DO NOT FLY IBERIA........NO MATTER WHAT! WORST AIRLINE EVER!

Dear Sir/Madam

A quick description of our recent ordeal with IBERIA. It may help other travellers avoid enduring a similarly unpleasant experience.

IBERIA is a disgraceful and poor excuse for an airline.

My partner and I recently travelled to Europe and booked our flights with IBERIA. It turned out to be the worst possible choice.

Upon starting our return trip to SA, my partner ended up being stuck in Milan Malpensa for over 36 hours and, thanks to the shoddy and unprofessional IBERIA’s “service”, for another 24 hours thereafter, when they refused to re-route him to Madrid on a different airline!

IBERIA cancelled his flight from Milan to Madrid (while waiting for his boarding time at the airport) and caused him to miss his IBERIA connecting flight to Johannesburg.

Worse, yet, IBERIA never made any announcements to alert passengers of the cancellation. My partner was therefore forced to check into a hotel for the night AT HIS OWN EXPENSE just like for his dinner and transport. And, at this point, still no contact being made by IBERIA.

IBERIA have no staff, representatives or handling office on the ground at Milan Malpensa. Passengers were left stranded and without any assistance whatsoever. I, too, en-route to Joburg from Vienna (via Madrid), personally tried to get ground staff to assist once I got to Madrid but to no avail. In decades of extensive international travels I have never encountered such dismissive, unhelpful and downright rude behaviour as I have while dealing with IBERIA ground staff.

Due to IBERIA’s lack of interest, professional ethics and shoddy organizational s****s, my partner was eventually forced to spend a SECOND NIGHT in Milan instead of being booked on the first flight home on a different airline. No apologies or show of any kind of interest in the welfare of their passengers.

It’s also worth mentioning that IBERIA can only be contacted (both locally and internationally) via one phone number………but wait……….only from a landline…………to hell all those travellers who are on the go and only have mobile phones on them! For those lucky few who manage to get themselves to a landline and, after much ado, through to an IBERIA operator………they get to enjoy a morose and unhelpful interaction with an ill-trained and uninformed consultant who, 9 times out of 10, will hang up on you when the questions you pose become too….complex?

Their website is also an exemplary case of utter inefficiency! It stonewalls anyone’s attempt at pre-booking seats on line…….it lets you go through the entire, tedious procedure and then it refuses to process the request! We personally tried FIVE times. A ploy to get passengers requesting a window seat to pay extra at the check-in counter. Absolutely disgusting!

Once I finally touched down in Joburg, I immediately contacted Swissport (the handling agent for IBERIA at O.T. airport).

Swissport staff were absolutely helpful and APPALLED at the ordeal we were being subjected to. The Manager of Operations, Sandra Guedes, and two other ladies, kindly and repeatedly contacted IBERIA requesting that our situation be resolved as a matter of urgency. Despite working with IBERIA their requests were met with the same dismissive and unhelpful attitude I have already described.

The very people at SWISSPORT, hired to handle this disgusting airline, were also appalled at the extent of the damage and inconvenience IBERIA keeps causing the people who travel with their airline. The ladies went out of their way to help but IBERIA refused to listen and to accept responsibility for their ridiculous lack of service. IBERIA’S staff both at the call centre (THE LANDLINE ONE)and in Madrid on the ground are RUDE, ABRUPT, UNWILLING TO ASSIST and downright LAZY!!!!! Let’s also not forget that their inability to PROFICIENTLY communicate in English only adds to the frustration of already disgruntled travellers!

Following a request both from SWISSPORT and from us to address our concerns and process a refund for costs incurred (over 200 EUROS) on their account, IBERIA rep****:

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused in relation to the cancellation of flight IB3255 on 12/05/2018. Airlines are affected may factors, such as weather conditions and air control permissions. We understand that these circumstances make travelling more tiring, and although the reasons are beyond our control we do everything within our power to minimise the inconvenience. Kind regards, Iberia Customer Services

And their Face Book staff…….(their page is inundated with complaints) :

We are sorry that you were not satisfied with the response from our department, unfortunately we cannot handle the complaints directly from social network. However, if you don't agree with the answer you received, you can appeal through the online form again, specifying your claim code to reopen the case. Our colleagues will provide you with a new answer. Kind regards.