Iberia - Madrid to Paris
 

Hi

I will also post this on the airline forum.

I'm flying to Europe on FF but may need to book a paid o/w flight on Iberia from Madrid to Paris. When I search the website it comes up with a business class fare in excess of 700 euros. I've tried all times of the year but get the same quote despite me requesting economy at the lowest possible fare. Does anyone know if why, and what should I do to get a quote for economy?

Thanks

If you are looking for a fixed date and hour...it's possible they don't have any economy seats left and then they show business class.
Try putting just the day in the search, and then look for a suitable hour with economy fare for yourself.

By the way, if you are flying from Madrid, try it on the spanish website.

Why don't you fly Easyjet or Vueling?

If you ask for a round trip ticket, the price will probably be much cheaper. Don't ask why. Yes, you just ignore the return portion.

Have you contact THEM by phone?

Does it have to be Iberia? Either way, I would try Air Europa out of Barajas. One way tickets are charge a "penalty", but nowhere near what you are getting from Iberia. Via Europa would be approx $150-200 o/w to Orly. Give them a try.

I just looked at one of the main French online ticket websites (www.govoyages.fr), and (using 1 April MAD PAR and 7 April PAR MAD), it quoted me a fare (including all taxes) of 92 euros round trip on Iberia.

Thanks for the tips at looking at the return and the govoyages site. It's 92 E on govoyages and 110 e as a promo flight on Iberia.

I guess I'm so used to booking each leg on domestic and LCCs.

Very quickly, I'm going to Toronto, NYC and London in December for work and then on to Madrid to visit relatives in Salamanca, where my daughter will meet me (her ticket is from SYD via YYZ to MAD). Christmas is in Paris with my family and friends, NYE in the French Alps. Just when this was organised, the opportunity to cruise from Orlando to Rio came up.

As you can gather, luggage is an issue - winter business and casual clothes, plus summer clothes for a two month trip.

I want to fly Iberia as it is a Oneworld partner and My paid ticket is SYD-YYZ Buenos Aires -SYD with QF,AA and Lan Chile, I'm using points YYZ-JFK JFK-LHR LHR-MAD. This gives me an allowance of 2 bags. We are flying GVA-MCO on BA business class. I can't afford to fly on a LCC due to the luggage restrictions.
My daughter has a 2 bag allowance flying from Madrid to Paris, so I'm taking the chance Iberia will recognise the allowance shown on the rest of my ticket or we can manage to squeeze the four bags into three.

<i>Why don't you fly Easyjet or Vueling?</i>

there could be few reasons:

1.luggage

2. EQMs if the OP is trying to requalify for OW status

3. If the OP has OW status they can use the buisness lounges when flying OW partner. Free food and drinks before the flight.

4. Many departures - in case of problems with the booked flight, IB can move the OP to a later flight. The LCCs may have 1 or 2 flights a day. Flight gets cancelled, the OP is screwed.

so, not everything is about chepest fares.

Well said AA. All of those points play a factor in my decision. I do like using my lounges.

Another is that I would like to be on the same flight as my daughter as we can travel to &amp; from the airports together.

Hopefully I can scrape together the points.

If you requested economy and get business class fare, it's because there are no free seats in the economy cabin. However, they operated lots of flights per day, so tray to purchase a ticket in an another flight. If it doesn't work, then something is wrong.

Check lastminute.es or any other and see what happens.

Hi Gato

The thing was that I tried numerous dates between now and December and got exactly same result - Business &gt;700 euro. However putting return in, I got 110 euro.

I would assume that the reason you got 'business' fares when requesting one way is simply because the fare structure does not have any discounts for one way. And on lots of European airlines, a full price economy ticket automatically puts you in business class.

Ahh, you were putting in one way...that is extra expensive with iberia (and I suspect with most regular airlines).
I think that maybe they just don't want to sell one way tickets on economy. Buy a return ticket :)