Iberia | Airbus A320 | Geneva – Madrid
Sep 19, 2019, 7:04 am
#1
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Join Date: Jul 2014
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Iberia | Airbus A320 | Geneva – Madrid
Continuing my recent series of reports.
The pictures (and the previous parts) can be viewed here: https://www.inflightwithjames.com/po...geneva-madrid/
The first flight of the ticket that will take me to New York. I've flown plenty of Iberia A320's before so nothing too out of the ordinary for me on this sector!
As this was a Finnair ticket, selecting a seat wit Iberia was a little more difficult than it needed to be. As in, you couldn’t! Luckily I remembered the trick where you could use the Royal Jordanian site to select seats, and they stuck when it came to check in online, so it was all good.
I checked out of the hotel at 10:00. As it happened, there was a shuttle back to the airport within a couple of minutes so I arrived a little earlier than anticipated.
As is nearly always the case with automated gates at security, I wasn't able to access the fast track. Which is a little frustrating as it’s a published benefit of OneWorld Emerald status. What made things more frustrating was that the queue for the standard security line was pretty long. However, it was very efficient and I made it through in less time than at Heathrow earlier in this trip.
I had intended on using the British Airways lounge, however it would appear that the refurbishment is underway already. I knew it was due, but didn’t know it had already started. So instead, I made my way to the DNATA lounge instead.
DNATA Lounge
The DNATA lounge looked an awful lot like a former Swiss lounge with the décor. Although being a third party lounge catering to many airlines, it was absolutely packed when I arrived. There are two extra sections that were opened up during my visit. One was much like the main lounge, the other resembled an art gallery.
I had planned on getting some breakfast in the lounge. Whilst I wasn’t expecting gourmet dining, I was still a little disappointed at what was on offer here.
At the gate
Like my previous flight with TAP, the FID’s showed go to gate. As I wasn’t able to track the incoming flight on FlightRadar24, I assumed everything was running to schedule. Wrong.
I arrived at when I anticipated boarding would start, only to find the incoming aircraft hadn’t arrived yet.
Onboard
Boarding began but there didn’t appear to be any real order to the proceedings. I’d been on quite a few Iberia A320’s previously however they had either been unrefurbished or I’d been sat at the front.
Towards the rear, the aircraft are fitted out with the seemingly standard Recaro slim lines.
As is seemingly always the case with Iberia flights, boarding took an absolute age.
Luckily, there was an entire row free in front, so as soon as the doors were closed, I made my move.
By the time we pushed back, we were ten minutes behind schedule.
Flight time was given as 1h35.
Inflight
I guess one thing with airlines being buy on board is the almost total lack of interaction with the crew if you’re not buying.
In my case on this flight, shortly after departure I got to work on one of my YouTube videos. I had my head down and my headphones on. By the time I was done, the crew had passed through the cabin and descent had started.
As such, I couldn’t possibly comment whether they were any good or not! I’m sure they were just fine though.
Likewise for the food too.
Arrival
In the captains welcome speech, he mentioned there was a chance of a hold up on arrival due to traffic in Madrid. Nothing was confirmed but it did appear that we were in descent for longer than usual. We also made a few long turns, meaning that we likely were in a hold.
We touched down a few minutes late on probably the furthest runway from where we were due to park.
Once we were on stand, it turned out to be a non Schengen stand, meaning a bus ride over to the Schengen arrivals.
This meant my connection was down to just under two hours, but that’s a story for the next part of this trip!
My thoughts
Bit of a struggle this one! The flight was a few minutes late, the seats were standard European short haul and I didn’t really have any interaction with the crew. Not much more to be said.
The pictures (and the previous parts) can be viewed here: https://www.inflightwithjames.com/po...geneva-madrid/
The first flight of the ticket that will take me to New York. I've flown plenty of Iberia A320's before so nothing too out of the ordinary for me on this sector!
As this was a Finnair ticket, selecting a seat wit Iberia was a little more difficult than it needed to be. As in, you couldn’t! Luckily I remembered the trick where you could use the Royal Jordanian site to select seats, and they stuck when it came to check in online, so it was all good.
I checked out of the hotel at 10:00. As it happened, there was a shuttle back to the airport within a couple of minutes so I arrived a little earlier than anticipated.
As is nearly always the case with automated gates at security, I wasn't able to access the fast track. Which is a little frustrating as it’s a published benefit of OneWorld Emerald status. What made things more frustrating was that the queue for the standard security line was pretty long. However, it was very efficient and I made it through in less time than at Heathrow earlier in this trip.
I had intended on using the British Airways lounge, however it would appear that the refurbishment is underway already. I knew it was due, but didn’t know it had already started. So instead, I made my way to the DNATA lounge instead.
DNATA Lounge
The DNATA lounge looked an awful lot like a former Swiss lounge with the décor. Although being a third party lounge catering to many airlines, it was absolutely packed when I arrived. There are two extra sections that were opened up during my visit. One was much like the main lounge, the other resembled an art gallery.
I had planned on getting some breakfast in the lounge. Whilst I wasn’t expecting gourmet dining, I was still a little disappointed at what was on offer here.
At the gate
Like my previous flight with TAP, the FID’s showed go to gate. As I wasn’t able to track the incoming flight on FlightRadar24, I assumed everything was running to schedule. Wrong.
I arrived at when I anticipated boarding would start, only to find the incoming aircraft hadn’t arrived yet.
Onboard
Boarding began but there didn’t appear to be any real order to the proceedings. I’d been on quite a few Iberia A320’s previously however they had either been unrefurbished or I’d been sat at the front.
Towards the rear, the aircraft are fitted out with the seemingly standard Recaro slim lines.
As is seemingly always the case with Iberia flights, boarding took an absolute age.
Luckily, there was an entire row free in front, so as soon as the doors were closed, I made my move.
By the time we pushed back, we were ten minutes behind schedule.
Flight time was given as 1h35.
Inflight
I guess one thing with airlines being buy on board is the almost total lack of interaction with the crew if you’re not buying.
In my case on this flight, shortly after departure I got to work on one of my YouTube videos. I had my head down and my headphones on. By the time I was done, the crew had passed through the cabin and descent had started.
As such, I couldn’t possibly comment whether they were any good or not! I’m sure they were just fine though.
Likewise for the food too.
Arrival
In the captains welcome speech, he mentioned there was a chance of a hold up on arrival due to traffic in Madrid. Nothing was confirmed but it did appear that we were in descent for longer than usual. We also made a few long turns, meaning that we likely were in a hold.
We touched down a few minutes late on probably the furthest runway from where we were due to park.
Once we were on stand, it turned out to be a non Schengen stand, meaning a bus ride over to the Schengen arrivals.
This meant my connection was down to just under two hours, but that’s a story for the next part of this trip!
My thoughts
Bit of a struggle this one! The flight was a few minutes late, the seats were standard European short haul and I didn’t really have any interaction with the crew. Not much more to be said.
