AA or Iberia???
 

We have never flown from the US on Iberia (only w/i Europe). If you had the choice to fly either American or Iberia, which would you choose (price and schedule being pretty much equal?)based on any experiences you have had with Iberia. I HATE American but not sure about Iberia. Any thoughts?

Not sure if this info changes your answer...but we are going SNA to MAD. Thanks!

We took Iberia back to the US three years ago. The space between seats was very tight and the food was unremarcable. The service was pretty good.

Depending on where you are flying from, the flights are the same, just listed as either AA or Iberia. I've flown both and prefer Iberia, especially business class, when possible.

Oh dear God...Iberia is the WORST. Not a big fan of American, but it's heaven compared to Iberia. The flights are bad enough, but trying to talk to the ground crew is pure comedy.

I realize the SNA to ORD segment will be code share with AA but the ORD to MAD is definately Iberia and that is my concern. Thanks!

I've taken the Iberia ORD-MAD flight. Uneventful. No better or worse than most.

The only thing that 'tips the scale' for me is: Iberia may offer a 'Visit Spain' Pass at a good price (i.e., 4-flight segments in Spain). We bought that and flew MAD-Sevilla, Sevilla-Barcelona, Barcelona-Santiago, and Santiago-MAD

As for the Service, Iberia's Flight attendants on U.S.-Spain routes act like Marquesas: as if they're doing you a favor just doing their job.

I've flown MIA-MAD with friends that fly that route regularly. We took AA at their suggestion. AA and Iberia code-share flights and frequent flyer miles through the One-World program. That being said, getting Iberia to give you priority boarding as a One-World Sapphire (AA Platinum) is difficult and the Iberia gate staff apparently needs guidance on the program. It was recommended by both of my friends to take AA vs Iberia. If you are AA platinum, make sure you make use of the Iberia lounge at the Madrid airport. Nice place to relax with snacks and all of the free ethanol you can drink.

Ned I agree with you about the service on Iberia in general. But once I had a funny flight attendant on Iberia who was the Spanish equivalent of Groucho Marx!
He would wear the glasses and mustache etc...

Thank you all for your input. We are actually now considering using frequent flier miles just to unload some of them. Iberia has nothing on our dates so it will probably have to be AA (unless I can find something on one of United's partner airlines) LAX to MAD then a British Airways flight out of MAD to LHR then an AA flight to LAX. Our other option is to fly out of Barcelona but we were considering staying in Madrid for a few days then going down to Zafra and using that as a base to travel about. Doesn't make much sense to trek up to Barcelona

We are back from Spain and I finally have time to thank everyone who assisted us....thank you!!!

I wanted to add my hindsight comment to this post. We ended up on AA (LAX>>MIA>>MAD) and it was an uneventful, typical AA flight (late, surly flight attendants, bad food). (A sidenote about the food: When one orders a vegetarian meal why would AA substitute a rice cake for a croissant/muffin (ostensibly for the dairy products in it?) for breakfast yet give one yogurt? And why on earth would they take the OJ off and give you water instead?)

On the way home (scheduled BCN>>JFK>>LAX) we heard about the blizzard due to hit NY region and contacted AA the night before. We were rescheduled on Iberia (BCN>>MAD>>MIA then AA MIA>>LAX. What a world off difference!!! At least from the perspective of traveling with an infant. Every single member of the flight crew on both flights went out of their way to assist us even when we were not asking for any assistance. DD was traveling as a lap child and the crew went out of their way to make sure we had a great seating arrangement both times. When I declined the meal simply saying "no thank you I don't eat dairy" the flight attendant actually searched for and found something I could eat! Every Iberia employee from gate to plane was helpful and so friendly to DD. In fact, the passengers on the Iberia flight were so friendly and helpful as well. Everyone made us feel welcome with DD rather than giving us the side-eye we got from passengers on AA. In fact, we were in the domestic terminal for BCN>>MAD and the luggage cart tipped over (loaded down with carseat, baby bed, etc) and numerous other travelers stopped to help and were adamant about my not trying to pick things up (I was wearing DD in a sling). The same thing happened in LAX on the outbound flight and no one even slowed down.

In sum, at least when traveling with an infant I would take Iberia in a heartbeat over AA!

Those Spaniards are suckers for children.