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“AVOID IBERIA”

Written on: 17/09/2011

Please DO NOT choose to fly with IBERIA airlines. I said that I would not fly via the US next time I went to Latin America as I didn't like the 3 hour trawl through customs...However, I was not betting on the RUDE, DISGUSTING and UNHELPFUL behaviour of IBERIA staff in Madrid airport.
Some say it can be a Spanish trait to be a bit blunt (I have several very good Spanish friends so this is not meant to offend), however IBERIA staff were just plain RUDE on my flight home last year. I needed to fly back as a matter of urgency for an ill EXTREMELY CLOSE family member, so it was a highly traumatic experience either way. IBERIA staff could not have been more UNHELPFUL in the circumstances, I was IGNORED when asking simply if I could get on an earlier flight - the flight still had spaces and I explained it was urgent. When they stopped ignoring me they treated me with such disdain, which was somewhat unbelievable given the reason behind my request!!! I then, on boarding another plane 2.5hrs later, asked them to contact the airport in London to arrange for someone to meet me off the plane and take me quickly through the airport customs etc.(I know this is a service the airport itself provides in cases of urgency as another family member had requested exactly the same service the day before - who, no, was not on crutches/in a wheelchair etc. - and been taken through quickly after the airline (KLM) had contacted the airport). For this I received a fresh dollop of disdain, rudeness and unhelpfulness. Needless to say, they did not arrange for this to happen even though 24hours prior exactly the same service was provided by an alternative airline flying to the SAME airport.
It just made a very traumatic experience all the worse...I thought about whether it was worth my while complaining or not after arriving home, and decided that I would as the behaviour of staff was just awful and I would not wish the same experience on ANYONE, especially under the same circumstances. It's also important to note that this was NOTHING to do with language barrier as I am a FLUENT Spanish speaker. Unlike other companies who actually CARE about customer feedback and satisfaction, so make it plain how to complain if necessary, IBERIA's website was a total maze whereby, if it even exists, it is impossible to find how to complain - subsequently I've read more reviews which detail the same difficulties:

http://www.airlinecomplaints.org/showthread.php?t=540

I will NEVER fly with IBERIA ever again in my life and they have lost all my custom. So say that's £500-800 every time I fly to Latin America. Good, they do not deserve it.