Albéniz: Iberia

Iberia's Better, But...

Advantages: Service, the fleet, catering generally
Disadvantages: Punctuality, lack of drinking water

One of the uncontrolled aspects of booking a package deal holiday is that you are letting your tour operator loose with the choice of airline, and you have absolutely no idea what criteria they are using to make their choice. It's easy to think that they'll go for the cheapest option (having already published their all-in price), but maybe they are savvy enough to know that their own reputation will rest partly on this part of the holiday experience, which is entirely beyond their control. This is especially so, if you book through relatively small companies who certainly have no clout with the major airlines. In the past, I have been lucky having had very good experiences of BA and Virgin Atlantic, so was not duly concerned to get my holiday paperwork confirming that the flights were with Iberia: a known name, but (to me ...

hiker 15.04.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Iberia - IBE

Flying the friendly skies with Iberia

Advantages: Prices, staff, punctual
Disadvantages: No free food/drink!

I booked my flight through BA but I found myself flying Iberia, as it was a code share flight. BA and Iberia are both part of the Oneworld Alliance. I was booked on a Malaga-Heathrow flight. You should be aware if you are booked on certain BA/GB Airways flights you might be flying on an Alliance partner airline instead. You will be told this at the time of booking. The airlines in the Alliance are: Iberia, Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, LAN and Qantas I had heard A LOT of bad press about Iberia, the fact it was unreliable, the food was appalling and the flight attendants were surly, didn?t speak English and did as little work as possible. About Iberia: They are the Spanish national flag carrier; a very large airline and they fly all around the world. They have 215 planes; carry around 30 ...

Katieshaz 13.02.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Iberia - IBE

Iberia. No problems, once airborne

Advantages: We got from London Heathrow to Madrid and back safely and on time
Disadvantages: British Airways codeshare; I'm sure that BA would have been somewhat better!

From my reasonably limited experience flying with Iberia, Spain's Flag-flying airline, which is limited to one return flight between London Heathrow (LHR) and Madrid Barajas (MAD), I actually have few complaints about this airline. I nearly wrote "no", but stuck with "few". They are remarkably punctual. The seats are comfortable, and the cabin crew are friendly, professional and inherently Spanish. In that sense, they absolutely adore kids and Josh was very well looked after! I booked our flights through British Airways. They (BA) are a very good, reliable airline and one can always rely on complimentary (which is just an unnecessarily long word for "free") food and drink on board their flights. They do, however, "codeshare", which is why we ended up flying with Iberia. And if you ever get free refreshments on Iberia, then I ...

andymcf 27.08.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Iberia - IBE