Flying Iberia To South America

After reading fairly mixed reviews for Iberia I approached my first flight with the Spanish airline with some trepidation. At every stage during my return flights to Rio, however, I found that Iberia surprised me pleasantly. The first flight, a short hop from London to Madrid was on an A320 with generous legroom and a comfortable seat. We were offered a choice of complementary newspapers, and at the end of the flight were taken by shuttle bus to another terminal for our onward flights. There were no free refreshments on the short haul flight, but a meal and two snacks were served on our long haul Madrid to Rio flight.

The seat pitch on the A340 used for the long haul flights was also more than adequate and the seats were quite comfortable. There is no seat back entertainment, but several films are shown on screens in the aisles, there is a screen around every 6 rows. I sat right next to the screen on the outbound flight and in the furthest row away for the inbound flight and was able to comfortably view the screen from either position. Audio for the films is available in both English and Spanish.

Having found my flight to be a great deal better than I had expected I revisited the reviews on several websites. Many reviewers seemed to echo my experience of perfectly acceptable experiences. Those negative reviews seemed to focus on 3 main complaints. Poor food, poor staff and lack of in flight entertainment.

I was very happy with the food on our flights and didn’t hear any complaints from other members of our group. In both directions the main meals were simple but fine, with choice between a meat dish and a pasta dish. There were also several rounds of meat (normally ham) and cheese sandwiches with alternatives available for vegetarians. It’s not the most exciting airline food I have ever seen but I found it to be more than acceptable.

 I can’t comment on other people’s experiences of Iberia staff, but I had no complaints about any of the staff that I dealt with on any of our flights. Anyone I dealt with was pleasant and professional.

The airline certainly does have poor in-flight entertainment compared to many modern airlines; seat back entertainment is something most of us have come to expect in recent years. As long as passengers are aware that they will not have on demand entertainment, however, there really isn’t any problem. I took my ipod along with me and loaded a couple of audio books on it. I would, however, have been disappointed with the entertainment if I hadn’t known in advance what to expect.

In summary Iberia is neither the best nor the worst airline I have ever flown. If you are looking for seat back screens, free food and beverages on short-haul flights and a generally 5 star experience then you are likely to be disappointed. If the fare were right, however, I would have no hesitation in flying Iberia again in the future.