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This review of Iberia Business Class is on a flight from Madrid MAD to San Francisco SFO, on an A330-200. Also see our Iberia Business Class Lounge Review for Madrid Terminal 4S. We flew a similar flight to LAX last year, and have flown other Iberia Business Class flights into Madrid.
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Iberia Business Class Cabin and Seat, A330-200
Iberia's Business Class cabin on the A330-200 has 19 seats, all with direct aisle access. I always prefer window seats 2A, 2L, and 4A, because they're closest to the window and not right by the aisle, where your seat is more likely to be bumped and where you have less privacy. Unfortunately, even though I'd selected seat 2L right after I booked by award flight about one year before the departure seat, when no other seats had been selected by anyone, when I rechecked the seat assignment a few months prior, my seat selection had disappeared and another traveler had been seated in my seat 2L.
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2A, 4A, and even 4L (which I don't care for as much since it's right in front of the lavatory) were also occupied. I called Iberia, and after 4 tries, was able to get a Supervisor who moved me back into seat 2L. I again printed out the seat confirmation. Again, it didn't last. Ultimately the system moved me into seat 1C, and I was unable to get back my seat, even though I tried with Reservations, Check-in, the Gate Agent, and the Purser on board. Seat 1C is very exposed to aisle traffic, and I wasn't able to get any sleep in it, so I can't recommend it if you're easily disturbed. It does have extra counter space in front of it, however, which can be handy to put your meal tray on, since at least on my flight, the crew had a full cabin to deal with and was slow with clearing trays.
Iberia Business Class seats are 26 inches wide, with an ottoman in front that forms part of the flat bed when the seat is fully reclined.
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As before, I found the placement of the power outlet and headset jack inconvenient, since these are located not by your shoulders, as they are for Air France Business Class or Cathay Pacific Business Class, but by your knees, so that you have to bend over to find them.
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Iberia Business Class Menu and Food
After boarding I was offered a pre-flight drink of juice or water, and chose water.
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This was the menu for our ex-Madrid flight, which departed around midday:
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And here was the wine list for my flight:
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I asked the flight crew to save me the grilled veal main dish so that I could start the flight by sleeping, but I shouldn't have bothered as I wasn't able to sleep in my reassigned seat 1C, especially during the fairly noisy meal service.
I hadn't chosen an appetizer, but fortunately both were still available about half an hour after the meal service, when I gave up trying to get any sleep and had my meal. The Ratatouille was surprisingly delicious, especially with the olive tapenade and goat cheese cream, and was nicely plated. It was the highlight of the flight.
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The Grilled Veal Steak in Green Pepper Sauce was plainer looking, but was better than most meat dishes I've had in airline business class. The vegetables were overcooked, however. I accompanied it with a glass of the Luis Canas Rioja, which was an extremely generous pour that I couldn't finish.
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Unfortunately I neglected to save my preferred dessert, the cheese plate, which was already gone by the time I dined, so I settled for a melted dish of chocolate ice cream. While the consistency wasn't there, and there were strawberries instead of raspberries (which I would have preferred) it actually tasted pretty good.
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The flight time from Madrid to San Francisco SFO is just under 13 hours, so since the first meal was early on in the flight, I was hungry again about four hours before landing. I had a sandwich with avocado cream, sundried tomato and arugula which wasn't bad.
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The Pre-Arrival Meal was supposed to be a choice between the Spanish Potato Omelet and Artichokes with Sweet Potato, but the crew plunked down the artichoke dish in front of me, with no choice offered since they were already out of the Spanish Omelet. I didn't mind much, though: artichokes are a fairly unusual choice for airline food, and the dish was quite decent as airline meals go.
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Iberia Business Class Flat Bed and Amenity Kit
Although as I've written before, Iberia Business Class does have a mattress bed (better than some business class products, which don't offer a mattress pad) it's not very thick. This time I remembered to bring along my Thermarest inflatable mattress, so that coupled with Iberia's mattress pad made it far more comfortable to rest on. This way I was able to use the duvet as a duvet instead of as an extra mattress cushion. Note that although Iberia's flat bed is 78 inches long at its longest point, it's too short for tall passengers; my husband, who is 6'5″, had to sleep on his side and bend his knees to fit, who couldn't stretch out and found the footwell space insufficient.
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The amenity kit hasn't changed since last year, it still has all the basics, although I only used one of the socks as an impromptu sleep mask. The included sleep mask, as with many other business class sleep masks, has elastic bands that are too tight for comfort, at least for me.
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The Verdict
While Iberia Business Class remains a good deal as an award booking, especially on long routes between Madrid and the West Coast, my most recent flight was marred by the fact that Iberia changed my original seat assignment without my permission–twice. So if you think you have an Iberia Business Class seat assignment, just know that it could arbitrarily be moved to a seat you don't want, at any time.
I'd also advise everyone to immediately select what you'd like from the menu and have the flight crew reserve it for you, because items such as the cheese plate and one of the pre-arrival meal options ran out quickly on my full flight. And as always, especially on European and U.S. airlines, don't expect any kind of real service in business class. It's all about the hard product, the flat bed seat. If you need service, you'll need to fly first class or private.
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