IBERIA review :  14 June 2009 : by Ekrem Sadak   (Spain)

Lisbon-Madrid-Sao Paulo return, is my almost monthly flight. I am a gold card holder. They promise that when you book business you get separate check-in, separate boarding, lounge access etc. Now the reality, In Madrid separate boarding took place 3 times out of the 7, in Sao Paulo the business class check-in counter was not working 4 times out of the 7, the reclining seat was not working on 2 outbound Madrid flights. Could this not be checked before? The lounge in Sao Paulo is horrible. Onboard food is good but try to get a coffee for breakfast. The answer is we serve coffee after the meal? Although they say in the menu that its available all the time. The staff is unfriendly independent of cabin. Any request or question out of their standard procedure causes a wrinkled face and afterwards the treatment gets even worse. The wines onboard are very good but the drink assortment a joke. The only good thing is that their price outbound Lisbon is excellent. Their new business lounge in Madrid is good too. Unfortunately I need to continue flying with them due to restricted offers from the Iberian Peninsula.

IBERIA review :  10 June 2009 : by H Natha   (USA)

Cannot believe Iberia is not willing to take care of their customers. It seems as customers come last. We requested a Hindu Vegetarian meal, but of course we were given fish and chicken, go figure. Well, we let it go the first time and informed the flight attended to make sure the next leg will be no meat. Well, we got meat again and again on return flight as well. What upset me most was, we asked again 2 hrs prior to flight that they have a vegetarian meal for us, because we are travelling with 4 children. But nothing was done about this matter.

IBERIA review :  6 June 2009 : by D Sheldrick   (UK)

LHR-MAD-FUE return. Excellent service in both directions, reasonable food and reasonable legroom. Business class is 3x3 but with the centre seats left vacant. Airbus A320 on all sectors.

IBERIA review :  5 June 2009 : by Chris de Vries   (Netherlands)

I have never encountered an airline that is so incapable and unable to help their customers whatsoever after they have been delayed for 11 hours due to overbooking of flights by Iberia. Four hours after overbooking our initial flight in Caracas, we were booked on another airline to Madrid, and another (later) connection to our destination in the Netherlands. Surprisingly they offered us a 300 euro voucher to compensate for our delay. Arriving in Madrid the connecting flight was also full, resulting in another 7 hour delay, plus informing us that the voucher of 300 euros given to us in Caracas was not valid in Europe and we were actually entitled to 25 euros according to the customer service of Iberia. When we asked for help we only received many sighs and lifted shoulder but no-one was able to provide any help. Iberia has a very primitive and malfunctioning organization which provides clients with a lot of troubles and headaches without any solution. I will personally never fly with Iberia again and I advise others to avoid Iberia as well.

IBERIA review :  26 May 2009 : by M Heather   (UK)

LHR to Seville via Madrid and return. Outbound in economy, return in business class (thanks to a cheap upgrade secured by travel agent). All flights largely on time, connections made and baggage arrived both ways. Casual approach to boarding. The Spanish clearly do not understand 'we're boarding by row numbers', but given the sheer quantity of carry-on luggage passengers brought with them - and the mayhem that caused for later boarders - the mad bundle for the gate made sense, although it did make departures a bit delayed! Cabin crew friendly and professional, with a good standard of English. Legroom OK in economy (only just if you're at the back of the plane but the slimline seats help) and good in business. Pay-on-board service in economy is just mean. The goodies, such as they are, are at low cost carrier prices (ie very expensive), but the fares are at full service carrier prices, so you get hit with a double-whammy. Iberia really need to change this. The business class service on the return leg was good and more than acceptable for the flight lengths. Overall, I'd choose BA in economy as you get a sandwich and a glass of wine, but in business class the products largely match up. And Madrid airport Terminal 4 was a delight, with the Iberia business class lounge up there with the best of them with a good selection of food and drink.

IBERIA review :  20 May 2009 : by Francis Tindale   (UK)

Very casual approach to boarding - started at about same time as we were supposed to take off. No apparent reason for this - eventually left 30 mins late. Seats about as bad as Ryanair - minimal recline - very narrow and my knees against the seat in front - I`m only 6 feet and not fat but very uncomfortable.

IBERIA review :  18 May 2009 : by S Srinivasan   (USA)

MAD-LHR. Check-in queue looked bad, but there were 7-8 people handling passengers, so the wait wasn't bad (less than 5 minutes). All personnel from check-in staff to FAs were fine and reasonably polite. They definitely do prefer Spanish; luckily I know just enough to get along. Onboard, the A321 was about 80% full. Seat comfort and pitch was acceptable for the 2.5 hour flight. Free newspapers offered in Economy, a rarity these days. The pay-for- everything service is pretty ridiculous for a national flag carrier on an international flight. You even have to pay for sodas and water, and at inflated prices to boot. Flight departed MAD and arrived at LHR on time. Baggage transfer to BA at LHR was seamless. An average experience overall, though better than I expected.

IBERIA review :  13 May 2009 : by N Francis   (UK)

MIA-MAD. Check-in pretty quick, lounge crowded and nothing to write home about! First time flying Iberia long-haul and while not in the big leagues, it wasn't all that bad. The seats are getting a little tatty, but were still pretty comfortable for an overnight flight. The staff weren't over-friendly, but they weren't rude! Food not awful, and better than Virgin's offering. Arrived on-time and bags off within 20 minutes so overall I can't complain. I hear Iberia is going to undertake a major refit of it's longhaul premium cabins so will give them another go nearer the time.

IBERIA review :  12 May 2009 : by P McCarthy   (UK)

LHR-MAD-LPA. Iberia paid-for onboard service has been enough to deter me from them for a few years, particularly to Madrid where they codeshare with BA, but this time the flights were booked for me. All in all I was satisfied. Staff were friendly from check-in to the end, particularly in Madrid airport where they had been stationed at strategic points to marshal passengers to the Las Palmas flight in another terminal. The flight out of Heathrow was late, though we left the gate on time - that's Heathrow. On board the food and drink is all paid-for and that, from a flag-carrier, is embarrassing cheap behaviour. I must admit, however, that the quality of the sold stuff was good. The enormous plane to Las Palmas was half-full, the flight to Madrid more-so. Both had fine legroom and were clean and presentable, crew nice. We got to the Canary Islands on time. No IFE on any leg. Iberia were not amazing, but they were better than their reputation can sometimes suggest.