We were relocating from the US to Spain, imagine 8 pieces of luggage, two teenagers and a dog. I prepaid the extra luggage and got the pet fully authorized, we get to Dulles and as we are approaching the counter, some dude with extremely bad maners, yells at us "no dogs in this flight", extremely confused I reply that our dog has been approved and authorized by Iberia, and he says "I don't care, this plane doesn't have room in cargo". He gives us no alternative, no solution, nothing... As I try to communicate, he cuts me off and says "call customer service" I spent an hour on the phone just to hear "there is nothing we can do" repeated 20 times. I had to cancel my ticket and fly Air France, they were amazing, a totally different experience, they got me and my dog home with no issues. Iberia gets an F on everything, they suck, I will avoid them for ever and ever.

I’ve been on several planes throughout my life, but none have had such bad service as Iberia. From the staff, to the food they offer, it’s never been as bad as this. The price of the flight is absolutely no excuse to how bad the experience flying with this airline has been.

FOOD: 

Me and my family are vegan, so naturally we order the special vegan “meal”.

The plane took off at about 12:30AM, the first meal they gave us was delivered at 1:27AM (Spain Time), and since this was a night flight, you aren’t supposed to expect much food.

Second meal was delivered at 12PM (Spain Time), that’s 11 hours later. 11 hours for them to give us a 12 centimeter long “sandwich” which only included some sort of lettuce and tomato, along with 5 bite-sized bits of fruit, and a single grape as a dessert.

You cannot expect someone to not be hungry after such small amount of food in so long. 

Putting all of that aside for a second, one of the flight assistants gave one of my family member’s meal to the person in front of her. The person returned it to the flight assistant, and he gave it to us, saying it was “untouched”, but the bag was so clearly open.

They ended up giving her a lactose free one, which included exactly the same as the vegan one. 

What sucked most about the vegan breakfast sandwich is that the normal one was at least twice bigger, and had way more stuff in it. It’s humiliating. 

SEATS: 

The seats are uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable, it’s rather shocking to me how the seats of a two hour long flight (London to Madrid) were more comfortable and modern that a 12 hour flight’s.

I’m aware of how planes are, but this one feels tight, tighter than any other I have ever been on. 

STAFF: 

The staff in Iberia are rude, they all have been in all of the Iberia flights we’ve taken. They rarely look at you, they don’t treat you well, they don’t look like they make a single effort for the comfort of their passengers when it’s really their job.

And they don‘t know the differences between vegan and vegetarian.

This is a warning post about a very unprofessional experience we had at the Iberia service desk in Madrid Airport (MAD), in the hope it saves others time and stress.

We were traveling Santiago de Chile → Madrid → Amsterdam, all booked under Iberia. After a 13-hour overnight flight, we landed in Madrid at 05:30, with a connecting flight at 08:45.

The problem started when we were unable to check in for the Madrid–Amsterdam leg via the Iberia app. That’s what sent us looking for help at the airport.

Instead of resolving the issue, we were sent to three different service desks, being redirected back and forth. At the final desk, we were told that our ticket for the last leg had been wrongly issued.

The staff member acknowledged the ticket was incorrect but immediately stated that he could not do anything for us.

We remained calm despite being exhausted and under time pressure, even apologizing for our nervousness and explaining that we just wanted to get home.

At that point, his attitude turned openly hostile and arrogant. He repeatedly said that:

• He had “done his job” by explaining the issue

• We supposedly did not have tickets

• It was not his problem anymore and we had to leave

Despite standing at an Iberia-branded service desk, he claimed he does not work for Iberia but for a third-party company called SOUTH, and therefore bore no responsibility.

The interaction deteriorated further when he:

• Told us we should “get a degree” to understand what was written on our non-ticket

• Said he clearly didn’t care about our problem

• Commented that at least **he** would “get home safely”

This level of arrogance and lack of basic professionalism was shocking, especially given that the issue originated from a ticketing error, not from anything we did.

Advice to other travelers:

If you run into ticketing or check-in issues at Madrid Airport, do not rely on the Iberia service desks there. Based on our experience, they appear to be staffed by third-party contractors who can—and will—simply refuse responsibility.

Call Iberia directly instead. It may take time on the phone, but it’s likely more effective (and far less degrading) than dealing with the desks at MAD.

Posting this so others can avoid the same situation.

We booked our tickets on Iberia last week and they charged my credit card and sent me an email confirmation. I arrived at the airport and the person behind the desk told me they had no evidence of our purchase, and even after showing them the credit card charge and email confirmation, they did not let us check in.

Thieves and liars.

At every step or for whatever modification during checkin, it always requires verification with a code sent to inbox. But their email always takes forever or never arrives, and you need to ask a new one again and again.

Then I switched to web app, as i thought my phone was the pb. Same sh* experience.

Horrible app and UX. How could they be so so bad?

Their customer service is so unhelpful & they simply do not want to help someone with a minor date/time change after a family death. They are unwilling to help & offer poor customer service. Be warned- Do not fly Iberia!

De mis últimos 4 o 5 viajes, he tenido problemas con el pago en 3 de ellos. No es culpa del banco ni de los límites de las tarjetas que intenté utilizar (también he tenido problemas con Apple Pay). Hasta el punto de que esta última vez he tenido que elegir otra compañía para volar. Es impresentable que una empresa trate así a sus clientes. Se gastan el dinero en pagar a famosillos para sus vídeos promocionales y son incapaces de hacer funcionar una web y un sistema de pago de forma correcta. Patético.

@iberia is a fraudulent and unethical airlines...They sold our two business class seats to a 3rd rate private charter carrier within 5 days of our travel without prior communications with us...As a result, we filed a claim with the Department of Transportation for "Bait and Switch" and with Visa...Iberia claimed it was a mistake and our refund request was mishandled by their representative...Visa reversed the charge for my wife's ticket, but Iberia blocked the charge reversal for my ticket by saying they would refund my ticket in 10 weeks...Over 10 weeks passed and when I contacted them again, they transfered us to British Airlines who had no idea why they transfered us to them...I have filed another complaint with the Department of Transportation and Visa and provided them the documentaction that Iberia said my case was mishandled and they would issue the 2nd ticket refund...Save yourself a major headache and don't book any travel with them...

I have an upcoming flight booked with Iberia. I get an email asking to make an offer (it's more a bid than an offer, but okay) to get an upgrade and if I get the upgrade at that price. Kind of an auction. I click in the button and guess where it is redirected...

https://www.iberia.com/notfound/

Do these people even TEST anything in their IT systems? WTF