Iberia Reviews

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.