There's gotta be a oneworld way - Iberia IB6275 Madrid to Chicago O'Hare

There’s gotta be a oneworld way – Iberia IB6275 Madrid to Chicago O’Hare

EDITORS NOTE: IMAGE HEAVY.

In this epic:

After a wait to get on the plane, I finally made it aboard the A330-300 that would take me through to Chicago.

I passed though the business class cabin, and into my traditional home – the economy cabin.

Iberia Business Class Seat.

Branding everywhere.

Economy Class seats.

IFE Screen – Panasonic ex3. We’ll get onto that in a bit.

The cabin filled up – with seemingly the seat next to me going to be free. And as usual, at the last-minute – the seat filled up.

Such is the way of the world.

Cabin almost set to go.

The plane amazingly was loaded on time, and pushed back on schedule. With an on-time pushback the staff were in a business-friendly mood with passengers, ensuring people were secured with the minimum of fuss – and ensuring there were no Galaxy Note 7s aboard.

Our plane pushed back – even if the rain in Spain feel mainly on the plane.

With the safety demonstration completed, our plane begun the short taxi to the runway.

Iberia A320 taking off

Soon it was the turn of our A330 to heading the sky.

Editors note: Iberia love their music when taking off and landing. I found it more than distracting…

The crew were handing out headphones after take off- useful as my Bluetooth headphones were offline during climb – it also meant I could use the IFE system.

Iberia in-ear headphones.

This plane also offered WiFi aboard the plane. This WiFi system is powered by a OnAir L Band connection.

For those who are new to in-flight WiFi, this is important – L Band based WiFi systems are 1) notoriously slow to use and 2) expensive as heck. Here’s the price list from Iberia

To reiterate:

4mb – US$4.95
10mb – US$9.95
25mb – US$19.95
40mb – US$34.95

Those prices are what I would call expensive for a very minimal amount of data. I checked on the OnAir portal to double check. Here’s what I found…

Sadly, the print work wasn’t telling fibs. Those are expensive prices for in-flight WiFi. And As for Texting? Let’s not go there…

To be honest – I’ll skip the Wireless connectivity on this flight… for the sake of my wallet.

Let’s look at the IFE system. This system is based on the Panasonic ex3 system – which is a very nice one to use. With a captive screen and easy to use swipe interfaces. There’s also USB Power, Power at seat (1 plug between two seats), and that useless exConnect port that no one has used in years.

Content of the system was variable to say the least. There were some reasonable films in the system as well as TV shows, but once you started to dig into the system there was width, but it lacked depth – for example there were two or three episodes of a series loaded, leaving an empty gap if you were getting into shows.

Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state…Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait…!

Meanwhile outside, the in-flight entertainment was giving some wonderful views.

About an hour and a half, the trolleys came up the aisle, with the first meal service of the day. Drinks were served at the same time.

The tray.

Metal flatware

The main – Provincial Chicken.

Couscous salad.

The cake.

Mutiple offerings of bread were made – a nice touch.

Drinks came the same time – and now that I’ve been cleared to drink again (there were reasons), I was back on Vodka and Diet Coke. Well, some things don’t change.

Not a bad lunch at all – if there’s one thing Iberia can do from Madrid – it’s cater, and cater to a high standard. The Provincial Chicken was moist – and also colourful, with the supporting couscous salad and cake going well.

Well let’s put it like this: it beats some of the stuff you can get from other airports.

With lunch done, everyone was reclining their seats, and blinds going down in the cabin. Obviously, world and dog were going to sleep.

I took the hint, and dozed off against the sidewall of the cabin… until I woke hearing an odd set of bongs going off… and a commotion going on in at the toilets.

Guess what. Someone had set off the smoke alarm on the plane.

People….

After that… dozing off was hard. Least of all 1) my mind was now elsewhere and 2) I was dehydrated. Sadly, later on in the flight the crew didn’t seem to want to answer call bells. This was annoying as the passenger next to me had chosen to fall asleep so I couldn’t get out of my seat.

Oh well.

I’m going to admit that I got bored during the flight – so I decided the only course of action was to create an IFE system.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WELCOME BACK THE KEVINCM CREATION KNOWN AS GHETTO IFE!

If you’re new to this blog, and are horrendously offended by the product name 1) hit this link to explain what it is better and 2) there are bigger things in the world to be offended by – my taste in music would probably fall into that category.

For those of you who want your own IFE system, here’s how to build one:

1) Get a Sick bag. Place phone is said sick bag. Ensure sick back is not used and has no other contents (interestingly, not an IAG sick bag.. just a white one).

2) Mount on seat back as shown. iPhone 6 and 7 users should place the bag in horizontally. iPhone 5/5C/SE users can use the drop-in method.

3) Rip a hole in the bag until the screen is exposed.

4) Watch content!

As time went on, a few window blinds went up

With the minutes drifting away from the flight, a second service begun. This would be the cold box option that Iberia likes to give out on long haul flights.

Unsurprisingly – I loaded up on liquids.

So what do we have here? A Cheese and Ham Croissant, a Mini KitKat, a Cake and Yoghurt. Not bad at all for a pre-arrival snack. Heck, let compared to some – this is downright luxury. The contents however, were mostly forgettable. It was a simple pre-packaged arrival meal, but at least they seemed to make the effort – unlike some airlines that just get the hot-boxes out.

Although when I tasted the diet coke… it tasted slightly different.

Hmm. Ah. Argentinian Diet Coke. Definitely not Jeremy Clarkson compatible.

With cleardown completed the flight was in its 40 minutes as the cabin was cleared, pre-arrival videos played and blinds started coming up.

As we descended the blues begun to change into greys. It seems grey would be theme this trip.

The plane descended over Michigan with the grey closing in as we crossed Lake Michigan.

Eventually, the plane settled on a course and made a break for O’Hare Airport, with my view being over the North Shore as we headed for the runway.

The top of Lake Short drive.

The north Shore

With the air brakes working away, our plane tracked along its flight path for landing.

With a bit of a bump, our A330-300 landed at Chicago O’Hare International airport on time.

The plane pulled off the runway, as our plane headed for Terminal 5. I noticed there was plenty of traffic there as we were heading for the gate – normally not a good sign.

But then again, there’s normally a queue for anything at O’Hare.

With our plane at the gate, the engines were shut down completing IB6275s journey. After after a short delay, disembarkation begun.

I picked up my trash – and headed for what I though would be a very long immigration wait.

Overall: Not a bad performance at all by Iberia on IB6275 here. The hard product was passable for the 9 hour flight, with the crew being safety conscious, and some brilliant catering down the back of the plane. However, they need to pay attention to call bells a bit better…

And when I say a bit, I mean a lot.

Next: How long did you spend in Immigration? And the Radisson O’Hare

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

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There’s gotta be a oneworld way – Iberia IB6275 Madrid to Chicago O’Hare

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