I needed a few more TPs to retain gold for the next year and after arguing with BA over a flight I missed because I was ill and whether they would give me the TPs or not (they didn't), I needed to find somewhere to go. A few clicks later and I had booked a trip on the Iberia website to Bilbao - a city I hadn't been to before. Final routing ABZ-LHR-MAD-BIO-----BIO-MAD-LHR-ABZ. I was pretty excited because the MAD-LHR leg was booked on the big A340 which Iberia uses on this route sometimes.

Fast forward a few weeks and after a hellish few days at work, I could relax and look forward to a weekend of travelling.

After a relatively early start of 6am on a Saturday, I was out at the airport in no time. I think we passed only 3 cars on the back country roads out to Aberdeen airport. Security was painless as always and I was in the lounge before I knew it. There's a new guy on the desk and he was pleasant enough. 2 double espressos later and we were called to board. Business UK ticket holders and Goldies were called forward first. I got on board and was greeted with the warmest smile I think I have seen in a long time. And then she spoke. In that wonderful Irish accent. 'S' was an absolute gem. In a lull in boarding she came over and gave me the personal welcome with some chat about my plans for the weekend. I wish she could have just stayed chatting to me the whole time!



We let a few Eastern birds come in before we took off. Bye Aberdeen!



S came round and explained all of the options for breakfast - traditional hot breakfast "with sausage" (lol), cheese omelette or a croissant. I passed knowing that I would grab breakfast in the Flounge at T5 but did have a few cups of (watery) coffee which was topped up proactively by S.

We landed on time at a wet T5 but the guidance system wasn't working to take us on to the stand so someone guided us in. Then the thing that attaches to the plane wasn't working. So we had to wait until someone fixed it. Then they fixed it. But because we were manually guided in, we weren't far enough forward for the thing to reach the plane. S was agitated and kept apologising. The guy in 1C was stressing he was going to miss his connection - only 40 mins. "Oh Jayyyysus, let me see what captain says". S disappeared into the cockpit. I don't know what she did (probably nothing) but the door was opened within 2 mins and were down the stairs, into the rain, then up some more stairs to get into the thing that attaches to the plane and then into T5. What a hoo-ha!

Anyway, I made me way to the Flounge and was pleasantly surprised to see that the furniture has been given a bit of a revamp. I grabbed a glass of Tattinger (2006...) and then got some breakfast from the buffet.





Breakfast of champions!!!



Quiet champagne bar area...



The departure time of the Madrid flight kept creeping back so I spent the time watching some iPlayer and sipping some good red wine. A18 for boarding so not too far to go from the lounge.

Bye wet London!



Hot scented towels handed out on the ground by the friendly member of cabin crew.



After taking off, the drinks and nuts service started. The cabin crew lady saw me picking out the cashew nuts and immediately offered me another bag to balance out the fact that I didn't have many nuts (insert own joke here.....).



Hello winglet....



The cabin then filled with the smell of something fine cooking for lunch. Choices were salad with a chicken skewer on top or cod on a base of miso mash with veggies. I went for the cod which was brilliant - very, very tasty/



After lunch, I had another champagne and spent my time watching The Hunt on iPlayer and looking at the great views out of the window.





Coffee and whisky time!









And that was the end of another great flight with BA. A very smooth landing into Madrid followed by a short taxi to the gate. No issues getting off the plane this time!

Nice photo of the engine and wing over the dry landscape coming into MAD. How many TPs did you get for the trip?

Good report so far apart from your carelessness in letting your beans touch egg. The sausages should be used as a barrier to prevent such calamities.

Especially looking forward to your Bilbao impressions as my wife and I will visit there next year. (Actually, will be based in San Sebastian but plan to get over to Bilbao for the day.)

Nice photos so far!

Couldn't help yourself eh? Love it.

IB is great in J. Some of the best beef I've had on a plane was on the IB MAD-LHR flight, on a 320 aircraft. Not sure I'd fly them in Y though.

Thanks CatchThePigeon - the scenery was great. 160 TPs in total which wasn't too bad for around �300.

Enjoy your trip when it comes. I would definitely go back to Bilbao.

You caught me in a weak moment......

Didn't get any beef on the way back but meal was very good.

After getting off the plane, I walked about 3 miles to one of the other terminals to connect to the Bilbao flight.

Love MAD airport...



Eventually found the Iberia lounge and got settled in for an hour or so.









Food selection was ok - some sandwiches, wraps, salads, chorizo and cheeses along with a full drinks selection.



Couldn't get enough of the roof!



The boarding gate wasn't too far from the lounge and when I got there, boarding was nearly finished. I settled into 1A and was offered a newspaper.





Now bearing in mind this was about a 40-45 minute flight, I was pretty surprised to be offered a pillow and blanket. Why pass up the opportunity?!



Safety announcements were done and the crew sat down with seconds to go before we started the take off roll. We shot up into the night sky on the way north.





Curtain shut while the crew did whatever it was they were doing.



A snack was offered to all passengers - a mozzarella, tomato and rocket focaccia which was nice and hit the spot during the short flight.



Glass of sparking wine - much nicer than the Monopole BA serves lol



Before I knew it, we were starting to descend into Bilbao with some nice views on the way down.



So, first experience with Iberia and I was pretty impressed. For a flight of that length, the service was brilliant. The crew were friendly and spoke English very well. Top marks!

I jumped into a taxi and arrived at the Holiday Inn 15 mins later. It was nice to be upgraded to an executive room on the 8th floor.





I headed into the old town for some dinner but it wasn't too late a night. Grabbed a beer from the hotel bar and had that in bed before dozing off on the very comfy bed!

I got up relatively early in the morning and made the most of the few hours I had by wandering down into to the city centre and taking a walk through the old town (stopping off for a coffee and some breakfast in a small back street cafe) and down by the river. The weather was brilliant - sunny and 25 celsius. Even the locals were walking around without their jackets on!

























And then back up the hill to the hotel where I checked out the roof top area. It would be great in the summer.

Bolding and italicizing the part I have a question about:

If you couldn't make the flight due to being sick, does BA then give you the flight/ticket credit for the unused portion of the itinerary/waive change fees to be used on a future flight?

Hope you are doing better...and good TR!

Ah blue sky, would be nice for some here, the weather here today has been awful - Abigail has struck. Another classic Stu, looks an interesting city. Why did you opt for Bilbao ? Purely on pricing / tier points / availability ?

I'd like to say I knew but I am still waiting for a reply from BA - over 2 months after contacting them. To be honest, I've all but given up now. Thanks for reading!

Thanks mike&co. TPs came into it, I wanted to try Iberia and Bilbao wasn't somewhere I had ever been before so all of those combined enticed me to book (and I'm glad I did!).

I bid the taxi driver Adios at the airport and headed inside. Wonderful high ceiling in Bilbao airport.



I wasn't able to check in online for the BIO-MAD flight so I stopped by at a desk to collect boarding passes. The lady at the desk admonished a chancer in the economy queue who was away to dash in front of me. I didn't really care as he had been standing there for longer than I had but I nonetheless followed the lady's instructions and went forward. After a few taps, her machine had spewed out three boarding passes.

No priority security at Bilbao airport. I was through and in search of the lounge within ten minutes though. The lounge is down one level and looks out towards the back of the airport. There was a nice girl on the desk who said to watch the screens as they don't make announcements in the lounge.







Food selection was not too bad and there was a fridge which was packed full of different kinds of sandwiches. There was also a fridge with beer and soft drinks while the spirits and wine were sitting on a counter.





After a sandwich and a few beers, it was time to board. When I got there, priority boarding was being strictly enforced and I was welcomed to board. I got on and settled into 1A.

Pushed back at the same time as our neighbour.





Bye Bilbao!







Shortly afterwards, one of the male cabin crew stopped by to ask what I would like to drink and came back with my beer along with the snack (which, was very tasty!). I liked the addition of the packet of nuts.



After I was finished, the tray was cleared and I was asked if I would perhaps like another beer. Well, might as well! Again, great service - beer presented along with some more nuts.



I spent some time checking the views out from above.





We had started to descend to I popped to the toilet before landing. When I came back to my seat, another beer had miraculously appeared in place of the empty one. Clean glass again. I could get used to Iberia!

All in all, great service from Iberia on such a short flight. Lovely, attentive cabin crew. 10 out of 10!

After getting the transit train across to the terminal where the London flight was to leave from, I was only left with about 20 mins spare to visit the lounge. It was packed! I managed to find a seat towards the back and grabbed some juice.



Food selection here was great.





The flight had started to board to I headed off to the gate where, again, priority boarding was being enforced. I was getting quite excited at this point given that this was to be my first trip on board an A340-600 - the longest plane in the world so I'm told!

First impressions stepping on board - verrrrrrry nice. Sleek style. Seat looks big and I love that each seat has direct aisle access.



Chillin'



I must have nodded off because I don't remember any safety demonstration being given. I woke as we were turning onto the runway. The massive engines whined and whirred all the way down the runway until we lifted off gracefully into the sunny sky.





No separate drinks run to start with on this flight. Meal and drinks served together. The cabin crew gave out menus (take note BA!) and the trolley followed shortly thereafter.



I went with the mango and rocked stuffed chicken and it was delicious. Sorry to say it but much better than most of the meals I have had in BA's Club Europe. The addition of cheese on the tray was nice too as was the olive oil and the olive oil and balsamic dressing for the salad.



After the meal trays were cleared, the crew went round offering coffee and (free pouring!) liqueurs. I took a coffee and a whisky (although it was blended, it was nice enough).



Again, sorry to say it but the coffee was a thousand times better than what BA serves.

As we approached the Channel, the sun was setting on us which made for some nice views out of the window.



We did one loop the loop before we landed.

I was extremely impressed with Iberia. If I am going to anywhere in Spain in the future, I think that I would actively look to book onto an Iberia flight instead of a BA flight.

I caught the transit across to T5 and had a few hours in the Flounge sipping wine before the flight up to Aberdeen. It was an unremarkable domestic flight.

A very enlightening TR, stu1985 ... I must give IB some serious though if we venture into their parts of Yerp.

And the food appears to beat BA hands down, but then that may be because I've got a bit tired of the weak CE offering.

Thanks for reading UncleT. The food was great - I couldn't fault it. Salad and cheese on a MAD flight on BA......no chance! Overall, IB was a far more polished service.

Back to BA this week though....