IBERIA
 

Traveling to Madrid from Miami this summer. Heard Iberia's service is bad (stranded passengers, wrong destinations, etc.) Any recent experiences out there? Any alternatives?<BR><BR>

Between myself and other members of my family, we have flown Iberia roundtrip to/from Spain at least 10 times over the past 5 years, mostly from Miami, but also from Chicago and NY. Have also flow them within Europe a handful of times. We have never had a serious issue such as lost luggage, wrong destination or being stranded. Given the number of complaints, maybe we were just lucky, but they were all uneventful, straightforward flights. The 747s that Iberia flies out of Miami are older than the Airbuses they fly out of other locations, but perfectly acceptable. Coach seating is very cramped on Iberia for me, as I am 6'3&quot;.<BR><BR>With that said, boarding tends to be disorderly, and the very senior flight attendants on the transatlantic flights tend to be surly. Speaking Spnaish is an advantage. Food is actually pretty good, as is the fine Spanish wine.<BR><BR>The best alternative out of Miami is AA, which also flies direct to Madrid (I believe one flight a day, as opposed to Iberia's two). Note that, due to the oneworld alliance, the Iberia flights are code-shared with AA; if you really want AA, check the flight to make sure it is on AA metal. I have also taken this flight, and it is standard AA service.<BR><BR>Ultimately, I make my decison based on price, schedule and FF considerations.

I have taken a few roundtrips with Iberia on the Miami - Cancun v.v. flights and the service was better than expected. The first time I flew Iberia to the Caribbean was such a wonderful treat because Iberia overbooked that flight and I was bumped to First Class! Overall, can't complain.

Any updated information about Iberia from Madrid to Chicago on an Airbus 340? It's a daytime flight so I don't mind being in coach since I can get up and walk around.

I just took the Chicago-Madrid flight in March with no problems. There isn't a whole lot of legroom in coach, but I found the food to be good and had no problems with surly flight attendants or lost luggage. I had smooth, on-time flights in both directions.

Just a heads up about the flight back from Madrid though. We had to unpack all of our checked luggage for security purposes. All passengers on flights direct to the US had to do this, as it was mandated by the US Homeland Security department. I don't know if they're still doing that or not though.

Anne

Anne - Thanks for the positive feedback. I have heard about the security inMadrid on flights to USA. Well, I'd rather they be overly cautious.

I flew MAD to MIA in March. My husband was carrying my carryon and got picked for the hand search. I was already on the plane. The Spanish security man apparently had a great time pulling out the very feminine articles from the bag my husband was carrying. My husband kept trying to tell him it was his wife's bag. He says the man just kept smiling and nodding his head in a doubtful way, saying Si, senor.

Just reutrned from Madird to Chicago and had a positive experience with the airline. The food was actually quite tasty, service was fine, movies were good, seating was a little roomier than on some other transatlantic flights.

Our only problem was that we had &quot;confirmed seats&quot; window and aisle but when we checked in, we are switched to the middle section of the A340. After some heated discussion they were able to reassign us to the seats we had requested. American says Iberia often does this, confirming seats and then not honoring them.