Iberia

MAD-GUA. Check in Madrid less than 5 min. Fast track for security made it to the lounge at the satellite terminal in 15 min. Great business lounge lots of food and drink. Boarding on time. Welcome by FA with drinks. Flight departed 15 min late. On board comfortable seating flat bed. Very nice lunch and afternoon snack before arrival. Very pleasant flight nice service. Arrival on time.

LPA-MAD-CPH April 2013. Clean and new aircraft pleasant crew on both flights. BOB within Europe which is like industry average product and price wise. Seating cramped but manageable on short flights.

MUC-MAD-XRY / XRY-MAD-MUC. After delays in Jerez and having explained to 4 different staff that my suitcase had to make all the connections as I had an onward flight to South Africa my suitcase did not make it and I received it about 60 hours later. Not pleasant when you have no change of clothes or toiletries. I was not once offered vouchers for toiletries neither did I receive an apology this after I had complained numerous times. The only reason people fly Iberia is because it is cheap. Customer service is horrific.

LHR-MAD-LPA-MAD-LHR. LHR-Madrid codeshare with BA. Excellent as expected with snack and drink provided. Madrid to Gran Canaria was a codeshare with Iberia Express. No food or drink offered (but with the option to purchase) and the plane whilst modern had dirty baggage bins. Seats and carpet were in good repair though. Gran Canaria to Madrid with Iberia A321 very modern and well kept and clean seats comfortable but again no complementary drink or snack. Transit in Madrid on both legs was easy and straightforward. I also found the cabin temperature to be quite warm on all legs.

TLV-MAD-SVQ and back. The price was the big plus and I have to say that I made all my connections even with a short transfer at Madrid Barajas. All flights were on time with small and very old A319 on the 5.5 hours TLV-MAD. Flight was full cramped and very uncomfortable. Plane food atrocious on both legs. MAD-SVQ-MAD was with Iberia Express with much better and more enthusiastic crew and no service as on low cost airlines and frankly I prefer that since you do not get bothered with the whole meal and service show. Overall I would fly them again since price and punctuality are much more important than atrocious service and terrible food. They should stick to no frills low cost model since that's what they are good for they have no hope in hell of doing any better.

I was impressed by the service provided on the flight number 516 in codeshare with BA. Very professional and helpful cabin crew maybe because the flight was almost empty. That is the way to treat customers and not the way crew used to treat us (like cattle) with bad faces and more concerned with their personal lives rather than looking after the customers.

Flights from ORY-MAD-BOS May 6 2013. Pre-flight was problematic: I was unable to check in on-line so I had to call Iberia to get seats. When I checked in at airport seat assignments I had obtained on the phone about 12 hours earlier were ignored. The flights themselves were fine. Food was typical airline food and there was no personal entertainment system on MAD-BOS flight. However flight crew was very professional and attentive which made up for many of the limitations of the pre-flight experience.

Iberia should consider recruiting new cabin crew that enjoy their work. I do not understand where they found the crew aboard on my flights in and outbound. Not even one smile or friendly word. Food was ok. Seat comfy enough. Will not start talking about the flight safety and how cabin crew handles that. People standing in the aisle overhead compartments not closed while aircraft is ready for take-off on the runway. I can go on and on.

I flew to Lima on Iberia for the Christmas holidays in December 2012. I was hesitant because previous trips with the airline have been difficult with baggage delays surly hostesses poor customer service and a general feeling of incompetence. This time the hostesses were friendly but I still felt a worrying sense of incompetence with passengers still standing while we taxied along to takeoff because they couldn't find room for their hand luggage in the overheard lockers and hostesses running around while they tried to accommodate people as the plane moved. These old planes have small ceiling mounted screens for the whole cabin and our headphones didn't work which on a long haul flight is a big deal. There was a lack of communication between the BA check-in staff on duty for our flight in terminal 5 at Heathrow who assured me that on my fare I would not need to pay extra for a second suitcase in either directions and that of Lima Iberia staff on departure who insisted that I did.The whole experience left me feeling that Iberia has not progressed at all since I last flew with them and that their association with British Airways has done nothing to improve standards.

LIN-MAD-BOG on March 30th and back from MEX 2 weeks later. Onward trip: 45 minutes late leaving Milano but not Iberia's fault. No problem with my connection as I had plenty of time. However flight to BOG was initially delayed 2.5 hrs (mechanical fault) then it ended up with a 1hr 45mins late departure and plane had to be changed (A346 instead of A343). Because of this I got a horrible seat which I luckily managed to change being the rear of the plane completely empty: this helped make my trip a little more comfortable (an entire row for me) as the seat was extremely hard. The plane itself was probably one of the oldest A346 flying nowadays. Service is extremely basic and carried out by non-enthusiastic crew: no entertainment system (a small monitor placed far away from you is not to be considered as entertainment). Return trip from Mexico City: again a A346 but in better conditions rather chaotic boarding as the row announcements could not be heard clearly so everyone was pushing to enter the plane first which is something I really hate. I was lucky one more time to get an empty seat beside me otherwise it would have been a painful trip back home. Overall on the plus side I mention their hub in Madrid a new modern and clean airport good for connections and the rate which was a great deal (about 650 EUR); on the minus side their old fleet and minimalistic service. Would choose them again only if the price is considerably lower than their competitors.