Recently flying to Tenerife we - by no choice had to return using Iberia, infact when we were left stranded in Tenerife with no other charter flights back to the UK, my friend suggested Iberia. I said that if we used Iberia to fly back to England we would probably be bankrupt bearing in mind their reputation for high fares. Well we didn’t actually have a choice and the next flight to Madrid was leaving any minute (you have to fly back via Madrid).
We rushed over to the ticket desk and were amazed that it would only cost £60 each for a one-way fare back. I thought this was a bargain and we tried buying 2 tickets with my Mastercard, which is a credit card. To my amazement they don’t take Mastercard!!!! My friend tried giving his Electron card to them and they accepted that! I have never found anywhere in this country that that even takes Electron so I thought that was a bit unusual!

We got to the gate by running there and it looked as if most people were asleep in the waiting area. The plane wasn’t even standing at the gate! And there we were thinking it was all ‘HURRY HURRY HURRY!!’.

Because this was an internal Spanish flight to Madrid, I really was expecting some dog of a plane, but to my sheer amazement this huge Airbus A340 parked at the gate and was thinking wow! This plane normally does routes like Madrid to Los Angeles and Cuba but there it was waiting for us!!
We started boarding and they kept us standing in the tunnel for about 20 mins which was a bit nasty. Then we stepped into the plane and were so new it looked as if it had only done a few flights. We sat right at the back and it wasn’t the most spacious place to be. The legroom was ok, but the seats were very comfy (because it was long-range plane) and they even had mini footrests!
The flight took off on time and these big tv monitors lowered from the ceiling. First of all they showed a ‘skymap’ and after a few minutes we wer
e subjected to a terrible American comedy show with awfully bad sketches that were meant to be funny. And as you would expect, most Spanish people were in fits of laughter and I was feeling ill. I would say that the general Iberia video that advertises there services and company is quite good even if you do have to watch the ‘OneWorld Alliance’ advert about 20 times!!
The only other bad thing about the flight (no fault of Iberia) was that I really didn’t want to be reminded that I was going to Madrid (knowing we would have to get a connecting flight). Now Iberia really wanted to wind us up by constantly showing programmes like ‘Things to do in Madrid’ and ‘Places to eat in Madrid’!! We weren’t stopping in Madrid!!!
The Iberia crew onboard however were fantastic, not only do they look the part with great uniforms but they all look so pretty! They we very professional. When it was time for food, we were served dinner that was very tasty and then we were offered buttered rolls and extra drinks. About 20 mins later, the crew came round again offering extra deserts and more buttered rolls. We were spoilt for choice!

We landed quite late, and though my friend was worried that we would of missed the connecting flight, I assured him that in true Spanish tradition, all Spanish flights tend to be delayed for hours!
And would you believe it, the connecting flight was delayed by about 2 hours! How convenient!

At Madrid we got to the ‘connection centre’ which was basically a hall with about 200 people screaming there heads off to 1 member of staff that had to see everybody’s passport – madness!! However we arrived at the gate for the London flight and we were greeted by a member of Iberia who personally told us the flight was delayed and she offered us a seat and an estimate of when we were to board – what service!!!

We eventually took off on our way to Heathrow
, which was a but awkward because my car was parked at Stansted (long story, read other review!), anyway because I live about 15 mins from Heathrow it wasn’t too bad.

The flight from Madrid to Heathrow was excellent. On another newish 757 aircraft. The inflight entertainment was actually better than on the last plane, with mini tv’s above your head every 3 to 4 rows. The crew were just as good as on the last flight.
We landed a little late but my experience of Iberia was generally a good one, not like some of the scare stories you hear when travelling on the less important routes.