Iberia Airlines reliability and Baggage Sharing?
 

I am flying to Atlanta to Madrid in October on skymiles on Delta. My retun trip is also from Madrid, but I dont want to have to back track. I was thinking of taking a morning flight to Madrid from Seville on Iberia Air, and then catching my Delta flightin Madrid. The Iberia flight leaves at 7:30 getting to Madrid at 8:30 and my flight to Atlanta is not until 11:30 so there is plenty of time. I guess I'm just wondering the chances of flights being seriously delayed or just plain canceled. Also does anyone know if I could check my bags all the way through to Atlanta even though there would be two separate itineraries? I think Iberia and Delta have some type of baggage agreement, even though they unfortunately don't have a skymiles agreement.

DO NOT TRUST IBERIA WITH YOUR LUGGAGE!!!! I wrote in caps for emphasis! They lost my bags recently for 12 days! I was flying with American/Iberia. Believe me, dont do it!

On the other hand, I too flew Iberia from Sevilla to London, connecting on American to the States. Everything went perfectly. Luggage transfer was smooth. Iberia staff was more than pleasant and offered to reseat other guests in order to keep our children together.

You can check out statistics about the incidence of lost luggage and will find that per miles flown the rates are low.
If Iberia and Delta have a luggage agreement you should be able to check the bags through...I'd enquire beforehand HERE by calling the airlines rather than necessarily relying on a possibly un-informed check-in agent.
Three hours between flights should give you plenty of cushion even if there is a delay.

I am thinking of a fligt to Madrid on Iberia. Can anyone tell me whether the seats are tight. I have flown American and found that there was plenty of leg room. I am concerned about Iberia.

skerew,
We recently returned from Bilbao to the U.S. We flew Iberia from Bilbao to Madrid (better connection than with Spanair), then US Air from Madrid home. Because we purchased both tickets together, we were able to check our bags straight through, and our luggage transfer in Madrid went smoothly. Our bags arrived with us.
While Iberia has changed flight departure times without notifying us, involuntarily bumped us (once) and cancelled flights, we've actually never had luggage problems with them.