Thank you for teaching me a new word I didn't know - benthonic! I thought my vocabulary, particularly when it comes to insults, was pretty extensive.
You're so right about Iberia staff.
The rudest airline staff, scruffy and insolent, both on the ground and in the air that I've encountered in 30 years of short and longhaul flying. I lived in Spain and speak Spanish, so I have a wide range of experience with them and other carriers. Their employees seem to be specially trained to make every part of the experience as miserable as possible. I should add that this is by no means typically Spanish, and I suspect that Iberia has a training academy to instil the very un-Spanish qualities of nastiness and rudeness into its staff.
Add to that, that when anything goes wrong it is dealt with in the worst possible way. Their customer relations department is, by its own admission, too busy to answer complaints within an acceptable time scale.
They treat passengers who don’t speak Spanish with even more contempt than those who do. When I tried to intervene on behalf of an English speaking family who had missed their connection, the monoglot ticket agent at Madrid Airport told me that they were ‘stupid’ (‘unos tontos de mierda’ was the phrase used) for not speaking Spanish.
Most of their cabin crew, particularly on the long hauls to South and Central America, where they have little competition, are bitter and twisted battle-scarred veterans waiting to retire. One gets the impression that the airline is run for the convenience of its staff and their friends travelling on rebated tickets.
Benthonic, bottom-dwelling pondlife, is excellent!