Iberia Customer Reviews and Iberia Passenger Trip Reports

London to Madrid return a 2.5 hr flight. The first flight was uneventful. Return flight to London was problematic and I lost my LHR-SAN connection on British Airways. First, though a minor detail, the pilot never welcomed passengers, never said a word about the flight except to give orders to the cabin crew. The flight left Madrid 40 minutes late in clear weather without explanation. At Heathrow we could not get to the gate because there was a truck parked in the area. Then when the truck was moved, the lift didn't work. Again, not a word from the pilot - flight attendants just answered passengers' questions about the delay one-to-one. Flight attendants were efficient and friendly. Short flight on Iberia but from this experience I wouldn't want to fly them long haul.

My husband and I flew from Heathrow, via Madrid to Quito, on 8 June 2012. The flight from Madrid to Quito was totally unacceptable. Firstly, why are people allowed more than one piece of hand luggage, when it specifically states that you are only permitted one piece of hand luggage? People were getting on board with 3 or 4 pieces of large hand luggage. Some of the hand luggage was larger than our checked luggage! There was no room to move on the flight. Secondly, not long after take off, one of the toilets was closed, as it was not working. On a 10.5 hour flight, the flight attendants did not once replenish supplies in the toilets, with the result that the toilet paper ran out. This was the most revolting and unhygienic flight that I have ever had the misfortune to experience. Last but not least, apart from the fact that the aircraft was from the dark ages (overhead screens which could not be seen, depending on where you were sitting) the food choice ran out half way through the economy section, with the result that you got pasta whether you wanted it or not! If you can possible help it, do not fly Iberia long haul.

MAD-MIA-MAD. Check in at Madrid fine and fast track. Lounge great. Boarding chaos as usual with IB. Once on board great crew, food and seat. Arrival on time.

Alicante-Madrid return. Reserved my ticket on the Iberia website, revised everything and when I checked in at Alicante airport I was told that I had no luggage allowance as the flight was Iberia Express and that I would be charged extra for hold luggage. I explained that I had reserved on the Iberia website and at no time did I see any annotation about luggage costs. I fly regularly with Ryanair, Easy jet etc, so I reckon I know what I am looking for. I was told that as I had reserved with a low cost airline it would cost me 24 euros extra to take my luggage with me. My return flight to Madrid from Alicante with this "low cost" airline cost me 196 euros, plus 48 euros more for luggage! Has anybody else come across this problem? I did see that I was not the only passenger having to hand over a credit card to pay for luggage at the check in.

Flight: In last month. If can avoid flying on Iberia in the future, I will, even if twice as expensive. For this business trip to Santiago de Compostella, there was no other choice. Since Iberia left the Star Alliance, I was advised to book a separate ticket for the Iberia flights from Madrid to Santiago. On the return flight to Madrid yesterday (June 24) technical problems caused the flight to be rescheduled. They would not offer me a seat or standby on the next flight (which others were offered) because the new plane that was coming to replace for this flight was going to depart at 9.30 so would arrive in Madrid in time for me to collect my bags and check in for the 12.30 flight to the USA. Of course, this did not happen and in the airport in Santiago, nobody could help without exiting the departures area and going back to the ticketing area. Did not want to chance missing the flight by doing this a third time, so waited and hoped. Upon arrival in Madrid and missing the connection, they washed their hands. There were no other flights that day, so had to phone US Air and book a flight the next day and find a hotel. Iberia did give a breakfast voucher to customers that did leave the gate and go back out to the ticketing area to try to arrange for their connections. When everyone tried to use it to get a decent breakfast, we were told we could have a coffee and a choice from the donut tray. So barely a 3 euro breakfast. Astounding! I would also rank the trip to Santiago that was on schedule as below par. Just overall poor service and employees who are disengaged. Perhaps due to the recent change to another group of airlines. My experience would have been different if they remained part of Star Alliance. It would have all remained on one ticket, would have allowed me to reschedule without a change fee on US Airways and paid for a hotel. Also, even water was not offered, everything had to be purchased. I submitted a complaint when I arrived in Madrid.

Flight: In last month. We purchased two plane tickets from Iberia, to fly from Florence, Italy to Madrid, Spain on May 24 this year (Flight 5579). The plane was scheduled to leave Florence at 4.50 PM, arriving in Madrid at 7.05 PM. When we arrived at the Florence airport we were told that no big planes could fly from that small airport, and that we were going on bus to Bologna to fly to Madrid from there, but that were no delays. Thus, we had to carry luggage outside to wait for the bus under the sun and left Florence two hours later. We boarded the bus, and arrived in Bologna 1.15 hr later. Again, we all had to carry the luggage ourselves to Iberia counter, they never provided any help to carry the passengers’ luggage. Finally they took us to a plane of an unknown Spanish airline company called “Vueling” which did not even offer a free drink, but sold us the drinks. After another delay in Bologna airport, we arrived in Madrid at 10.30pm, 3.5 hours late!

Seat pitch is unbelievable and unworkable - cannot open a laptop in the space. Too much information from the captain about poor ATC at MAD. And you have to pay EUR3 for a coffee, this on a 3 hour flight!

After my last flight a couple of years ago on Iberia, I swore I would never fly them again. Unfortunately I had to take 2 Iberia flights in order to use my AA mileage for Business class tickets. I was very apprehensive, but it turned out to be a very nice experience. First, the Lounges at Barcelona and Madrid were better than any of the AA lounges I have been in, with a nice selection of food and a great selection of drinks (none of this one drink coupon stuff like American) Boarding was a little chaotic, but I have seen worse. On our BCN-MAD flight, the business class seats are a joke – nothing more than coach with every other seat empty. Service however was excellent. On MAD-BOS flight we were on an A340 and business class has lay flat seats. The seats would have rated excellent, but only if you are 5’9” and under can you lay perfectly flat. The cabin was clean and well maintained. The service was attentive and friendly. The food quality was excellent and there was a good selection of wine. I would fly Iberia again.

While in Spain I suffered a medical emergency and needed to upgrade my coach return flight from Madrid to Washington to business class so I could recline my seat for better support to my injured back. Iberia charged me 4000 euros to upgrade my return ticket. What made matters worse, there was a vacant seat next to me in business class and the stewardess permitted a girl from coach class to sit in it throughout the entire flight, for free!

JFK-MAD in Business. Lounge (BA's) was great, boarding was ok. Cabin is old, seats were nothing special, but plenty of space. Service was poor for Business. The basics were missing (no champagne/cava during pre-flight - only water or juice), flight attendants didn't use names, service was very rushed. The dinner (food) was excellent, matched by a solid wine selection. Breakfast was barely a snack. IFE was poor. Overall not up to a standard Business product. Overall the service was really poor.

Moved to Madrid and I have few choices other than Iberia. In 2012, I have flown over 40,000 miles with them. What can I say, but horrible! I am a business traveller, and get no service. Boarding is always chaos. They have no real policy for cabin bags (so every other flight they take my bag and check it). You cannot pre- reserve a seat unless you want to pay extra. Once, after following their policy to reserve my seat within 24 hours of the flight, they took my seat, and put me in a middle for a 9 hour long-haul. When asked, they basically said "too bad". They are almost always late, and provide no updates or information. Avoid if at all possible!

BRU-MAD-MVD in C Class. Check-in a disaster, onboard good service on short medium European routes, Transatlantic routes especially to South America. After the very messy boarding in MAD, the service onboard is appalling and cabin attendants are rude and disrespectful. Would not recommend, but unfortunately need to use it because other alternatives need to change airports or wait long hours for connecting flights.

I chose Iberia for my trip to Central America because they were the only airline offering a direct route from Europe (MAD) to Costa Rica (SJO). I do not recommend this airline to anyone, not only for the bad service onboard and the lack of what are now very common equipment's on any other airline (private TVs), but very simply for the terrible customer service Iberia offers to it's clientele.

Traveled non-stop from Madrid to LAX in Business class. Airport lounge was ok. My wife was unable to check-in online, but airport check-in was easy. Seats were ok, but not as good as American or British Airways for the same equipment. We had bulkhead seats (in the second business class section) despite being told we did not. We were not moved to be next to our friends (despite request) and there were 5 vacant seats in business class. Entertainment was ok, but a fairly limited selection, maybe 12 English language films. The system was quirky and not intuitive. Food was sub-par. Flight was very smooth. Baggage claim was very smooth. On balance, to get from Madrid to LAX, the shortcomings of Iberia are outweighed by the ability to go non-stop.

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