-
Hi, I’m travelling back from Mexico to London & have the choice of the old Club World with BA (direct) or the new Business Class with Iberia. Obviously Iberia will be stopover in Madrid but not too fussed about that & it’s a later flight so we get a little more time in Mexico, the cost is broadly the same.
Has anyone flown both Club World & Iberia new business, & is one materially better? I’m only bronze so I wouldn’t be able to pick seats until a week before but seems that doesn’t matter so much for Iberia as the seats are all pretty much the same. I’m erring towards Iberia as the hard product looks much better, but don’t know if I’m being crazy adding 3.5 hours onto my journey for that!
Any advice would be gratefully received :o)
Iberia would win every time for me
The Iberia seat is comparable to Club Suite, so for most a far better proposition than old BA seats but on top of that you get incomparably better food/wine, a clean aircraft and far more professional service. The Velásquez lounge in MAD is pretty decent, but you probably won’t have much time there if it’s only 3h30 longer via MAD. If you have an Iberia long haul aircraft from MAD-LHR, that’s an added bonus.
If you have the extra time and you enjoy airport, then IB without a doubt!
Thanks everyone!
+1 for IB
If you will just sleep it makes no difference. If it is a day flight you will enjoy the food and wine of IB much more (unless you are into curries).
If you can catch the wide body in Madrid for the London leg I would go with IB.
I went on the old CW with BA and a350 IB few months back. They are not even in the same stratosphere IMO, has to be IB.
I would also vote for IB, if you are not fussed about the time.
Word of caution, the food out of MAD is good; I wouldn’t expect much flying back from an outstation. A few weeks ago we flew back from GIG on Iberia, the food was very mediocre. The wine/sherry/cava selection however is always there!
Lastly, IB is just really bad with cabin temperature management, on every night flight with them I end up going up front to ask to cool the cabin.If I could get a window seat on BA CW to save 3.5 hours and go direct, then no contest, BA for me. I’ve got a many a good night sleep in old CW. However, if extra time at origin was important then I might compromise with IB. A day flight is a different story.
Flew back from Buenos Aires in business with IB about 10 days ago. The food and service was terrible. Salmon for main course dried and crispy round the edges as sauce was underneath. As for breakfast, the pancakes with sauce were falling off the plate and again hard and overcooked around the edges. Looked terrible. No apology. A few dried up bits of fresh fruit. Cabin crew spent all their time up front chatting. Always had to walk to the front to ask for a drink as didn’t come back down the cabin. Pressed for service, but never answered. Same going out. Once the lights were dimmed, never saw the crew. Toilets in both directions were never cleaned and disgusting. The breakfast on the flight from Madrid to London on IB was far superior as was service from crew and Captain, who came to talk to us when we were delayed.
Had quite a lot of turbulence in both directions. Not once did crew check for seat belts. Landing in Madrid my seat belt was caught in the bed mechanism. I asked for help. Crew member disappeared and did not return. Couldn’t get seat back to correct position so was half lying in seat. Pressed call button and no one came. Tried to walk along the aisle and I was shouted at to sit down. Landed with no seat belt and seat still reclined.
The other issue in business, is the seats are staggered. So it was like musical chairs at the beginning of the flight where couples wanted to sit in the “honeymoon” pair but found they were next to the aisle and singles were in the middle and wanted the aisle. Issue going to Lima as flight was full and lots of unhappy travellers, but on return from Buenos Aires there were quite a lot of empty seats.
There is nowhere to put personal items (a bit like CW) apart from in the space between the seat and the window. The seats are staggered to the left or right. If you sleep on your left side, think carefully which seat you choose. I had 5L and my knees constantly banged against the console of seat in front. OH and I swapped half way in each direction!
The wine was good.
We did MEX-MAD-LHR in May as a Business Class Avios redemption, chosing it over BA partly because it was a fair bit cheaper in Avios and Cash against BA.
We also flew on from Madrid to Heathrow on the daily widebody, what was IB3166 but now IB721 after the renumbering. Both flights were A350s, with the MEX-MAD leg on one of the new aircraft with doors, MAD-LHR without. We had the same seats on both flights which did highlight the extent to which the doors do result in reduced seat width, but I do prefer them over BA old Club World which we would have had in a BA 787-9.
Two hour connection in MAD, during which we had time for a shower and drink, resulted in one of our checked bags making it but not the other. That would have been fine as the other bag was delivered to us at home the following morning, except we were given false information at the baggage reclaim service desk which resulted in our spending a lot more time waiting around at Heathrow than we should have needed to.
Overall though Iberia business class is a decent option and better than BA in many respects. For the same money we probably would have flown BA direct, but it was worth the detour for a few hundred pound saving.
Incidentally I have previously found seat selection for Iberia business class redemptions to be free, including as Blue members. I couldn’t find absolute clarity on what position should be, and I was Silver on our most recent trip.
It seems a bit unfortunate really that for long haul at least, the ‘junior’ of the two IAG full service airlines has become the superior one. It’s no wonder they really, really don’t get on!
@marks7389 – in respect of your missing bag, IB would probably sympathise. It would rather not be in T5 or be handled by BA.Thanks for all the feedback. Went for the Iberia one :o)
Two questions though
1) should the Avios be all sorted at the time on the phone, the agent got a little confused & she seems to have refunded me the original Avios for the outward, charged me the return Avios & around half the Avios of the outbound. It means I’ve got a return for 109k rather than the 151k she quoted. Is it likely they’ll do a true up & charge me the rest or is that finalised as far as they’re concerned.I haven’t actually got the ticket yet (I assume because of point two)
2) they said they couldn’t charge me the taxes & fees straight away (they got me to do a secure credit card submission on the phone) but that another department would do so within 48 hours. That was on Thursday evening & they’ve still not charged, is that normal?
I did the LHR-MAD flat bed a few weeks ago. The car-style shoulder seat belt is incredibly uncomfortable, basically cutting in to your neck. I would think twice about taking another flight with those seats.
I did the LHR-MAD flat bed a few weeks ago. The car-style shoulder seat belt is incredibly uncomfortable, basically cutting in to your neck. I would think twice about taking another flight with those seats.
You have that in almost every business class seat nowadays. You only have to use it like that for take off and landing.
You have that in almost every business class seat nowadays. You only have to use it like that for take off and landing.
Yes, you can unclip the shoulder strap from the lap belt. I can imagine it being very uncomfortable otherwise, especially for sleeping.
Club Suite has exactly the same.
I came back from MEX the other night in old CW for the first time in about 5 years. It was even more uncomfortable than I remembered! I slept worse than on my last overnight, which was in PE. I graciously let OH have the window seat as he was doing the driving home, so I felt horribly exposed as well.
I’ve decided I just can’t cope with night flights any more, even if it means having to connect to JFK or BOS to get the day flight each time we re-cross the Atlantic in future!
I came back from MEX the other night in old CW for the first time in about 5 years. It was even more uncomfortable than I remembered! I slept worse than on my last overnight, which was in PE. I graciously let OH have the window seat as he was doing the driving home, so I felt horribly exposed as well.
If you think those are exposed you really dont want to fly in the Qatar one I think it was an A351. There was almost no sidewall on the seat, maybe 20%, the rest of it was exposed to the aisle. No good seats in J in that aircraft.
I’ve decided I just can’t cope with night flights any more, even if it means having to connect to JFK or BOS to get the day flight each time we re-cross the Atlantic in future!
I enjoyed night flights home when it meant I could be in the door for 8am, dump my bags, grab coffee and be working from my laptop on the sofa so I didn’t use an extra day of annual leave. Worked well for years.
Now I don’t care as long as the flight gets me there at a sensible hour and the hotel will let me check in or dump my bags until later. I really try and avoid those silly flights to Georgia and such that arrive at 3am, or ones that don’t set off until 1:30-2:00am
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
