IB longhaul to South America

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bxleu
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IB longhaul to South America

Post by bxleu »

Hi,
I'll fly to Brasil in November with Iberia from Brussels via Madrid. Any good / bad experiences with this airline on longhaul flights? Have flown with IB on European routes only.
Many thanks!

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Airbus330lover
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Re: IB longhaul to South America

Post by Airbus330lover »

bxleu wrote:Hi,
I'll fly to Brasil in November with Iberia from Brussels via Madrid. Any good / bad experiences with this airline on longhaul flights? Have flown with IB on European routes only.
Many thanks!
I flow IB to GRU and it was a nightmare.
No service from the crew, even, i wanted a glass water. NO SIR you must sit down due to turbulences (never felled it, and i was not alone)
Finally, with pressure of the passengers, they leave us alone and we then accessed to some drink.
Bad crew and.... four times the same !.
Perhaps four times no chance but......

Next time I will take another carrier more expensive but more passenger friendly.

My opinion.... IB is launching LCC not only in Europe.
In this case they ere inventing LSC with high prize.
LSC = Low Service Carrier

jamair
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Post by jamair »

I flow to Quito last year with IB and it was the same nightmare as for Airbus330lover. During the flight MAD-Quito I was seated on the last row, aisle, of the A340 EC-HGX "Maria Pita", just near the galley and I was the last to be served and had no choice for the meal, I received the LAST one, a cold sticky pasta ...
I have tried to make a remark, just tried, ... Don't ask me the answer of the steward, I don't have understood the answer spitted in spanish but after that the pasta made an emergency landing on my tablet. An emergency landing or a crash, I don't really remember! The crew dissipeared at the beginning of the movie and none was seen in the cabin until the breakfast who was served 1 hour before landing at Quito. After 6 hours flight all the toilets were dirty ... Same thing on the return flight, video was not operational in my row ... after a few different inconveniences , irritated and tired, I asked a steward if their training was made in partnership with the Guardia Civile and the spanish department of prisons ... no answer !
It was a very bad travel with IB ...

darwin
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Post by darwin »

Well... back in 2000 I flew to Buenos Aires in a 747-200, from Madrid... To start with, I think we had already left the Iberian peninsula before we managed to take some height - I don't know whether that is due to the 747-200 itself rather than to overload ... Apart from that, the experience was pretty weird : I didn't believe it but it was as if I had been taken back to the early 1970's (probably the time the aircraft went into service). The crew apparently had never been changed - average age : somewhere between 55 and 60 years old ... ; extremely unfriendly (they absolutely wanted their retirement, that's for sure) ; absolutely bad food (even for economy class standards) ; as to inflight entertainment : there was a black and white movie (a Luis Bunuel movie, not bad in itself), but the whole thing was screened on about I guess maximum 4 pretty tiny screens throughout the whole plane. So bad luck if you were 10 meters away from the screen ... Moreover, they were using a genuine vintage 1960's projector - beaming three differently coloured rays... Every now and then, someone stood up : consequence : no one else was able to see the movie anymore because of the shadow of that person's head on the screen... All of this experience was quite funny .. for the first hour - I wouldn't wish my worst enemy though to have to board such a (long) flight - I can only hope that service aboard their A340s is better .. Good luck !

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Captain
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Post by Captain »

I have enough air miles with OneWorld alliance to fly to North and Central America so I'm going to reward myself with a trip to Mexico City.

I was considering going with Iberia (OneWorld memeber) but I have not heard too many positive comments from people. Look at the picture below of their A340-600's. They don't even have PTV screen in each seat. I think I may go with British Airways (second picture) even though they had strikes recently. The days of going on a 11 hour flight without PTV are over!!!

Image

Image

av8or_guy
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Post by av8or_guy »

BA is allways good i allways fly with them to the US Bisnuss or economy class great IFE and comphy seats cabin crew are nice clean toilets everything.
enjoy your flight with BA im not sure but is it a B744? or a B772ER?

av8or_guy

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Captain
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Post by Captain »

av8or_guy wrote: enjoy your flight with BA im not sure but is it a B744? or a B772ER?

av8or_guy
To Mexico City they fly on a B744, just checked this out :-)

YV911C
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Post by YV911C »

Back in 2003 i've flown to SDQ from MAD and to MAD from CCS with IB.
All with A340 300; not my best flights but nothing really bad.
On time dep/arrivals, very friendly crew and service but bad food; partic. good service on CCS MAD.
Only... you have to wait till atlantic ocean/ Portugal to reach transatlantic flight level!!! (especially on an A340 300 non x at full load)

regi
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Post by regi »

if you check out the reports about Iberia on airlinequality.com you will certainly look for another possebility.

chunk
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Post by chunk »

darwin wrote: the whole thing was screened on about I guess maximum 4 pretty tiny screens throughout the whole plane. So bad luck if you were 10 meters away from the screen ... Moreover, they were using a genuine vintage 1960's projector - beaming three differently coloured rays...
Fly on a NWA DC-10 and you still get that projector as well in Economy class! I'm sure I have seen pictures of Delta 767's with the same and I was in an AF 743 to Pointe a Pitre from Orly in August that had a prjector like that with the airmap showing in biz class!

matsATC
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Post by matsATC »

Same bad experience here for IB MAD-HAV 1,5 years ago. The passengers kept running around in the plane, even after several announcements by cabin crew everyone had to remain seated. Sleeping was almost impossible because people were gathering in the aisles and talking rather loud. Service was very limited. If you wanted a drink, you had to get up and walk to the kitchen.

The short haul IB flights seem to score much better in my opinion. Well, at least until they started their 'improved service' (=paying for food and drinks) on European flights...

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MD-11
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Post by MD-11 »

My neece flew from Brussels to Madrid and than to Santo Domingo with IB. She was very pleased with the BRU-MAD flight but the long haul experience wasn't so good.
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."

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A318
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Post by A318 »

Flew BRU-LIM some years ago, first and last longhaul flight with IB.
Bad service, awful crew and a very turbulent flight. Nothing had been done to avoid the turbulence by the crew, I guess it were cargo pilots ;)
No serious now, it was just a bad experience and I would advice you to choose another airline for longhaul flight to South America. You want it cheap, check Air Madrid or Air Plus Comet altough I do hear different opinions about them also.
I prefer to fly Delta Airlines.
A Whole Different Animal

jumpjet
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Post by jumpjet »

Oh my oh my..I am booked from London to Havana with Iberia in four weeks time and I wish I wasn't now...

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sab319
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Post by sab319 »

Well Ibereia isn't too bad on short-haul, only had good experiences with them...

bxleu
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Post by bxleu »

Just a few lines on my flights to/from Brazil with Iberia:

Flight BRU-MAD on 28/10/05 (A320) was 45min late because of late arrival of aircraft - reason: bad weather in MAD. Uneventful flight but very nice crew!

Flight MAD-GRU (Sao Paulo) on 29/10/05 was also delayed by 2h - again, bad weather and late arrival of connecting passengers from BCN. To start with boarding was very slow! We flew on A340-300 - one of the oldest aircrafts I guess, as seats were quite uncomfortable. Crew was helpful and efficient and service was normal. We were served dinner (chicken or pasta) plus breakfast - standard meals, just that, and did not expect more.

The outbound flight from GIG (Rio) on 12/11/05 was not that good I must say. Although we flew on a recent A340-300 (EC-IIH), which was a bit more comfortable, passengers were offered a lousy service in my opinion. Crew was quite old and didn't care too much about passengers, and dinner - again chicken or pasta - was poor. Not even a word from the captain throughout the flight. At arrival there were not enough buses to take all the passengers to the terminal and some of us were kept waiting at the door of the aircraft.

Flight MAD-BRU was on a B757 - old aircraft - and full of package tourists.

My general opinion about the longhaul service of IB is not that positive. There's room for improvement in many aspects and I would probably choose another airline (BA, for instance) to fly the same route.

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sn26567
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Post by sn26567 »

Thanks for your instructive flight report, bxleu. It seems o confirm the general mixed opinion about IB.
André
ex Sabena #26567

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lastrow
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Post by lastrow »

I just can add that I have two different friends who went down to south america with iberia this year. actually both were not amazed by the service offered by IB in particular. however, in two cases IB offered the cheapest flights to TXL-BUE (buenos aires?).
- lr.

bigjulie

Post by bigjulie »

Is this a forum for Iberia knocking? Leave them alone, please! :shakehead: :shakehead: :shakehead: :shakehead: :shakehead:

bxleu
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Post by bxleu »

Hi bigjulie,

Just to make things clear: nobody is running a campaign against Iberia. I flew Iberia several times on European routes and would recommend any passenger to fly IB on these routes as well, specially because of the competitive fares.
The truth is that the long-haul flights of Iberia are not the best, just that!

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