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Iberia

gaby of Madrid, QC January 14, 2010

Last year at Christmas I travelled Madrid-Montreal with US Airways through Philly. I got my laptop stolen from my checked-in luggage. I later found-out that US Airways employees have a reputation for being kleptomaniacs and that many employees have been arrested in the past. US Airways never apologized or compensated me. So I did the only thing a customer can really do, I swore to spread the word and never fly with them again.

This year I flew Madrid-Montreal, also during Christmas, but this time with Iberia and British Airways. Three out of four flights got cancelled; one flight was two hours late and another five hours late. Iberia offers more flight options and schedules to attract clients, and then systematically suspend the flights and reshuffle travelers to optimize its fleet. This should be illegal as some clients, such as me, pay more in order to arrive or leave a certain hour. To systematically suspend 2 out 3 flights is unethical. What would stop all airliners to offer flights every 5 minutes to all their destinations, only to then suspend them?

Finally I arrived at my final destination, back to Madrid. Only 1 of the 2 checked in luggage turned out. The only consolation is that 15 other travelers were left stranded without luggage at the conveyer belt. The employee at the Iberia customer service was tired and exasperated from her work day obviously annoyed by my problem. I tried to be as nice as I could, afraid that her mood could affect the efficiency of the luggage location. Yet I thought to myself; shouldn't it be me who is annoyed and exasperated, I paid extra for fraudulent flight scheduling offers, got 3 flights suspended, almost 10 hours of delay, charge 50 Euros for additional luggage weight, have been up for 24 hours, got security checked 3 times, and on top of that I get treated like a nuisance my a moody young woman. I still have no news from my luggage; they have no idea where it is. It has been 4 days.

Fernando of Kent, WA January 2, 2010

Reading the postings so far, I see that I am not alone. My daughter and her friend spent the holidays in Madrid, Spain. They were booked to board a flight from Madrid, Spain to New York on 01/02/10 and then to Seattle, where we live. She arrived at the airport 2 hours before her flight.

She was informed the flight was overbooked. She was then told that one of her bags was 14 pounds overweight and instructed to get in line somewhere else to pay the overage fee. The line was long and noticing this she asked if she would have to get in line again to check in. When she was assured she could just come up to the counter without waiting in line again, she went ahead and joined the fee paying line.

It took her an hour to get to the counter to pay the fee. When she got back to the check in counter she was informed that the flight was CLOSED and that she was LATE for her flight. Distressed, she let her friend go on without her. She was told she could board the next flight next week, which doesn't work because as a junior in college, she has to get back to class. The next available flight period would have cost her almost 5,000.00.

She got absolutely no help from customer service, no vouchers to spend the night at a hotel, no other option other than to perhaps spend the entire week at the airport on stand by. It's a good thing that she has family in Madrid, otherwise she would not have even had the MEANS to let me know there was a problem. I will make a point of avoiding Iberia Airlines in all future travels and will do everything in my power to spread the word about this.

Peter of Horseshoe, NC January 2, 2010

I have to record our experience with Iberia Airways and after reading some of your reports I find we are not alone. I would like to give you a little of my background before I submit our experiance with Iberia Airways. I have been a frequent traveller to Tenerife over the last 20 years as I have an apartment there and spend some time there, travelling sometimes three or four times a year. This was the first time I have travelled with Iberia. It was booked by a travel agent and was the last leg of the journey we took from the US starting in Asheville North Carolina.

We were returning from our trip to Tenerife and making the first leg of our journey with Iberia from Tenerife to Madrid, our flight time was at 0245 on Wednesday morning, we arrived at the airport at aproximately 2345 on Teusday and checked our flight information board said "flight delayed". So as usual on these occasions we kept checking the Information to see when to "board", but it never changed, I became uneasy as the time drew near for the flight, their was nobody at the "check in desk" so I decided to go to the Iberia desk to see what was Happening and when we could board our flight.

What happened then was astounding the operator in charge of the desk was "discourteous" "abrupt" and "rude". She accused me of arriving late the problem was my fault and you have "missed your flight" in a dictotorial voice, not until my wife came over did she have any reasoning to her demeanour.

The flight information was not changed from "delayed" to "boarding" until it was too late to board, and both me and my wife feel that she changed that information due to our vociferous arguments but at that point it was too late to board.(20 minuets to take off) We spent the rest of that night trying to catch our 2nd leg of our journey accross from Madrid to Atlanta needless to say despite our best efforts we ended having to stay the night in a Madrid hotel. Delta with which the rest of our conections were made rebooked our itinery allbeit the best they could. We ended up having to stay another night over in Atlanta, but Delta I cant fault.

Rimma of New York, NY January 1, 2010

Iberia changed my outbound flight without cancelling the original outbound flight. The "system" cancelled my inbound return flight. I was not informed about it whether online nor through a phone call and did find that out myself, by accident, when I logged in online.

When I called customer service, I spoke to Anna M., located in Madrid. She was not understanding and did not go out of her way what so ever to help me. She strictly said that the flight was booked out and that I must take a flight the next day (which would cause me missing a day of work.) I asked her to double check with her supervisor, Mr. Marco O., who was not "able" to help me either.

I asked for their names. Hung up and immediately called back customer service, requesting a German speaking customer service representative. This gentlemen has put me back on the original inbound flight within 5 minutes.

Because of this experience, I will never fly Iberia ever again. I will never book a flight through Iberia for my boss (I'm an executive assistant to the CEO.) And I will send out an email to all our admininstrative assistants to never use Iberia (we have over 4000 employees worldwide.) Again, unless you don't mind waiting hours at the airport and having your flight cancelled on you for no reason, I would not recommend to book with Iberia.

Lost 7 hours during outbound flight. Accidently found out that the inbound flight was cancelled (without informing me!) And was told during my first call with customer service that it is impossible for me to get a flight on the same day and I'd had to wait 24 hours for the next flight. Iberia is very unprofessional and much behind the quality of customer service compared to its comeptitors. Do not fly Iberia!

Tolga of Boca Raton, FL December 15, 2009

On December 14, I was Iberia flight 3762 (MAD-IST). I am a tall person, and fly with the understanding that I do not fit properly into most airline seats. I try to get exit row seats if possible, but I had not been able to figure out how to select my seat in time. No surprise to me, when I tried to get into the seat, my knees had to push the seat ahead of me forward in order to get any part of my leg to contact my own. The night's flight was pretty much empty. Pictures taken after reaching cruise altitude.

I asked the flight attendant before the flight if I could sit in a seat with more leg room. She offered me the exit row one of two exit row seats, which had passengers to either side. I am not one to reduce the comfort of others for my own benefit, so I respectfully refused. I asked to use one of the business class seats, which were exactly the same as economy seats, but with a greater seat pitch. She refused to accommodate me. I offered to move back to economy after we reached cruse, when it would be safe for me to sit in any other position but forward. Again, no. I tried to explain that my tailbone is damaged and that the pain of sitting in certain positions is extremely painful, but she wouldn't listen after my second attempt.

After reaching cruise I adjusted my position in the seat to be more comfortable, and eventually moved to an empty row of three for the remainder of the flight. On top of this issue, the flight attendants' interactions with the passengers were quite rude. I don't expect FAs to be happy when they serve the passengers, but it is expected that they behave professionally.

Ana of Madrid, Spain December 15, 2009

My 2 kids and I took the 12:45 flight Madrid-Mexico on November 13th, 2009 in business class, and across my isle (7J) a couple of russians started drinking since the beginning of the flight, the flight attendants served them 2 drinks at the time for each other upon their request, it is a 12 hour flight and after 5 hours they were of course completely drunk after at least 2 hole bottles for each, they kept asking for more and more drink, even all the people around them were complaining, my 2 kids were behind them and they were agressive, so the flight attendants served them more as asked because they didn't want to argue with them.

I know that in business class they have the "right" to ask for "anything" they want to drink during the flight, but it is IMPERATIVE to use common sense! the rest of the passengers also pay too much money and we have the right to have a good experience and not fear from someone!!! they broke 2 cups, were agressive, and super disgusting! it was a terrible experience for all of the ones around them. The lack of common sense of the flight attendants resulted on a sad experience, we couldn't sleep, they were almost shouting while "talking". I want a refund!

Christina of Brentwood, NH December 10, 2009

My 83 year old Father flew from Boston MA to London Heathrow, from there to Barcelona, no problems on British Airways. He then was supposed to have a 2hr layover in Barcelona then board with Ibera to Almeria. We had requested wheelchair assistance for him and gave him contact numbers to hand to someone if something went wrong. He never got off the plane in Almeria and my brother had to chase someone down to find out what happened to him.

My 83 year old father was bumped from an overbooked Iberia flight and kep in Barcelona for 8 hours, his total travel time ended up being 35 hours, no-one offerred to help him call anyone. When he arrived in Almeria he looked terrible, had not had anything to eat or drink in Barcelona, was just left there!

to top it off once he arrived in Almeria he was minus his luggage! Mental anquish for myself and my brother not knowing where he was, mental anquish for him not knowing what was going on, physical and mental damage for not eating or sleeping.

Maria of Burlingame, CA December 3, 2009

We booked our flights and told them we are bringing our 6month old infant. We requested for a bassinet seat and even made that clear to the Iberia booking agent. When we boarded the plane, we were seated in the center section without a bassinet seat because they had to prioritize passengers who were overweight and cannot fit the airline seats (shouldnt we be prioritized because we have an infant? isn't that discrimination?). I had to hold my baby the whole 16hour flight on my lap because of that! I request for a baby food prior to our trip but they did not serve any food for my baby. My son's luggage was lost when we got to Barcelona and we called everyday to check the status of the luggage but no one in the Spain office knows where the luggage is, all they say is it's going to be delivered that day but it never came, we had to wait in our condo and missed most of our tours.

Heading back to USA, same story they did not want to give us the bassinet area for my son because they overbooked and 4 of us were fighting for that section. We had to beg other single flying passengers to understand our situation and had to find seats for those other passengers because some did not want to be seated away from each other. We had to argue with the flight attendants that it is stated in our itinerary that the bassinet request was typed in the paperwork because they did not want us to be prioritized. My husband was not served 1 meal, literally skipped by the stewardess and when we were wondering what happened to his meal, the stewardess just rolled her eyes and said well you have to wait if there is any food left. We finally received my son's luggage but the stroller was completely damaged, I called the airline to complain but the lady said they will call me back for an answer. Until now they cannot give me answer for the fault they've caused.

john of Santos, Brazil November 27, 2009

I and my wife were booked and paid for a business class flight IB6827 Dept Madrid 00.05 on Oct 25. We checked in at Madrid airport 21.00. We were imediately informed that there had been an overbooking and that we were been downgrade to Economy class. None of our protests produced any results.OnTHE 27/10 WE requested the travel agent to contact Iberia for tickets to be reinbursed at least for the difference in the fares!After a month nothing from Iberia.

Carol of Flagstaff, AZ November 14, 2009

A man who was DRUNK sat across the aisle from me. He was obnoxious. Everyone in my compartment complained. I rang for the attendants at least five times; no answer. If I and my fellow passengers had not complained and INSISTED that this man be restrained, we were all convinced that nothing would happen. We INSISTED upon his arrest. The pilot and crew did not seem to know what to do. This lasted NINE HOURS. I want a full refund!!!!!!!! This was outrageous.

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