Greetings, fellow travelers! I'm flying Iberian to Madrid next month. How safe an airline is Iberian? Any experiences with Iberian that I should keep in mind? <BR> <BR>Safe travels to all! <BR> <BR>Jeff

Unless there has been a change of policy, Iberia allows smoking on its flights and is NOT required to provide non-smoking seats to all who request them. Although we thought we had nonsmoking seats reserved in advance, we were told that all of the non-smoking seats were gone (hours before flight time.) I discussed this with all sorts of management people who told me that Iberia does not have to provide non-smoking seats for all who want them, since it is not a US airlines. So, beware!

Unless there has been a change of policy, Iberia allows smoking on its flights and is NOT required to provide non-smoking seats to all who request them. Although we thought we had nonsmoking seats reserved in advance, we were told that all of the non-smoking seats were gone (hours before flight time.) I discussed this with all sorts of management people who told me that Iberia does not have to provide non-smoking seats for all who want them, since it is not a US airlines. So, beware!

Hi, Jeff. <BR>IBERIA is supposed to be non-smoking in all the national flights shorter than an hour. From October on, all the national flights will be non-smoking, including flights to the Canary Islands (around three hours). They have the same intentions for the european flights. I think that transcontinental flights allow still smoking. <BR>Regarding the seats, it really depends on the flights. I donīt rely so much in the pre-booking, and I always arrive time before to the airport to be able to get my desired seat. Also everytime there are more and more people in Spain that, although they smoke, prefer to fly non-smoking. That could be one of the reasons. It has happened to me sometimes, and the attendant has always managed to get me in the first row of the smoking part, and it wasnīt such a big problem. <BR>One thing that you should check thoroughly itīs the Iberia pilots strike. They are causing a lot of delays, cancelled flights, and even last week there was a riot in Madrid. There was a flight to Canarias, everybody was embarked for three hours, and the passengers called the police with the mobile phones, to get the pilot to fly. They were lucky, and they arrived safely to their destination. <BR>But check and recheck with Iberia.

Jeff: We flew on Iberia out of O'Hare last month. OK going over. Coming back, however, we didn't realize that a strike was on until the day before our flight. Disaster! No need to go into details here, but if I could have, I would have switched airlines. If you have that option, I would recommend it. Hopefully, the situation will have been resolved by the time you fly next month. Just remember to bring your patience, your sense of humor, and a good book! Enjoy your trip!