r/Iberia

el nivel de criminalidad que tiene Iberia no me deja nunca de sorprender

El año pasado compré un vuelo Barcelona-Buenos Aires ida y vuelta con Iberia, en tarifa Economy Comfort. La tarifa incluía asiento delantero con más espacio, comida a bordo incluida, embarque prioritario y un cambio de fecha gratuito. Pagué bastante más que una economy normal por esos beneficios.

Unos días antes del vuelo de ida, Iberia me manda un correo diciendo que el vuelo ya no lo opera Iberia sino LEVEL, pero que "no cambia nada" y que todos los servicios contratados se mantienen. Spoiler: no se mantuvo nada.

Al llegar al aeropuerto:

- Me asignaron un asiento random en la fila 30 (había pagado por uno delantero con más espacio)

- Sin comida incluida (soy celíaco, tenía comida sin gluten confirmada por escrito, y no tenían nada apto para mí en un vuelo de 14 horas)

- Embarque grupo 4, el último, en lugar del prioritario contratado

Y antes de todo eso: cuando estaba en Argentina y quise adelantar el vuelo de vuelta usando el cambio gratuito que incluía la tarifa, me lo cobraron igual. Nadie me avisó que ese beneficio tampoco se respetaría al pasar a LEVEL.

Llamé a Iberia antes del vuelo → me dijeron que era problema de LEVEL. Llamé a LEVEL → me dijeron que era problema de Iberia. En el check-in nadie hizo nada. En el avión un agente registró el incidente y nunca más supe nada.

Lo mismo se repitió en el vuelo de vuelta.

Mandé una reclamación formal a Iberia y me respondieron reconociendo el cambio de asiento, justificándolo por "cambio de avión", sin ofrecer ninguna compensación ni mencionar la comida, el embarque ni el cambio cobrado.

Ahora estoy reclamando a través de OCU. ¿Alguien tuvo una experiencia parecida con Iberia o LEVEL? ¿Cómo les fue con la reclamación?

On May 16, 2026, I had flight 2227 from Seville to Barcelona. When it was time to board, we were told that the plane had technical problems and that we would not be able to board. We could see technicians working on the front part of the aircraft. After 1 hour and 40 minutes, we were finally called to board the plane.

We boarded, the takeoff began, and just as we were about to lift off, the pilot aborted the takeoff and we experienced a very abrupt braking maneuver. The pilot announced that there were problems with the measurement systems and that we would not be taking off on that aircraft. We returned to the terminal, and after a lot of uncertainty due to the lack of answers and nearly 7 hours of delay, another plane and another crew finally arrived, and we were able to travel.

I filed a claim with Vueling yesterday, and they replied with the following:

“In your case, the delay was caused by a bird strike affecting the aircraft, which forced us to take safety measures that led us to make this decision.
As this was considered an extraordinary circumstance, which could not have been avoided even after taking all reasonable measures, under Article 5.3 of European Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, you are not entitled to any compensation payment.”

I honestly don’t understand how they dare to lie so blatantly. If anyone has gone through something similar and was able to successfully pursue their claim, I’d really appreciate any advice or help.

Just flew from Boston to Bologna with a layover in Madrid and it was the worst flying experience I ever had. And to clarify, I fly to Europe at least once a year, sometimes 2-3 times a year. So not a business flyer but often enough that I have flown many of the big airlines at least a few times (Alitalia, ITA, Iberia, Lufthansa, Swiss Air, Air France, British Airways, plus the major American carriers).

So, first about 4 hours before the scheduled departure time (5:40 pm) we received an email saying the flight would be delayed by 2 hours(7:40 pm). It actually said that the flight was cancelled and we were rebooked on a new flight 2 hours later but the flight number was the same. When we got to the airport, the departures board listed the departure time as 7:10 pm, the website and app listed the departure time as 6:28 pm and the sign at the gate listed the departure time as 7:45 pm. There was mass confusion as they insisted that everyone had to be issued a new boarding pass at the gate even if you already had an updated mobile boarding pass or had gotten one at the ticket counter when we checked your bag.

Meanwhile we knew that our connecting flight would be in jeopardy because we only had a 2.5 hour layover in Madrid but we were told in Boston that they could not help us rebook either at the ticket counter or the gate. We had to wait until we got to Madrid. We tried calling Iberia directly and were told the same thing - they would rebook us an hour before the flight landed automatically and to expect an email. When I asked how I would get this email while on the plane I was told that since I am an Iberia Club member, I would get free WiFi in the flight.

We didn’t actually push back from the gate until 8:40, so it ended up being a 3 hour delay. When I tried to follow the instructions to get the free WiFi both the website and the app said my password was wrong. It wasn’t. It had been working all day up until we got to the plane and worked again after we landed. So it was just a glitch on the plane. And so I didn’t get free WiFi and couldn’t check for news on the rebooking. When I asked the flight attendant if he had anything to suggest or anything he could do he said “no.” Literally, just “no,” and walked off.

Meanwhile the seats were really, really uncomfortable. Way beyond what I normally experience on a trans-Atlantic flight. The seats were narrower, the aisle was tiny, the seat bottom was abnormally shallow, the legroom was absolutely minuscule. I have very short legs and my knees were JAMMED against the seat in front of me. My mom is barely 5 feet tall and she said her knees were uncomfortable too. And the seat itself was hard. It was painful from about the first 30 minutes in and through the entire flight.

There were other problems too. The climate control was a joke. My row was sauna hot - even my mom who has Raynaud’s and so is ALWAYS shivering cold was sweltering and had to take off her sweater and then her undershirt. Meanwhile, just five rows back from us was so cold that I could hear people’s teeth chattering as I passed them in the way to the bathroom. They were huddled under multiple blankets and coats.

Just after take-off we found out that the delay was due to unscheduled but necessary maintenance and there was no backup plane. First time in the process that anyone would tell us what the delay was about.

Food was really unappetizing. No ice available for drinks. And there were 2 bathrooms for the entire plane so there was a constant line. And the bathrooms were small. I mean really small. Much smaller than those I’ve seen on other planes. And the sink didn’t drain. And it was filthy. Clearly hadn’t been cleaned any time recently.

When we arrived in Madrid, we finally got notice that we had been rebooked from our missed connection. For a flight 6.5 hours later. When we tried get new seat assignments, the agent spoke almost no English (ok, I understand that it is arrogant to expect that in Madrid) but luckily my daughter speaks Spanish so she could communicate with him but the agent seemed incapable of understanding what kind of seats we wanted. I thought that it was that the seats were unavailable which would be understandable and we would have accepted that, but then he said that the flight was fairly empty. He just couldn’t keep straight that we wanted two aisle seats and a window and were ok not being next to each other. He kept trying to put us 3 across next to each other. Very frustrating.

We asked if we could have access to the lounge for the day since we had such a long wait and had just come off a red-eye where we were sweating for 6+ hours and he said that he couldn’t do that. What he said was that there was no option to get a day pass to the lounge, we had to buy a yearly membership. We passed on that expense but then found out later that they do offer day passes but wanted to charge us $55 per person for 3 hours.

Finally we asked about compensation for the three hour delay and the missed connection. We had carefully read the fine print that came in the email which first told us about the original delay and we were eligible. We were told that it had to be done on the website. The email had said that it would be through an Iberia agent at the airport and that the compensation would be given that day but the agent refused to even read the email. Probably because it was sent to us in English and he didn’t speak English well. So we went to the website and there is nowhere to do this. The closest we could find was a button to request a refund but that immediately gave us an error message that this flight was ineligible for a refund. So what do we do now? Customer service requires us to go through a chat bot that just reiterates that the flight was ineligible for a refund.

So incredibly frustrating!!! I am never flying Iberia Airline ever again.

Hi, I had a flight to Madrid on May 19th and was gonna do a multi-city trip to celebrate my birthday, so I also had a return flight on June 2nd with Level, which I booked all on Iberia back in January. Last night, I was curious about which seats I chose for my outbound flight when I saw my return flight was cancelled. Never got an email or some kind of notice about it. They gave me two options: to get a full refund or ticket voucher. Considering it was 3 AM and I was in a panic, I did the refund. I only realized later on that it meant my departing flight would be cancelled as well.

I called Iberia and to be fair, the customer service reps were really nice and they created a case to request a reinstatement for my flight, though it wasn’t guaranteed. I broke down crying out of stress as I looked at last minute flights with CRAZY prices. I slept at 4 AM, then woke up at 9 to book flights. Ended up getting replacement flights but spent $800 more. I am so stressed out about it but I really wanted to go on this trip - I’ve already booked accommodations and attractions and made plans with friends who live in Spain.

Just wondering if anyone’s ever experienced this with Iberia or any other airline. I know with the jet fuel crisis, cancellations have been on the rise and I should’ve maybe researched travel insurance. But I’m thinking of asking Iberia for compensation because of the inconvenience. I’m so anxious about how the rest of the trip is gonna turn out bc of this.

I need to vent and warn everyone about the absolute chaos of booking a codeshare flight between Iberia and Viva Aerobus.

For the past 4 days, I’ve been stranded in a loop of lies and corporate incompetence. Here is the story:

• The Issue: I needed to change my return flight date (from Mexico) Simple, right? Normally, you pay the fare difference and move on.
• The Lie: Viva Aerobus customer service (@VivaTeEscucha) told me 5 times that they couldn't touch my reservation because I booked through Booking.com.
• The Truth: I never used Booking. I have the confirmation email directly from Viva Aerobus. They were using this as an excuse to do NOTHING.
• The Struggle: I spent days calling Madrid, calling Mexico, and fighting with AI bots on WhatsApp. Iberia says it’s Viva’s fault, Viva says it’s Iberia’s.

Llevo días atrapado en este problema. Iberia no puede procesar el pago del cambio porque el boleto tiene número 0775237, lo que significa que el 'Ticket Stock' es de Viva Aerobus. Iberia me confirma que el error es de ustedes porque son los dueños del boleto original. Dejen de enviarme con Iberia; ustedes tienen que hacer la reemisión manual del boleto o liberar el control para que Iberia pueda cobrarmeMessage corrigé (Espagnol)"Llevo días atrapado en este problema. Iberia no puede procesar el pago del cambio porque el boleto tiene número 0775237, lo que significa que el 'Ticket Stock' es de Viva Aerobus. Iberia me confirma que el error es de ustedes porque son los dueños del boleto original. Dejen de enviarme con Iberia; ustedes tienen que hacer la reemisión manual del boleto o liberar el control para que Iberia pueda cobrarme.

Lesson learned: Avoid Viva Aerobus at all costs for international connections. Their system is broken, their agents are trained to lie to avoid work, and their "customer service" is a black hole.

Has anyone else dealt with this "false agency" excuse before? It feels like a systematic scam to avoid helping passengers.

#TravelHorrorStory #VivaAerobus #Iberia #TravelTips #Mexico

Hi I have a flight from brussels to lima with a layover with in Barcelona by iberia. However the flight from brussels to baarcelona is operated by vueling. I received an email from iberia saying that my flight from brussels to Barcelona has been changed. So now, I miss my connection from Barcelona to Lima. The problem is that the change is not visible in my booking with iberia. However, iberia gave me a reservation code for vueling. And in vueling, the change of the flight is visible

I also called vueling and they confirmed that my flight had been changed so now I miss my connection. I called iberia and they told me that since the change is not visible in their system, I should ignore the email I received. Vueling says they cannot do anything because the reservation is under iberia. Iberia says they cannot do anything because the change is not reflected in their system. I have called iberia twice and asked to speak to the supervisors since they did not give me any solutions. Both times they did not want to refer me to the supervisors.

Does anybody have any experience with something like this or any advice?

Hola a todos,

Quería pedirles su opinión o si alguien ha pasado por algo parecido porque mi novia y yo estamos atrapados en un rebote eterno entre Viva Aerobus e Iberia.

Ella compró un boleto directo en la página de Viva Aerobus para ir a Francia. El vuelo lo opera Iberia (el número de boleto empieza con 075). Ella decidió quedarse un poco más de tiempo, entonces queremos cambiar la fecha de regreso, pero está siendo una pesadilla:

1. En la página de Viva: Cuando queremos hacer el cambio, sale que no está disponible y que tenemos que ir a la página de Iberia.
2. En la página de Iberia: Metemos sus datos y nos rebota diciendo que no pueden hacer nada porque el boleto se compró por una "agencia externa".
3. Por teléfono con Iberia: Hablamos a España y nos dijeron literal que ellos no pueden tocar el boleto porque Viva lo vendió.
4. Por teléfono con Viva Aerobus: Mi novia estuvo una hora en la línea. Primero le dijeron que llamara más tarde. Luego un supervisor hasta le andaba preguntando si de verdad lo había comprado con ellos porque "no le aparecía", ¡teniendo nosotros el mail de confirmación de pago de Viva y todo! Al final le dijeron que llamara mañana porque "según" van a checar con Iberia si pueden liberar el cambio.

Mis dudas son:

• ¿Cómo es posible que Viva no reconozca un boleto que compramos en su propia página web?
• Alguien ha tenido este problema con la alianza de Viva con Iberia?
• Por qué la hacen tan cansada para un simple cambio de fecha? Se supone que les vamos a pagar la diferencia.

Gracias por leerme y por cualquier tip que me puedan dar. Saludos

I’m a Finnair Plus member trying to book an Iberia flight (Amsterdam → Prague), mainly to maximise points and miles. Booking classes business J/C/D give the best returns in Finnair Plus with the multiplier being over 250%.

Here’s the situation:

I originally booked a Business Flex fare, because Iberia support told me it would be in booking class J

After booking, I checked and it was actually Business I

When I contacted them again, they said they could move me into D class, but only if I paid an extra €500

That makes zero sense to me since I already paid for the most expensive business fare available at the time.

I ended up getting a full refund, but now I’m trying to rebook the same route and running into the same problem:

-Chat agents give inconsistent answers
-Some don’t understand what I mean by booking class
-Prices and explanations keep changing

All I want is to be booked specifically into Business J, C, or D. Any help/advice would be much appreciated🙏

I have a flight from Venice -> Madrid -> DFW, all bought on single Iberia ticket from their website. My connection time in Madrid is 75 mins. After some research it seems I have to transfer from T4 to T4S and then go through Passport Control as a non-eu citizen and then to the DFW gate. Is 75 mins enough? I'm not checking any bags. I called Iberia support and they seemed not worried about it at all. I noticed there is a flight from Venice to Madrid 6 hours earlier. I'm not sure if they would let me move to that flight or not.

Thank you for any help.

Help! Has this happened to anyone? Trying to transfer Avios from my British airways account to Iberia but am unable to do anything. When I try to log in , it says it cannot log in and to try again later. On Iberia, I can’t purchase Avios, and I am unable to transfer any Avios directly to Iberia from my credit card.

When I reached out to customer support, they said I needed at one Avios in my account to do any transferring. Anyone have any idea for a workaround or tips? Trying to book a flight to Spain.

I've never used skymiles/points before and I've had a CapitalOne card for years. I have approximately 300K points just sitting there. I'd like to book a trip to Spain this summer and was hoping to use those points. However, I'm not sure how to maximize the use of my points.

1. Book airfare on CapitalOne's travel portal and use the points towards payment? Generally a few dollars less expensive than Expedia.

2. Book airfare on Expedia and have CapitalOne apply points towards final cc bill as credit?

3. Book airfare directly on Iberia airlines and have CapitalOne apply points towards final cc bill as credit?

4. Transfer points to Iberia airlines skymiles program and use points to pay for tickets?

Not sure if it matters but Boston to Madrid in mid September 2026.

Thanks