Review of Iberia flight from New York to Madrid in Business

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the second part of this series of flight reviews. 

Like every Holiday season, we first flew from San Diego to the East coast to visit with family and friends prior to flying on to Europe. For the first part of the trip, we flew Alaska Airlines in Domestic First to Washington, DC, which was covered in the previous review. For the second leg, we flew out of New York to Madrid on Iberia in Business class, which we'll cover in this review. 

The Iberia flights were booked directly through Iberia well in advance. Being the AvGeek that I am, I love how Iberia show a 360 view of the cabin from each seat when selecting seats during the booking flow. 

Note that even 6 months ahead, the flight was already looking quite full, at least based on the little availability on the seat map. This is why I make sure to book Holiday travel well ahead of time. 

One issue with booking Iberia directly lately has been that it's taking an ETERNITY for Avios and Tier Points to credit to British Airways Club accounts. We've been flying Iberia for years and never had issues in the past, except maybe once. Historically IB flights would credit to BA within a few days, but the last 3 IB flights I've taken since December 2024, on two separate reservations, have taken over 2 months for Avios and Tier points to post to BA.

After submitting a missing Avios claim on BA.com, the responses purported that BA did not to have access to partner fare details, which then requires BA to do everything manually as Avios earned on Iberia are based on fare paid. This is absolutely ridiculous considering that BA and IB are part of the same airline group under IAG. Whether the problem is on the BA or IB end, I don't know how BA expect to now be able to also award Tier Points based on the fare paid from April 1st, 2025 when they couldn't get it right with their closest partner before!

It was very obvious Executive Club agents were overwhelmed and disorganised because I received several messages from different agents about the same claims requesting for boarding passes and booking details when I'd uploaded those when filing the missing Avios claims. 

BA's (and IB's) terrible I.T. strikes again! Hopefully this has been worked out since, but don't be surprised if Iberia flights don't post automatically if you credit to any programme that isn't Iberia Plus. If that's the case, be ready for a lot of back and forth! I've also since flown IB flights booked through BA and not had to wait as long—the Avios & TPs did not credit automatically again; however, as the ticket number was on BA 125 ticket stock, the missing Avios/TP posted within hours or raising a claim on BA.com. 

Routing

Check-in & Lounge

We returned our rental car at the JFK rental car centre a little over 3h prior to departure. We took the AirTrain from there to Terminal 8, from which Iberia operate. 

Although we have BA Gold status (oneworld Emerald), which normally gives access to First class check-in counters, we could not use the First class check-in area at T8 as we were flying Iberia. The Premium check-in is reserved for American Airlines and British Airways passengers as it is only staffed by agents from those two airlines. I've covered the Premium check-in experience in several reviews in the past. You can see the most recent here and here. 

So we made our way to the Iberia ticket counters, which are located near the entrance of the terminal. 

There was no only one other passenger ahead of us at the Business class counters, so it only took a few minutes to drop off our bags. 

The only slight inconvenience to not having access to the AA/BA Premium check-in when flying Iberia is that the counters are further away from the security checkpoint, while the Premium check-in leads right to the TSA pre-check lanes on exiting the facility. 

We were through TSA Pre-check in minutes. As there's less business travel over the Holidays, there's generally less passengers at TSA pre-check, while the regular security lanes have very long lines. 

From there we headed to the co-branded American Airlines and British Airways Soho Lounge, which is reserved for passengers with oneworld Emerald status or those flying First class on oneworld airlines other than AA or BA. Business class passengers without status and oneworld Sapphire members have access to the Greenwich Lounge, the re-branded former AA Flagship lounge. Meanwhile long-haul First class passengers on AA or BA, as well as American Airlines Concierge Key and British Airways Gold Guest List members have access to the very exclusive Chelsea Lounge, which is the equivalent of the British Airways Concorde Room. 

We've been to this lounge several times since it opened in late 2022–when British Airways moved from T7 to T8–and it's always a pleasant experience. As I've reviewed the Soho Lounge a few times in the past, I won't go into a lot of detail. 

The lounge is large with lots of seating options and large windows.

The food options are quite good by U.S. lounge standards, with several hot and fresh options at the buffet. 

You can also order fresh made items to the table from the menu, which is found through the QR code at each table in the dining area. 

Boarding

We left the lounge about 10 minutes before boarding time to head to the gate, which was located at the end of the same concourse. 

The concourse is rather long so we did well to leave enough time. 

There was a cute Christmas cottage in the terminal. It reminded me of a similar cottage in the Helsinki Airport terminal. 

I generally don't like gates on the ends of concourses because there's usually less space in the gate area, making boarding crowded and chaotic. Thankfully, Iberia have a relatively simple boarding process with only 4 boarding groups (compared to 8 or 9 at AA/BA), so it was reasonably well organised. 

We were able to get in the end of the queue for Group 1, which includes Business class as well as passengers with oneworld Emerald and Sapphire status in any cabin. 

We boarded through door 2L and turned left into the Business class cabin. 

Iberia's A330s are outfitted with Stelia Solstys full-flat seats in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration, giving all passengers access to the aisle. 

While the seats are spacious and comfortable, these cabins, which were installed about a decade ago, are beginning to show their age. Aisle seats are also quite exposed if you value privacy. 

While the seats aren't the latest generation, they still have modern amenities like 110v universal power and a USB port, as well as a touchscreen remote controller for the in-flight entertainment. 

Seat controls are located to the side, next to the IFE remote. 

Legroom is very good and the ottoman is quite large, which gives ample space for the feet in bed mode.

Shortly after settling in, the friendly cabin crew welcomed passengers on board and distributed menus. As is often the case on Iberia, the chief purser greeted all passengers with oneworld Emerald status by name, which is always a nice touch. 

The content of the small amenity kit is basic but of good quality. I find the gel eye-mask particularly comfortable and soft. 

The Flight

Despite a 100% full flight, boarding wrapped up on time. Even the last 4 seats showing empty on the seat map during boarding ended up being taken by a family, which I assume was upgraded at the last minute due to lack of seats in the back. 

Doors were closed and we pushed back from the gate a short time later. 

The new-ish safety video played as we taxied. It has some big-name Spanish celebrities and shows several beautiful regions of Spain, but I worry safety videos like these are a bit too abstract as they don't actually show an aircraft cabin. 

Taxi time was not too long by JFK standards–only about a half-hour.

Oof, less than 7 hours of flight time–that doesn't leave much time for sleep after dinner. I much prefer longer transatlantic flights from the West Coast for sleep!

The Wi-Fi was available once the aircraft was above 10,000 ft

The full-flight Browse & Stream plan is 16.99 Euros, which is decent and works quite well in my experience. It works much better than AA's exorbitantly-priced long-haul Wi-Fi, for example. 

Shortly after takeoff, service began with a hot towel. 

Checking out the IFE before dinner, I found it to be even buggier than normal. The age of the cabins on the A330s manifests itself most through the buggy IFE–I have issues with either the screen or remote on a majority of flights on IB A330s and this flight was no exception…

Not only was the screen not responsive to light touches, the remote was mostly unusable with no content showing at all. I was able to manage selecting films by using the physical buttons–normally you can use the touchscreen on the remote. 

Other than that there's a decent amount of content and I always enjoy catching up on Spanish cinema when flying Iberia. 

As it was a short night flight, cabin crew quickly got the dinner service under way shortly after takeoff. There's understandably no separate aperitif service on these short redeyes from the East Coast, unlike day flights or longer flights. 

There were two choices of appetisers. I went for the non-vegetarian option, which was fresh and tasty. 

Antipasti with bresaola and ricotta cheese

Here's a look at the vegetarian option:

Burrata with zucchini cream served with spicy oil

For my son's child meal, I asked for just the main with sides and dessert without the appetiser as it's always too much for younger children. It was chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, and vegetables, pretty standard child meal fare. 

I like that Iberia make an effort to add cute child-friendly elements, like with the dessert. 

There were three options for mains; I went for the chicken dish.

Chicken breast with mushroom sauce, parsnip mousseline
and oven roasted root vegetables

Visually, the presentation wasn't super appealing with the exploded sauce, but it was quite good, especially the sauce. The chicken itself was well cooked and not rubbery, with even some crispiness on the skin. 

For dessert I had the cheese plate with a nice Jérez

After dinner, it was time to try to catch a little bit of sleep as there were less than 5 hours of flight time remaining.

Unfortunately, once again the age of these old cabins manifested itself in a broken seat. One of the seats would not recline more than a few degrees. Obviously, this is a problem, especially on a night flight, as the main reason for paying for business class tickets is the ability to have a lie-flat seat to get some rest. 

Cabin crew were very responsive and arrived as soon as we pressed the call button. They were very apologetic and immediately got to work on the situation. Lucky for us, one of them had seen this issue before and was able to fix it within a few minutes–it seems something underneath the seat was blocking the movement of the seat mechanisms. It was good news to know the seat wasn't technically broken as it would have been difficult to put the seat into bed mode manually, apparently.

After a short, but restful 4-hour sleep, I woke up as we were about a half hour from landing. I almost always skip breakfast on short redeyes to maximise sleep. 

It was a beautiful clear winter day in Spain. 

We were due to arrive a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

We raced an Air Europa 737-800 landing simultaneously on a parallel runway. 

A familiar site seeing the Iberia hangars on landing with all those beautiful retired A340s, R.I.P.

It's always a short taxi time when arriving at Terminal 4S, which is located right by the runway.

We blocked in just a few minutes ahead of schedule. 

As many times as we'd flown through Madrid, this was the first time ever parking at a remote stand with a widebody. 

Luckily, it was just next to the terminal and deplaning right on the tarmac always makes for beautiful views of the aircraft.

Being at T4S (S, meaning Satellite terminal), after clearing immigration, we took the underground train to the main terminal for baggage claim.  

A very modern Christmas tree in the arrivals hall of the main terminal. 

There was a beautiful and ornate nativity near the tree. 

I searched around, but didn't see a "Caganer" 🤣
Though, I guess it's technically of a Catalan tradition.