Welcome to the second part of my trip to London!
Flight routing
- 1
- 2I23714 - Business - Madrid → London Gatwick - Airbus A320
- 3IB3177 - Economy - London Heathrow → Madrid - Airbus A320
- 4IB482 - Economy - Madrid → Asturias - Airbus A320
I arrived to sunny Madrid from my previous flight and had a very tight connection of 55 minutes, given that I had to change terminals and move from T4 to T4s and pass through passport control (which can get very busy in the morning in MAD).
MAD is busy as usual.
The morning flights:
I headed to the train to change terminals (sorry for the blurry picture).
I usually enjoy this ride at MAD. I find the train very convenient and efficient.
And I am like a kid! I love sitting in the front and see the tracks during the ride :)
Arrival to T4S and directly to passport control.
Past passport control I go to the boarding area, but there is no way around the Duty Free Shop.
Even though this is one of my favourite lounges, I have no time today… not even for a coffee! I always find interesting that the entrance of the lounge is in the middle of the shop.
The flights at T4S (again, sorry for the blurry photo! I promise I was not drunk!).
I go to my gate, S34.
And I see my plane from the distance. It is EC-JFH today, An A320 that is almost 20 years old and already passed by IB and VY before joining the fleet of I2 in 2012.
My gate.
As usually with the Iberia group, the boarding groups are very clearly defined and respected. At the T4S they always have the priority groups on one side and the remaining ones on the other.
And we get into the jetbridge.
Which has very nice views for the wait.
The door moment!
The seats for J at I2 are the ironing board without any recline… not premium at all!
Leg space is decent, though not massive, but enough for my 1,80m.
Seats are decorated with some information on the wi-fi, entertainment and USB connection.
Content of the seat pocket:
An A330 as a neighbour.
We quickly start taxiing.
And don't have to wait for take off.
Wi-fi and entertainment is available as soon as we take off.
Flight information is not great, but is better than nothing.
And there is information about the cities I2 flies to.
We were welcomed with the choice of orange juice or water to start.
And a few minutes later the meal tray arrives. You can see the low cost side here… a bit sad for a flight over two hours. I missed a hot dish here. At least the choice for butter is good, as it is made just a few km away from my home.
No menu was offered, just a card informing of the "highest quality" of ingredients.
I had a coffee with my breakfast.
After some time the views got on the cloudy side… well, I'm flying to London after all!
Nothing exciting as views during landing.
A lot of VY and BA at LGW.
And we deboard without much delay.
And the escalators take us to a very nice and varied view.
Finally I get on my way to passoport control.
Another nice report! It's crazy that Iberia are running I2 to London, but I suppose they figure LGW is less premium than Heathrow. Nevertheless, the ironing boards in J are really a shame. At least the new I2 neos have the much nicer Pinnacle seats up front.
Aside from the poor seats in J, there are some aspects of the I2 experience that are better than mainline IB short-haul fleet with the streaming entertainment, and there were USB ports on I2 metal well before they were there on IB mainline (I think A319s still don't have any USB in fact). The catering is also a downgrade from IB mainline short-haul catering, which is always very good in my experience. Nevertheless, it's still an overall decent experience in J on I2, in line with other European carriers.
I've said it many times before, but I find it crazy that there's IFE on Iberia Express and Air Nostrum, but not on mainline narrowbody fleet.
I couldn't agree more. MAD has become my favourite large European airport since the beginning of the pandemic because it's so much more pleasant than CDG, LHR, FRA, AMS, etc. Even when it is super busy it is so much smoother an experience than basically any other large EU airport. MAD is really underrated in my opinion.
Gracias por compartir!
Indeed! IB used to fly only to LHR, where they have a decent presence, but started flying to the less premium LGW with I2, as there’s a lot less business traffic (I assume that when flying for work LHR is my first choice).
It’s not all of them but a good majority, as well as a couple of A320s. Normally, the ones that don’t have a full livery are the ones without USB ports.
Fully agree! I used to love AMS, but it has been downhill for a while now. I think that one of the greatest assets of MAD is how much natural light there is, making it very liveable.
This is MAD-ness, lol
Veo trenes de Madrid y tiemblooooo!!! Hace años casi maté a una niñita sin querer en el metro de Madrid!!
Esa es la idea!! XD En SCL los pasillos por el duty free eran tan estrechos que me daba la impresión de que te querían sacar el dinero por osmosis! lol Eso cuando los vuelos internacionales estaban en el terminal antiguo.
You mean you drink, but the camera gets drunk?? lol
Es bueno saber con qué te vas a encontrar. En latam estuvieron probando un montón de estrategias diferentes para embarcar. Fue un período muy confuso. Recuerdo que en una ocasión incluso nos hicieron embarcar por letra!! Primero todos los que tenían asients A, bespués los B, y así. Así que imagínate el caos cuando un niño tenía el B y el papá tenía el A.
Ya me di cuenta de que la J europea es pésima!! No solamente en IB
If they say so...
Hermoso, Se parece mucho a Valdivia, donde vivo, o mejor dicho, donde viviré hasta marzo. :(
Tal como dices en la conclusión, "not a full service nor a low cost." Creo que ahí está el problema.
Excelente y entretenido informe. Gracias por compartir!!!