Apologies in advance if this has recently been posted. I can't find the search button for this forum on my phone.
Is Iberia airlines good? I've seen mixed reviews on customer service and reliability.
There don't seem to be many choices to Madrid... AA, Lufthansa, BA, Iberia. KLM and Delta are expensive.
They're fine. I've flown them a few times, would do so again without hesitation.
They're a legacy carrier, and have a giant footprint in the region (and internationally), but like many European legacy carriers, to compete with the cheapskate airlines that everyone loves so much, they have "unbundled" things, but all the details depend on the specific kind of ticket you buy - so pay very close attention to what is and isn't included with your particular ticket. You can usually "buy up" to get things you want (checked bags, seat selection, etc.) if it's not already included (be careful about assuming things). This is the way many airlines have chosen to respond to the never-ending race-to-the-bottom of "low cost carriers." But they're like any other airline: lots of people howling at the moon and venting online, rarely investing the time to say "my flight was OK." Mine were.
Hi christinar,
As for searching here, click on Home on the Rick Steves Website, and there’s a search box at the top of the Homepage. The Forum doesn’t have its own Search button. Doing a search on the whole Website will still bring up Forum posts that include your search word(s), sometimes along with blogs by Rick, or other content from Rick that involve your search topic.
Iberia happens to be a partner airline with BA, for what that’s worth. And as mentioned above, they are also the main, “legacy” airline for Spain, not that either of those things automatically explain expensive rates.
A “budget” airline in Spain is Vueling. Maybe they have lower prices to Madrid. They fly within Europe, though, so you’d have to get yourself to somewhere in Europe first, then take Vueling for the final approach to Madrid.
IAG owns: BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling.
I'd have no concern about schedule or safety issues on Iberia, but we've had a few folks post here who encountered a serious problem with credits issued by Iberia. It appears there is a crook working for Iberia who is able to access credits belonging to passengers and use them to have tickets issued to other people. The company's response has generally been to throw up its hands and say, "Not our problem." So keep in mind that if something goes wrong and you somehow end up with an Iberia credit, you may never be able to use it, because it may already have been used by an unknown person to fly to South America.
Iberia has been trending on top of on-time performance for European airlines.
I’m not familiar with the credit issue mentors above, but the flexibility of credits is why I always try to book through US airlines, even if I’ll be flying a foreign partner’s plane.
Thank you for the input. Thank you also for explaining the Search. I was looking for the Search within the forum.
If I buy flights through American, and a leg of the flight is Iberia, how would a refund work? Would American refund the entire flight or only partial and Iberia their part?
Refunds are a whole different thing, and pretty rare.
But if you buy a ticket from AA, with legs on another carrier, if you had to cancel/change, you’d have a credit with AA, not the other carrier.
Just flew on Iberia last month and found everything fine. Clean aircraft timely, friendly staff. Would definitely fly again.
We are flying Iberia to Barcelona in May. We had to change our flights (we bought changeable but not refundable tix) and wound up with $212 credit. When I tried to use this to select our seats on the flight I was informed that the credit only applies to Iberia airlines not partners. Hmm? Our new ticket says are flight is "operated by LEVEL." Is this an airline? a partner? Most of the flights I see are some partnership. Does "Iberia" itself only fly within Spain? (We could also use the credit - assuming it's still available! to fly back to Barcelona from Paris if "Iberia" even has that route). Any thoughts on how to unravel these relationships and credit use would be helpful. Thank you!
I hope they’re ok because I just bought a ticket with them. My way of thinking is that being in coach on any of the big airlines will be terrible, and then if it’s not, happy day! And if you pick the cheaper ticket, then there is less to be disappointed about. Iberia was so much cheaper recently that maybe they have specials going on and might be a good time to buy.
Iberia flies transatlantic routes as well as European routes (and quite possibly also to Africa, Asia, etc.). The table of destinations in the Wikipedia entry for Madrid-Barajas Airport has a long list of destinations you can reach on Iberia. Some would also be served from Barcelona, but I'd guess not quite as many, and still fewer from Seville, Malaga, Bilbao, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid%E2%80%93Barajas_Airport
Level seems to be a budget airline with some transatlantic routes. I think it may be rather new, but I'm not sure about that.
Level is owned by IAG, the same consortium which owns: BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling.
IThe airline was deliberately established to undercut and put Norwegian Airlines, and any other pretenders to low-cost transatlantic flights, out of business.
Norwegian Airlines is now out of business and Level have launched new non-stop flights fron the U.S. west coast to Barcelona. Job done.
The airline was deliberately established to undercut and put Norwegian Airlines, and any other pretenders to low-cost transatlantic flights, out of business.
They must have had one heckuva good time machine to pull that off.
Norwegian Air Shuttle (the low-cost carrier, now out of business) started operations in 1993.
Iberia, which is still a huge airline that currently flies all over the world, was founded in 1927.
Level (aka "Fly Level") has been around in one form or another since 2017. It's owned by IAG, too, and is an LCC ("low cost carrier"). Level flies short-haul to a handful of western European cities, and long-haul to a handful of American cities plus Chile and Argentina.
Iberia is fine, it's like any other airline. Some people have good experiences, others don't. They often sell cheap tickets, which is what everyone demands (though some complain about the very things that make those tickets so cheap). Like any other airline, they may or may not live up to your expectations. Most people seem to be OK with them. I've flown them a couple times, it was no big deal. YMMV.
The only thing to know with Iberia is that they aren’t signed up for TSA pre-check. This is a thing I just learned- airlines have to sign in to the program or you have to take your shoes off like everyone else. If the ticket price or schedule with Iberia works well then it’s a minor inconvenience, but something to be aware of.
@David
"Level was established by IAG in response to increased competition in the low-cost long-haul market, including that of Norwegian Long Haul." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level(airlinebrand)
No time machine required — my point of view is valid. Thank you.
The only thing to know with Iberia is that they aren’t signed up for
TSA pre-check. This is a thing I just learned- airlines have to sign
in to the program or you have to take your shoes off like everyone
else.
More things to know about:
- Just because you have signed up for TSA Precheck, there's no guarantee that you will be going through TSA Precheck.
- Of course, since the TSA is a US agency, it (and TSA Precheck) don't exist at non-US airports.
- Not all airlines participate in TSA Precheck
- Not all airports have TSA Precheck
- At those airports and on those airlines that do have TSA Precheck, not every gate and every flight has it
- TSA Precheck is not always operating 24/7/365
- Even if all the other stars align (airline, airport, your gate, your time, etc etc), you - as an individual - may not be granted TSA Precheck privileges even if they're available. The TSA randomly chooses people to exclude from TSA Precheck every day - they like to randomize things.
Now, if you pay enough, you get TSA Precheck Platinum Elite White Glove Status and CLEAR, and you get driven straight to the plane in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes with champagne and caviar on the way.*
OK I made that last bit up. The rest is real.
