Review: Iberia Airlines Business Class LHR - MAD

Review: British Airways First Class SFO - LHR
Review: Iberia Airlines Business Class LHR - MAD
Recap: Sights in Spain
Review: American Airlines Business Class MAD - DFW
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Iberia Airlines (IB) #3167
London (LHR) - Madrid (MAD)
Tuesday, December 29th, 2015
6:30 PM - 9:55 PM, Duration: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Airbus 330-300 Business Class, Seat 3G


After spending a couple of hours waiting in the British Airways Concorde Room, it was time to board our flight to Madrid. I had never flown Iberia before, so I was looking forward to experiencing a new airline. As I mentioned, we had booked British Airways First from SFO to LHR plus Iberia Business from LHR to MAD for 62,500 AAdvantage miles and $490 each. It was a rough deal with the fuel surcharges, but I guess this is what you get for booking a last-minute trip to Spain over the holidays.

We boarded quickly and found that the business class cabin was largely empty. It was probably 40% full by the time we took off, which is not something I'm used to seeing these days. The A330 which Iberia flies on this route has a pretty great configuration for such a short flight. Business class is 1-2-1 with alternating seat configurations for each row. The rows were also slightly staggered. Aisle seats would either have a table on the outside of the seat (making them very private) or on the window side of the seat, while the two seats in the middle either had tables on the aisle side of the seats and nothing in the middle or tables in the middle of the seats and nothing on the outside. This made middle seats with no tables in the middle great for couples traveling together (as they were very private), but maybe not so great if you were seated next to a stranger. 

In addition to the nice staggered seating arrangements, the seats were fully lie-flat, which is always amazing on long-haul flights, but seemed kind of silly for a two hour and 20 minute flight (although I wasn't complaining). Each seat had a fairly substantial cubby hole for your feet, which was not too far away - always a plus since my legs are so short! This was great for me, but passengers with longer legs might find these a bit small or hard to fit in. 

During meal service, the table came down from the back of the seat in front of you and the seat controls and entertainment remote could be found next to the table (either on the aisle side or window/middle side of the seat).

Iberia Airlines Business Class Cabin

Iberia Airlines Business Class Seat with Center Table

Iberia Airlines Business Class Seat with Aisle Table

Iberia Airlines Business Class Seat Foot Cubby

Iberia Airlines Business Class Seat Tray

Iberia Airlines Business Class Seat Controls and Entertainment Remote

As we were settling in to our seats, the flight attendants came around and passed out some fairly nice over-ear headphones to use for the flight. They were Iberia branded and weren't quite Bose headphones, but they were light years better than what we received on British Airways. 

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