[william]

I recently flew with Iberia on their day time flight to Lima leaving Madrid at 1.30 on their A350 in business. The fare was expensive but what surprised me was the almost total lack of service on the flight. Lunch was served within 60 minutes and on completion the cabin crew insisted that all window shades were shut and that all the cabin lights (except personal reading lights) were turned off. The cabin was then in darkness for 10 hours. The next time we saw the cabin crew was 45 minutes from landing. It was one of the worst flying experiences I have had. I’d be interested whether this was a one off or typical Iberia customer service or just a bad flight.

[MartinJ]

I’m afraid blinds-down seems to be becomimg the norm on long-haul daytime flights, much to my dismay. I try to stick to daytime flights as much as possible as natural light helps avoid the claustrophobic atmosphere that tends to beset me on those metal tubes plunged into total darkness. I try to fight my blinds-up corner tooth and nail but on those centrally controlled 787s and 350s I am powerless.

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sparkyflier

[AlanOrton1]

I find the US carriers are very much into blinds down for the majority of the flight.
I can’t say I’ve noticed this on either BA or VS.

[Cargoman]

Does anyone know where a passenger stands on the blinds down “request”?
Is it mandatory?
I recently experienced a flight with Qatar in business class and the cabin crew come and pulled down the blinds at my seat.
I immediately pushed them back up and advised that I did not want them closed at that point.
Nothing more was said but they appeared unhappy with my actions.

[sparkyflier]

William.Thank you to share your experiences. Just to clarify..on your long flight you are saying there was just _one_ meal service? So on flight just under 6000 miles IB could only bother with 1 meal service? When most carriers would have a drinks round, then meal service, maybe a mid flight snack and then either a second full meal or flight time depending a decent second more substantial snack..

I have heard terrible things about IB from my many friends who fly to Peru/Colombia from UK/UK who constantly say how lazy or cold IB crew can be of how stingy the service offering is and this experience kinda confirms that.

Re shutting windows on a day flight this is my pet hate. Basically its the crew wanting passengers to just be good children and go to sleep and don’t disturb them.

Them enforcing windows on this particular flight deprives passengers from viewing Caribbean Islands and then countries in the top part of the continent.. so Colombia and of course Peru. The crew are depriving window seated passengers of being able to do that. If passengers want to sleep they can wear eyeshades.

Last year a friend of mine flew UA from US to South Africa.. so a long fight and on a 787. They dimmed the windows until 40 mins before landing.. so depriving passengers of ariel views of Namibia and Botswana as well as RSA. Totally inconsiderate IMO and selfish. The crew were hopeless throughout but that is another matter.

An airline not allowing people nit to look out the windows on long day flights especially when there is great scenery to be seen would be one I would try and avoid. But just to clarify I do understand when crew have blinds down for early in the morning etc.

Back to Iberia it seems there are still too many crew and management that view passengers as “self loading cargo”.

[william]

Spot on! There were two meal services but a ten hour gap between the two and no service or crew engagement between the two. Lazy and cold perfectly describes the crew on this flight. Self loading cargo is a perfect description of who IB regarded passengers on this flight. I sent an email to Iberias customer service line and got no meaningful response. My recommendation to readers would to be avoid the Madrid route to Lima and go Air France from Paris or AA via Miami

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sparkyflier

[BackOfThePlane]

This may be something of a sweeping statement but, for anyone based in the UK / most of Europe, flying options heading east are far superior to those flying west.

2 users thanked author for this post.

cwoodward, sparkyflier

[MartynSinclair]

I like to sleep on an aeroplane as I sleep at home or in a hotel, blinds/curtains open. For me nothing feels fresher than being woken by sunlight. However, window blinds always seem to auto close when I am asleep.

I generally set an alarm clock on an overnight flight as I do not want to oversleep. I will always raise my blinds an inch or so to let the sun in – never had an issue with cabin crew; only passengers who do not want to use an eye mask.

On a day flight, my blind stays up. The day I do not appreciate the amazing world we live in from 40,000′ will be the day I stop flying.

If I am on a 787, I request the cabin crew do not auto close my window shade, I will dim it slightly. Only airline who flatly refused not to dim my window blind was Virgin.

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sparkyflier

[maxgeorge]

Contrary to the opinions of previous posters, my recent RT LAX-MAD in J on IB was a very pleasant experience, in terms of comfort, service and food.

The business seats on the A350 were unusually spacious and comfortable, the T4S lounge at MAD pleasant and relatively uncrowded.

Perhaps because of the much more competitive trans-Atlantic routing.

[cwoodward]

I stand to be corrected here but the ‘blinds down’ plague is not prevalent in Asia or at least on Asian airlines. Personally over hundreds of flights I have never experienced it and never the dimmed windows on the 787.

A cabin manager tried it on an ANZ/CX code share flight ex NZ to HKG a few years back ( the CX was full) but it did not last long as most of the passengers promptly reopened the blinds to watch the sunset and he appeared to have no support from the rest of the crew -there was no repeat.

I seldom fly with US based airlines (poor service attitude and food) but about six years back I was on a flight ex AU (as I recall a 777) when the crew closed the blinds early PM -I immediately reopened to something of furore as two American pax complained and were unhappy when I suggested that they pop on the masks provided for the purpose. A cabin crew member tried to forcibly shut the blind at my two windows. The cabin manager was called and somewhat reluctantly supported my wish.
I mention this merely to illustrate how ingrained the practise is in the US -and now it seems spread to Europe.

I should add that I have heard and read that both the food and crew attitude has improved long haul on US airlines over the past couple of years -the days of the large chocolate brownie in (domestic) first are I am told past.

[maxgeorge]

AA’s Flagship and UA’s Polaris are indeed welcome improvements, Mr CW, nowadays often comparable to SQ and better than LH etc.

And their domestic First means, yes, full size F seats, no middle-blocked-off nonsense.

Plus quite acceptable meal service, depending on the length of the flight.

But no automatic Lounge access, even with One World Emerald, except on Alaska.

And yes, I also prefer to keep my blind up, at least over interesting topography.

2 users thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier, cwoodward

[Charley Whiskey]

Just to clarify please: on the 787 and A350 can the crew override all individual window controls such that if they dim them all the individual passenger cannot then readjust them?

[sparkyflier]

Charley Whiskey you ask a reasonable question and hope others can also add insight on what they have experienced with different airlines.

I think the window dimming technology is on all 787s but think most A350 have the traditional window blinds (except QR in my experience). Others can add but when I flew Finnair earlier this year their blinds were manual.

Re 787 most recently on BA and RJ I did have control of the level of darkness/lighness but a friend recently flew UA and the crew had total control and prevented him from viewing African landscapes on a flight from NY to SA..in the late afternoon. Crew were a nasty bunch too and he has now switched to DL for future flights!

Look forward to the experience others re A35O window products and each airlines “policy” on dimming them on both 787 and 350.

[huey]

It wasn’t that long ago when I realized that FAs get away with not working a flight because there’s nobody there to observe or direct them. I often wonder if management realizes how much this affects our future bookings on a particular airline. I’ve always thought that cabin crew are the ‘face of the airline’ to most of us. It seems odd that they’re allowed to do whatever they please when they’re supposed to be working. To this day, I can clearly see a situation that happened years ago. I came back to my seat, the blind was down. I put it back up and picked up my book. Soon an arm silently appeared right in front of my face to bring it back down. I restrained from just slapping his hand away but told him that the blind would stay open during the flight. People can sleep all they want on an airplane, it’s their responsibility to bring an eye mask, or use the one in the amenity kit. There’s no reason to darken a cabin forcefully except to let the crew continue their conversations for hours, uninterrupted by the pesky pax.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, maxgeorge

[the747guy]

William, I agree with you. IBERIA’s service IS THE WORST flying to/from Madrid to Latin America, regardless if it is Economy, PE, or Business. Their service is terrible and very unprofessional. That is why I stopped flying with IBERIA on transatlantic flights long time ago (I also avoid IBERIA within Europe and within Spain). As an almost 2-MIllion Mile FF member on an XX airlines (not to be biased here), to start, IBERIA’s flight attendants are VERY RUDE and when serving meals, they just rush to feed you and you never see them again during the flight, specially on long-haul flight, AND in case you DARE to ring the bell to ask for something during the flight (in BUSINESS CLASS) they are ANNOYED by your request, whatever it may be, and they will come back to you with a very long face, demonstrating that they are DOING YOU A FAVOR in attending to you your request. It is VERY BAD SERVICE for what you pay.

My humble opinion, AVOID IBERIA AT ALL COSTS. Fly LH or BA, or maybe LATAM (on former LAN CHILE aircraft), even AA on 77W planes, connecting through MIA, or JFK. These other airlines’ service is a thousand times better than IBERIA’s.

Remember, AVOID flying on IBERIA from now on, specially on long-haul flights……… and that is my recommendation to all friends here at BT.

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