Iberia seems to be run for the benefit of its staff and their friends rather than for passengers, meaning that anyone lucky enough to fall into this category would get a higher onload status than other airline employees who were treated like something the cat puked up.
Travelling on a GP ticket once with a friend who was firm booked to Tenerife, I checked in my suitcase with his.
When we got to the gate (this was at Barajas) the monoglot gate agent told me in Spanish that the flight was full. I told her I spoke no Spanish and kept up the charade for the 20 minutes it took for them to find someone who spoke the required 5 words of Spanglish to be considered 'English speaking' at Iberia.
At this point I asked for my suitcase to be offloaded ........ and miraculously a seat was found!