We have FF tickets on reserve through American, to fly from Miami to Barcelona on Iberia, and back home from Paris to Mia, on American Airlines. I read some old posts about Iberia, and there were some seriously negative comments concerning safety, service, comfort, and lost luggage. In an effort to give them the benefit of the doubt, has anyone flown Iberia lately? Your reactions please!!

Have you checked with AA about issuing the tickets from Miami to Madrid on AA, then continuing to Barcelona on Iberia? Maybe even overnighting in Madrid if you have time. Are these upgrades, coach tickets, or business class? I know they let me do similar things with BA on my FF business class tickets -- not so sure about coach FF tickets. I usually do AA from Miami to London, do a stayover, then continue on BA to somewhere else.

No, Patrick, we blew our business class mileage last summer on Air France. Boy was it wonderful. But this year we will be going coach. We originally wanted to just go MIA-CDG round trip. They didn't have the outbound, and since half of our trip is in the Dordogne, we thought Barcelona was a good enough option. I think I will call and see if they have the MIA-Mad leg open on AA... Do you know anything about Iberia? (See you @ the end of the month at the GTG!!)

OK, no I have no experience on Iberia. In the long run, it then makes more sense I think to fly direct to Barcelona instead of into Madrid. Any extra space comfort that AA might have over Iberia, will be countered by having to make another connection.

Yea, see you at McCabe's on the 31st.

Thanks Patrick..I always appreciate your input. Anyone else?

HI wren,
I think some of those negative posts from the archives about Iberia may have been mine!

In my long history with Iberia, they've cancelled flights, bumped me and changed the departure time (earlier not later) without notifying me.
BUT... to be perfectly fair and honest, my most recent experience (last April) with Iberia was fine. I redeemed AA miles for PHL-MAD, but going out they routed me through Miami on the Iberia flight rather than their own, then I flew back Madrid-ORD on Iberia (they code share that one), then on to PHL on American.
While the boarding procedure in Miami was rather chaotic, with everyone, including first, business and coach boarding at the same time, the overhead compartments miniscule like on a European bus (very old plane) and the seat pitch in coach really tight, they certainly got me to Madrid on time, actually early, ditto from Madrid to ORD and didn't lose my luggage.
The meals were actually fine and the wine was free, so I had no complaints! I had dreaded flying Iberia given my history, but I had no problems whatsover. Plus it was free! So, I must give them that. If I had enough AA miles to redeem, I'd do it again.

We flew from Barcelona via Madrid to JFk in November on Iberia. Like you, I had lots of doubts. (Flights were part of a package.) But... there were no problems, flight was comfortable(not full), service was fine(gate person helped me change seats that had been reserved incorrectly), arrived on time.
And, as I recall, the food was not all that bad.

Well, I guess I am a little more encouraged. I guess it is free, but the safety/lost luggage thing disturbs me. I can tolerate not-so-nice attendants or food, and perhaps even not the most comfortable seats, but lost luggage and especially safety have me worried.

wren, I wouldn't necessarily blame the lost luggage thing on Iberia. Miami has major problems there. Last time flying into Miami from Paris on AA, we waited over two hours for our luggage!! Seemed some ground crew took it to the wrong place and then nobody could find it -- not just ours -- the entire plane's!
At least flying direct from Miami to Barcelona, there shouldn't be any problem with their losing the luggage.

Patrick, I just called AA again, we do have a change of planes in Madrid, although the flight number remains the same for the flight to Barcelona. So the scary part is we do change planes. I guess I will just pray for safety and careful luggage handling before we go, because it looks like the only flight that works for us right now.

I flew Iberia in '02, but it was only from Barcelona to Majorca and back. We had no problems at all.

I've flown with Iberia and it was fine. The flight was as comfortable as could be expected in coach. Both times they were on time with no problems. As I recall they had a really good "Asian Vegitarian" meal, in fact, the people eating the meat were asking us how we got such good food. Guess the chicken wasn't great.

I hadn't even thought about this part of our upcoming trip until I was just surfing the net, wondering what the seat configuration on our flight would be, and saw a pageful of awful reviews of this airline. Someone said it was a flying jail!!! Another said the only "pro" was that she returned alive. This shall be an interesting flight...

Just wanted to follow up with my own review of the airline. We had an absolutely easy, uneventful flight to Madrid, and then to Barcelona. FAs were competent and polite. Food was just fine. The seats were a little tight, but not unbearably so. My husband's bag didn't show up in BCN, so I went to the desk to inquire about it. The agent who helped was polite and efficient. She immediately saw that it was on the next flight out from Madrid, and said the airline would deliver it to our hotel late that afternoon. We went into town and checked in to our hotel. After a brief nap, we went out, and when we returned later that evening, the bag was in our hotel room, as promised. Based on this experience, I would certainly fly Iberia again.