letter to IB customer service and got a form letter, as an attachment, 5 months later. They won't give you anything, but I do know two people who work for IB who have both said that if you name someone in your letter, they do get chastised about it. It's actually a bigger deal than it sounds given that most airlines hire people on short-term 6-month contracts in Spain, so one or two negative letters can make sure someone isn't given a new contract.

I'd stay WELL clear of Air Madrid. When things go wrong, they go really wrong. Their punctuality can be appalling, on occasion by days rather than hours. Too many routes, not enough a/c.

how are they right now? have they approved the service, should I fly with them?