
Iberia Reviews
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About Iberia
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Iberia delivers passenger and cargo aviation services from its Madrid hub. The airline provides multiple cabin classes and integrated European travel with a focus on both long-haul and regional routes. Since its establishment in 1927, Iberia has connected destinations across Europe, the Americas and Africa.
Visit www.iberia.com- Frequent flights available
- Wide range of destinations
- Loyalty program benefits
- Poor customer service experiences
- Frequent flight delays
- Lost luggage issues
Iberia Reviews
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Reviewed Jan. 31, 2013
Our flight was from Vienna, Austria, to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We are a couple with a newborn child. When you have a baby, all airlines automatically reserve seats in front of the place with the baby bed. But Iberia didn't reserve our seats next to each other! How can this be, if we are a couple with a baby and bought the tickets all together at the same time? Are the parents supposed to sit separated? When we complained at the airport, the attendant, Ms Yadira **, was so unfriendly and arrogant that we were simply horrified and not believing that was actually happening! She started to shout at us. Now, without asking us, they changed one of our return flights, so that we'll have to wait 9 (nine!) hours in Madrid! We'll never ever fly with Iberia again, that's for sure.
Reviewed Nov. 16, 2012
We had some terrible episodes with Iberia. The luggage was lost for 11 days, things got stolen, and we had to pay for the transportation ourselves from the airport to the house. Also, they lied all the time, and they hung up the phone when I spoke in English (read: Not Spanish). I got so pissed I created a website about them. Iberia deleted my posts when linking to this page. Haha... suckers. Now it's time for the compensation, and that process is even worse. OMG. Never Iberia anymore. Never.
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2012
locator was there, but that it had been cancelled for non-payment. I spent 45 minutes on hold with your customer service. I wish only that the 66,000 miles be used to pay for the ticket.
When it was time to board the flight, I had no choice except to pay by credit card. I was charged US$2,850 for a flight that was $1,000 on the Iberia website. I did all required of us to pay for this flight with miles. The mistake is only with Iberia. Additionally, Iberia lost her luggage. She had no luggage in Rome and Iberia apparently had no idea where it was. When it showed up two days later, it had been rifled and $800 worth of items are lost. Stay off Iberia!
Reviewed Aug. 14, 2012
On 07-31-12, I arrived at Alicante Airport and was told that my flight IB 371 to Madrid had been cancelled, even though there was another flight scheduled for the same time - IB 2421. The agent was of little help. After many discussions at the sales desk, I was waitlisted onto IB 2421. Despite the fact that I had a connecting flight in Madrid IB 6253 to JFK, NY, they refused to check my luggage through to NY. I had to claim my luggage and re-check in. With just enough time to make the connection, I was also waitlisted for this flight. Very stressful and aggravating.
Reviewed July 14, 2012
I have a hard time getting Iberia to credit mileage points of flights on Oneworld partners. The two occasions when I flew Oneworld partners and the partner systems did not record properly the flights I boarded, I have never been able to get the points credited. I filed 2 complaints (#** on May 22, 2010. MIA GRU rejected and #** on September 4, 2011 LHR GRU rejected). In both cases, I submitted the boarding passes and even so, they argue they cannot credit points because their system (aa and ba in that case) does not show the records that I boarded the plane.
What more can consumers do to have their rights respected? If an airline system fails to register something, should the consumer be penalized for that? That is really disrespectful. To make matters worse, I am an Iberia platinum customer. Even being at the highest level of loyalty a customer can have with Iberia, I am still ignored in my plea. That is really disappointing.
Reviewed June 24, 2012
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 4:50PM, arriving in Madrid at 7:05PM. 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 there will be 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 hour 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! Avoid Iberia Spanish airline, they will lie to you, they will change or cancel flights without previous notice, they will not care if you lose your connecting flights, they will not provide any comfort to you and they (very good at this!) will not respect you and your family. Remember, this is not a European airline, this is a mediocre, third world airline company!
Reviewed June 15, 2012
I had to get a rerouted flight from Madrid via Zurich as my existing flight via London was not possible due to the UK'S transit visa restrictions. I was given a wrong code by Iberia Airlines on my ticket when I was in Johannesburg to travel to Cape Town. The code was apparently supposed to be **, but was ** which means that the route was reversed. This was the last leg of my 3 day journey from Spain. My family was waiting on the Airport in Cape Town and I was so tired. I had to buy another ticket for R2000 to get me to Cape Town. I really feel done in by this and need help please. I do have the ticket information that I would like to send you if I could get an email from you.
Reviewed June 11, 2012
I have flown all over the world, and never had a bad experience as with Iberia Airlines. I am still digesting just how badly this airlines treated me and other customers. The upshot of my experience is that I was forced to spend 22 hours in the Madrid airport because I missed my connection between two Iberia flights. Throughout the experience, Iberia employees were mind-bogglingly rude and utterly unaccommodating. For my troubles, I received some vouchers for sandwiches.
Flying from Morocco to New York on Iberia, me and my partner had a 1.5 hour layover scheduled in Madrid. The flight from Marrakesh to Madrid was about an hour late, so when we got into Madrid, we sprinted as fast as we could to the opposite end of the airport. The plane to NYC was still boarding so we figured we were in luck. I should have known it was odd that we received absolutely no instructions from flight attendants. As we approached the gate, an Iberia employee in a suit walked toward me shaking his finger, took me by the arm, and directed me back to the transit desk, saying I was too late. At the transit desk, with the connecting flight still in plain view at the gate, an Iberia employee unapologetically told me that I would need to take the flight the next day at 2:00 pm, some 22 hours later. She said Iberia would put me in a hotel in the city.
Then, I informed her that my traveling partner did not have American citizenship (she is a resident), and the employee told us that we could not leave the airport. "Where should we sleep?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and gestured to the chairs in the waiting area. As I said that something more must be done, and asked for her name and the name of her supervisor, she told me that what I was saying was "nonsense," and printed out some vouchers for sandwiches.
We begged her to bump us to business class on the flight back, to give us vouchers for a future flight, or to give us another itinerary on a flight through London or something - anything to avoid almost a complete day in the airport waiting area. She again unapologetically declined, without explanation. I later learned that she and other employees actually lied to us about several things. There was an earlier flight the next day, for example. They just didn't care.
Eventually, we banded together with some other people in the exact same predicament, and got Iberia to open the VIP lounge for us to sleep in. However, they would not let us in until midnight (the lounge was practically empty, but I guess they wanted to keep the riffraff out). Of course, we arrived home a day late, completely exhausted, with aching bodies, having missed our appointments for the day.
We will be following up with complaints, though the processes described on this page are not encouraging. Combined with Iberia's extremely poor customer service was an apparent discrimination, which is an allegation I don't make lightly, but I cannot think of another explanation for the utter disdain (rather than just ordinary rudeness) with which they treated the people in our predicament who were not white or American or European. In short, our treatment was totally unacceptable.
Reviewed April 21, 2012
I traveled from Cairo to Los Angeles on 11/15/2011 via Iberia. I had 2 bags and I paid $50 for the second bag at Iberia’s counter in Cairo Airport (Cairo to Madrid; Madrid to LAX). When I arrived at LAX, I did not find my second bag. Then, I got **. My baggage was lost and I sent an email to Iberia on 1/7/2012 as per your procedures. I got an automatic reply from you on 1/7/2012. Emmaluen was asking me to send my documentation by post. Actually, I did by TNT (**; delivery date, 2/21/2012) Madrid under signatory stamp IB. After that, no reply from Iberia. So I sent 2 complaints by fax, 1st on 3/14/2012 and second on 4/9/2012. And up until now there’s no reply. Finally, I want my lost baggage or compensation.
Reviewed April 17, 2012
I purchased a ticket via Orbitz via the phone to travel to Algeria with a friend of mine. The deal that was available then was with Iberia Airline traveling from JFK to Madrid and then to Algiers, Algeria. During the ticket purchase, I did inform the sales rep of my disability (polio) and requested a seat (with my friend) where there would be no one sitting in front of us or put us at seat located by the exit for there are ample place in front of me so that I can stretch my left foot (knees surgery which forces me to stretch my leg often). The sales rep of Orbitz did mention that he will put a note that I require a wheelchair and mention my seat and diet requirement, but he advised to call Iberia a day before departure to request the seat.
The day before departure, I did call Iberia and spoke to one of their rep, explained my handicap to the Iberia rep and requested my seat and a kosher meal. The Iberia rep provided me with 2 seat numbers and when I asked him to confirm that those seats are located near the exit for ample room, he confirmed that he did. Please note that I did ask him 6 times throughout our conversation during checking via phone and received the same confirmation that our seats were located by the exit and met my requirement due to my handicap. Please note that because I purchased the ticket through Orbitz, I couldn't check the seating via Iberia's website. When I arrived at the airport, I requested the same seat during checking and the rep did confirm that I did receive the requested seating.
Upon entering the airplane, me and my friend were directed to a seat that was not the one I requested during the purchase of the ticket, during checking one day before departure and at the airport. I tried to explain to the hostess of the error and my seating requirement due to my disability and problem with my left foot (which I had a knee surgery on) but it was in vain. My trip to Madrid was a nightmare with pain for about 8 hours. On my return, I made the same request but received the same poor seating and very bad flight experience. Please note that the kosher food was not even fit for an animal. I have traveled overseas using Alitalia, Continental, Air France and Delta Airlines and never had a bad experience as bad as the one I had with Iberia.
When I contacted them to complain, they directed me to their website where the only option I had is to complain about lost baggage or document. I was given two toll-free numbers and each one was directing me to the other number. I highly recommend not to use Iberia for your future travels. Please note that I had other bad experience where I actually threw up after eating the food. I do have travel and boarding documents to prove that I did travel overseas with Iberia. I could write a book about my bad, very bad experience with Iberia.
Reviewed April 1, 2012
I had to pay $60 for an extra bag when I left Amsterdam because recently they changed the rules. On My return flight, I had to pay $120 for the same luggage. No discussion possible - very rude. Iberia lost my luggage for 30 hours and caused a miserable first holiday. Excuses? Not at all!
Reviewed March 30, 2012
IB6127 from Barcelona to Miami - On arrival from Madrid and observing the long line of people boarding the Miami flight, I requested via your ground staff to purchase an upgrade from seats No 19J and 19L but was informed this was not possible. Whilst on the flight, we were informed by your very helpful staff that business class was at only 50% capacity. Could you please explain the reasoning of this? We will not be taking IB6122 on April 3, 2012 from Miami.
Reviewed March 6, 2012
We were supposed to fly Miami to Barcelona and then on to Israel on March 10th.We had to change to March 17th and we were charged a change fee. Now, we must cancel all the flights due to ill health and refunds were for the original price ticket only. We understand the cancellation fee for the tickets. We feel that the refund should include compensation for the added cost of changing the original tickets.
Reviewed March 5, 2012
Avoid Iberia! They just lie. Iberia cancelled my retuning flight saying I disputed the charge on my credit card. I called the credit card company and the charge of course was never disputed and I faxed the statement. I gave up after calling and calling and no help at all. 5 days later, I bought a new ticket, of course with another airline.
Customer service is non-existent, no help. The airport customer service is ridiculous and the morons at the desk provide nothing. They are discourteous and answer every question with, "You have to call customer service.” Oh! I had problems with them on my departure too. I had to wait 7 hours because they sold an overbooked seat. My advice to you is to avoid Iberia.
Reviewed Feb. 15, 2012
Iberia, who are currently planning a pilot strike on February 17th have cancelled our flights home to Europe that day. We have been put on a flight a day later, which completely ruins our trip for my husband, who will now be working just hours after arriving and meaning his elderly parents will have to drive almost 3 hours to pick me up and our infant son. We were also long haul business passengers with a skycot reserved and are now not even seated together on the flight. I breastfeed my son and am totally unhappy about having to do that in an aisle seat next to a stranger!
To add to my disgust, we cannot even complain to them without paying premium rates for a call as it is not possible to contact them via email. I will never fly with them again, ever! We have plenty of options here with airlines like Avianca, Air France, Lufthansa and American operators, too. God knows why we booked with them in the first place. Don't make the same mistake!
Reviewed Feb. 1, 2012
I fell on an escalator in Madrid airport. The staff were asked to get a wheelchair and call for medical assistance. The passengers had to assist me and get me to security. Again, we were told that there were no wheelchairs or help. I was told that I had to walk with a red coat to the gate. I was crying and in pain.
In the boarding area, the senior air hostess apologized for the lack of care and consideration I received. My doctor was appalled when he saw injuries to my legs and back and stated that I should not have been made to walk and medical assistance should have been given. I was told that I would be contacted by your airline.
To date, I have had no contact. I would look forward to an early reply.
Reviewed Jan. 8, 2012
This complaint is about my trip from Miami to Casablanca. They lost my my luggage. As they told me that the luggage would be in Casablanca the next day, I stayed in the hotel before going to my destination to Khouribga. After two days in the hotel, I decided to go to Khouribga. When they called me after seven days to tell me that my luggage came, I have to rent a taxi from Khouribga to Casablanca airport, both way. I am not asking them to pay all the cost of delay. I asked them to just pay the hotel and taxi. I sent them all the documentation they ask for in registered mail.
Reviewed Dec. 24, 2011
Avoid Iberia like the plague. Customer service is non-existent. I have been trying for three months to get them to credit miles for our Costa Rica/Spain trip. I faxed them boarding passes, etc. and still no help. Talking to a real person is impossible. The airport customer service is ridiculous and the morons at the desk provide nothing, are discourteous and answers every question with "You have to do it on the internet." Seats on the planes are for midgets. Iberia ruins what should be fine vacations.
Reviewed Dec. 12, 2011
On my inbound flight to Chicago from Lagos, Iberia issued me a boarding pass with the wrong departure gate. I consequently missed the flight out of Lagos on November 19. After a bitter complaint, Iberia rebooked me on their next flight (November 22, 2011). I was coming to the USA for a 16-day pilot training course. I missed the start date. I had to wait for another 2 weeks for the next available course start date. I did this at my own expense - hotel accommodation, feeding, etc. I called up Iberia to fix a return date for my outbound flight from Chicago. All the flights were fully booked till December 28 except for December 12. I cannot remain in the USA for 2 weeks after completing my course. It’s not my fault that I missed my inbound flight in Lagos.
I expended my money to lodge myself in a hotel while awaiting a next course start date. And now Iberia said they have no more seats until December 28, 2011. And I will have to pay a change fee of about $1600 for that date or my return ticket becomes invalid. I kindly ask you to compel Iberia to immediately get me a seat on their airline or partner airlines. I have gone through untold hardship and expenses by Iberia, despite that I have not even told them to compensate me financially. I am just asking them to book me on their next available flight to Lagos from Chicago this weekend at no cost.
Reviewed Nov. 21, 2011
Like other people who already complained about it, I took the flight from Madrid to New York on June 9, 2011. We had to land in Philadelphia instead of JFK New York. They didn't organize anything (no drinks, no meals), but we were advised by the flight attendants and crew on the flight to share taxis to New York. I had to pay $100. We arrived at midnight instead of 7pm in New York, starving and thirsty.
Later, I wrote to Iberia and on the 30th of August, I got a letter telling me they'll reimburse me. I got this letter after sending 3 letters. They never did, the travel agency wants to close the case. So, I am thinking writing an EU complaint form. They recognized they have to reimburse but I realized nobody got reimbursed! I was already shocked they didn't organize anything for us after an awful flight, not even a drink. Old people didn't have any assistance, no help at all.
Reviewed Nov. 14, 2011
On 14.11.2011, I have flown with Iberia Airlines from Tel Aviv via Madrid to Mexico City (return). The return flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv was on flight 3754 on 11.11.2011. This flight was performed by a plane model AB A319. According their publication, this plane can carry 121-141 passengers. Our plane carried the maximum - 141 passengers! The seats of the plane are narrower than the regular seats of other planes and what is worse is the space between the rows. My knees touched the seat in front of me.
During the whole flight, I have suffered heavy pressure on my knees without being able to change position in order to ease the pain. In addition, the passage is very narrow and does not allow standing during the flight to enable some relief. The only way to release pressure is to enter the toilet which is the most spacious spot on this plane. This plane cannot and should not carry 141 human beings! Even the lowest cost charter planes do not allow such narrow space between rows. I publish my observations so that potential customers shall be aware of how Iberia is treating its customers, rather as cattle than human beings. I will never fly again with Iberia.
Reviewed Oct. 10, 2011
Thank you for your recent email regarding the cancelled Iberia flight 6842 from Buenos Aires to Madrid scheduled for 29 Sept 11. As you will see from the numerous attachments of e-tickets and receipts, I have incurred not only monetary expenses as a result of the flight cancellation, but lost days of leisure in great proportion since my trip was for a short time. This resulted in much anguish for me, as well as my travel companion, since we both had to reschedule our connecting flights in order to continue our travel together.
I lost one entire day--my only day in Athens. I was unable to enjoy the Hotel Melia which was booked and charged without possibilities of refunds. I also lost the possibility of viewing the Acropolis and surrounding sights. Furthermore, my connecting flight from Madrid to Athens scheduled for 8:50 AM on Friday, 30 Sept 11, was unavailable on Saturday, 1 Oct 11. The new flight left Madrid at 11:40 and arrived in Athens at 4:05 PM, leaving only a couple of hours before boarding my newly scheduled flight to Santorini. I was forced to reschedule my flight to Santorini (Thira), Greece and as a result, lost one day of enjoyment in Santorini. I basically arrived at nightfall, in a state of physical and emotional exhaustion.
The entire fiasco, which began in Buenos Aires, was handled in an extremely poor manner, lacking any sense of order or respect for us, travelers, who paid good money and who extended great amounts of time and energy in coordinating our travels via Iberia. I had checked in very early, and had passed customs/immigrations and was in the pre-boarding area when I learned about the flight cancellation. Because I was traveling alone (my friend was already in Europe), and because I had to claim my already checked bag and proceed to immigrations once again, by the time I arrived at the Iberia counter, I was told that there was no other flight available.
The ticketing agent, whose signature appears in the voucher for the Hotel Emperador, which I did not use, was impolite and unhelpful. He had no suggestions and lacked any creativity in trying to accommodate me. I had to ask about possible stand by positions. He could have suggested stand by on Air France which left at approximately 5:00 PM; instead, at my insistence in trying to cut my losses, I asked about stand by on the last Iberia flight that evening. He never suggested that I put my name on stand by via Internet, or through the original travel agent.
As a result, I waited until the Iberia counter opened at 7:00 PM, where agent Martin ** jotted down my name on a stand by list. He never advised that there was another stand by list via Internet which would be given priority over those of us who had physically waited all day. It was past 9:30 PM at Ezeiza airport when I was told by agent Paula ** that I would not fly out that night. Equally unhelpful and impolite was the day supervisor Miguel **. He simply shrugged his shoulders and advised that he could not do anything for me.
I was given a voucher for the Sheraton, where I arrived close to 10:00 PM. Then, even though I was exhausted, hungry and thirsty, I had to make numerous calls and emails from the hotel first to advise family at home and my travel companion in Europe where I was and to ask for help in re-booking everything. Throughout the time I was at Ezeiza airport, the agents for Iberia never gave us the true explanation of what happened to our original flight 6842. In fact, they lied to us about the reasons, stating there was a problem with the cooling system, or that the hail had damaged the windshield, etc.--all lies. The lies were not helpful; rather, they added insult to injury!
As you can see, my return flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires was in business class. This had no bearing on the treatment for my outgoing flight. As I mentioned, there was no clear criteria for accommodating passengers, since many who had not completed the check-in at Buenos Aires were rescheduled, while the rest of us were waiting in the boarding area.
Now, lets talk about the service on flight IB 3759 from Istanbul to Madrid. The aircraft was switched out from a larger plane A-321 to an A-320, a much smaller plane. I could barely move my legs after the four-hour flight. Then, I boarded flight 6843 from Madrid to Buenos Aires. Because of a problem, they boarded economy prior to business class. Then, we were informed that due to a strike of catering union, the service would be very basic. And it was. I have received better service on local domestic flights in the U.S., India, Nepal, Argentina, and elsewhere than on your airlines. It is a disgrace, shameful treatment of your passengers.
I have included some photographs of the business class toilets for your review. They were disgusting and filthy. I also have a short movie clip which shows approximately 2 cm. of waste water on the floor of the business class toilet. As a result of the flight cancellation, I demand to be compensated monetarily:
24 hours delay in flight1 lost day in Athens/Acropolis
1 lost night Hotel Melia
1 lost day Santorini
Loss of use Hotel Xenones Filotera Santorini (arrived so late, could not enjoy pool, beaches, touring)
Terrible service business class flight, partial amount for the price paid
Reviewed Sept. 30, 2011
We booked a business class ticket from London to Lima via Madrid. On both legs, the ground handling was appalling. On the final leg from Madrid to London, I was kicked in the back by a child for the whole trip. What is worse is the complaints procedure. Emails have a 'no reply' address. On the telephone, the staff rudely refused to give out a telephone number. Some weeks after writing a long letter of complaint and two attempts at using the inappropriate online system, I was sent a letter, which failed to address the main points of my complaint, and claimed to have tried to telephone, which I believe is a lie. Next time, I shall try KLM, who also fly to Lima, but never again with Iberia.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2011
We took a flight from Madrid to New York on June 9, 2011. However, the plane at some point chose to land in Philadelphia for rain going to JFK Airport. We were advised by the flight attendants and crew on the flight to share taxis to New York, which was a 2-hour taxi ride because we all had flights departing early the next morning out of JFK airport. They said that we would be reimbursed upon arrival to our final destinations by simply filing a request.
It has been over 3 months now, I have filed 3 grievances on their online complaint link and have yet not yet heard anything! We have contacted the only number they offer online and the rude gentleman said there is no other number of anyone he can give me that could help me. We can file another online complaint, he said. It is so frustrating that there is not a single number for Corporate or his boss or anything. He said he didn't have one.
The taxi ride was $300 dollars. We had to shell it out of our own pockets and now are being refused assistance or reimbursement of any type! This airline has awful customer service. We just want our money back or anyone from the airline to call us back!
Reviewed Aug. 25, 2011
We decided to take a family holiday to South Africa and travelled via Madrid. Because of my mobility problems, I needed wheelchair assistance from Heathrow right through to my final destination. Upon arriving at Madrid at around 9:00 p.m., we entered the airport and had to wait for the assistance to be taken through to the other terminal for our international flight. My husband is a smoker and asked someone if there was anywhere where he could go for a quick smoke before being taken to our next flight. There was an immediate language barrier because they did not seem to understand plain and simple English. We were taken to the terminal as a family in a special bus.
During our holiday, we had decided to extend our vacation and phoned the airlines in Johannesburg to change our return dates. There were endless problems again with the language barrier. We were also very rudely cut off every time we speak to someone on the phone. On our scheduled return journey via Madrid, we had a problem with getting transport to our next terminal as a family. We were split up. I was not happy after a 10-11 hour flight from Johannesburg. I was tired and I needed my husband with me but could not let my children be taken away on their own. I could not understand how we were taken together on our first time in Madrid but had to split up this time. Again, we had problems with my husband trying to find somewhere to smoke. He had not had a problem at any other airport to and from Heathrow to have a smoke out between flights.
The entertainment on-board Iberia Airline was non-existent. There was just one movie all evening. Other airlines have TVs behind each seat and is available to watch the whole trip. The customer service at the Madrid airport is in serious need of improvement. All staff should be able to speak and understand English, which is supposed to be a universal language. I would never again travel with Iberia Airlines and never recommend them to anyone.
Reviewed Aug. 23, 2011
My wife and I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before at 6:10AM flight to Madrid on August 21, 2011 to find a very long line had already formed. The counter crew worked begrudgingly and sent every request to a "supervisor" line that was also mobbed. When we finally got to the front, we were told that our carry on was too large, though we had flown with it for weeks on other airlines. Fine, I said. We'll check it. You must pay, he said. Fine, how much? He said he cannot accept a payment and that we must go back through airport security and back into a line that has taken us 1.25 hours already to pay for the extra bag. Problem? Go to the supervisor (who was nowhere to be seen).
We arrived at the plane by the 5:30 board time, having spent two hours getting boarding passes (the counter refused to give me all three passes I needed). At 6:10, when it was scheduled to leave, the plane had not yet arrived. No problem, the official posting was changed to "on time". We were called for boarding when the plane arrived. So we stood for nearly an hour, with absolutely no information provided by staff, no crowd control, nothing that indicated Iberia ever wanted us to fly again with them. The plane left an hour late and arrived nearly an hour late, five hours later in Madrid. I haven't seen this kind of poor customer service, uncaring staff, disempowered employees and poor information flow for a decade. I have no idea why British Airways brings itself down to the level of service provided by Iberia Airlines, its recent acquisition.
Reviewed Aug. 21, 2011
Our flight from Oporto got delayed by Iberia Airlines by two hours due to their fault, instead of arriving 2:20pm, we arrived around 4:20pm. As a result, we arrived in Madrid 20 minutes before our connecting flight to London and we rushed to the gate only to be told that our flight already left even if we were only late for 10 minutes. Although their own plane was late, they did not wait for people to catch the connecting flight. We just could not believe that the airline would do this to its passengers.
But our nightmare of discovering how evil Iberia is was just starting.
Their response was that they only wait for big groups, which is nonsense because our flight from Madrid to London was delayed by 40 minutes because we waited for four people and also saw the flight to New York delayed for six people. As we discovered later, Iberia has a tendency to oversell their flights, so they probably did not wait for us because they gave up our seats.
Anyway, back to my story. So, this one Iberia employee was trying to help the couple in front of us and we saw the line behind us growing. The other employees looked like they were surfing the web and not even looking up from their computer. Finally, they put us on another flight to London. They are late again and so we lost our flight to JFK. When we finally made it to the Ticket Sales Office, we were told that the only option is to take the flight to Newark the next day and we accepted the offer without a fight as we didn't have a choice. The Italians were put on a flight to Amsterdam and then to their final destination- LA. So all of our travel companions were gone within an hour with their boarding passes on hand. We were not that lucky. My sister kept standing by the Iberia counter for 2 and a half hours! I was waiting for our luggage somewhere far, so I was not able to see or hear what was going on.
As I found out later on, Sandy was trying to get us on a direct United flight back home the next day but an Iberia employee kept telling him that she does not see that flight in her system. She kept leading him on, pretending she was trying to book us on that flight and then finally said she had to give up because it was not possible, which is yet another lie.So Sandy, tired and worn out after 2 and a half hours of standing on his feet, agreed to take the flight to Newark the next day. She came back with a voucher for the hotel and a voucher for the flight as the Iberia employee suggested we check in that night for tomorrow's flight to Newark.
We took her advice and went to the Iberia check-in counter and after waiting in line, the employee said that the flight was actually full. Yet he thought we could get our seats assigned in the morning and advised us to come back then as the flight was leaving at 10am. I guess our brain or our sixth sense was not working at that point because of extreme fatigue so we believed this guy and left the airport to look for a shuttle bus that would take us to the hotel that Iberia suggested.We were standing outside the airport and kept waiting for the bus for 40 minutes. All other hotel shuttle buses already came and went at least three times. Finally, after almost an hour of wait our hotel shuttle showed up and quite a large crowd of people rushed in to take their seats as I guess they messed up a lot of flights that day.
We got the hotel, checked-in rather quickly, brought our bags to the room, which was nasty, and I went to have dinner as it was already 9:30pm. We ran into the Smiths from our flight in the cafeteria and we all commiserated about the unfortunate outcome of our vacations. After a modest meal, we went to the room and crashed after a day of an ordeal and emotional distress.
The next day, right after breakfast, we rushed to the airport confident that we would be sleeping at home that night. The Iberia employee at the check-in counter got a puzzled look on her face when she saw our tickets which were actually standby tickets, but she again reassured is that there would be open seats and to go head and check our luggage and go to the gate where our seats would be assigned. We went crazy and went to British airlines and asked if they could help us and they did. We got first class and left that day. We finally boarded, all excited to leave London and be on our way home.
So overall, it took is three full days to come back home from Europe, than to Iberia's incompetence, lack of integrity, and unwillingness to offer any help to people who were stranded because of their fault. I want to spread the word about Iberia Airlines to as many people as I can because I don't think anyone deserves to go through what we went through. I lost $14,421 in money.
Reviewed Aug. 9, 2011
The baggage number I was given is # AA-862267
On JFK the luggage didn't show up. I filed a complaint with JetBlue on JFK and I was at peace because they told me they would FEDEX my luggage to my address in Greece when it shows up because they didn't have an agreement with Iberia to forward the luggage.
I then boarded Iberia flight # 6250 leaving JFK at 6pm going to Madrid on July 22nd.
When I boarded that plane the people checking the boarding passes told me my luggage wasn't loaded and I told them that I knew and that I had already filed a claim with JetBlue.From Madrid I boarded Iberia flight #3886 on July 23 going to Athens.
It did not occurred to me that I had to file a claim with Iberia in Athens because it was my final carrier. Nobody has told me that. In my mind, I trusted what JetBlue people told me that they were going to FedEx my luggage the next day.
I couldn't call from Greece to inquire about the status because it was like 4 euro per minute and there I was with no luggage, no clothes, no prescription drugs, no nothing. I had to buy everything from there and I suffered because i couldn't take my pills on time.
Upon coming back I spent many hours on the phone and at the airport trying to sort things out and find my luggage. First of all there is a rule that all lost luggage should be filed in person. Not on-line, not over the phone. Why? If it was on-line or over the phone it would have been much easier for me.I called Iberia's offices in USA at 1-800-772-4642 and I explained the situation. Somebody located my bag in Athens where it arrived on Aug 1st but they said I need to file a complaint to have it back. Here in Pittsburgh nobody knows how to do it. The person from American Airlines luggage desk stayed over his shift trying to file this claim for me. He called his supervisors all the way up to people in Richmond Virgina and nobody knew how to use the software to file such claim. Now, I am a computer programmer and I design and write commerical software like this for a living. How is this possible? Why isn't the software self explanatory? The guy said it did not tell him what information was missing or what it needs and people at the headquarters looked up some manuals and couldn't find out what was missing!
I then decided to attack the problem trying to locate my bag based on the bag ID (the number on the label that has been glued on the baggage). If I call during the day, after waiting and waiting and navigating the automated menus I get Indian people who tell me that they can't located my bag if I don't a claim. It's like talking to the wall. I say, look I don't have a claim, all I have is a bag number, Can you look it up? And they say: I'm sorry, there is no claim by that number. I then repeat that the numbar Igave them is not the claim number but the bag number and I ask to be located. They say it's not possible although someone at the Pittsburgh Airport told me there somethng called the international luggage locator. Apparently these people never heard about this. They say: "no claim, no luggage." I ask: "but then how come another person was able to locate my bag in Athens on Fry Aug 5th?" They hung up on me.Here in Pittsburgh they do not have access at the International Baggage Locator. I talked to JetBlue people; they weren't able to help either. Nobody at the Pittsburgh Airport knows how to file a lost luggage complaint for Iberia.
I called the Iberia office in Athens and they told me there is no way they can connect me to their luggage office. I explained the situation and asked for the Iberia luggage phone number in Athens and they gave me a phone number that had way too many digits.Back in Pittsburgh the guy at American Airline office said there is nothing he could do and that he tried everything.
It seems impossible to me that at this day and age one couldn't file a lost luggage claim.
Reviewed July 18, 2011
June 29, Flight 3627, 7:45 AM-10:15 AM, Venice, Italy to Madrid, Spain
On June 29, Wednesday, my wife and I arrived at the airport in Venice, Italy to fly home. When we went to check in our luggage, the lady at the counter told us that the carry-on luggage was too large. This is the same carry-on luggage that we flew from Miami to Madrid, and Madrid to Barcelona. All legs of our journey was with Iberia airlines. The agent in Miami verified that the luggage was within airline guidelines. In fact, our carry-on luggage was checked twice in Miami as the flight that we were scheduled to fly out was canceled and was rescheduled for the following day. Yet when I got to Marco Polo airport, the ticket agent for Iberia Airlines refused to give us boarding passes unless we checked the luggage in and paid the fine. Even when I said I would remove some of my belongings, she told me she had already decided it was too big.
We felt we were being held hostage by Iberia Airlines since we would not be able to get home if we did not pay the charge. We had to get out of line, go to the cashier, and had to pay 50 Euros plus an additional 6 Euros, since we only had a credit card. The additional kicker in this was that the only people singled out were Americans who lined up behind us trying to start their journey home. After I paid for the luggage, I had to go back to the Iberia employee to show her that I paid my money to get our boarding passes. Fortunately, the flight to Madrid was on time as well as my flight back to Miami. Please note that we had checked with Iberia Airlines by phone about the carry-on luggage dimensions that were allowed, so I knew all the weight and size restrictions.
Reviewed July 18, 2011
I was delayed, had to sleep at the airport, and wait for the next plane the following day.
Reviewed July 10, 2011
I booked and paid a return-flight on Iberia.com between Barcelona and Casablanca on flight IB7709/IB7711, which I later learned was operated by Royal Air Maroc. There was no issue from Barcelona to Casablanca with Royal Air Maroc. On my return, from Casablanca to Barcelona, I was refused to board the flight by Royal Air Maroc because I was told they couldn't find the reservation in the system. I was forced to pay another ticket from Casablanca to Barcelona. I have contacted iberia.com via its website, but they refused to resolve the issue, referring me to Royal Air Maroc. I have no issue with Royal Air Maroc because I paid my original booking through Iberia.com; and I booked an Iberia flight (IB7711).
Reviewed April 16, 2011
I am writing to you about our experience at Lima Airport on the 12th of April. As you can see, with the provided details above, I and my spouse had a ticket issued by Iberia for a flight run by LAN.
At the time of check-in, we were told that one ticket is fine, but mine was not "open". They said they can see that I am scheduled to be on that flight, but there would be no ticket number in the system. Although LAN and Iberia are in one alliance, we were sent to the Iberia office (a telephone besides the toilets) were no one took my call. After 30 minutes of trying to get someone to answer the phone, we were told to wait for Iberia personnel arriving at the airport. When finally the first Iberia personnel showed up (that already made us miss our original flight), we were told by them that they are unable to help us and we had to contact the call center (not free!) by phone.
After the second call to the call center, finally, someone took a closer look, Mr. Julian **, and found out that obviously our tickets have been changed by the Iberia-Madrid office on 12.03.2011 where our tickets have been reissued and mine was falsely put with my spouse’s name. This resulted in her having 2 tickets and me having none. After Mr. ** corrected this mistake, unfortunately too much time had passed, so we missed the second flight which was offered to us by LAN. Finally, on the flight leaving at 20:25 (instead of 13:00), we arrived very late in Santiago.
Some interesting fact: our checked-in luggage was opened and items were stolen, probably in the long time between when it has been checked in and when it was put on the final flight. That of course is not your direct fault, but was another very inconvenient consequence together with a fraud "Iberia office" besides the airport (the police was included to get our money back), the long wait for the flight, the late arrival in Santiago with expensive transportation to the hotel, and the numerous phone calls to solve the problem.
The behavior of the Iberia staff at the airport was rude and not helpful (Mr. Julian ** was friendly and competent). It is also shocking, that Oneworld alliance partners are totally incapable to communicate with each other as a direct phone call of LAN to Iberia in the first place would have identified and solved the problem in a few minutes, saving us all the trouble.
It was obviously a mistake of Iberia, which by itself would be tolerable. People sometimes make mistakes, but being left alone without assistance for hours, getting treated rudely by the staff, and extreme inconvenience is hopefully not met by you without consequences or response. We are truly concerned about our future flights with Iberia, which we unfortunately already booked and paid for. We lost half a day and incurred extra costs of about $US100.
Reviewed March 10, 2011
On 28 of January 2011, I bought a sword online from an affiliate of Iberia. The item was 3000ZAR with 1 year factory warranty. On 6th of March, the item was delivered. The item had bad workmanship. The scabbard had small cracks from the fitting that was pressed into it by the factory.
I contacted them by mail and they replied that I must go to the dealer. The item was sold with factory warranty, and they should cover the item as they are the only one in the world that make this item, not just ship all the rejects to Africa. As we know that it will cost a fortune to claim a warranty, and therefore, no comeback. This is just a little unfair, and now, they just ignore my mails and hope I go away.
Reviewed Jan. 25, 2011
I am writing to advise you of some seriously disturbing and unfair treatment of passengers by Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana, S.A. (commonly known and abbreviated as Iberia). My fiancee and I bought from Iberia the e-tickets ** and ** respectively with the following details:
We arrived at the boarding gate in Madrid at around 17:30 and started waiting for the boarding to begin. When the boarding started some minutes later, we were told that we could not board the flight. When we asked why, the personnel told us that our flight from Guayaquil had arrived late. Our luggage could not be loaded on to the Istanbul flight and that there were not meals for us on the flight. Iberia did not announce our names or try to inform us in any other way until boarding had already started, although we were waiting at the gate for some time by then.
Iberia representatives at the boarding gate told us that their denying our boarding was not their responsibility and that we should go talk to LAN and let them sort it out. This was a surprise for us because Iberia and LAN are alliance partners, share codes; therefore, delayed luggage should not prevent a passenger from being allowed to board the flight. This meant that we would need to clear immigration and customs at Terminal 4S, go to Terminal 4, get booked on the next flight to Istanbul which was at 11:00 the next day (29 Nov 10), go to a hotel without our luggage, come back the next day, clear immigration and customs, take the 11:00 flight and be in Istanbul about 18 hours later than scheduled.
Since we had to be in Istanbul on 29 Nov 10 earlier and did not want to lose the whole day, we told the Iberia personnel very reasonably that the luggage could arrive with the next flight and that we accepted to fly without having a meal. In addition to us two, there was a man from Ecuador who was exactly in the same situation and was requesting exactly the same. The personnel accepted that it would be possible and wrote on our boarding passes "acepta volar sin comida," which meant that we had accepted to fly without a meal, and started processing us. One of the two Iberia personnel, Maria, went inside the plane around this time.
Until then, the conversation was in English. It had started in English between my fiancee and the Iberia personnel, had continued in English when the Iberia personnel had addressed me in English and I had replied in English. As Maria was in the plane, the other Iberia personnel, Ana Isabel **, realized that I could speak Spanish and rudely asked me why I was speaking English. I was surprised and asked her if it was a problem. She started complaining about me speaking English even though I was able to speak Spanish and was outright dismissive and rude towards me.
I pointed out that she was the person who first spoke to me and that she had done that in English. I also asked her again why she was being so rude towards us just because everyone was speaking a language which everyone understood. Ms. ** continued her rude behaviour and she did that in Spanish, not reverting to English ever again. My fiancee intervened to tell her that she speaks very little Spanish and that it was logical that the discussions were made in English so that she could also follow what was going on. Ms. ** started shouting and outright insulting us. Our attempts to calm her down and to continue with the procedure were in vain.
When the other personnel, Ms. Maria, returned from the plane, Ms. ** interrupted her insults to us and turned to her to tell her that we would not board the plane. Since we were very surprised at the behavior of Ms. ** and how the events unfolded, we asked Ms. Maria how we could proceed. Ms. Maria replied in English and said that we could not board the plane. Ms. ** never once stopped insulting us and calling us names during this time. When we asked why we could not board, Ms. Maria said that it was so and that we should go to LAN. Ms. Maria did not ask us at all on our side of the story, neither did she ask her colleague. She also failed to explain what the problem was.
When we asked to see the supervisor or someone who could assist us, she told us in Spanish to go to the Iberia office and find him--not once reverting back to English again even when my fiancee was trying to speak to her in English. When I asked her why she did not speak English, both, almost at the same time, replied, "This is Spain and this is Iberia. Here, we speak Spanish." Ms. Maria ignored us from then on. Ms. ** finally stopped insulting us and they left the gate.
My fiancee and I walked over to the Iberia office where we told the gentleman at the counter that we needed to speak to the supervisor; the gentleman pointed to someone at the door of the office. From where we stood, we could see the person sitting inside the office, eating something, sometimes looking at us and sometimes talking to Ms. Maria and Ms. ** inside. He was bad-mouthing and dismissing us in Spanish, using rude and aggressive language about us, saying that there was no reason that he should even talk to us--apparently, unaware that I could understand. Somebody told him that I spoke Spanish and he toned down his words somewhat.
When he finally paused, we asked him if we could talk to him. He shouted back to us that there was no reason and that we should treat his personnel better. He ordered us to go to LAN. We repeated politely that we would like to talk to him and asked his name but he shouted back, "my name is Jesus," and kept being rude and aggressive towards us. It was clear that he was only interested in what he heard from the personnel and did not want to hear what we had to say. When my fiancee repeated the request, he replied that we should come back half an hour later, saying that he did not have time for us. There were no other customers around so it was clear that he was not busy with customers.
My fiancee stayed until Mr. Jesus found the time and explained the situation. After continuing his rude attitude and not wanting to hear what she had to say, he said that we had insulted his staff. This was not true and after my fiancee explained the situation to him, he finally said that he would speak to the personnel. In the meantime, I went to LAN and they made the arrangements for us to go to a hotel and take the next flight the next day. Although we had bought the ticket from Iberia, Iberia never took any responsibility and shoved everything upon LAN.
We then spoke to Ms. Miriam ** and told her about our experience. She was very polite, upset about what we had to go through and advised us to contact Iberia's customer service. We gave her the names, showed her the documents we had, thanked her and left. The above sequence of events is not what a passenger expects from any airline and is certainly not a fair treatment. This type of discrimination and rudeness is definitely not normal and acceptable. Iberia's service, operations, and responsibility for the passenger need to be scrutinized and these actions clarified.
Reviewed Dec. 15, 2010
On July 30, I purchased 3 business class ticket from DFW-IST (Istanbul) for return in 30 days. Out stay extended over 60 days and three credits were issued from the travel agent. Iberia honored one credit and has refused to honor the other two. These credits are for 1709.06 each.
I credited my customer the entire travel agent/Iberia credit amounts and now Iberia is balking at refunding the two remaining. If I have to pay that 3400.00 that is certainly going to put the grinch in my Christmas stocking.
Reviewed Dec. 10, 2010
I am here to announce a complaint I have on behalf of my boyfriend, who was traveling via Iberia from Barcelona to the Gambia. While standing at the gate with his boarding pass, the man taking tickets collected all boarding passes of the remaining five customers and told them the flight would be leaving without them. He left them with no further information about how to get a replacement ticket. He gave no reason as to why he had taken their boarding passes with no intent to return them and could not answer why the plane would be leaving without them when standby passengers had taken their place and the airport police had to get involved.
The employee working for Iberia that day failed to give notice of the 250 Euro compensation per person for a missed flight (and replacement flight) as well as hotel accommodation. He threw the tickets in the garbage and acted as if the sign behind him stating all of those rights was not understandable despite being written in Spanish (his language) and English (customer's language).
Long story short: a scene needed to be made with the police, who sided with the customers and eventually all accommodations and necessary refunds were supplied at the desk. They did not make flight arrangements; however, for the following day, which was a Spanish holiday, no one answered their phones despite working for an airline company. I have never heard of this happening and will never think of flying with Iberia in my life. The customer service was despicable and certainly illegal. Had the ticketholder not fought for his ticket and accommodation, the entire cost of a transnational flight and lodging would have been at his expense entirely aside from time lost and cost spent getting to the airport unnecessarily.
Reviewed Oct. 22, 2010
In May 2010, I was scheduled to fly from Portland, Oregon to Amsterdam on a Monday (May 17th) in order to attend a business meeting on Wednesday, May 19th. The flight on Monday was cancelled because of the volcano in Iceland. Delta Airlines, my outbound carrier to The Netherlands, provided a rebooking, but it did not leave until Wednesday, which obviously would not work for the meeting I was scheduled to attend. My original plan was to add a trip to Spain to visit friends after the meeting concluded, leaving the morning of May 20th. The flight to Spain was on Iberia, and subsequently I was to fly back from Malaga to Amsterdam in about a week so I could return to Portland, Oregon. Iberia would neither refund my money nor let me apply the tickets to future travel!
I was charged for the flights that I could not use due to conditions that were out of my control. Thus, I am out of over $US 400.00. I have sent two letters to Iberia Airlines Customer Service in Madrid, and am yet to receive a reply.
Reviewed Oct. 22, 2010
We were scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Malaga on October 22 in economy class with two small dogs in-cabin. We had to change the flight date to leave earlier on October 2. As there were no coach seats available on this date, we paid extra to upgrade to business class. The Iberia agent in Miami assured me by phone that our dogs were reserved as pets-in-cabin, no problem. A week before, the flight I called Iberia in Istanbul to ask again about our two dogs' in-cabin reservation. Again, I was told they were reserved, no problem. On the morning of October 2, we drove 3 hours by taxi from our summer home on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey to the airport in Antalya.
We flew to Istanbul to take the Iberia flight to Malaga. We checked into business class, our luggage was sent down the belt, we had our boarding passes, the ticket agent had seen the dogs but said we had to go to the Iberia desk to pay their airfare. We went to the desk and the trouble began. We were informed that Iberia does not allow 2 pets-in-cabin in business class. We had been wrongly informed. Only 1 dog had been reserved. We asked to downgrade one of us to coach class. Impossible for two days as there were no available coach class seats (the day after the European airline strike). We were then told that one dog could go into cargo in a soft-sided airline bag. Impossible of course.
They said, it's not their problem. They said one of us could fly, the other could not leave for two more days. So, we were forced to look for hotel accommodations for 2 nights. Turkey is not a pet-friendly country. To find a hotel that would accept our dogs we had to make 27 phone calls. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes. The cost of those two days in Istanbul due to Iberia's incompetency was just under 500 euros. I wrote a letter of complaint to Iberia the day I arrived in Malaga. No answer except an automated email acknowledging reception of my complaint. This is the 2nd problem we've had with Iberia. Three years ago, they overcharged us US$ 800 for excess baggage.
The clerk applied the rate for 1st class when it was supposed to be charged as economy class. I complained to IATA, to the Spanish Consumer Organization and to Iberia and provided all the relevant documentation including a printout of their online, written excess baggage policy. No answer. Iberia is known in Europe to be one of the worst if not the absolute worst of airlines. If you can avoid them, do it!
Reviewed Oct. 4, 2010
On April 10, 2010, we, Mr. ** and Ms. ** left LAX to travel to Valencia, Spain, an almost 24 hour trip. Our first transfer was at JFK. When we entered the plane, a couple had already taken our seats, and said that they had the same seat number printed on their boarding pass. They weren't the only ones. It was very disorganized and aggravating, and we had to stand and wait, to finally have somewhere to sit. The flight was delayed.
Since we strictly eat kosher, we had ordered our meals when we purchased our plane tickets. When we later were on the flight from JFK to Madrid, we got served our first meal. In the middle of the meal, we realized that is was old. It was Kosher for Passover, and Passover had already been over for 2 weeks! On top of that, we had eaten chicken, and Matzo with butter! It wasn't pareve, butter, not margarine!
We can't mix meat and milk products! We felt (and still feel), very upset. Then the second meal got served, and we are getting the exactly the same meal again. We obviously didn't touch it. The plane was delayed, so when we arrived in Madrid, we had to run straight to the gate for our last transfer. There was no time to buy something to eat. We had to wait all the way to our arrival in Valencia. We feel very upset over the ignorance of serving Kosher meal that is not Kosher. That the food was old, and the same exact food was served twice, and that we had to be without food for so many hours.
We were scheduled to leave Valencia April 18, but due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, we were concerned that our flight was going to get canceled, as so many others were. We called, and called, and called Iberia, but couldn't get through, so finally, we went to Iberia at the airport. They suggested we change our flight to a later date, so that's what we did. We had to stay six days longer, which broke our budget! Then on top of that we had to pay an extra $390.00 to change the ticket! We paid and lost a lot of money for this trip, and feel badly treated.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2010
My fiance was on leave from Iraq so I had all of our holiday clothes in my bag when I flew from the States to Rome and it finally showed up the day before we came home. We had to spend all of our vacation money on replacement items plus pay to get it all back home (extra $120 in baggage charges). My total bills that I sent in receipts for was approximately $750. I did get a check for $189.
I guess I'm in better shape than most from the reports that I've read. It's just sad that we saved for so long to take this trip. I hadn't seen him in six months and then we had to pass on so many things we wanted to do in Rome because we didn't have the money and not once did I get an "I'm sorry" or anything from Ibera and now they slapped me in the face with the small amount of refund. I actually cried when I opened the check.
We even bought as little as possible and washed our clothes in the sink and re-wore them many times since we didn't have the money and so that they would have to pay back less. Don't guess they cared about that at all. I don't know what to do now or where to turn. I have tried to call them and get put on hold for anywhere between 11 and 30 minutes and then someone picks up and hangs up the phone. It really hurts. I guess I've rambled some but since I got the check I have tried to call them four times. Each time I have been on hold for anywhere between 11 and 32 minutes and then someone picks up and hangs up immediately. They do not have a web address that I can find to send them a message. I don't know what to do next. Please help.
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2010
Our flight from Venice got delayed by Iberia Airlines by two hours due to their fault (instead of 2:20 pm, we arrived around 4:20 pm). As a result, we arrived in Madrid 20 minutes before our connecting flight to Washington, rushed to the gate only to be told that our flight had left (we were only 10 minutes late at the gate). And although their own plane was late, they did not wait for people to catch the connecting flight (there were seven us who missed the flight to DC, an American couple (let’s call them the Smiths), three Italian guys and the two of us). We just could not believe that the airline would do this to its passengers, but our nightmare of discovering how evil Iberia is was just starting.
We all rushed to the Iberia customer service counter hoping to catch a flight some place in the States that day. Out of 5 people that were behind the counter, only one was pretending to help us. Of course, we asked why they let our plane go, well knowing that there are people who are late from their connecting flights. Their response was that they only wait for big groups (our flight from Madrid to Paris was delayed by 40 minutes because we were waiting for 4 people; we saw the flight to NY delayed for 6 people). As we discovered later, Iberia has a tendency to oversell their flights, so they probably did not wait for us because they gave up our seats. Anyway, back to my story. So this one Iberia employee was trying to help the couple in front us and we saw the line behind us growing. The other employees looked like they were surfing the Web, not even looking up from their computers. Wayne (my husband) started snapping up pictures with his iPhone of the employees doing nothing and only then did we get their attention. Their suggestion was for us to spend the night in Madrid and then catch a flight to Boston the next day, and then to Washington DC (there were no direct Iberia flights to Washington until the next week).
While waiting in line, I went on a travel website and pulled information on a few available flights out of Madrid for the next day through different carriers (one of them was United Airlines). We brought this up with the Iberia employee and he said that it’s impossible for them to book us on this flight. We kept insisting and he finally said that we should go to the Iberia Ticket Sales Office and they will be able to do it (turns out it was a complete lie and these people said this just to get rid of us). But before we could get to the ticket sales office, we needed to retrieve our luggage. That took us additional 30-40 minutes because we could not find anyone behind the Iberia luggage counter and had to go to different information desks to get an idea where to pick up our luggage. When we finally made it to the tickets sales office, the Smiths were told that their only option is to take the flight to NY the next day and then to Washington and they accepted this offer without a fight.
The Italians were put on a flight to Amsterdam and then to their final destination, LA. So all of our travel companions were gone within an hour with their boarding passes in hand. We were not that lucky. My husband kept standing by the Iberia counter for 2.5 hours! I was waiting with our luggage further away, so I could not see or hear what was going on. As I later found out, Wayne was trying to get us on a direct United flight back home the next day, but an Iberia employee kept telling him she doesn’t see that flight in her system. She kept leading him on pretending she was trying to book us on that flight and then finally said she had to give up because it was not possible (yet, another lie). So Wayne, tired and worn out, after 2.5 hours of standing on his feet agreed to take the flight to Boston the next day and then to Washington from there. He came back with a voucher for the hotel and a voucher for the flight. The Iberia employee suggested checking in that night for tomorrows flight to Boston.
We took her advice and went to the Iberia check-in counter, and after waiting in line, the employee said that the flight was actually full, but he thought we could get our seats assigned in the morning and advised us to come back then (the flight was leaving at 2 pm). I guess our brain or the sixth sense wasn’t working at that point because of the extreme fatigue. So we believed this guy and left the airport to look for a shuttle bus that would take us to the hotel that Iberia issued us a voucher for. We were standing outside the airport and kept waiting and waiting for the bus 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes. All other hotel shuttles buses already came and went at least three times.
Finally, after almost an hour of wait, out hotel shuttle showed up and quite a large crowd of people rushed in to take their seats (I guess Iberia messed up many other people flights that day). We got to the hotel, checked in rather quickly, brought our bags to the room (which was quite decent I must say) and went to have dinner (it was already 9:30 pm). We ran into the Smiths in the cafeteria (I cannot call it a restaurant since the meal setup was a buffet style) and we all commiserated about the unfortunate outcome of our vacations (also, plus the fact that because of the Iberia Airlines, Wayne and I were going to miss our friend’s wedding, which was the reason we were coming back home on Friday instead of Saturday or Sunday). After a modest, but satisfying meal, we went to the room and crashed after a day of an ordeal and emotional distress.
The next day right after breakfast, we rushed to the airport confident that we would be sleeping at home that night. The Iberia employee at the check-in counter got a puzzled look on her face when she saw our tickets (basically whoever gave us that voucher made a mistake by giving us standby tickets), but she again reassured us that there would be open seats and to go ahead check our luggage and go to the gate, where our seats would be assigned (she spoke to a supervisor on the phone and apparently that’s what the supervisor told her). We again chose to believe this woman and went with her suggestion. After a lengthy wait (no gate was assigned until 30 minutes before the flight departure), we rushed to the gate only to be told that the flight was full and there’s no way we could get on this flight. We decided to wait irregardless (what if?). We saw a few other passengers waiting on standby.
After everyone boarded, Iberia started calling people (looked like Spanish nationals) and giving them boarding passes. Then quickly they closed the gate without even a word to us. We noticed three other people (a married couple and an 85-year-old woman) who were waiting with us and I started talking to them. Turns out they had assigned seats for this flight and their seats were given away, probably to those Spanish nationals. We all went to the Iberia customer service (what an irony to call it customer service) trying to get on the next flight, which was a 5 pm flight to NY. An Iberia employee started looking for a connecting flight for us and finally said that she couldn’t find one and our only option was to stay another day in Madrid and take the next day flight to Boston.
At that point I said that there was no way I was staying another day in Madrid to get kicked out again from the next day flight and told her to give us whatever she could find for today. Under this pressure, she gave us boarding passes to the NY flight and then a voucher for a connecting flight on United Airlines from NY to Washington (and here’s the trick, the connection time was only 30 minutes, but I hoped that once we are in the States we could always catch a later flight with this voucher). Relieved, we went and had an awful lunch (I thought it was Spain and food was supposed to be good), and after another 2-hour wait, we went to the gate where we ran into the Smiths and shared a laugh that we were bad luck carriers and they better watch out.
We finally boarded, all excited to leave Madrid and to be on our way home, still hoping to sleep in our bed that night. Although we were told that they gave us the last two seats (middle seats that were not even together) because the flight was full, when the cabin door got closed we saw people spreading out because there were open seats. So, another lie they told us. After sitting and waiting for approximately 30 minutes, the captain announced that because it’s Saturday, they have only one runway open (if you were in Madrid airport, you know its triple the size of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, so its ridiculous to have only one runway open). Because of this, we were number 77 for departure, which meant a 2-hour delay. When we finally took off, the flight was miserable, cold, served by unfriendly flight attendants (who did not even apologized when they ran out of an entrée of our choice). The food was disappointing, but at least the wine was good.
Arrival to NY was delayed by 2 hours since we took off late (we arrived around 9:15 pm). After we went through passport control and received our luggage (to my surprise, it made to NY), Iberia employees informed us that there were no more flights to Washington that night and we had to spend the night at the hotel and take an early flight to Washington on Sunday. At that point I was livid. I wanted to take a train to Washington that night and have Iberia pay for it. Of course, they refused to do it. I wanted to go ahead and pay for tickets from our own pocket, but it was too late to catch the last train anyway, so I agreed to go sleep at the hotel.
We got our hotel voucher and took a shuttle bus to JFK International, which is called hotel for some reason (more on it further down). When we arrived, the line was going out of the door (I guess Iberia screwed up many people’s travel plans again). It took us one hour to check in (there was only one employee at the check-in counter). We finally got to our room and as soon as we opened the door, I regretted my decision to come and sleep at this hotel. It was the filthiest, run-down and smelliest room I’ve ever been in here in the United States. I could not believe what I saw mold in the bathroom, ragged towels, holes in the blankets, black stains all over the carpet, air conditioner so loud you could not hear other person talking. But since it was too late to turn around and go look for better accommodations, plus I was simply exhausted to, we crashed and after 5 hours of restless sleep, we jumped up and left for the airport around 7 pm.
We were dropped at the Delta terminal and we were elated to be on our way home (or so we thought). A young Delta employee struggled to understand the Iberia voucher given to us. After a few attempts of calling someone, she just said we didn’t have the right information on the voucher to get our tickets on Delta (I was about to scream). She advised to go back to the Iberia counter to straighten it out. Since Iberia did so much damage to us, we automatically assumed that they screwed us up again and we took a train to the Iberia terminal to sort things out. Turns out Iberia employees don’t show up to work until 2 pm, so our only option was to call their toll free number, which we did and got no help at all.
Desperate, I decided to go ahead and purchase tickets on United because I just wanted to get home. As our luck would have it, United did not have any open seats on their flights. I was crushed and started telling our miserable story to two United employees and showed them our voucher. I am glad that I did, because they took one look at it and told us that it was a valid voucher and Delta should have ticketed us with no problem. Whoever said that they could not, did not know what they were talking about. So we again went back to Delta terminal and sure enough they were able to issue us tickets (only for a 2 pm flight since our 8:30 am flight already left). That employee who gave us a run-around was new and she did not even try to ask for help to figure out the voucher (I believe in karma and hope she will get to go through a similar experience herself one day).
Finally, after waiting for 4 hours at the JFK airport, which was cold, dirty and miserable, we got on the flight and landed in Washington around 3 pm.So overall, it took us three full days to come back home from Europe, thanks to Iberia’s incompetence, lack of integrity, and unwillingness to offer any help to people who were stranded because of their fault. I want to spread the word about Iberia Airlines to as many people as I can because I don’t think anyone deserves to go through what we went through.
Reviewed Sept. 22, 2010
We were supposed to fly out of Israel August 11 at 6:10 A.m. Iberia overbooked the flight. We were not provided with any compensation, hotel room or food vouchers and had to fly out the next day. We stayed at a friends home and Iberia finally paid for the van to return us to the airport. We were 4 adults and 3 children. Hope you find the following information helpful. We have had great difficulty in trying to contact Iberia.
The Date and Flight Number: 11 Aug 6:10 AM FL3751 LV Tel Aviv (this is the overbooked flight - we did not fly out until the next day on a Delta flight to NY and then onto Boston). Was scheduled to connect in Madrid We Aug. 11 Fl 6165 to Boston There are seven names involved: Herbert, Sally, Steven **, Stacey **, Abigail **, Lori **, David **.
I am contacting you because we received very poor attention regarding this overbooked flight. We were told by Iberia's representative that they were unable to get hotel rooms for us, no food vouchers and no compensation for this "overbooking." The representatives we spoke to in Israel were :Luca, Gus Jacobson and Veronica. I would like to call your attention to the fact that I booked and paid for this flight Thursday, February 11, 2010. I also called and confirmed the flight the Monday before. Our confirmation number is 4YE2M4. We were 4 adults and 3 children and we went to the home of a family friend to wait until the next evening for the flight out. The fact that the airline had no consideration that we were traveling.
With small children is totally negligent. Iberia did not want to pay for the van to return us to the airport but after my husband insisted- Iberia relented and didsend a van for us to the airport to return the next day. Our son-in-law and daughter lost a day's pay as well. I believe that it is Iberia's policy to compensate
passengers when these over bookings occur and that we received no compensation is negligent. At this point, we expect cash compensation.
I look forward to your prompt reply.
Reviewed Sept. 22, 2010
I have filled out the complaint form against Iberia with you (you still have it on your list under Hakife **). However, I sent you a request to remove it from your list because Iberia refunded amount, but you still have the complaint letter. I would appreciate if you remove my complaint letter timely. This is my second request to you. Please confirm it to my email address that is provided above. Thank you for your assistance on this matter.
Reviewed Aug. 30, 2010
My 94-year-old grandmother got sick and her doctor advised her not to fly. He wrote a letter to the airlines indicating her severe health problem and at her age with her illness, was a hazard. I called the airlines asking them for a refund or at least a credit. They refused saying it was their policy neither to credit nor refund unless she was admitted on the day of her departure into a hospital. My grandmother was in the hospital a week ago and was sent home but has been very frail since then.
My parents go every year with her because it is her homeland and she loves to go. She had her suitcase half-packed yesterday when she got progressively weaker and today the doctor wrote a letter indicating she should not fly.
Her airline ticket is over $800.00. She is 94 with limited resources and is now depressed and cannot get out of bed. My parents wanted to cancel also but because of the policy, they too would have lost their money. So now I must take time out of work for a month until my parents get home to stay at home with my grandmother who is very sick.
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2010
There was 1 and 1/2 hours between connecting flights. Iberia left Chicago 1 hour late. Iberia was also 15 minutes late landing the plane. 46 passengers transferred from terminal 4 to terminal 4S. These individuals all ran to make the connecting flight. The connecting flight was still connected to the walkway ramp. A half empty plane was allowed to leave without the passengers as we were told rudely that we were late. We explained and told the Iberia agent when we landed that 46 passengers were on the way. The Iberia service desk, ignored repeated requests to either board the plane, to get another plane, etc. We were told everything from all of France went on strike to all of Italy went on strike.
We were told (3 and 1/2 hours standing in line) that there were no planes leaving that day. However, eventually, as they see the line extend to 100's of people they "mysteriously" found us planes to continue passage to our destination. There were children sleeping on the floors, tired and crying as we were made to stand in line for 3 and 1/2 hours to get connecting tickets. The stories we were told always changed and upon arrival in Rome, we were told that the strikes that did happen were none that pertained to assigning us new connecting flights. They had no impact on us getting to the destination. There were 46 angry passengers who I will bet will never ride Iberia again. Time was wasted for our scheduled trip.
Reviewed July 25, 2010
This is ridiculous. I had a flight from Paris to Madrid July 21st 11:55 am flight IB3435. I arrived in Madrid over 2:30 hours late so I missed my flight IB6187 to Washington by 2minutes. I was not the only passenger on that connecting flight; they didn't even wait 10minutes for us. I was even told by an Iberia employee in Paris that even if I missed my connection in Madrid, they would book me another flight that same day even from another company. I had to stay in Madrid overnight and then Iberia booked me on a flight from Madrid to Boston IB6165. I was supposed to leave at 13:40 and then delayed to 15:04.
Every single person I dealt with from Iberia was rude and never provided me with any information. Once I arrived at the Delta Airlines counter in Boston, they gave me a hard time because Iberia didn't issue me a ticket but some kind of coupon. I am a flight attendant, I travel a lot and I never saw such bad communication and lies with all the bad excuses they gave me. And I arrived in DCA (21:32 so more than 24 hours that I was supposed to) not IAD that is even further to my final destination, I booked a ticket Paris- Madrid-IAD not Madrid-Boston-DCA! I wasted over 24hours out of my trip, plus a huge amount of stress
Reviewed July 25, 2010
I could not get Iberia to send me an e-mail that Flight IB5795/Vueling Flight 8222 from SCQ to CDG was canceled on May 9,2010. My refund from Rail Europe depends on this confirmation. I can only find unknown flights on **** . What can I do? I've lost money, approximately $600.
Reviewed July 19, 2010
In March 2010, I booked two seats online with Iberia for a flight between Valencia and Munich on 14 October 2010. Since then, I have received three emails informing me of departure time changes by around 10-15 minutes. The last email (last week) informed me that the departure time has changed to 6:30. The original departure time requested was 17:25. I have tried to contact the airline but this is very difficult as there is no email contact. Also, the "booking management" page will not recognize my name or that of my traveling companion.
I finally sent a complaint to the Iberia complaints Web address but I am still waiting for an acknowledgement or reply to my request for a change to this booking. A 6:30 time departure is not suitable as my companion is an 88-year old. My frustration is the difficulty in being able to contact the airline to make changes to this booking or even to cancel it!
Reviewed July 9, 2010
This is my experience as a vegan (vegetarian) traveling with Iberia to San Jose, Costa Rica in June 2010. I booked the travel with Thomas Cook and prior to the departure I received an Iberia reservation code. At the Iberia website, I was able to complement my personal details and I was able to change my seat place. There is also the possibility to enter the passenger's meal preference. So I did, 48hrs and 24hrs prior to departure, "Vegetariana sin leche" but every time, I received an error code: "su reserva 5mj85a se ha actualizado correctamente. Unable to process". I tried this many times. I called the Iberia charged number in Belgium, a labyrinth of options with the final option to call a number in Madrid. I called international to the Iberia Madrid number which resulted in a new labyrinth of options with the result to call the local Iberia office in Belgium (but at what number?).
Since I am the proud owner of an Iberia plus card, I sent an email to "classica@iberia.es." A bit later, I received their answer: "In accordance with the information you have supplied, we are sorry to inform you that we cannot help you in this department, so you have to contact with Serviberia at the telephone number 0034 95 4349 924 and they could help you. We trust that future contact with us will be to your complete satisfaction. " The same number in Madrid I already called. So I flew from Brussels to Madrid. At the Madrid airport at an Iberia service desk (not conveniently located) and after waiting some 30 minutes, I was able to speak to an Iberia employee. She was able to change my meal preference to "vegetarian 2" and I received a new boarding card with "vgml" on it! Unfortunately, she could change it for the return flight from San Jose, Costa Rica. I have to contact Iberia San Jose for that.
So during a marvelous vacation in Costa Rica, I visited the Iberia website again to change my meal preference for the return flight. Same results though: "unable to process". The Thomas Cook Group tour leader has an Iberia service desk number in San Jose and called many, many times but the desk at Iberia San Jose is scarcely occupied. He managed to reach them on our way to the airport and had to explain what vegetarian stands for! At the check in, the first boarding card was wrong again. A manager was called and he produced a boarding card with "vgml" on it. (Seat 43c)
On the airplane, I showed my boarding card to the air hostess, Ms. ***. Everything is okay she said. Dinner is served. No veggie meal for me! She had given it to another passenger but one of the meal options "ravioli with spinach and cheese sauce" is vegetarian she told me and tried to convince me with the meal details on a paper. I said that it was not my diet and refused the food (No milk in my diet). Never argue with an air hostess, I kept quit, looked angry and asked her if I could raise an official complaint. Three air hostesses looked angrily at me while they were debating what to do. As a miracle, my reserved "vegetarian 2" meal was delivered marked with my seat number(seat 43c).
For breakfast, the same misery. A wrong box was quickly dropped on my place. Again I asked the air hostess Ms. *** for my veggie meal. The box was delivered with my seat number clearly written on it (seat 43c). What is wrong with those Iberia air hostesses? Back in Madrid, waiting for the plane to Brussels, I filled in a complaint form at the Iberia service desk. I wonder if these misadventures happen to other Kosher, Halal, diabetes, vegetarian Iberia travelers as well? Should Thomas Cook Travel not have taken care of this? My meal preference is clearly written on my invoice and I informed them by email about my failures to change the preference on the Iberia web site!
Iberia miseria, my Iberia complaint form "hoja de reclamaciones" has number *** dated 2 June 2010. The flight was ib6314 from San Jose (Costa Rica) to Madrid. The odd acting air hostess was Ms. *** serving seat 43c. All proofs of evidence are in my position. I will send this report to Iberia, Thomas Cook, all vegetarian organizations I can trace.
Reviewed June 30, 2010
I booked 4 international tickets on Iberia Airlines as it is the best and popular one. (Within 10 days staying in Spain, I started: 1) Madrid to Jerez; 2) Jerez to Madrid: 09:40 am; 3) Madrid to Mallorca: 15.35 pm; 4) Mallorca to Madrid. I was informed that boarding time is 30 minutes before departure. When coming back from Jerez, I was within the 30 minutes before departure, but with luggage. OK, I admit that it is a mistake, but the way they, the 3 ladies in Iberia Office who dealt with the situation were not polite and not professional. They just kept saying, “You are late, you are late,” without showing any effort to solve the problem with an Iberian customer who bought 4 tickets.
They just wanted me to buy another ticket. They were laughing in the room when I told them that I want to see the manager, who was a lady (doesn't show any professionalism that she is a manager) who refused all solutions I suggested after I agreed to pay a new ticket to Madrid (arrived 14.50 pm). But I asked them to call the Iberia center in Madrid to allow me for extra minutes to check in the same flight I booked before to Mallorca (Departure 15:35 pm) in order to attend an important meeting I have in Mallorca at 6 pm. However, when I traveled to Madrid at 11 am, I noticed that the passengers in Jerez with their luggage were getting into the plane before taking off 10 minutes, which I think they were able to let me in when I arrived for the flight before.
They didn't help. I bought new ticket to Mallorca with the same amount of the money I paid for the 4 tickets before. I'm not sure about choosing Iberia Airlines next time. I missed an important meeting that was planned a month ago with a very distinctive group of people in Mallorca who were planning to establish a new project. It is bad that I lost this meeting and I want to do anything to reimburse the loss of this unique opportunity for my career.
Reviewed June 27, 2010
We flew from Miami to Madrid and onto Marseilles on Iberia. Iberia lost our luggage on the Madrid to Marseilles leg. They told us they would deliver the luggage to our hotel later that night. The next day when we called, they admitted that the luggage was still in Madrid, because their regional jets can't hold all the luggage the passengers checked in. They finally got the luggage on the third day, but they told us that since our hotel was over 2 hours from the airport, they could not deliver it. So they put it on the French Post, without giving us the option of coming to pick it up. The French Post was closed for the weekend, so we didn't get the luggage until five days later!
All the while, their Customer Service was rude; they hung up on us several times, even gave us fictitious names, so that when we called back, we couldn't find the person who lied to us previously. They claimed the luggage service was responsible; however, the service claimed Iberia told them they could not deliver the luggage to us, even though they promised they would. Iberia ruined the first week of our vacation in France and could have cared less. They even refused to give us a compensation for clothing and toiletries, as they said the luggage wasn't actually lost and that they just couldn't get it to us for several days.
Reviewed June 10, 2010
I was supposed to be on a direct flight from Barcelona, Spain to New York. Upon printing out my ticket which shows Barcelona to New York, it had assigned me to a gate that was going to Madrid. No one had informed me that my direct flight was canceled, and they had broken my direct flight into 2 segments with a stopover at Madrid.
When I entered the gate, I thought maybe they are just stopping at Madrid and the same plane would continue to New York. When I got to Madrid, they told everyone to get off the plane and still no one mentioned anything about those going to New York. All those going to New York were all confused where to go in order to get to New York. We had to ask what happened to our direct flight, and still they didn't say anything about it and just told us to follow RSU. We had no idea what gate or where to board our plane.
It took us a while before we were able to find our flight to New York which they were trying to squeeze us into another flight to New York. We didn't get to select our seats and got separated seats from our friends. The worst part was that they had made us wait for 2 hours. Because of that, we didn't get to eat anything. They had blocked off just the gate, and when we asked to walk to the sandwich shop right next to the gate, they took away our boarding pass. When we returned from eating, they called us into the backroom and security checked us again, scan all our stuff and padded us down. Because of the security scan, we were last to board the flight.
I thought this was uncalled for. We were already beyond security point and inside the airport. Buying a sandwich at the airport doesn't require another security scan. It wasn't like we went outside the airport and came back in. I will never fly with Iberia again. They have the worst customer service, and they're discriminating. The flights would cancel, and you will never be informed of what happened to your flight.
Reviewed June 7, 2010
Our flight from SCQ to CDG on May 9, 2010 was canceled because of the volcano. We paid Iberia but were flying on Vueling. Because it was canceled, we missed our TGV train trip from Paris to Avignon and train reservations. Iberia will not give me any written notice that it was canceled. Flight status says the history of the flight is unknown. It said that on the day of the flight, too. Eurorail said it would consider refunding me if I have written notice from Iberia the flight was canceled. What can I do? Iberia owes me $120.
Reviewed June 7, 2010
This is my first and I hope the last flight on Iberian airline. I was on many flights around the world. I book tickets from Chicago to Madrid and from Madrid to Chicago on Iberian airline three months in advance. On June 5, 2010, in Madrid, Spain, I arrived to the airport two hours before flight. The ticket agent let me know that my seats were sold and I am on standby. When I came to the gate, the Iberian airline agents and their "manager" I don't know if it was a manager, let me know that they can't do any thing about it.
Tickets sold and that's it. Any conversation with agents was like talking to the light bulbs, but they put on the plane their own people. Finally, they booked me on a flight to New York and then from New York to Chicago. The time difference between arrival to New York and departure to Chicago was one hour. I don't understand why Iberian airline has this ** policy only in Spain. From now on, I will avoid travel on Iberian airline.
Reviewed May 24, 2010
This is the story of my trip with Iberia Airline flight # IB 6051 on April 12, 2010 from Tel Aviv to Johannesburg with stop- over in Madrid. It was a disastrous experience with delays and loss of many valuables (19 kg) from my two cases one of which was badly damaged. I have just received an email from them that they will do nothing about it. I am expecting to write to them if I am not happy with their response. I cannot even talk to senior official from the airline.
On arrival in Madrid our flight was delayed from 1.30 am to 8.00 am. The delay meant changes in our plans at high cost to us since the arrival at 18:00 and not at 11:30, as originally planned, fell outside working hours and I had to make alternative plan and travel to Pretoria (600Km return) again from Polokwane where we live. On arrival in OR Tambo (Johannesburg International airport), we were informed that our two suitcases had remained behind and would arrive the following day (13 April).
The suitcases arrived on 14 Aril in the Polokwane, South Africa, airport and we went to collect them. It was clear, immediately, that one case was badly damaged and that they are not nearly as heavy. On closer inspection and in the presence of the Air Link staff the cases were weighted and then opened. They totaled 35 kg, which is 19 kg less than what was checked in Tel Aviv.
Reviewed May 17, 2010
Flight No. IB5731 was booked with Bravofly which was due to leave Venice, Italy to Barcelona, Spain on Monday, 19th of April 2010 at 0950 hours. Due to the volcanic ash, this was cancelled. However the airport told me I could get a flight the following day at 1645. The earlier one would be full due to the backlog. On arrival at the airport, earlier than needed, I watched the departure board which at first did not show any cancellation for Barcelona. However after 2 hours, this flight was cancelled.
After waiting in line for information for a long time, somebody came along and informed all those wanting to go to Barcelona that there was a coach outside. This cost 200 euros and took 16 hours. I took this option because I didn't really have a choice. I was not coming home from Venice but going to Spain as part of my holiday which was due to end on Friday, 23rd of April, and I was booked on a flight home to England with EasyJet. Therefore, I could not have got a flight home from Venice without incurring huge extra cost, as I had not booked anything. And having no internet access and being on my own, I would have found this very difficult.
I contacted Bravofly as soon as I got home, and only yesterday 16th of April, (after 3 emails) did I receive a response. They told me they would reimburse my fare of 66.42 but any other money, i.e. hotel and alternative travel would have to be claimed from Iberia. Why they didn't let me know much earlier, I don't know; and they didn't let me have a contact for Iberia. I had no help from Bravofly. I was not traveling with a tour group but alone, as I was staying in hostels which of course are not arranged through agencies.
I had to find the cheapest hotel in Mestre just outside Venice, which cost just 30 euros for a night with no breakfast and no shower/toilet. I bought the cheapest food from a supermarket to take back to my room, and the only drink I had was one coffee and one bottle of water. I bought nothing at coach stops, because I was worried about further costs and water was so expensive.
I had just 2 days in Barcelona instead of 3 1/2. I could not face another day in Venice, as there was nothing else I could do. I have a slight disability, and all those bridges became tiring, as much as I enjoyed it. Also, I did not have to pay for my first cancelled night at Barcelona hostel. But although I did not arrive until 9.30 on Wednesday morning, 21st of April, I was charged for the night of 20th, even though I only had breakfast. I don't expect all my expenses reimbursed, but it would be very much appreciated if the very costly coach fare could be. I await your early response.
Reviewed May 5, 2010
I have been unable to reach your company by phone and the other telephone numbers listed in your previous email as below herewith, to be instructed on how to file a claim related to the travel insurance I purchased. Iberia Airlines canceled my flight IB0452 on 18 April from MAD to EAS and I was forced to take a six hour midnight bus ride instead after a sleepless night and unbelievable chaos and turmoil at the Madrid airport. I phoned Iberia Air but they were uncooperative and not helpful in this matter. I paid 157.88 euros for the round trip ticket but received only one way service from EAS to MAD on 27 April and was forced to pay hotel costs, food and bus and taxi travel to reach my destination San Sebastian on 18 Apr. I seek to recover 50% of the grand total ticket price or 78.94 euros from your company as a result of this involuntary flight cancellation by Iberia Airlines. I paid your company a premium of 9.47 euros for travel insurance to cover this trip. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Please respond by email at your earliest convenience.
Reviewed May 5, 2010
In our recent flight #8832 from Pisa, Italy to Madrid, Spain, my suitcase was opened and all jewelry was stolen. I am not asking for any reimbursement because I should have put it in my carry-on. However, I was rushed then and so I just threw it in my suitcase. I have tried to talk to someone at Iberia, simply to make them aware that they have at least one dishonest employee dealing with baggage. I am just writing this so other travelers will be aware as well. On the same trip, we traveled British Air and American Airlines and we did not encounter any problems.
Reviewed April 21, 2010
On Thursday, 11th of March 2010, I was supposed to travel from Nigeria to America via Iberia Airline. I arrived the airport on this same day at 4:00 pm Nigeria time, which was the time the counter opened. When I was about to be checked-in, the attendant said my passport was faulty and that American embassy shouldn't have stamped my visa on that passport.
This led to an argument and I ended up not traveling that night as scheduled because they refused to carry me. Knowing fully well that the immigrant visa I have would expire on the 24th of March 2010, I therefore opted to flying with the Qatar Airline on March 21, 2010. The economic implication is that my money was taken and no service was rendered. I hereby seek a refund.
Reviewed April 15, 2010
So we went and purchased another ticket from AA to come back from Vegas to Ft. Laud few days earlier.
The day after we called to confirm everything that was set, we were told by Iberia agent that we have to pay 159$ each or the entire flight will be cancelled for us. I tried countless times to call back to tell them that their agent gave us the wrong information and that they need to take responsibility for their sayings. I even spoke to a supervisor name Victor who did not help us at all and just repeat again and again that we need to pay the penalty, without listening to my concerns whatsoever.
Two agents hanged the phone on me while "trying" to transfer me to a supervisor. Other agent that was extremely UN professional name was Jack. People! Iberia agent admitted to their mistake but still Iberia declined responsibility. Somehow we ended up paying penalty of $200 a person. Further less, in the air industry, Iberia has a bad name for maintenance. It is better to pay a little more and fly with other airlines securely and safely. I will gladly repeat my story to anyone.
Reviewed April 6, 2010
My wife and I recently traveled to Spain. We arrived to Seville on 03/20/2010. Our return flight was confirmed for 03/29/2010 leaving Madrid at 5pm and arriving in New York at 7pm. The day of our return flight, we arrived at the airport over 2 hours before our flight. Iberia has several check-in counters at Terminal 4 in the Madrid Airport. When we asked the Iberia personnel what counter corresponded to our flight, we were told to check the monitors. We waited 10 or 15 minutes for this information to post. At this point, we got on a ridiculously long line to check in for our flight. While waiting on line, we hear Iberia personnel asking for people to come forward who are booked on flights going into Boston as well as Washington DC, but no one announcing anything about the flight to NY which made us assume that everything was okay with our flight.
When we finally reached the check-in counter about an hour later, 57 minutes before the scheduled departure of our flight, the Iberia employee there told us that we were not going to be able to board our flight since the flight was already closed. She said that our flight was full and we should have checked in online or come to the airport the day before!!! We headed over to the customer service counter and spoke with a woman who was entirely rude and unhelpful who informed us that since we did not show up for our flight, we would have to buy new tickets for a return flight to NY. At the counter, we picked up the Iberia Airlines passenger bill of rights. This document clearly states that as long as we had arrived 45 minutes before the departure of our flight. We should have been admitted without any problem. We asked to speak with a supervisor who eventually put us on standby for a flight the next day, 03/30/2010 also leaving Madrid at 5pm. She said she was fairly certain that we would get a seat on that flight and so although disappointed by Iberia's services once again we believed her and had our names added to the standby list for the next day.
We arrived back at the Madrid airport at 1pm the following day, four hours before the flight that they had put us on standby for. We checked in, the airline checked our luggage, we passed through passport control as well as the additional US flight security checkpoint right before the departure gate and were standing at the flight counter an hour and a half prior to the scheduled departure of the standby flight. We were given no information from the Iberia staff other than that we had to wait until all the passengers who had paid for that particular flight boarded and then we would be notified whether or not we would have seats on the flight. Surprise, surprise, there was no room for us on this flight either. At this point, we were told that we had to go back to the customer service desk near the check in counters to figure out what to do next. We were informed that our original flight, as well as all the other JFK bound flights for the remainder of the week, were overbooked. The airline's solution was to pay an 1,800 upgrade fee per person to secure two coach seats on the 4/2/2010 flight. After weighing our options, my husband and I decided to book another flight home for the following day, 03/31/2010, on a different carrier. Each ticket was over $1,600.
We got absolutely no help from customer service, no economic compensation, no other option other than to spend 3 to 5 days at the airport on stand by. The worst part of this whole experience, however, is that Iberia refuses to take responsibility for any of this. I will never do any business with Iberia Airlines.
Reviewed March 19, 2010
Checked in suitcase at Santiago Airport on Iberian Flight No IB3180 to Madrid and on Transit Flight No IB3162. Baggage was checked in at Santiago Airport on 16 March 2010 and did not pick up until Heathrow Airport. On arrival, 17 March 2010, when picking up my suitcase I have found that the suitcase is damaged. The trolly pull has been broken making suitcase unusable, therefore I am reporting damage and would like to make a claim against the airline.
Reviewed March 8, 2010
My fiancé and I traveled to Spain this March with Iberia, as we are preparing our wedding and wanted to celebrate it in Spain. We had a connecting flight to get to Madrid and then we flew to Sevilla. They lost our luggage because they only had a little over an hour to put the suitcases in the plane (which it seems quite sufficient) so we arrived there with no clothes or toiletries. We then headed to Cordoba where my family lives and the suitcases were delivered.
On our way back to the US, he also has to change planes in Madrid to head to Chicago and again, they lost our luggage. This time, we are still waiting as they claim that since they have to clear customs, it may take up to a week. I will never fly again with Iberia as long as I have a choice since it has been a nightmare and the agents were very unpleasant.
Reviewed Feb. 20, 2010
I flew to Brazil with Iberia on the 13th of Feb, 2010 from London- Barajas- Sao Paulo. As usual the Iberia flight from London was 2 hr 45 min delayed causing us to arrive just 15 minutes before my flight would depart from Madrid to Brazil. When we arrived in Sao Paulo GRU airport, to my surprise my luggage was missing. After waiting almost one hour for the luggage to appear which never happened, 10 more customers and I on the same flight were asked to queue, fill in a lost baggage form at Iberia desk.
As I had a connection flight to Florianopolis, the Iberia clerk told me that Ibeiai would have my luggage sent directly door to door at the address I was staying in Florianopolis within 24-48 hours. That was a Sunday, the 14th. I arrived in Floripa on a scalding sun of 40 degrees Celsius wearing winter clothes. I headed to my hotel. Of course, I had no summer clothes to wear, and had to buy a pair of bermuda and the hotel manager kindly gave me t-shirt from the hotel. I had no flip flops, a complete disgrace!
Then 3 days later and no sign of my luggage, I called Iberia and of course they were not helpful as one expected. The person on the phone told me I had a credit of 350 euros to be spent after 3 days if my luggage wasn't delivered yet. I bought some summer clothes, T-shirts, bermudas, underwear, etc.But to make matter worse all my retroviral meds were in my luggage as I just keep a supply for a day in my carrier bag. I told the attendant from Iberia that I cannot stay more than 24 hrs without my meds, and up till now, 7 days later, there's no sign of my luggage. I called Iberia 3 more times and nobody seemed sympathetic or helpful.
I cannot stay without my meds anymore. I have no proper clothes to wear, as the weather here in Floripa changes daily from hot, to rainy and chilly. Now I am leaving Floripa in the morning without my luggage. I have to see a doctor on Monday, the 22nd Feb, in order to get a prescription for my meds. One thing I swear, never fly Iberia anymore in my life, and back to London I definitely will sue them for all these problems they've caused me.
As to economic damages, so far I had to spend about U$1,000 on clothes, cabs, phone calls, but the physical is the worst. I can't sleep without my meds, I feel tired and moody, causing my carnival holidays into a disgrace. Thanks to Iberia, the worst Airline ever!
Reviewed Jan. 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 nor 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 at 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, charged 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 by a moody young woman. I still have no news from my luggage; they have no idea where it is. It has been 4 days.
Mistakes happen, but I feel frustrated by the lack of respect of the airliner's personnel (except Malev who in a similar situation were very professional). I lost about $1000 USD in personal effects but the things that I miss the most are my personal diary, Christmas gifts, iPod, agenda, medical supply, and dental prosthesis. Thank you Iberia and British Airways for making air travel a frustrating journey.
Reviewed Jan. 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.
Reviewed Jan. 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 experience with Iberia Airways. I have been a frequent traveler 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 approximately 2345 on Tuesday 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. There 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 I have missed my flight in a dictatorial voice. Not until my wife came over did she have any reasoning to her demeanor.
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 across 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 connections were made, rebooked our itinerary albeit the best they could. We ended up having to stay another night over in Atlanta, but I can’t fault Delta. Economic consequences: about 275 euros! But this is only because I am an experienced traveler and know how to negotiate cost with taxis, hoteliers, etc.
Reviewed Jan. 1, 2010
Iberia changed my outbound flight without canceling the original outbound flight. The system cancelled my inbound return flight. I was not informed about it whether online or through a phone call and I did find that out myself by accident when I logged in online. When I called customer service, I spoke to Anna **** located in Madrid. She was not understanding and did not go out of her way whatsoever 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 **** 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 gentleman 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 administrative assistants never to 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. I lost 7 hours during outbound flight. I accidentally found out that the inbound flight was also cancelled without informing me and I 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 competitors. Do not fly Iberia!
Reviewed Dec. 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. Business class had total 3 passengers.
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 cruise, 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.
Reviewed Dec. 15, 2009
My 2 kids and I took the 12:45 flight Madrid-Mexico on November 13th, 2009 in Business class, and across my aisle, 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 whole bottles for each. They kept asking for more and more drinks, even all the people around them were complaining. My 2 kids were behind them and they were aggressive, 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 aggressive, 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!
Reviewed Dec. 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 2-hour layover in Barcelona, then board with Iberia 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 kept in Barcelona for 8 hours. His total travel time ended up being 35 hours. No one offered to help him call anyone. When he arrived in Almeria, he looked terrible. He had not had anything to eat or drink in Barcelona. He was just left there! To top it off, once he arrived in Almeria, he was minus his luggage!
Reviewed Dec. 3, 2009
Reviewed Nov. 27, 2009
Reviewed Nov. 14, 2009
Reviewed Nov. 11, 2009
Reviewed Oct. 17, 2009
Reviewed Oct. 15, 2009
Reviewed Sept. 11, 2009
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2009
I flew with Iberia from JFK to TLV with a layover in Madrid. My outbound flight had few problems. The seats were small, and the plane is "vintage"; but otherwise, the service was adequate. My only real complaint was the flight attendant yelling out loudly, "Who needs the kosher meal. Did you order Jewish food?" up and down the aisle until finally I raised my hand. Her reply (in English) was "Oh, you need Jewish food, ok." Overall though, the flight was not full and it landed mostly on time. The problem came on the return trip. Due to a family emergency, I had to change my flight. The office in TLV told me to go to the airport. The airport office told me they did not open for 3 hours, so I sat at the airport waiting for ticketing to open. Then, I found out that the only way to change my flight was to pay a huge fee, and worse, they had already cancelled my return flight. So I had to re-book.
After an hour of bickering, they gave me the number to the first TLV office (the one that sent me to the airport). As it turns out, my mom in the US called and had a flight booked without the attitude and problems of the TLV office. Then when I boarded the flight, the service was terrible. I fell asleep on the first leg, and I woke up to everyone eating breakfast. I asked if I could have my breakfast and that it was kosher. The attendant said he was busy. Then, a while later, after service was being picked up, I asked again. He told me he did not have a kosher meal and not to bother him again. A while later, while he was passing around water, a child (not mine, but a random child from the other seats) had fallen asleep in the seat next to me. When I asked for water, he spilled it all over the sleeping child and then said, "You moved; you got the child wet." And he left me without water.
Then in Madrid, the confusion began. Madrid has this stupid system of assigning areas and then, only an hour before the flight, assigning the gate (despite the fact that you have to walk to the middle to find the screens). Waiting for the JFK flight was a number of disgruntled people, all waiting in the general area and all waiting of the flight. When the flight boarded, they announced in Spanish only that they were boarding. There were no zones and no seat numbers, and people just seemed to get on randomly. The flight itself was uneventful. When we landed, however, I noticed my bag was damaged. I went to the luggage area and was told that I should file a complaint online, since I had my luggage (It was not missing.). I could not find a place to submit online. They gave me another number to call. Still, one week later, I have not been able to reach anyone or file a complaint.
Reviewed Aug. 17, 2009
I had a connecting flight in Madrid from Berlin to Washington Dulles Airport on a Saturday evening. The connection time was short, and I barely made the flight myself, but my bag did not. I filed my claim at Washington and called the 1-800 number the next day to find out that the bag was found in Madrid but would not be able to get on a flight until Monday evening and most likely delivered on Tuesday. I called again Tuesday afternoon to find out what time it would be delivered, but the agent could only tell me sometime in the evening.
I never received my bag that Tuesday, and it is now a week later with no bag. Every time I called Iberia, they told me the same thing - My bag is with the delivery company, and it should be in the process of being delivered. I was given a phone number for this company (which I could not find online), but this number only goes to a cell phone with no indication of it being a company. No one ever picks up nor did anyone return my call from this delivery service. I tried to get a different number for this company, but one agent actually told me they had no number, about which I told her it wasn't true because I already had the number and knew it wasn't working or I was being ignored. I was also told there was no supervisor to talk to and no way to connect me directly to Washington.
The Friday after I was supposed to get my bag, I went back to the airport but couldn't even speak to Iberia, because no one was there. I asked another airline how they deliver lost baggage to customers and was informed that most airlines use a different company and had never even heard of the company Iberia uses. The agent for this other airline said she would try to see if she could talk to someone and figure out what was going on. She somehow managed to talk to the delivery company Iberia uses (though no one picked up when I called), and they told her it had been given to FedEx and would give her a tracking number.
After not hearing back for a couple days, I called FedEx myself, only to find that there was no delivery scheduled for my name and address. 411 doesn't have a listing for the name of the delivery company that Iberia gave me. No one can connect me to an actual person at Washington, not even the airport itself.
Reviewed May 7, 2009
Reviewed May 7, 2009
Reviewed April 26, 2009
Reviewed April 5, 2009
I am an industrial director in one of the biggest companies in the MEA region. They delayed the flight for my friend and me one day although it was confirmed. They said that we were 8 and we all were overbooked and it always happens. They asked us to take the second day flight. After a while, they entered the other six people (as they are Spanish) and when I claimed, they confirmed that the others were crew and would sit with the airplane crew (some of them you can see clearly that they were lovers and not crew). They were not honest with us as they said they would compensate us with money for accommodation, transportation, dinner, breakfast and lunch. They did, but on their way, they removed the lunch and, in the hotel, they dealt with us as second level hosts. I tried to call Iberia many times on their telephones (+34)902 400500, 915873903, 917229600 and 913058343 but there was no answer.
Reviewed April 1, 2009
On flights from JFK to Casablanca, there were numerous confusions as to what gates, was there a plane, changes, no personnel to deal with, hundreds of passengers, and serendipitous decisions being made. It is the twilight zone at its most maddening. The trip back was even more hellish as at check-in, abusive agents simply refused to give seat information and assigned at their discretion. I was told however that I would be able to transport a rare Rif Pot and my small knapsack with my cameras into the cabin. Rather than having a cogent command, I was discriminatorily abused at the door of the plane, was told I would not get on, and had to decide which piece I wanted to save from the confines of the cargo hold. Let's see, a piece of pottery making, a transfer in Madrid to get to JFK in one piece. I don't believe it.
So the camera bag went and got lost. I filed a complaint. No call, no follow-up, phone calls, time. Then, I suppose I am lucky that the pack showed up at the door at 5am without the memory cards, work product as I am a photographer. A tip I suppose for whoever needed a couple cards. The fact that the US allows the airline to continue business is questionable. Apparently, running an inept business is de rigueur here and there. The fact this airline is allowed to operate at all is alarming. A company of abuse with no one to answer to.
Reviewed March 16, 2009
Reviewed March 12, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 26, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 25, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 23, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 11, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 4, 2009
Reviewed Feb. 1, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 30, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 28, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 27, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 23, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 15, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 13, 2009
We had an experience very similar to those listed on this site. How many times can Iberia be allowed to get away with this absolutely offensive customer service? We flew from San Francisco to JFK to Madrid. Our bags did not arrive in Madrid when we did. The woman at the Iberia baggage service counter in Madrid airport was utterly useless. Her advice was to wait around, that not all the bags were on the carousel yet. She told us that a full hour after the last bags had come out. That was all she could tell us. She was reluctant to file a report. We insisted. (They had lost both my bag and my wife's).
Later that day we called to find out the status. We ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT GET THROUGH to a real person. The computerized system is worthless and kicks you out - just like others have said. Why don’t they fix it when they know this is a problem? We finally had the hotel desk staff call for us and they were able to get through to someone in Spanish who said, just wait. We finally got the bags on our fifth day in Madrid.
Iberia intentionally has a system where an English speaker cannot get through to a live person to get information or address concerns. This is ** when you pay $1200 each for a ticket and your bags do not arrive as promised. We are now in the process of trying to seek reimbursement for what we had to buy when the bags weren't there - but, of course, even on their web site you cannot get a response to emails to get through to a person. This is the worst service I have ever seen - how much longer do they get away with it?
Reviewed Jan. 12, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 9, 2009
Reviewed Jan. 3, 2009
To sum it up: Iberia Airlines lost my luggage and I can't find any way to resolve the problem. If anyone reads this, I challenge them to try this: call 1-800-772-4642. Follow the options for lost baggage in English (1#, 3#, 3#, 1#) I've called several dozen times a day for five days now, and when I get to the last option, which claims a representative will now speak to you, the automated system hangs up. Blogs about Iberia claim the airline tries to wear you down so they don't have to pay for lost luggage and from my experience, I believe it.
Reviewed Jan. 2, 2009
Saturday 20 December IB317 delay by one hour officially but did take off for a further hour and half. The resulting connection IB662 had departed Iberia put us up in a hotel. Funny, exactly the same experience 12 months earlier, the Madrid-London flight arriving and departing so late that connections are missed in Madrid. Iberia's lack of care and concern absolutely amazing.
Reviewed Dec. 30, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 29, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 29, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 24, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 22, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 22, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 22, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 19, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 18, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 16, 2008
Reviewed Dec. 16, 2008
Reviewed Nov. 15, 2008
Reviewed Oct. 2, 2008
I am writing to you to make a formal complaint about the many problems and inconvenience, I and my son, experienced when flying from Madrid to London on the 31st of August 2008. I had a British Airways ticket to fly from Madrid to Gatwick on the 31st of August 2008 but on the day we flew on an Iberia plane. I am first going to present you with the details of the flight and the discrepancies in leaving times and well as arrival times and airport. Flight number: BA 7064. Flight departure date: 31st August 2008. Flight arrival date: 1st September 2008. Point and time of scheduled departure: Madrid Barajas 19.55. Point and time of scheduled arrival: London Heathrow: 21.15. Point and time of departure: Madrid Barajas 23.00. Point and time of arrival at airport terminal: London Gatwick: 2 am. Time waiting for luggage: 2 hours at Gatwick airport. TOTAL DELAY TIME: 7 HOURS
I am now going to give a detailed account of what happened during this journey. Our flight was scheduled to leave Madrid airport at 19.55 pm (Spanish local time). We were given a boarding gate in the H area of the T4 in Barajas. Just before boarding time, we were told there would be a delay of 20 minutes, the reason being the aircraft had just arrived from London. At the boarding gate, we were told the plane would be delayed for another further hour. As the plane did not leave after an hour,a long queue formed at the information desk. We were then told that the plane had arrived but there was no crew. There were further delays in leaving time and a change of departure gate.
We boarded the plane at 21.30 pm (Spanish local time) with a 1 delay. When we were inside the aircraft, we were told we had to wait an unspecified length of time. They blamed the weather in London, amongst other things, for this delay (I was in touch with my husband in London throughout the waiting and he said there was no unusually bad weather, only rain). After waiting another further 1 inside the aircraft we left Madrid at 11pm, Spanish local time with a delay of 3 hours from the scheduled departure time. About 15 or 20 minutes before landing we were informed that the airplane would not land at Heathrow, as scheduled. It would land at Gatwick instead. No clear reasons were given for this.
We arrived at Gatwick at 12.20 am GMT (Spanish local time 1.20 am). We then have to wait inside the aircraft for another 1 - 2 hours. It was not until about 2am that we arrived at the Gatwick terminal. This was not to be the end of our ordeal. When we arrived at the airport we were told we would have to wait another hour or two, perhaps more, for our luggage. Again no clear indication of why this happened and what they were planning to do with all the passengers that needed transport from Gatwick to Heathrow. Not to mention the fact that at that time there was no public transport.
I got my luggage back at 4.30 am. In total there was a delay of over 7 hours in this dreadful journey. I was travelling with my 4-year-old son and it was not easy at all for him, myself or any of the other passengers flying with us. My husband had to wait for us at Heathrow for hours. He then had to travel from Heathrow to Gatwick. I was lucky my husband was waiting for me at the airport. Other people had to wait much longer as they had no means of transport.
I feel that the company failed all of us in an acceptable way and I am going to point out how: They failed to take us to our destination. They failed by 7 hours in bringing us to our destination at the scheduled time. They failed to inform us properly about the cause of all the delays: departure, arrival, change of airport and recovery of our luggage. They failed to give refreshments and to provide comfort for passengers throughout the whole journey. They failed to provide alternative means of transport/ solutions when at the airport. They failed to take responsibility for the problems caused by arriving at such an inconvenient time. They never uttered an apology for all the problems caused.
Reviewed Sept. 30, 2008
I was ready to go to Spain on September 25 of 2008 to perform A EXECUTIVE PROTECTION TRAINING (BODYGUARD TRAINING) But I lost my Flight because the IBERIA AIRLINES they change my flight with diferent date and time, also without of make me any notification for these changes.
1.- I lost 8 days permission of work to go to Spain for this training. 2.- Lost my money which I paid for my training. 3.- lost the money for my Flight tiket 4.- Emotional damages to my self because that training was something of my dreams and wishes to have done, but was imposible for this negligence of the IBERIA AIRLINES that make me any notification of these changes.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2008
they change the time of my flight from casablanca morocco. therefor i missed my flight, and they asked me to pay $ 200 extrat to get on a nother flight. they also made me get a ticket to spain where i have no visa therfor i had to spend the night in the airport.
emotional damage, fainancial damage and phisical
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2008
My wife, child and I were flying from Tel Aviv to Spain. Our stroller came on the plane with us but when we arrived in Spain the stroller was knowehere to be found. Knoweobne wanted to help us and finally we did speak to an individual and he assured us it would arrive in Boston our destination. In boston we filed a claim on June 8th. I called the airline two weeks later and they had told me our stroller was found and it was being delievered.
2 weeks go by and I call again and now they tell me they didnt find it and theya re missing information. they wanted me to write a letter with my passport info, ticket # etc, which I did. I have been calling since and they do no want to direct me to a supervisor or tell me what is going on with my claim. It is now 4 months and I don't have a payment or a stroller.
I told them I will seek an attorney if I don't get help and the told me to go ahead if I wish nothing they can do. I was told it would take 4-6 weeks to receive payment which they supposedly approved and now 4 months later still nothing. The person I keep speaking with Jose will not give me any information or direct me to any supervisor
Reviewed Sept. 22, 2008
I took a plane between Tenerife Sur and Brussels airport, and stole [from] me in my luggage. I put a new parfum bottle in my bag and give it under Iberia responsability. When I come back home, my bag was properly closed but the parfum was missing. I was wondering about the control of our luggage with Iberia flights.
Reviewed Sept. 17, 2008
On a trip from Washington DC to Barcelona, I had to make a planned stop in Madrid. Once I reached Barcelona I found that my suitcase had not made the connecting flight with me. I stood in line for about an hour with many other people who had experienced the same problem. I was given a case number and told to call iberia that evening or the next day for an update. I left Barcelona hoping that my bag would be delivered soon and began making phone calls that evening. Each time I would call, the automated assistance would hang up on me.
Finally the next morning I had a friend in the USA call the toll free number. He was told that the bag had left Madrid but had not been confirmed to have arrived in Barcelona yet (although the flight is only 50 minutes) After I finally got through I was told the same thing each day. I had to attend a wedding so was quite anxious to get my bag because EVERYTHING I owned was in there. I never received any calls or any updates and the website was no help. Finally on my second to last day in Barcelona we were told that two attempts had been made to deliver the suitcase but that nobody had been home. We new this was a lie because we had made sure that someone was home at all times.
The morning that I was supposed to leave Barcelona I got to the airport early and went to the lost baggage claims desk. I was told once again that the bag had left Madrid but had not yet gotten to Barcelona. When I explained to the woman everything I had been told by each person I had spoken, to she told me that i could go ahead and check to see if I could find my luggage in their storage room even though she doubted it would be there. When i walked in I immediately saw it sitting in a large pile of suitcases. The woman could do nothing but apologize and said that it had been placed in the pile without being scanned in. She also said it was in the pile that hadn't had any attempted deliveries yet.
At that point she said I could get reimburesed for the things I had to buy while i waited for my bag, which included a new dress for the wedding. Of course you have to keep ALL of your receipts which they fail to tell you on the phone. I still have not heard anything back from Iberia after mailing and faxing them a copy of all of my receipts. I spent approximately 420 Euros and dont know when I will see that money.
Reviewed Aug. 29, 2008
Myself and two other friends missed a flight to Oporto, Portugal on the 29th of June, 2008. We decided to go ahead with our plans and just book another flight since we were already at the airport and just suck it up that we had lost the value of the first flight. We looked online using a kiosk computer in the airport. We saw online that the tickets round trip were going to cost about 200 euros so we agreed that I would just purchase the 3 tickets and my friends would pay me back in cash.
We approached the ticket counter and requested 3 tickets round trip to be leaving that day, the 27th of June with a return on the 29th of June, 2008. The customer service agent, stated she did have 3 tickets and that it would be no problem. We ask the amount and she stated 351 and we further questioned her and said in US dollars or Euros, she nodded her hand and acknowledged yes to US dollars. The she requested our passports and proceded to sell us the tickets. When she handed me the receipt she had me sign 3 reciepts that said 351.00 on them.
On further examination once through security we realized it was for 351.00 euros each. We realized the mistake and were willing to take the trip anyway. When we returned to the airport on the 29th of June we were denied boarding passes at the counter. Turns out the customer service agent had booked our return flight for the 29th of JULY! The steward at check-in demanded we go and have the date changed "for no charge, of course" at the counter. They changed our ticket and told us that we were lucky they had a few seats open!
Yes, how lucky we were to have made it onto the flight that we had requested and thought we were buying tickets for. We thought that this would be the end of the nightmare saga, but it really only begins here. The next week, the first week of July , I looked at my online banking and realized that $2700 US dollars was missing from my account. I looked at who had charged the account and saw that it was 2 charges from Iberia Airlines. The first charge was for $2500 US dollars and the second charge was for $252 US dollars.
I took time out of my busy school schedule while I was living in Spain to go back to the airport, at a cost of almost $15 US dollars just for the train tickets in an attempt to resolve the issue. The customer service agent at Iberia said that a mistake was made (clearly), that I was overcharged because the previous agent sold me tickets for the wrong day the tickets were supposedly suppose to be 319.37 euros each and to call Iberia Customer Service when I got back to the states so that they could refund the money.
Fast forward to me arriving home approximately 2 weeks ago. I called Iberia right away and was told I would be getting a refund of 638 euros. Anyone can do the math and see that I'm owed more than that. According to one of Iberia's agent on the phone the customer service agent that sold me the tickets had "mistakenly" sold me 5 tickets at a price of 351.00 euros instead of the 3 tickets, I requested, at the correct date and price of 319.00 euros. Now I disputed the charge with my bank, the $2500 charge is still in dispute, but the additional $252 charge that no one can tell what it was for was denied a dispute because the bank "says" the airline said it was for an airline ticket and "airline tickets are non-refundable".
Now the other problem is that when this customer service agent charged me for 2 extra tickets the Euro was worth appox. $1.60..now the exact same Euro is worth $1.45. Even if they refund me the correct amount. I will be losing money because of their agents mistake. On top of all the this they are telling they're charging me a 30 euro service charge for each ticket!
Even the tickets I didn't sign, request, or even have knowledge of and the bank says that there is nothing they can do about this whole situation and that I'll probably end up losing my money. $2752.00 US dollars for 3 tickets that were suppose to cost me 319.00 euros each. The math doesn't add up and because of all this customer service agent's mistakes I could still end up losing a significant amount of money from all her mistakes!
Reviewed Aug. 20, 2008
On 17 May, 2008 , we were supposed to board Iberia IB 6650, 1955hrs from Lima, Peru connecting to IB 3516 in Madrid, Spain, connecting to QF 6 in Frankfurt, Germany arriving home to SINGAPORE on 19 May, 2008. We arrived at the Lima airport 3 hrs prior to our departure time, checking into Iberia counter and that was the start of our hellish nightmare.
We were told by Ms Ana P that we were not allowed to board IB 6650 as we needed a transit visa to transit at Madrid and Frankfurt. We explained our case telling her that SINGAPOREANS do not need a visa to travel into Europe. She insisted we do and even claimed that was what the TIMATIC system said. We took further pains educating her that we flew into South America using the same route (on 30 April, we flew Singapore Frankfurt Madrid Rio De Janeiro) without any.
Her reply was atrocious. She said flying into S.A. is different from flying out. And she said, within the time span (30 April 17 May), the visa requirements have changed. We were shocked and told her that perhaps she may wish to check with her supervisor. After another few minutes, she asked her supervisor, Ms Ilda G over and told her that we do not have a visa and hence, cannot board the plane. We were appalled when Ms I agreed and even claimed that there was a Singaporean diplomat who was sent back to Peru having arrived in Madrid without a visa last week.
In the midst of our disbelief, we even showed them our passports, with past chops into Europe many times without any visas. Both women insisted we still need a visa and told us we were not allowed to board the plane. We tried all avenues, getting our Peru travel agent to speak with them on the phone, coming down to the airport personally to explain our situation, we called our Singapore embassy, called our Singapore travel agent, called our travel insurance agent and even the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Ana refused to listen to any of these, insisting that they are right and we are not allowed in the plane.
Finally after more than an hour of argument, we asked what are the alternatives for us and they rudely said that we needed to go apply for transit visa on Monday 19 May at the Spain Embassy, extending our stay in Lima for 3 more nights (with only US$10 cash left). We had to ask a few times before both of them said maybe there is another flight out (surely that should have been the first suggestion for us). What disgusted us was there was no tinge of empathy or kindness in the entire episode. They were not only unhelpful but very rude.
Finally they told us there was another flight out that day but there was no way we could afford it as it cost US$6000 each. There we were, two Singaporeans from a far away land stranded in a foreign land. It was shocking enough to hear that we were not allowed to board the planes due to the incompetency of the ground staff. What was appalling was the attitude that was shown. Not only have they caused us severe emotional distress, till this day, we've gotten a phobia of travelling and not being allowed on planes. We have tried all means of communication and this must be the worst travel experience we had being well travelled since a young age.
Because of Iberia, we had to look for last minute hotel, rebooked our flights, incurring additional US$2,500 each. The most interesting twist of the story is that we miss our flight and due to the rebook of our flight with LAN Peru, LP643, the flight was cancelled and LAN Peru rebooked us on the next day flight flying from Lima to Madrid on LAN Peru LP0706, Madrid to Frankfurt on Iberia IB3512 and from Frankurt to Singapore on BA7306. We flew through the exact same route without a visa at all!!! This proves that Iberia is definitely in the wrong. The whole incident is totally uncalled for but due to the pure ignorance and stupidity of the ground staff, we were made to go through this entire trauma.
2 additional tickets costing USD 2,500 each, not including the work and wage losses due to the 1 day delay in boarding another plane
Reviewed Aug. 16, 2008
I travelled from Toulouse to Caracas via Madrid on the 21 July 2008 with Iberia Airways. At the luggage check I was told that I could not take two jars of sesame paste as hand luggage and was told to check them into the hold. I was anxious and flustered and forgot that I had left a gold and a silver necklace in the bag. When I opened up my bag in Caracas airport both necklaces were missing and a bag of ear-rings had been scattered throughout the bag, two of which are now missing.
I e-mailed Iberia customer service at the first opportunity, through their ridiculous complaints form.
I explained that they have a thief in their employment who needs to be investigated. At no time have they asked for my report and it is only through my persistence have they continued any correspondence otherwise I feel that they would have swept the whole thing under the carpet..
They have not accepted any responsibility even though they were the only carriers involved. I have not been notified of any serious investigation that should have taken place and at no time have I been offered compensation for the theft of my jewelry. This action will continue ad intinitum to other people unless the thief is caught and sacked and this incident should be taken far more seriously than Iberia appear to be doing.
I will never travel with Iberia again and would advise my friends to also give them a wide berth.
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2008
If you are kosher, take along your own food. The meal on my recent flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv was a can that looked like cat food and the label was in French. One can was "creme de volaille" and the other can could have been meat. The crackers were delicious! Interestingly, the canned food was kosher for Passover, (we were not flying on Passover) but they served crackers, definitely not a KP item.
Reviewed Aug. 1, 2008
My daughter was going to Spain to teach english, the ticket agent looked at her and said you look like you are going to be trouble, well our bags were over weight and we were running out of money he made us run back and fourth,to the cashier and then he over chged us on the over weight and the cashier reviewed the chg and sd he over chged us on the luggage. The agent Larry almost made her miss her flight and as she was going on the plane he took her carry right out of her hands. Had I not been standing in the airport and waiting to make sure everything was ok. He would have stolen her stuff.
The agent made her cry, he took her stuff right as she was going on the plane and I had to run back to the ticket corner to get her stuff and the mamger at the counter was one of the nasties people I ever meet and made everone who checked in upset. We checked in on 7/31/08. I want to reimbursement of my daughter's ticket and stress.
Reviewed July 31, 2008
We were sent upstairs to talk to the Iberia managing representative who then tried to overcharge us (or steal from us) for 2 more tickets and make us pay for them in cash.
When we said that we could only pay by credit card, he said that the credit card machine didn't work. We told him that cash was not an option and then he relented to letting us use a credit card. The ticket price was miraculously reduced by 300$, which I believe was revealed the actual ticket price minus his effort at skimming from the top. However the cost of these tickets was still 800$, which was 400$ more than we had spent online!
The representative was hostile and my wife spent about an hour in his office crying while him and I were on the verge of blows. When I asked him for his name so that I could reference the experience when I got home, he through his name badge at me and became even more hostile and melodramatic.
Later we discovered that our etickets had been cancelled due to Iberia agent error in Casablanca on July 2nd. On July 2nd, my wife and I were in Barcelona and had no computer access. Despite these facts, their customer service remains completely unhelpful in the resolution of this matter. I've not been able to receive help from anyone and Iberia customer service has been extremely nonchalant about the whole thing.
Reviewed July 15, 2008
We flew iberia to costa rica, from madrid on 16th June and were very disappointed with the complete lack of care shown bt the cabin crew. They did as little as possible to make us comfortable, did not make water available without actually asking or it. When snacks were available they did not make it known, it was only seeing other passengers with food that we knew it was there. Loud passengers were not asked to be quiet. The flight home was even worse, we were practically ignored for the whole flight, my armrest controls did not work so i had no TV or radio. I buzzed for cabin crew for over 45minutes and no one came. There were 2 drunk men talking loudly during the whole night flight home and no one asked them to be quiet.
I was exhausted when we arrived at Madrid for our connection to London, but worse was to come. A party of spanish school kids were on our flight and were allowed to run riot. They abused a lone female traveller, verbally, and by putting chewing gum in her hair. They climbed over seats, shouted, ran up and down the aisle, and at no time did the cabin crew seem in the least bit bothered by the danger posed to other passengers, or their obvious distress.
I eventually asked a steward to do something, which they half-heartedly agreed to do. The adult in charge of them was asked to intervene, but 5 minutes later, they were just as bad. I complained as i disembarked but again it was treated with a shrug and 'what can you do?' attitude. I will NEVER fly with this airline again
I was exhausted after a very long flight with no sleep, and had to have extra time off work to get over it
Reviewed July 5, 2008
Coming from Madrid to Miami on what it supposedly was a direct flight, the plane made a stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I compiled alist of 30 people who sign up for a collective complain, still waiting for an answer.
Reviewed July 1, 2008
On Sun 29th June I flew from London via Madrid to South Africa with Iberia Airlines. Our journey was as thus: on arriving to Madrid, we waited to get off the plane last because my companion was a 70 yr old blind man, only to be told by the conductors 'vamos! vamos!'. Hmmm. We were then all herded into buses and the whole plane load of passangers driven to a large glass entrance room which couldn't be left once entered. Here we had to wait for our passports to be checked and go through security AGAIN. I presume it was because Spain had just won the football that no one turned up to check us in for twenty minutes... by which time people were pretty cross.
We then dutifully headed off to the new terminal, and when bearing in mind it was now past 1am and we had security checks between each terminal, we were pretty ****** off. We bumped into fellow passengers who were also wandering round confused. Finally, we found a woman from Iberia, who refused to speak to us. Opposite was a second Iberia desk for 'ticket sales' At 2am on a Sunday night, this was staffed by three people. Naturally, they had no customers. When I asked them for help, to organise for us to reach this alleged hotel, they refused. 'We only sell tickets', they said. "Surely', I replied, 'you can book us a taxi on your company account. Its 2am and one of our party is blind. We're tired.' 'No'.
There were quite a lot of customers around, completely confused, and told different things. The Iberia desk for 'customer services' had a queue of twenty, and no staff, despite the 'sales' staff sitting idly just opposite. No one knew what was going on. We went to the desk downstairs which again, was unstaffed, and when someone did turn up they told us to go back upstairs. Finally, we found a very very rude woman who told us there was a woman outside, by a bus. We asked her to take us to this bus - she simply refused.
By now we were a group of ten, and we wandered outside together. Some one had to go round every bus until he found it. We dutifully boarded, still not having had any explanation or apology fro anyone at Iberia. We had no idea what arrangements were. After twenty minutes, we left, and we arrived at the hotel (a convienient half an hour away) at 3am. The full bus unloaded, and checked into rooms where we had a discomforting two hours sleep. Bearing in mind that we'd landed into Madrid just after 10pm, and that our plane had been cancelled by 12, we didn't get much sleep!
The whole thing was completely farcical. Each and every staff member of Iberia I spoke to was at the least dismissive, and at the worst jaw droppingly rude. They refused to explain, and to apologise. They refused to listen and refused to help. Simple requests like 'could you contact someone who does know?' were refused. It was a wall of silence.
Reviewed June 22, 2008
On April 13Th, 2008 I was suppose to fly from Tel Aviv to Madrid for a business meeting, I confirmed my flight and seat a day before the flight, Iberia insured me that every thing is ok. When I arrived to the Airport, Iberia denied me boarding for overbooking the flight, I took another flight by British Airways to London and from London to Madrid, the flight took almost 8 hours, I missed the business meeting and my damage was enormous,
The following day I had a flight from Madrid to Chicago, I was very upset that Iberia is offering me $250 voucher for my damages which I will not settle for. I am asking Iberia to compensate me for at least $600 for lost business.
Reviewed June 20, 2008
We flew Iberia airlines to Roma, Italy on June 14th. Flight went very well. I arrived in Rome and the luggage of my family was recieved and hour and a half after we had landed. My luggage wasnt there. Filed a complaint and lost baggage claim, however, nothing has been done. I have been in Rome for a week and have been checking the tracking website twice a day. There is no information at all on my luggage. I have every intention of filing suit on the airline and charging them for every penny of what was in that bag. I imagine the bag was stolen due to the expensive clothing on the bag.
Reviewed June 18, 2008
I too was on the flight from with luggage left in Madrid that did not make it to IAD. I am glad to hear SOMEONE has gotten some luggage! I had the same problem (no incident number given) and have been calling continuously. I actually had a customer rep hang up on me....and I was being rather reasonable and was NOT yelling. They can not tell me if my bags have ever left Madrid. They were supposed to be on a flight two days ago not to Miami and then on an AA flight to Dulles.
We live in Salt Lake, however, so a lot of good that will do me. They did say they would get them to SLC. That said, they can't tell me if they ever left Madrid (although they admitted they had them there at one point) and say they cannot tell me anything until they reach their final destination and they claim AA is not responding. Convenient.....I am not hopeful.
Lost hundreds of dollars worth of stuff in these five bags, including medical supplies that are having to be replaced at exhorbatant costs. Luggage was locked, so if we ever get it will be interesting to see if anything is missing.
Reviewed June 18, 2008
I have a claim for damaged luggage and Iberia has become inaccessible to follow through with their responsibility. It has been impossible for me to send them the message because none of their Email addresses works. I have filed a complaint for damaged luggage and want Iberia to pay for the damages. This has been a terrible inconvenience.
They should repair or replace my damaged luggage. Iberia is irresponsible and undependable.
Reviewed June 14, 2008
Problem was further aggravated by the fact that Iberia had printed out an incorrect boarding pass for me in Madrid which had another passenger's name, seat number, and ticket number on it, and no one in security or at Iberia caught it until we both tried to sit in the same seat. Therefore, my missing bag was in this person's name as well. I was told to go home and wait, and the bag would be delivered to my home.
After several battles with Iberia luggage on the phone, I was finally informed that the bag would be arriving in the US on Thursday, 12 June, and would be FedExed to me the next day. At 5 PM Friday, the bag did arrive, but upon opening it, I found that it had been heavily rifled through - all the zip pockets were open, contents scattered. Oddly enough, it appears I was lucky in that only two things were missing, but one of them is probably the most precious thing I was carrying - 2 memory cards for my camera that included 3000 pictures from my month overseas. (The other missing item is a magnet shaped like the Eiffel Tower - why on earth anyone would steal that is beyond me)
I immediately contacted Iberia's luggage dept again, and was told there was no chance of getting it back, and no legal recourse (the operator literally repeated over and over Can you prove it?). I even tried to offer a reward for the return of the memory cards, but the operator laughed at me. I have been unable to contact any Iberia personnel at Madrid airport or Dulles, and e-mails sent to the Iberia website have gone unanswered thus far.
Reviewed June 9, 2008
i lost my items my baggage delayed for weeks iam no able to attend the wedding coz the gown is in my baggage!
i am not able to attend the wedding, thats d only reason why i flew! unfortunate to choose iberia!
Reviewed June 8, 2008
our flight from Barcelona to new york jfk flight#6251 on june 1 2008 time 10:15 am.our departure was delayed for two house's described on our tickets barcelona to new york was a direct flight but it was a stop over to Madrid then to jfk.upon boarding from madrid flight to jfk there was about 40 people who were partying and drinking heavily on the airplane during our flig sitting three people into two seats along side of my wife and i. standing in the aisle's through the airplane i complained to the flight attended all they did was put the fasten the seat belt sign.they would return to their seats for about ten minutes then go right back.this continued through out the entire airplane flight.
we had a very bad experience
Reviewed June 5, 2008
Between them edreams.com and Iberia have charged ou card for eight tickets to Spain from Australia instead of four. Iberia are denying it every happened, despite having bank statement evidence to the contrary and edreams are giving the kinds of runaround that costs hundreds of dollars in overseas calls to answering machines then refuse to answer anymore e mails. We were told having tried to book four tickets online that to counter possible fraud they could not take the card, as the cost was over 3,000 euros.
We were told twice by phone that the booking couldn't be accepted and each time the customer service operator got angry with us for asking for an explanation and hung up. Two e mails as well, telling they could not accept the card, even though there was nothing wrong with it. We re-booked each person one by one using two cards. These went through successfully and we received emailed confirmations and e-tickets. Then we went into the bank and found that eight tickets had been charged for. So, we have 12 days left until departure, four tickets after being charged for eight and no one willing to talk about it let alone take responsibility.
Stress, possibility of having to cancel trip for the four of us if it isn't resolved quickly and no chance of getting the money abck for the tickets we do have. Stay calm, breathe, take it step by step and hope one of these people have a little customer service background and a tiny bit of common sense, because this is not acceptable!
Reviewed June 2, 2008
I flew from Atlanta - Miami - Madrid - Gran Canaria on 5/26/08. Upon arrival at the Atlanta airport, the AA agent (I flew on AA from ATLMIA)informed that my bags (6 of them)would be checked all the way to my final destination in Las Palmas Gran Canaria on IB. When I arrived in LPA on 5/27/08, not one of my checked bags had made it in. As a result, I filed a lost baggage form with the IB agent. That night, I received a call from the local IB baggage office in LPA. The agent (I must say was extremely nice and helpful) informed me that IB had located 4-of-6 bags at the MIA airport. For some reason, AA did not transfer my bags to IB in the time required to make the conncections. He also added, that he would work with IB in MIA to locate the other 2 missing bags.
Again, that night, I received a second call telling me that the two additional bags were found. I was told that all the bags were enroute to MAD and they would arrive at LPA on IB834 on 5/28/08. On 5/28/08, I met IB834 MADLPA and in the process of getting my bags, I noticed that the largest piece I had checked seemed very flat. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the TSA approved lock was cut. Upon lifting the bag, I noticed that it seemed light. Once I opened the bag I noticed that about 80% of the content checked were missing.
Needless to say, I felt totally confused, humiliated and angry about the whole situation. The local LPA IB personnel seemed in disbilief and very apologetic. Because some the items taken were very personal (e.g. underwear, electric shaver and socks)IB gave me a care kit to make due and provided phone and fax numbers for their main customer care office in Madrid. Currently, I've sent a fax to IB main office in Madrid Spain detailing all the missing items with corresponding value. I've yet to receive any responses but I'm hopeful the proper compensation can be made asap.
By the way, the IB Reservations agents have told me there is nothing they can do to help me in tracking my complain from the US. Basically, I must continue dealing with their main offices in Madrid which mean that I would have to pay for long distance calls. Please, I would appreciate hearing from anyone that may have experienced similar situations.
Loss of personal and gift items Damage to bag
Reviewed June 1, 2008
Customer service at the check-in counter is horrible! I was on a flight of the Romanian airline company TAROM from Barcelona to Bucharest, Romania. The check-in counter was served by Iberia employees, because Iberia operated the flight, and the employee did not provide name tags (which are required by TAROM). She actually said she WON'T get them. Also, she did not know what a frequent flyer number is or how to use it. She said I don't know [what it is] and I don't care.
I lost those miles and can't get them back! She refused to show me her badge. She actually hid it under the desk while we were talking so I couldn't get her name to complain. At the end of check-in, she did not even point out the way to the gate. This was the most frustrating interaction I've ever had at check-in. The employee was completely incompetent and incredibly rude. Her English was bad for international communications, and she didn't speak the language of the airline she was serving (and of the customers on that flight)-Romanian.
I was very frustrated because I was prepared, but because this employee couldn't speak English or Romanian, and because she didn't care (as she said herself), I lost the miles.
Reviewed June 1, 2008
One piece of luggage has never arrived and we are furious. We received one piece ten days after arriving at our destination on March 28, 2008 and were told that the 2nd piece would follow shortly. It is now 2 months later and no luggage.
Reviewed June 1, 2008
lost all our luggage (5 bags) for (6) days we were on a {8 } day cruise starting in Barcelona spain. we got are 5 bags after 6 days in Rome. we missed the big dress events It made us very sad, a once in a life time trip messed up, it made us upset with each other we call it the trip from hell.
it made us depressed not to be able to dress like others. Hopeing each day for our things and papers that were needed it changed the course of the rest of trip. ifeel we should be compincated for this mess up.
Reviewed May 21, 2008
Iberia cancelled our flight from washington dc to madrid with no notice to our agent or us. I found out the flight had been cancelled (not due to weather) when I called to confirm the flight. After spending an entire day fighting with the airlines, I think I finally got them to refund the airfare, but they tried everyway possible to put me off, or discourage me, including misdirecting me to other phone numbers, placing me on hold for over an hour with each switch, and simiar tactics. I am still not sure if or when I will recieve a refund of about $1600.00
Fees for cancelling hotes totalled 180.00. Fees for cancelling train in Spain, total loss at about $500.00, fees for returning Euros purchased, $200.00, Entire vacation ruined, as Iberia could not put me on any other flight for more than 2 days. I planned and paid for most of the trip months ago when I booked.
Iberia Company Information
- Company Name:
- Iberia
- Website:
- www.iberia.com
