I am looking at two different flights one is with Iberia and the other is with SAS. They are about the same price, wondering which is a better airline to fly?
Main differences: SAS is a Star Alliance carrier while Iberia is in Oneworld and about to become a British Airways subsidiary. While Iberia is perfectly OK to fly with personally I love the Scandinavian style on board SAS planes. Also the airports at Stockholm and Copenhagen are nice small hubs and easy to navigate thru. On board Iberia and at Madrid airport things go the Latin way, which is cool. But that's the difference...
To Andreas’ point regarding Iberia in their huge Madrid hub: I flew with Swiss in late November, and, while there were only four of us in line at 6 a.m. to check in at Barajas in Madrid for our flight home, the Iberia line literally had hundreds of people in it. Seriously, the line stretched on forever…I’ve never seen a line quite that long. I cannot imagine how long it took once they started checking people in for their flights. I’m sure the airline itself is fine, but a smaller hub might make a world of difference for ease of travel.
If you're just connecting through Madrid, it might not be too bad. It's a nice facility...huge but pleasant.
I've flown SAS many times and have never had any major propblem. They did lose my luggage once (got it back 5 days later), but other than that the service is generally quite good. I suspect that with SAS you will change in Copenhagen which is quite a manageable airport. As previously stated, SAS is Star Alliance member.
I cannot comment on Iberia - haven't flown them in the last 10 years.