Review of Iberia flight Madrid → London in Business

A quick review on my recent IB flight from Madrid to London on their new business class.

The MAD-LHR flight IB3166 is pretty famous among avgeek as it is always operated by a widebody.

I flew it twice on the A340-600 before their retirement, now this flight is almost always operated by the A350, sometimes an A330. 

During online check in, there was a reasonnable offer to upgrade this flight to business.

I know i probably wouldn't have time to visit the lounge as I only had 1H10 to connect from ORY but still it was a nice opportunity.

In spite of my flight landing on time from ORY, due to the long taxi time and distance between T4 and T4S, I made it to the gate when the flight was in Last Call for Boarding. 1:10 minutes between flights is not enough.

A quick view of my plane EC-NXC, which had just arrived from Lima  and would fly to Bogota after its return from LHR.
 

There was no line to board at the gate, I was the last Business Class passenger it seems.

Two jetbridges were used, and while I was alone in the one going to door 1L, I could see people queuing in the other jetbridge to door 2L.

A friendly greeting by the purser, which spoke good english, not always the case on Iberia

My seat, 2J 

A convenient closet for your coat/bag
 

The cabin has staggered seats with even rows closer to the aisle and odd rows closer to the window.
Here's a picture I took while disembarking in London.  

Of course I would have preferred a row closer to the window, but they were all taken.

In fact being in the first row, so far away from the window, made any view of the wing difficult, only my camera could get a glimpse at a certain angle.

It barely felt like being in a plane.

View from the seat

I asked for a glass of water which came with a smile.

Menus were distributed before pushback but I forgot to take a picture.

We pushed back ahead of schedule

UX about to take off toe Medellin, with T4 in the background 

T4S with many narrowbodies, unusual as it's the long haul/non Schengen terminal
 

Passing another IB A350 just before entering the runway 
 

Being at the very front, it was a quiet take off, and a pretty short one too. Guess we weren't heavy
 

I noticed my seat was already in bad shape, even if it's only  1,5 years old
 

Snow covered landscapes over central Spain, pretty uncommon I think 
 

Lunch was served, choices were Pork Stew with Gnocchis or Stuffed Eggplant.

I went with the Pork and it was delicious.

As was the appetizer of sardines with a citrus sauce.

The F/A serving my aisle was friendly, she noticed I could speak basic spanish and made the effort to talk slowly.  
 

I asked for a gin&tonic to go with my meal and she said they only had soft drinks, beer and wine on the trolley, and she would bring it to me later.

Later turned out to mean: after finishing the meal service and offering more bread to the entire cabin.  

In the end I got my drink at the same time coffee was served. 

Sure the cabin was full, but the meal service was fully completed with trays cleared 45 minutes before landing, I guess she could have gone back to the galley when I asked for my drink.

At the end of lunch, we were flying alonside the French Coastline, near Nantes.
 

A chocolate was distributed

I decided to rest a few minutes and to close the door.

It was my first time in the type of cabin, and I wasn't impressed, the seat is pretty narrow, and I'm thin. With the closed door it makes for a claustrophobic feeling.
The door doesn't add much privacy, as you can't see your neighbor when seated anyway.
 

The sun quickly started to set as we entered the UK and the cabin was prepared for landing 
 

I had chosen a seat on the right side to get a view of London, and it did not disappoint, depiste being dusk (sorry for the mediocre quality of the pictures)
 

And we landed rather firmly almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule
 

The pilot breaked heavily to make sure we could take the first taxiway to the C gates, then we taxied at high speed.

There was no point in rushing, especially as when we reached our stand, it took 15 minutes for the jetbridge to be attached us to start disembarking via door 2L.

Crew was stricly blocking Y+ and Y passengers to disembark until all business class passengers had gotten off, but were not particularly attentive to saying goodbye, they were chatting on and off. 

Overall a pleasant flight, in great conditions for a European flight.
 
Crew was friendly although just doing their job with a smile, nothing further.
I find that serving drinks after you've finished your service a bit lazy. I would have prefered being told, they only had what was on the trolley and to have a glass of wine WITH my meal.

The meal itself was excellent. 

As for the seat, while not bad, I don't consider it better than the previous IB business seat which was wider but less private. 

Also IB cabins being grey-grey-grey, the addition of doors make the business cabin look like office cubicles