Review of Iberia flight from Toulouse to Madrid in Economy

Introduction

After a wonderful summer in the South of France with family and friends, it was time to head back home to San Diego, but first we were heading to Madrid for a short visit. This review will cover the quick one-hour hop between Toulouse and Madrid with Iberia.

Routing

Iberia's infamous I.T. strikes again

The tickets for this short one-hour flight, booked separately from the rest of the itinerary, were originally reserved as a one-way in Economy. A few months after booking the tickets I decided to upgrade them to Business class for the higher BA Tier Points earnings. I paid the fare difference of $580 to upgrade the three tickets and received confirmation that the reservations were now in the Business cabin.

When I went to select seats in the Business cabin shortly after upgrading, all of our seats were still stuck in Economy…Oh great…Iberia's awful I.T. systems are at it again! 

Everything in the reservation viewed in the Iberia app or website showed Business class, except the location of the actual seats. The Business cabin was not even viewable when looking at the seat map! 

I phoned Iberia reservations to inquire about this obvious bug and was assured that seats in the Business cabin would be available to select 24 hours before the flight due to the fare rules of the "Business Optima" fare brand, which only allows seat selection at the 24-hour mark. I wasn't really buying it since I have free seat selection at time of booking with my British Airways Gold status, and have several Iberia reservations booked in Business Optima for which I was able to select seats at booking….Oh well, I just let it go until the 24h mark. 

Well you can guess what happened next…that's right…still stuck in Economy at the 24 hour mark!

To make matters worse, the only way to view seats 24 hours before a flight on the Iberia app or website is to go through the check-in process, which ended up making matters worse. I once again phoned Iberia reservations and was told there was nothing they could do as I was now showing checked in for the flight….OH COME ON!!!!!

I was literally just following their own advice to wait until 24 hours before the flight to select seats! I just wanted to sit in the cabin for which I'd paid!

The phone agent from the Paris call centre spent quite some time speaking to a supervisor and a help desk in Madrid, but sadly no one was able to resolve the issue due to the reservation being in checked-in status. After about an hour of trying, the agent relayed the message from Madrid that the issue would need to be resolved at the airport upon checking in. Hmmm….right. Well then, fingers crossed. 

Le Sigh…

Check-in & Lounge

We arrived at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport's Concourse D a little over 2 hours before departure eager to resolve this upgrade issue, but only cautiously optimistic. I do like to fly with Iberia and have flown them often over the years, but I know how terrible their I.T. systems are and have learnt over the years that when things go wrong, they're almost impossible to resolve.

Turkish were advertising all over the airport—perhaps as a competitive response to Qatar Airways, though Qatar recently announced they'll be pulling out of Toulouse after barely a year of serving the airport. 

As I walked towards the Iberia counters, I could tell the large crowd that was amassed meant the counters hadn't yet opened. 

Once the counters did open, right at 2 hours before departure, there was no wait in the Business class queue luckily. In comparison, there was a massive queue waiting for the Economy check-in positions. 

Much as I'd thought, the airport staff were not able to resolve the issue. No matter what they tried, they were unable to change the seats to the correct cabin, even after several phone calls to a manager and a help desk. The agent was kind, and again very apologetic, but explained that they didn't have much authorisation in the system as they are a contracted station and not directly Iberia staff.

He suggested I try to call Iberia reservations again, which I did. Unsurprisingly, more apologies, but again no possibility to help the situation. As there was nothing that could be done, the phone agent initiated the reimbursement process for the $580 upgrade charge….aaaand, I'm still waiting to see that refund to my credit card over a week later 😒

So there you have it ! You have been warned…upgrading Iberia tickets online does not always work correctly—and when it doesn't, it's almost impossible to resolve, but the moral of the story is…Don't do online check-in! That will block everything. Had I not listened to the first phone agent about the 24h seat selection and called again a few days before the flight, there would have been more options to work out the situation. 

I didn't so much care about having to sit in Economy…it's only a one hour flight after all—but I really felt ripped off for all the time I'd wasted trying to get this issue resolved that was 100% their fault for taking my money and not giving me what I'd paid for!

After all that we went through security and headed to the lounge. Note that Iberia don't pay for fast track access in Toulouse so Elite passengers in Economy won't have access to Fast Track security lanes. Luckily, there was very little wait at the standard security lanes. 

There's a beautiful Occitan cross design in the terminal, appropriately located right in front of the "La Croix du Sud" lounge (The "Southern Cross" being a reference to the Occitan cross, a symbol of Southern France, particularly the southwest. 

The Croix du Sud is surprisingly the only lounge in Toulouse, luckily it's large enough to accommodate passengers for all airlines—at least for now, with air traffic still not back to pre-pandemic levels. 

It can get crowded at busy times, but it was very quiet on this Wednesday at midday. There was no one at all on the lower level. 

We headed upstairs for some natural light as there are no windows on the lower level. 

The upper level is bright and open and was also quiet with very few other passengers. 

There are self-service stations with sandwiches, snacks, and beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

There's also a limited amount of hot options. 

Boarding

We left the lounge about 10 minutes before boarding time as it was a bit of a long walk to the gate at the end of the concourse.

Boarding started shortly after we got to the gate and we were able to go right on with Group 1 boarding thanks to my oneworld Emerald status. 

Well, it's not Business class, but we were at least right behind in XL seats, which are the same seats as Business class, except for the middle seats not being blocked of course. Depending on where the class-divider curtain is located on any given flight, the rows of Business class seats in the Economy section, if there are any, are marketed as Extra legroom "XL" seats. The Business/XL seats go from row 1 - 6 and are the same Collins Aerospace Pinnacle model found on British Airways narrowbodies. Seats from row 7 back are basic slimline seats with a knee-crushing 28" seat pitch. 

Legroom in the Business/XL Seat section is better than the 28" pitch in Economy with 30-31" pitch, though it's still not great. 

Seats in row 1 - 6 are equipped with 110v universal power outlets and USB ports, whereas Economy seats from row 7 back only have USB ports. 

All Iberia aircraft are equipped with Wi-Fi, there are instructions to connection in the seat pocket as well as on a sticker on the back of the seats. 

The Flight

Boarding wrapped up quickly, the Economy cabin was about 80 % full, through the XL section was mostly empty, and the Business cabin was more than half empty, which was frustrating to see. 

We pushed back from the gate on time. 

It was a short taxi to the departure runway past the Airbus plant. 

Great views of Toulouse on take off

The beautiful city centre of "La ville rose"

The Wi-Fi was activated once the aircraft was over 10,000 ft in altitude. 

Business class passengers and Iberia Plus members have free access to the messaging service. 

Otherwise the messaging plan costs 2,49 EUR for all other passengers. 

Full flight streaming-capable Wi-Fi costs 5,99 EUR, which is a decent price for longer intra-European flights, but I didn't find it to be worth it for barely an hour in the air on this flight. 

Shortly after takeoff cabin crew came through the cabin with the cart of buy-on-board food and drinks. Iberia don't have any complimentary offer in short-haul economy, not even a bottle of water or a tiny snack, like some other airlines. I imagine one can ask for a cup of water. Knowing this, we made sure to grab some drinks in the lounge for the flight. 

As far as buy-on-board menus go, Iberia have a decent amount of variety at decent prices. I find their prices for alcoholic beverages to be lower than most other European airlines and they have reasonable deals for food+drink combos. 

Soon we begin crossing the Pyrenees mountains, the natural barrier between France and Spain. 

The French side of the mountains was still rather green by the end of August, thanks to some much needed rains brought by recent thunderstorms. You could even see some spots of snow here and there in the tallest peaks. 

Once on the Spanish side, it's a whole other world—the high plateau of central Spain is very dry, almost desert-like. 

I reminds me a lot of the dry climate back home in Southern California. 

The yellow fields make for some pretty patterns as we descend towards Madrid-Barajas. 

It's always a short taxi as Terminal 4 is right there by the runways. 

We arrived at the gate a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

As usual, it took an eternity for checked luggage to be delivered, luckily there's a playground in the baggage area to keep my son occupied for a time as we waited. In took over 45 minutes to receive our bags, which is pretty typical for Terminal 4 in our experience. 

Thanks for reading!