Traveling Washington DC to Madrid. Is Iberia a good choice?

If you want a non-stop flight, your only choices out of Dulles are Iberia or United. I’d take whichever had the best price and times for you..

The experience on the plane is dependent on the airline operating the flight, not the airline who sold the flight to you as a code share. I’m not sure what you mean when you ask would a code share be a better experience.

When reserving, check to see which company is actually operating the plane. Iberia, BA, and AA will all be selling seats on the same aircraft and prices will vary. I reserve through the airline operating the outbound leg. When comparing prices ensure you’re comparing apples to apples. If one fare is significantly lower than others, check to see why. One might be a basic economy fare while another is regular economy. Different fare classes on each carrier probably have different descriptions as to what each actually includes. For example, with one airline seat selection is built into the price while is a separate charge on another airline.

When we used to fly from IAD to MAD, we used United.

I've done transatlantic flights in economy with BA, AA, and Iberia. I would say the differences between the three airlines are marginal.

Code sharing will not help you get a better experience. In fact, we had a worse experience when code sharing AA and Iberia. When checking in for our flights, I could only print boarding passes for the first leg, which was from our hometown regional airport to Dallas on AA. I asked at the counter at our hometown airport to have them print the boarding passes for our next two legs on Iberia, and they could not do so. They said to have them printed in Dallas. Upon arrival in Dallas, I went to the Iberia counter. They could only print the next leg, Dallas to Madrid. The lady could not figure out why she couldn't print the last leg from Madrid to Athens. She said to have them printed in Madrid. Luckily we had a 4.5 hour layover in Madrid because we had to go through immigration, then exit the terminal, find the correct Iberia counter and right person to help us, wait in a long line, get the boarding passes printed for our last leg, then go through the complete security process again. If we had not had a long layover we would have missed our last flight.

Yes, I had both the Iberia and American apps on my phone, and no, the passes were not available on either app. Afterwards, my husband and I agreed that we are never code-sharing again if we can help it.

On a side note, I have Celiac Disease, so I always request a gluten-free meal. Iberia did not put my seat number on my meal as every other airline has always done. The FA walked down the aisle calling, "gluten free!" I raised my hand, but so did a lady three seats in front of me. He quickly gave it to her without asking if she had requested it online. I thought that maybe they had another one coming for me, but no. When I let the FA know that I had requested a GF meal online, he checked the list and saw that yes, I did, and the lady he gave it to hadn't. He then offered me a halal meal but wasn't sure if it had gluten. I have CD, so I can't risk eating anything without knowing for sure that it is gluten-free.

I understand that anyone can make a mistake, but when my dietary restriction is a medical necessity and not a lifestyle choice, it's hard to take.

We've used Iberia several times and have always had good service. The food is ok, nothing to write home about but we've had much worse on other airlines. My only complaint is that the cabin gets very warm on the overnight flights making it hard to sleep or be comfortable. Dress in layers.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.