#48 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
348 reviews
Hola amigos!
The route between Bogotá and Madrid is one of the busiest between South America and Europe. (Before the Pandemic) it used to have up to 7 flights a day, between Avianca, Iberia and Air Europa. AV and UX fly on 787-8s, while IB flew A340-600.
I was moving to Madrid, so I had to pick between the 3 carriers…or try a connecting flight (but I didn't feel like it).
I had already tried the route with AV, and I didn't feel like trying UX…So it was basically a non-brainer: flying IB longhaul for the first time, and on one of my favourite planes, without knowing it, it's likely to be the last time.
So here goes the report on Iberia's A346 on the BOG-MAD route.
I made it to the airport with my ton of bags…and surprise surprise, the queue was huge!
Checkin in took quite a while, and since I had to pay for extra baggage (I couldn't buy it online beforehand) I wasted a whole couple of hours in this.
Done with this it was time to say adiós to my country
Done with passport control and security I passed through the Duty Free, I bought a couple of perfumes as BOG's Duty Free's prices were quite good.
Then it was time to go to El dorado Lounge, it was too gold for my taste, I prefer the LAN Lounge, but I just wanted to know the new lounge. (sorry for the blurry pics)
I just had enough time to drink something quick and then it was time to board the A340
This was the third airline I had tried the A346 on. This wasn't the coolest one…but an A346 is an A346.
Before I boarded the plane I was stopped by one of the ground crew who told me the flight would be packed and there wouldn't be space for my carry-on. I told her I rather not since I was carrying some delicate stuff on it. She didn't care and forced me to check it in.
When you boarded the plane you turned left and you'd see the Business and Premium Economy cabins
But this once I'll turn right to Economy Class. The seats were even better than on AV's 788.
And this…just made me furious. It remained empty for this flight (probably because of the idiot forcing us to check in our carry-ons.)
Back in the day seatbacks had more than safety cards and barf bags…
The crew went through the cabin handing newspapers…I asked for Marca, given that the super Final for the Libertadores cup would be that weekend in Madrid
We were given pillows and blankets. I'm still haven't made my mind about the "inspirational" motif in the pillow…
We took off southward and made a 270° wide turn to head north.
Thanks to my crappy camera no pics are available.
So 30 mins or so after take off, we were given our dinner. There was an offer of beef or pasta. This was the first chance for a series of cultural shocks moving to Spain. While in America we call beef "carne" or "carne de res/vaca", in Spain they call it "ternera"…that is how we call "veal". It was quite strange for me to be offered veal in a plane…but I didn't feel like having pasta. I ordered a Lemon Fanta to go along ith the meal.
Food was tasty and of appropriate quantity. Much better than Avianca in 2016.
Done with the food, i went to sleep.
By the time we were woken up, we were just about to make it to Europe.
It was time for a visit to the WC…not at its best shape.
We were handed our breakfast boxes…if my memory doesn't fail me, it was a muffin, a chocolate bar and that's about it.
By then we were well over Castille…Salamanca was visible in the distance.
We spent some time circling…
We had an almost imperceptible landing…into IB land, or Madrid Adolfo Suarez as it is officialy known
One last view to our ride…I wish I had the chance to fly more on the A346, sigh
Immigration took no time, and then in less than 30 mins I rode the train to T4 to wait for my bags,
And so my new life in Spain begun…
For me, IB is the best carrier on the BOG-MAD run. Nothing fancy, it gets the job done, and while at it, you get decent food, nice IFE, some wine...and back then, the magical A346.
BOG was okay, but the check-in queue was extremely long. The El Dorado lounge was ..meh. As told, too gold for my taste. And I didn't spend too long to be able to "know" the place better. At least you get free food and drinks before your flight.
MAD, on the other hand was super efficient. I rode a cab to the city as I was carrying a ton of bags. Now that I know, cabs tend to charge double the price as Cabify or Uber as they have a 30 € fixed rate. But you can also reach the city through Metro, Cercanías and Bus...its unbeatable in terms of access.
Thanks for reading,
Saludos!
4 Comments
Gracias por compartir! Ya se te pegó el "azento"? Jajaj
It's crazy to think these were such a huge part of IB's long-haul fleet so recently and now they're all gone! Such a shame since they have pretty new interiors.
Crazy that they didn't let you do it online ahead of time. That's since changed because I get messages from IB all the time now about adding extra bags and it's easily done in Manage my Booking. Though I never actually need it since we get 3 bags each with our status.
LOL...but hey, it was true to its name! 🤣
That's a very good synopsis of IB in general. I'd say that even goes for J cabin...there are definitely better products out there, but I always find Iberia to be a good value for money at often reasonable prices compared to the competition.
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, my FR backlog is important.
IB's IT sucks. I think it may be its weakest link.
It's sad to think they're the best choice out of MAD in many cases. Though from what I've read from LH and BA, IB may be the better choice sometimes!
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