HEAVY MADRID
So I am doing this series of reports back to front…
This is my final flight of this trip to Barcelona. It cost £170 and I did 4 flights with 2 airlines flying me LHR-LIS-BCN-MAD-LHR.
I have frequent flyer accounts with ONEWORLD & STAR ALLIANCE so this was a win-win plus I got to experience two new airlines for me and get a flight on the Iberia A330!
So after my overnight trip to Barcelona, I flew to Madrid where I rushed a 1 hour & 20 minute connection from the main European/Schengen Iberia terminal to the Non-Schengen area which was full of Iberia Airbus A330/A340 preparing for flights to North & South America. Also to be found were South American gems of LAN Boeing 767 & Avianca Boeing 787!
I made it to the Airbus A330 where everyone was lining up to board. I was there about 20 minutes before it began. Talk about cutting it fine!
I checked in the day before at BCN for both flights and I managed to secure a window seat in Row 14. So I would be by the wing & looking at the Engine!!!
On-board I found the Airbus A330 so much more fancier and nicer than the somewhat box-standard narrow body cabin of the Iberia A321 that did my previous flight,
The Airbus A330 for my flight was an A330-300 example with the registration of EC-LXK and was just under 3 years old at the time of flying.
About 20 minutes behind our scheduled departure time we pushed back and we didn't take long to get to the runway and depart from a cloudy Madrid for an even cloudier London.
Getting airborne we started gaining up our lost time on the ground. It was nice to play around with the IFE and the interactive map. One of the perks of flying wide-body aircraft!
On the European flights; as with BA, Vueling & Aer Lingus- Iberia offers food & drink as a buy on board and I selected a 10EUR meal deal featuring a Sprite, KitKat and a Spanish toast with diced Tomato and Olive Oil, It didn't look good, but it tasted good!
All in all it was a smooth flight and before I knew it, we were landing back at London Heathrow and parking up at Terminal 5B alongside a lot of the British Airways Boeing 777s, Boeing 747s and Airbus A380s.
I didn't get to see the flight deck, but after a long 2 day trip around the Iberian Peninsular, I was very tired anyway and just wanted to get home and crash out!
Perfect end to January & a great start to February!
Thanks for this FR.
It's always great to get to fly on a widebody on a short flight, it makes you feel you're going to a longhaul destination.
IB BoB is really overpriced, I think it was ranked as the most expensive airline for BoB in a recent article.
Glad you liked it. I thought I got a nice deal on my flight though. Though I agree, 2.50EUR is a bit stingy for a 250ml can of soda... Trying this flight with their Airbus A340 in July, so that is exciting!