Iberia Reviews

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.

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.

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:

Terrible service business class flight, partial amount for the price paid

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!

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.

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.

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.

I then boarded Iberia flight # 6250 leaving JFK at 6pm going to Madrid on July 22nd.

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.

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!

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.

It seems impossible to me that at this day and age one couldn't file a lost luggage claim.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

emotional damage, fainancial damage and phisical

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

They should repair or replace my damaged luggage. Iberia is irresponsible and undependable.

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.

i am not able to attend the wedding, thats d only reason why i flew! unfortunate to choose iberia!

we had a very bad experience

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

I have only one big problem: Some of my personal belongings disappeared when I arrived to Istanbul. I checked in 2 pieces of luggage in New York. I got both pieces when I arrived to Istanbul, but I realized that the side pockets of my sports bag were opened and many personal belongings were taken out. I immediately went to the lost Luggage? office that represents Iberia (CELEBI) and reported the damage. They took down some information and told me that I should be getting a call within the next 24 hours. I havent heard from Iberia for 20 days. I e-mailed the airlines twice and faxed a document a few times and got no answer. Eventually I got a hold of someone from the corporate office after I sent a letter to the CEO of Iberia. The person reviewed my file and told me that I had no claim but as a good faith Iberia was willing to offer some money; less than 1/3 of the actual value of my missing items. They told me that the reason for offering so little was that I didnt declare all the items at the lost luggage office in Istanbul. I tried to explain to this person that I was told by Iberia staff the following OK, dont worry about your missing items, just fill out this form and someone will call you in 24-hours and they will take your statement. You can give them to full list of missing items. We dont need a list from you.

I had horrible experience with Iberia customer service. They would not transfer my calls to the managers; they would not give their names or ID numbers. IBERIA JUST DOESNT WANT TO HEAR THIS. AFTER 5-MONTHS THE CASE HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED.

$1600 for my missing personal belongings

So it all started on June 6th 2007. I went from Brussels to Madrid and from there to Lanzarote (Canary Islands). On arrival at Lanzarote my luggage wasn't there. It had been lost bij Iberia somewhere along the road.. I Immediately went to the luggage service where a spanish man asked my TACK number and pasport. He had switched my familyname for my first name. So my file was not Yserbyt, but called Lynn.

The second thing he asked was a description of my luggage. I carefully described it.

I filed a complaint with my boss (I was entertainer and worked in a team) who spoke spanish (Cuban).

No news after 3 days so I went back to the airport.. they didn't know or couldn't tell me anything usefull.

So I called my school and they started calling Iberia. I called Iberia many times during the time my luggage was missing. The only language they know, Espanol, nada mas.

So we called back to the school and they too were fed up, so they hired a lawyer. He called the company went to the airport in Brussels.. In the meanwhile I was told to make a list of the objects that were in the luggagep>. I did it so carefully that I actually didn't miss anything out (the stolen goods were on that list as well).

The lawyer probably scared the hell out of them (Iberia), because after 21 days my bagage turned up at my hotel.

During those 21 days Iberia had promised us a compensation of 52 euros (+/- 77 dollars) for each day I was without it. 52 x 21 = 1092 (1617 dollars).

When I received my luggage several objects were missing including some expensive branded clothing, my new basketball, shoes, tops, shirts, etc.

Next problem: compensation and damage claim

So the luggage was returned to me on June 27th 2007. I stayed in Lanzarote for about 6 months, untill the end of octobre. During that time I made lists and copies of pasport and stolen objects. Really I must have sent the list of stolen things about 4 times. And the asked a copy of my pasport about 8 times. (They must have a master genius working that administrative job)

Mother kept calling now for the compensation they had promised us. Everytime they would talk Spanish or little English. They couldn't even understand numbers! So Mother called about 20 times during those six months and everytime she was told we would het payed in about 2 weeks, 1 months, the next time it was 3 months ...

I eventually arrived home on Octobre 1th 2007. Still no compensation. Mother called back, they needed ANOTHER copy of my pasport!!! Again we take a copy we fax it. We also faxed an angry letter to them, believe me I was really agitated. Mother called 1 day after to know if they had received the faxes. The awnser was YES, and we were told to expect the compensation (again) by the newyear or just after newyear.

We waited. and waited. 2 weeks after newyear still no news. Mother called again. oh yes, they needed another copy of my pasport. How cool is that?! I've never made so many copies of my pasport in 4 years!

Eventually we got 2 letters from Spain Iberia. A lettre to let us know that we are not going to be compensated for the stolen goods. And a second one to inform us that we get 147 euro out of the 1092 euro (218 out of the 1617 dollars) that was promised us.

It is simply discusting how they postpone it so that eventually they don't have to pay you. They just kept us holding and holding and holding.

I will never ever travel with Iberia again! They absolutely don't have customer care service and no luggage service. I have never been put ashamed like that! And I never will again. I will discourage people travelling with Iberia.

Not carrying my VISA card on me, and not in possession of any chequebook, I would be thus obliged to make such a transaction in cash. Given that no ATM machine in the vicinity was equipped to dispense to me the 720-odd euros of cash in transactions over the duration of one day, I was unable to make this new purchase in time for my desired flight. I would thus have to purchase a ticket for the next departing flight for my destination. Besides the inconvenience and loss of time incurred (I eventually managed to purchase a ticket for the same scheduled time but on the following day), my overriding grievance is that 720 euros were transferred from my bank account to the airline for a service which was never provided. In ethical terms, this is tantamount to embezzlement! As for the legality of this policy, I would like Iberia to explain on what lawful grounds they are still retaining my money.

About a week before departure date, I emailed to the address that sent me my flights details, to confirm our intention of flying, but had no reply. In fact, it was very surprising that there is no answer at all and on the site : www.iberia.com, there is absolutely no space to write to the airline, contrary to what Iberia claims. When we showed up at the Iberia counter at Marrakech airport on August 21, and showed the paper copy of our flight confirmation, we were told that that reservation was canceled and these seats were no more available. No reason was given why, and naturally we were completely unaware of it. Since the representative from Iberia/Royal Air Maroc refused to consider our case, and because I had to be present at the International Statistical Institute Meeting in Lisboa to deliver my lecture the following day, we were then forced to buy 2 other tickets at the nearby counter handled by Royal Air Maroc, at the total price of 18330 MAD, i.e. more than 3 times the price we paid in June. Then we were allowed to board the same flights that we should be entitled to at the start.

On the first flight, there were at least 9 vacant seats that could have accommodated us, and similarly, for the second flight. I just do not understand why this was not done by the Iberia supervisor in charge. Upon landing in Madrid we have immediately filed a complain at Iberia office at the airport. We bought the tickets in good faith, and never suspected, at any time, that Iberia could cancel our seats, after accepting payment from my credit card, and issuing us 2 reserved seats for each flight. Is it a scam to force unsuspecting passengers to disburse much more for their seats? This incident could have been the result of an unwanted failure somewhere in Iberias Internet booking system. But, in any case, we feel strongly that we are innocent victims of Iberia, and wish to have the sum of 18330 MAD minus 5814 = 12 516 MAD refunded to us.

We had to disburse $1760 US more for these two tickets, beside the anguish caused to us at the Marrakech airport

Now I have to wait for nearly 5 hours for my connection to Amsterdam. What a waste of time which could have been solved easily.

On arriving in Madrid, I found my bag on the floor. Thinking nothing of it I disembarked from the plane. On arriving at my final destination in Brazil, I found my camera had been broken when I went to download the pictures a few days later. I believe it was Iberia's incompetence in not making people check in excess carry on luggage that caused my camera to be broken when it fell off the chair, and I believe they are responsible for the damage. However I have travel insurance with Cover More, and I was informed by my travel agent that I need to get a statement from Iberia airlines in order to make a claim. Thank you for your assistance.

We chose to fly with Iberia (and not with El-Al and Royal Air Maroc at a cheaper price) specifically because the flight times enabled us to work on the day of departure, and enabled us a full day in Marrakech before flying home. The changes made by Iberia meant that both of these requirements were not met.

Due to these unnecessary changes: We wasted 11 hours (from 12:00-23:00) in Barcelona airport on the outward journey, and eventually we were put on the so-called canceled flight from Barcelona to Marrakech! We wasted more than 7 hours in airports and transit (from 17:00-00:30) because Iberia re-routed us through Madrid instead of through Barcelona. On the return journey they wouldn't allow us to use the lounge, even though I am a One World / BA Gold card holder. They would only let me use the lounge with 1 guest. Six people each lost a day of work on the 7th of November (had to leave Tel Aviv at 08:15 instead of at 16:40); 6 people each lost a day of vacation on the 12th of November (had to leave Marrakech at 14:10 instead of 19:10). Four of the travelers did not have a Kosher meal from Madrid to Tel Aviv, even though it had been booked weeks in advance We had the aggravation of nearly being stranded in 3 foreign airports. We were held to one side, like criminals, for over an hour, in Marrakech airport. We had to search for ground staff to help us continue our travel. Our vacation was completely ruined by the changes made by Iberia. I also faxed my complaint to Iberia head office, customer complaints (after it took me hours to find their fax number). Since my letter, I received a letter from Iberia in Israel saying they have forwarded my complaint to head office, who will contact me in due course. No one has contacted me since then.

Dec 24: Finally arrive at our destination minus our luggage. Dec 25: Luggage arrives. Dec 30: Get our flights home without a hitch. Result: Five whole days with my family (one day with my sister) who I hadn't seen in one and a half years. Our original trip would have given me 11 days. I will never book or waste my money on Iberia again. The customer service was very rude and put the phone down. The customer really isn't valued. Unfortunately for Iberia, my parents who live in Spain won't be flying with them either, as well as all the people we share our story with.

Our trip was cut by six days that I would have spent with my family.

Lost a week's worth of clothing, keys to my apartment, office, and car.

My Stepfather who is 75 and my Mother who is 67, decided to go ahead with the trip. When the plane took off from Miami four hours into the flight my Mom started to get sick. They called for bags from the flight attendant and asked for water. She yelled at my Stepfather to Sit Down, and he tried to beg her not to make a scene, and pleaded please my wife needs help she didnt want to vomit all over the plane. She would not even let him speak and when he switched to Spanish she threatened to call the air marshalls on him.

Some nice passengers grabbed a bag for him but the stewardess was flat out rude she never came to ask if my Mom was okay or anything. They never did get the water. The passengers on the flight teamed together to help my Mom. And they were outraged and were asking the stewardess to please give this woman food and water and she ignored them. Its hard enough to be sick in front of people but to be treated with such a lack of respect is indecent!!!

They ended up leaving Spain on Sept 12th. They used Frequent flyer miles to get back home on American Airlines. Iberia has charged them over $2,000 dollars for flights not used. We were given customer service numbers to call and they hang up on us!!! They play a game of sorry cant hear you, hanging up now.

My daughters luggage never arrived in Spain - they claimed American Airlines didn't transfer it to them in Chicago. AA claims they did, and that they can track the bag to Iberia in Dublin (Iberian can't track the bag at all). When I went to the lost luggage in Malaga, Spain - they feigned that they didn't speak English or Spanish (They were not happy to discover I speak both) they told me they couldn't help me and that I'd need to file a report on the luggage contents, which I did.

They said we had an allowance of $225 while in Spain to buy clothing to replace her lost luggage (give me a break, the 5 pairs of jeans in her suitcase cost more then that, not to mention the other contents). Well, when I got back to the airport for my return trip, they said I couldn't be reimbursed there, that I would need to wait for Iberia to contact me for receipts to be reimbursed. Well, we're home now for 4 days, and guess what??? Still haven't heard from Iberia. I tried to call them. Wow, what a joke. Got nowhere.

So, I called AA to see if they could help me - got a rude woman on the phone who says that because AA was not the flight that got me to my final destination - they are not responsible for my luggage and that I cannot file a claim with them. Note that when I checked my luggage all the way through from Seattle to Malaga - it was with AA!! I asked her how they could say they are not responsible for my luggage since they checked it all the way through - she hung up on me. Still getting no where with them. I'm on the verge of filing suit against both airlines and see who the courts believe is responsible. $250 doesn't even begin to compensate me for the lost luggage let alone the incredibly bad experience I've had.

Add insult to injury, the flight crew was horribly rude, their translations into English on the flight were so disgustingly slaughtered that I had to interpret for everyone around me (maybe they should pay me for my professional time as well), the food on the flight was not eatable, the plane was filthy, the dropdown screens for the inflight movie didn't drop down uniformly so we were required to crane our necks in odd directions to see a screen further up and to the right - and then.........the movie is Die Hard 2 - hardly appropriate for the children on the flight - and because it was being shown on the main screens and not on individual movie players, there was no way for me to not expose my child to the movie.

All in all, it was the worst travel experience I've had. Bear in mind I travel for work about 30 weeks out of the year - and never have I had an experience like this before. I will do my absolute best to not travel with Iberia again.

My daughter is out about $500 in clothing, misc and I am out an additional $250 for replacment clothing which of course we've never been reimbursed for.

Upon returning home, I continued to call the lost luggage center but still no news of the bag. Finally I was told to write a letter with the bag description and itemized contents, receipts for replacement items, copies of the lost luggage paperwork, boarding passes, luggage claim, passport etc which I did sent to the Madrid headquarters August 27.

To date we have heard nothing from Iberia. When I try to call the lost luggage center now, I am placed on hold for 3 minutes listening to hideous music and then the system disconnects. I've called the reservation line trying to find alternate means of contacting these people, but they are entirely unsympathetic and say I must keep trying and that when they try to call the number they are able to get through.

The alternate number I was finally given for the Madrid was of no help and they referred me back to the lost luggage center I cannot get through to. The whole system seems to be impentrable. I have never encountered such inconvenience, stress, frustration and been met with such utter contempt by airline employees. We will never fly this airline again, and I would appreciate any tips for other ways I might contact the necessary representative of this company in order to be properly reimbursed for this entire ordeal.

They are Georgian Citizens so they traveled 35 hours from Georgia to Istanbul turkey by way of bus went to the airport and went to go check in ...well 1 lady she would not give her name did not allow my family to board the plane we made phone calls in fact the ticket agency was also there at the airport he went to the counter and explained that he showed Iberia airlines the visa document 1 month before ,they told him to have the passengers come on the day of the departure.

Well I also called the toll free number for Iberia airlines and spoke to a supervisor in Miami ,yes I do have his name and I did a 3 way call ....they hung up the phone in our face,would not speak with us at all...

It did not help they my family members either lost what little money they had or was pick pocketed at the airport,so the travel agency gave them money to return to their Hotel in Istanbul.

My Travel agent went to Air France counter and showed them the visa document and Air France told him ,yes they can Board the plane with that document however the next flight ??? 1 week later.

Now I must run to the local Western Union office and wire them money,

To top this whole ordeal off they kept 20% of $4260 that was my penalty for doing business with their airline.I have tried all day to get some answers however all I get is a { i,m sorry Sir } make a complaint sure only via e-mail ,cannot speak to anyone live ,forget about it

The lady at the Iberia Airlines counter to add insult to injury took pictures of their passports and the visa document as well and smiled and said ...don't call us we,ll call you,and did not even take the hotel,s number.

So after 35 hours by bus and 1 night at the hotel my family gets penalized $800 and sent back to their hotel.And yes they have a Visa for Costa Rica, their Passports and other official documents but was still turned away.

I am convinced as other ppl hve suggested that Iberia has a major problem with employees stealing luggage as I had close to $2500 US worth of clothes, shoes etc in my garment bag. I was forced to call a hotline for the nxt 3 days while in Barcelona which no one answered. Finally when i returned to the US I also had to call the hotline # where they told me i would hve to wait 30 days before they would consider reimbursing me for my lost luggage. Suffice to say it is now 10/9/07 and I still don't have my luggage.

I will take the person's advice on one blog that i read and simply take Iberia to small claims court as I do not get any feedback and I get different answers every time i am able to get someone on the phone. This seems to be their MO. Frustrate customers until they get tired of following up and hope they will go away.

Close to $2500 worth of clothes lost/stolen. Major inconvenience/stress associated with whole sitation.

My bag, well, that never showed for our entire 8-day stay, and now it's going on 11 days (we're back home in Minnesota), and I'm having no luck contacting Iberia. I'm hoping my travel agency AAA can help me. Iberia Airlines appears to be more of an illegal thieving operation than a legitimate international airlines.

The web site doesn't let me make a claim (the menu option to make a claim leads to the make a complaint form) or give me an e-mail or FAX number. Every time someone from Iberia gives me a number, digits get reversed or mixed up, so I'm not even sure the PIR number is correct. I'm ready to take these guys to small claims court, since I don't think they'll let me know what their own process for filing a claim is.

We have receipts for a few hundred dollars' worth of contents. Also in the bag are some irreplaceable items of no value to anyone else - undeveloped film and a certificate for walking the Santiago Pilgrimage route.

During the flight the attendents were very rude, and unprofessional to say the least! My daughter, and I were discriminated against because we are Americans. Iberia served lunch, and I requested a different entree and was told NO. When I complained things went from bad to worse, and the manager told me I had an attitude problem. I was not given food for the entire 8 1/2 hour flight. The restrooms were filthy and there was no hand soap to wash our hands.

I also mentioned the complaint on my return flight IB6400 on 25th July 2007, but no-one was interested and again I have heard nothing. I am very disappointed in the customer services of Iberia Airlines.

My colleague also travelled back on 26th July and during which flight the IFE system broke down. Both of us would expect some kind of compensation from Iberia in order to encourage us to use the airline again.

Knowing that he couldn't travel, I called Iberia to switch our flights for the next day, or the day after. I was told by the reservationist that I would need to purchase a new one-way ticket to Chicago. Absolutely no changes were allowed on the ticket I already had - regardless that this was a medical emergency. I had never heard of an airline that doesn't make concessions for medical emergencies with documentation, but Iberia makes no allowances. The reservationist's supervisor confirmed that I would need to purchase a new ticket for about $700. I offered to send them the emergency room report and the doctors orders, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. To say they were cold and indifferent is an understatement. There was nothing I could do so I purchased the new ticket.

When I returned home, I wrote the Customer Relations Unit. I explained what had happened in detail. I sent copies of my original plane ticket, my newly purchased one-way ticket, the emergency room report, and the doctor's orders. I begged them to refund my one-way ticket. That was nearly 2 months ago. After reading the numerous complaints about Iberia, I have no hope of being reimbursed, or to even get a response from this rude and horrible airline.

The tickets we received cost 943 Euro x 2 adults and 92 Euro for one infant for a total of 1979 Euro. This is 264 Euro more than we had agreed to purchase the tickets. We called Iberia offices in Italy and Spain at least 8 times and explained the problem. The agents have repeatedly refused to help us and promised that we would be called back by someone who would help us. No one has called us back and we have wasted countless hours calling, holding, and being ignored by Iberia employees. We have never been treated so callously by any other airline, and frankly we are shocked at how little attention Iberia has paid to our situation.

Once we finally gave up hope for a reimbursement, we decided to tackle the next issue. We are traveling with a newborn and wanted to ask for a bulkhead seat so we can use the infant seat. Sure enough, this can't be done by phone, and no one can help us except at the airport, where we will certainly encounter another rude employee who can't help us either. I am so disgusted.

We completed a claim form and when asked for a phone number that they could contact me at to schedule delivery of my baggage, I attempted to give them my international cell phone number. They said they would not call long distance and it had to be local. Even though they lost my luggage, they wouldn't make the call. Since i was renting an apartment (not going to a hotel), I called to ask for the apartment rental contact person's cell number. Then, we were told to call the number on the claim form to check on the status of the baggage, however only twice in five days did I actually reach someone after numerous calls.

On the fifth day, I was at the airport where I missed a flight to Mallorca on Iberia (see below), so I went to baggage claim to look for my luggage myself. There, the agent told me that the belts in MAD had not been working for a week and all of those bags were backed up and being randomly shipped to BCN. They were not logged before being shipped from MAD, but rather just shipped in bulk to BCN where they were being checked by hand at Iberia's warehouse to be matched with their missing person via a claim form.

They still had no record of my bags and sent me across the street to the warehouse in case they had arrived and not been logged. There, a woman told me to go look for my bags myself in the storage room. I found them! On my way out the woman took a portion of my claim ticket and threw it on the table. They didn't even check the tags to confirm that I picked the right luggage up. Additionally, everyone I spoke to at baggage claim and on the phone were very flip about the entire situation. It was like customer service didn't exist at all at Iberia. I will never fly them again.

Over 100 euro in international cell phone calls (I had no phone in the apartment I was renting) and about $300 in clothing and necessity expenses. More importantly, I lost 5 days of vacation time due to having to stay close to the neighborhood waiting for arrival of bags, since I had to be available for whenever the delivery person would arrive. Since I rented an apartment, I didn't have the luxury of a concierge to receive packages. I was so stressed over the constant waiting that on the 5th day I was delirious and missed a morning day-trip flight to Mallorca on Iberia (arrived 15-20 minutes prior to departure and wasn't allowed to check in, even though I had no bags to check). They wouldn't let me standby for next flight, but instead asked me to pay an additional 180-440 euro for each person (2) depending on which next departure time I would choose. We didn't incur the additional expense and sacrificed the 145euro paid for the original tickets.

An obvious case is the fact that they have a representative in the Havana airport to look after the arrival flights but they would not let you have his telephone number in case you want immediate assistance or follow up support. Of course in this way, you are not able to demand door to door delivery service after the bag is found. In my case, because of their lack of communication capacity or to be honest they do not care to communicate with their clients when they need emergency support from the airline, I was not able to get back my luggage after almost four weeks of it being lost.

We had our most valuable collection of clothes, souviners, camera and more in this extra large piece of luggage that will never be recovered. Everyone at Iberia was rude and not helpful. They treated all of us very badly on the flight where they dumped us in San Juan. The entire group of 200+ passengers have equal complaints. I got sick and they were less than helpful. I have had to return to work without any of my business clothes or shoes. I have no money to shop with. I was not the only one mistreated and had luggage stolen or lost.

Aside from the inconvenience and general annoyance, I incurred over $100.00 charges in new clothes and phone calls made to Iberia from my hotels in Madrid trying to resolve this issue. Since I returned to the states, I have wasted 2 full days trying to contact someone at their above phone number to no avail.

2. No one waited to assist in reaching connecting flight. IB 6999 to RLV arrived 5 before departure.

3. I was nor allowed to board because I was not at gate 20 minutes to departure (IB staff wants to be accommodated by customer due to new terminal, IB staff forgets to accommodate customers

4. I am denied boarding and take El-Al instead. 6 hours delay and not a single phone to call Israel and alert business partners

5. The fact that I am Emerald on the One alliance and travel 200,000 miles per year means nothing

6. Arrived to Israel with El Al with No Luggage. It too one week for it to arrive in Israel. By the time it got to Israel I was in Chicago

7. IB flight 7510 departs an hour late. Suddenly we find out that both WC in Economy are broken (I understand one but 2?) the flight is one long line of people waiting for the Business Class WC

8. Despite late arrival I run to make the IB6275 I arrive 5 minutes before departure but again I am told that I should have been there 20 minutes before (this type of policy I had never seen in my life)

We were told orally that the boarding is at 16:00 and the flight leaves at 16:30. When I got to the gate at 16:00 the boarding was already finished and I was not allowed to board the plane. Although the plane did not leave and that 6 other passengers were also in the same situation. My family who did not want to board the plane without me was told that I’m taken care of and I’ll be on the next plane, with that assurance they agreed to board the plane. That was a lie because Iberia made no effort to assist me or to get me on the next flight. There was no announcement for me or about the flight because apparently Madrid is a 'quiet' airport.

When I got to the information desk I was given a ticket to a flight leaving from another terminal 1.5 hours later. I asked to call my family but refused by all Iberia representatives, my mobile was in my luggage and I had no way to call. I’m sure that with a little effort Iberia could have put me on the next flight that left the same terminal half an hour later – at 17:00 but it seems effort was the last thing Iberia staff were interested in providing.

The ticket I received was not a boarding ticket and after great difficulties I got to the right terminal and had to check in again. At any given point there was a huge queue for information and the directions I was given were never sufficient, usually it concluded in a node and a hand showing some direction. When my family has landed in Barcelona they tryed to receive information on my whereabouts from Iberia representative but they couldn’t get any information about me – they were told that it will be a breach of my privacy to tell them on which flight a member of their group is! So they had no information on which flight I might arrive or if I’m alive at all for that matter.

Of course I was all the time assured by other Iberia staff that my family is informed about my position, Another Iberia lie. As I got to Barcelona I landed in a different terminal than my family, I couldn’t find my family or my luggage, I had to go through security to the carousel to search for my luggage, since no one was kind enough to escort me I had to explain my case to the Spanish police in order to get through the boarding gate. By mistake I arrived at the carousel for Terminal A instead of Terminal B and I had to do this trip twice.

The lady in lost luggage in Terminal A refused to call her colleague in Terminal B to inquire about a lost suitcase arriving from Quito, so I had to go there myself. At several points Iberia representatives were telling me that it is not their fault that I missed my flight and that I’m giving them a headache, Sorry but,I am the customer in this case, and me and others like me are paying their salaries I presume? 6 hours later than expected I reunited with my family in the Hotel. I can assure you that after this nightmare of inefficiency and lies none of us will fly Iberia again. I cannot not recommend Iberia to any of my friends either.

They then were told to go and speak to the red jacket people and were placed on the waiting list for August 12th on the 1 pm flight and on the 4pm flight. They were not offered a hotel, nor dinner nor anything and ended up sleeping the night at the Madrid Airport. August 12 came along and they were not accepted on the 1pm flight or on the 4 pm flight. I was here in the United States, I called the American Embassy, I called Iberia in Spain, I called Iberia in Miami, I called Iberia in New York -- no one could help me.

The stange part is that Iberia sent all of the nine passenger's baggage on the 11th of August.

To make a long story short, I had to purchase 3 tickets back to Portugal, and 3 additional tickets to the United States. I had to lay out $3500.00 just to get my family here in a timely manner. This was our first time traveling on Iberia and our last. I would like to speak to Mr. Fernando Conte García and ask him if this is how he takes care of his customers.

The passengers were then re-admitted to the country, and then checked in again (another 2 1/2 hour process) , through immigration and security. The flight finally left at 2pm on the 16th. 24 hours late. During one of the check-in procedures, a few passengers had their flight coupons for connecting flights removed, which meant, in my case, when i arrived for my new connecting flight out of Madrid, that i was told i could not board the flight without a valid flight coupon, although i had a valid boarding pass for that flight. I was harrassed and threatend and told to pay 50 euro for a replacment ticket, or i would not be allowed to board my flight.

Stress, sleep deprivation, uncertainty, harrasment by iberia staff, 2 days work lost (1 day waiting in airport, 1 day to recover sleep) Missed meetings, family disruption and fear. oh and finally, my bag was broken when it arrived in Dublin.

We had to go around asking for help and finally somebody sent us BACK to American Airlines on which we had come to NY. The AA officer checked the schedule and give us tickets to the DL82 going to Nice, France and from there the IB8776 to Barcelona. Becouse of this situation we lost full day of our vacation and all tours that day.

Then we came to Barcelona, the airline had lost our luggage. We had to stay in the hotel 36 hours without clothing, underwear, etc. 3. We had a tour scheduled for 10 days on a bus. The last day of the tour, April 9th, we had to drive 700 km from Madrid to Barcelona, slept over in a hotel there and in the morning we went to the airport to get on the IB6275 to Chicago this was shown on the confirmation email to be a non-stop flight. But for some reason our plane landed in Madrid and we had to change planes again and to go to Chicago!

This meant that we spent our last day in Spain traveling from Madrid to Barcelona when we could have just stayed in Madrid, take same sightseeing tours and taken the Plane from there. But this was not shown on the conformation email and/or our tickets. Resume: -Trip delay/Missed connection -No help from Iberia staff -Lost luggage (luggage delay) -Itinerary was not the same as the one in the conformation E-mail -We lost 1½ days of our tour driving from Madrid to Barcelona, we spent money on to go on the bus, food and 1 night in the hotel in Barcelona.

So I go to the ticket counter and the next flight is at 4pm (and we are put on a waiting list). I go back to the counter, and I get charged because my luggage is over by 5lbs, so I have to get back on the line for the ticket counter to pay for the excess baggage. Then she went on break so someone else helped us at the counter. I asked the guy that was helping us if he could check how many people were on the waiting list and I was told 3 including us. I also asked him how many people were going to miss the flight due to connecting flight delays and I was told 5. To me that means that I am definitely on the next flight but not to Iberia.

I had applied for my "frequent flier" card but I left it back in the US so the guy told me to just go to the iberia counter and that they would look it up for me. At the counter I was told that he could not find me in the system because my last name was "too common" and that I "picked a bad day to fly". Yeah I guess I was the one that overbooked the flights. It's finally 3:30 and we go to the counter where they are calling the passangers that were on the waiting list and our names were not the ones selected to fly. We are then told to go to the boarding gate and that they will put people in the aircraft as people are missing, by the time the aircraft was full there were still about 45 of us left over.

They told us that no other company was flying to Santiago that day (which we found out later was a lie). We eventually surrounded the customer service counter and they finally got a bigger plane for the 9pm flight but they tried to get us to accept a 8 hour bus ride on streets full of snow and ice instead. To make matters worse they never tried to get our suitcases out of the waiting area I went to make sure that they would be on the plane and I was asked "where did they tell you that they were going to put them", as if I worked there.

When we finally got on the airplane, they welcomed "Mr & Mrs Yamaguchi and family" who missed their connecting flight (with another airline company) and who they decided deserved first class seats. When we reached our final destination, our luggage was the only one there because we actually went to claim it. People that were offered a bus ride to another airport in Galicia found themselves without a bus and without their luggage. I ended up having Christmas Eve Dinner at 1am on Christmas Day and that is something that I will never forgive this airline company for.