Iberia Business Class

[radeng]

How does it compare (for flights in Europe) with BA Club Europe?

I've a business meeting in Gran Canaria in early December: the choice is either BA or Iberia to Madrid, and onwards on Iberia.

I gather Iberia economy is worse than BA - although I expect that given time, Willie will drag BA down there.

[Aksai Oiler]

LPA is considered a domestic flight, so there is no real comparison with Club Europe. However, as the flight is 2 hours (ish) you will probably get a light meal, coffee and other drinks. In Economy there is no free bar and you will have to pay fo a meal (sandwiches). Seat wise will depend on the A/C as sometimes IB use widebodies to the Canaries.

Price wise this will be poles apart (i.e. between C & Y) you will probably get a better deal with IB (from LHR-LPA rather than going down the BA route. Best to check on the internet first.

Oiler

[Hotel Tango]

My last IBE business class experience (albeit a few years ago) on a couple of domestic sectors was that it wasn't worth the expense. Minimum service and total apathy by the CC. I don't know if that has changed in more recent times.

[Capetonian]

Apathy, indifference, and rudeness are the cornerstones of Iberia's staff training. On the odd occasion, you'll get a good crew and if nothing goes wrong the experience is most enjoyable. Sadly, such flights are the exception rather than the norm.

Particularly on the ground at Barajas, their staff are vile.

[Cymmon]

I have to beg to differ. I have flown with Iberia from Madrid to Lanzarote many times and have found all cabin crew, service and flights to be excellent.

I would also recommend using Iberia for the through ticketing as they often work out cheaper than BA. Also check certain comparison/airfare websites.

[Lotpax]

Also, one must remember that the BA CE product has had a hatchet taken to it in recent year, no pre departure drinks, no hot towels, etc.

After two very disappointing experiences in a row, I have decided to book Eurotraveller in future.

[Shack37]

Apathy, indifference, and rudeness are the cornerstones of Iberia's staff training. On the odd occasion, you'll get a good crew and if nothing goes wrong the experience is most enjoyable. Sadly, such flights are the exception rather than the norm.

Particularly on the ground at Barajas, their staff are vile.


Capetonian, I recall a similar debate re AF and CdG where you held an almost identical view to this one on IB and Barajas. My own experience is the complete opposite. One has to wonder if beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

Of course maybe I'm just easily pleased:ok:

[Capetonian]

Shack37 : That's absolutely correct. Iberia are, if anything, worse than AF. There are plenty of airlines on which I travel frequently and only have good experiences, KL, LH, LX, RO, BD, to name just a few so I have to conclude that AF and IB are **** and that it's not me!

[radeng]

I haven't trevelled long haul on Air France for about 15 years, but in Business Class, that was very good. Internally, very variable, but they are very quick to pay compensation when you get bounced for any reason.

I travelled Iberia Business Class back in 1995 from Madrid to Tenerife: that wasn't too bad. As far as Club Europe is concerned, I can't ever remember pre take off drinks, and I've been flying pretty regularly since 1979. But Willy has taken the hatchet not only to CE, and doesn't seemingly give a damn about what pax think.

Of course, if they keep having strikes, the trip may not even happen! Anyhow, thanks for the comments.

[Economics101]

Just 2 year ago the Owner and I went business class DUB-MAD. Really good service, and quite excellent food and wines. It was something we thought had totally vanished from European short-haul, having lived on a diet of Aer Lingus.

The departure from DUB was at about 1800, timed to connect into a load of IB flights to Latin America; maybe the fact that many of the people up front were also long-haul business customers meant that IB made a special effort.

[Momo]

I flew C-class from Madrid to Geneva in an A320 10 days ago. The food was considerably better than BA, and the crew very friendly, possibly because I was the only passenger up front.

The seating is six across, with middle seat free, so less width than on BA.

The only major that I think provides a significantly under-par C-class within Europe is Austrian, which I flew last week from Vienna to Paris in an A320. There is much less space between seats and I could not operate my PC even to do basic email. Food was very good though.

Air France C is fine, but I avoid them where possible because of the risk of strikes at least somewhere in the whole chain of events. It is sub-par from CDG to Geneva, because it is only a 45-minute flight. Very disappointing on Middle-east flights with an almost-standard A320 to Amman for example, compared to semi-long-haul comfort on competitive flights to the close middle-east in A320s or A321s (Austrian, Royal Jordanian, for example).

BA short-haul C is getting old and needs a refresh. Seat backs continue to jam PCs when the person in front reclines. Cost saving has hit meals, towels.

[Shack37]

Shack37 : That's absolutely correct. Iberia are, if anything, worse than AF. There are plenty of airlines on which I travel frequently and only have good experiences, KL, LH, LX, RO, BD, to name just a few so I have to conclude that AF and IB are **** and that it's not me!


Is that:
a. **** all the time?
b. **** most of the time?
c. **** some of the time?

I've had non perfect experiences with KL and LH for example but I wouldn't give them a generalised classification level of "****".

Makes me wonder why BA want to link up with such crap as IB and how either AF or IB manage to sell a seat.

Still think it's eye of the beholder but each to his own.

Agree to differ?

[Capetonian]

Shack37 : I think I made that clear when I said of Iberia ..... On the odd occasion, you'll get a good crew and if nothing goes wrong the experience is most enjoyable. Sadly, such flights are the exception rather than the norm. One of the best flights I ever had was a MAD GIG on IB in business class, but I was the only passenger in that cabin!

As far as AF is concerned, in the air they are rather good, in fact, in the premium cabins. very good. Sadly that benefit is negated by the horrible experience of having to go through CDG, and their hostile, unhelpful, ignorant ground staff.

My opinions are not based on a having had one bad flight on each carrier, but over a period of time doing about 150 sectors a year on IB and about 30 on AF.

[Shack37]

As far as AF is concerned, in the air they are rather good, in fact, in the premium cabins. very good. Sadly that benefit is negated by the horrible experience of having to go through CDG, and their hostile, unhelpful, ignorant ground staff.



Another sweeping generalisation repeated again about CdG and AF groundstaff based there which I have not personally experienced in three years of using that airport and airline frequently.
At least you now concede that in the air they are "rather good" but to use words like hostile, unhelpful and ignorant to describe an entire workforce still comes across as a little biassed.

[Capetonian]

shack37 : There really isn't much point in trying to rationally discuss this with you as you dismiss my opinions based on much travel as 'generalisations', which of course they are, but then so are most opinions based on observation and past experience. I daresay that IB and AF do have good ground staff somewhere at their hubs, but I've never found them, nor have any of my complaints been dealt with properly. My opinions are not based on a random 'sampling' of one flight, but in the case of IB hundreds and AF dozens, where my experiences in the majority were bad. Therefore, I am biased, as anyone would be after a series of bad experiences. That is what causes a rational bias.

I believe it is my right to say that I consider those two airlines to be very inferior products as far as ground service is concerned, and as ground service is an important, intergral, and unavoidable part of their offering, this makes them inferior products. Otherwise it's a bit like saying xxx is a great car but every now and then the steering rack breaks and the car goes out of control and causes a head on accident, other than that, fine, I'm happy with the car - and dead probably too!

I stand by my views and my right to express them and whether you and others agree or not is a matter of total indifference to me. Which makes me wonder why I've invested the time to write a long reply ...... I am waiting for my tea to cool down so I can drink it and thus have a few minutes to spare!

[Shack37]

Capetonian
I stand by my views and my right to express them and whether you and others agree or not is a matter of total indifference to me.
On this point we are certainly agreed:ok:

Which makes me wonder why I've invested the time to write a long reply ......
The fact that you've taken the time is appreciated


I am waiting for my tea to cool down so I can drink it and thus have a few minutes to spare!


I hope for your peace and tranquility you're not drinking it in MAD or CdG:E

[LH2]

Another sweeping generalisation repeated again about CdG and AF groundstaff based there which I have not personally experienced in three years of using that airport and airline frequently.

No, you must have been flying somewhere else with some other airline.

[Shack37]

LH2 said


No, you must have been flying somewhere else with some other airline.


I'm sure there's a point here somewhere but I won't waste too much time trying to find it.