[Anonymous]

[ChrisK8]

I’m due to fly to Cuba on Friday / Christmas Day (yay!) with Iberia from LGW via MAD. I’m in business class on an IOFLEIS9 fare which I paid for in cash.

I would be meeting two friends there who are departing today also in Business class. One redeemed the flight using BA Avios and the other paid cash. BOTH have been at least kicked out of the Business Class cabin due to overbooking and the friend who booked on Avios is apparently possibly off the flight. They’re both in Madrid right now and are rather frustrated.

My question is: is there anything I can do to make sure I get my flight on Friday and don’t get bumped either down to economy or off the flight entirely? I’m on a OneWorld Emerald card (which hopefully counts for something – although one of my friends has a Sapphire card which has done nothing so far), and I have done my seat selection but can’t check-in online since Iberia doesn’t permit that for flights from London. Having no online check-in ex-LHR/LGW seems a bit odd in itself.

The flights only go once a day and it’d really take a chunk of the holiday out if I was a day late!

Any tips on making sure they take me would be gratefully received.

[superchris]

If you are a oneworld emerald, you are not going to get bumped off or downgraded, providing you check in in reasonable time before the flight and rock up at the gate by the deadline etc.

Ultimately all carriers prioritise based on revenue paid and status (both with the airline itself and if applicable the network they are part of).

A business class traveller would never be offloaded, only downgraded to economy.

I would expect huge compensation if this happened and I think Im right in saying EU261 regulations would also kick in here.

[ChrisK8]

I plan on checking in extra early now to my LGW => MAD flight! I don’t want to put the status argument to the test on Christmas Day…

One of my friends has the BA Silver card. I would have thought that counted for something even if she’s on a redemption ticket. They both checked in well before the MAD => HAV flight because of having to fly from London first. Iberia has so far only offered to pay the difference in fare between Business and Economy, although with no details on how they would calculate that fare gap.

Thanks for highlighting EU261 if the worst comes to the worst for them and they end up overnighting in Madrid.

None of us has ever flown Iberia before so this is quite an introduction.

[AndrewinHK]

Looks like your friends will be joining you (hopefully) on the Christmas Day flight, as Iberia doesn’t operate service to Havana on Thursdays. Good luck to all. Merry Christmas.

[ChrisK8]

You’re quite right, one friend will be joining me on the 25th!

It remains to be seen what cabin we’ll be in. Let’s hope Christmas Day isn’t such a popular one to fly on.

Merry Christmas!

[ImissConcorde]

ChrisK8
” They both checked in well before the MAD => HAV flight because of having to fly from London first”

It does seem rather odd htat they’ve been offloaded despite having checkedin. Normally on an overbooked flight the last to check in will be denied a seat as there are none left. The carrier will then look for volunteers to come off the flight. A downgraded business class passenger will be given the difference in fare plus appropriate compensation.

[handbag]

Most unusual to be offloaded after they had already checked in. As ImissConcorde – 23/12/2015 17:31 GMT said , would be exactly how I would have said it normally worked.

[ChrisK8]

Well in the end we all made it onto our respective flights. There was even a seat spare when my friends boarded.

Iberia just seemed to be causing a lot of confusion for no reason.

The same thing happened on the return journey but to another lady. I was speaking her while we were queuing for the Havana to London (via Madrid) flight home. She was having the same issue having been told she was on standby for the Madrid back to London leg but again that turned out to be fine and she flew on her booked flight too.

Iberia were causing fuss but then somehow resolving it. I can’t say I’m in a rush to fly with them again. It all ended well.

Happy 2016 to all!

[Author]

Posts