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You are here: Home / Trips / Madrid - Wide Bodies / Widebodies and short routes – Two sides of the IAG Coin

Widebodies and short routes – Two sides of the IAG Coin

19/03/2019 by Kevincm

Two sides of the IAG Coin – Widebodies and Short Routes

Widebodies and short routes header

  • Let’s do a challenge
  • Off to Heathrow
  • Points to be Made vs Economy Class and Beyond – Two idiots race across Heathrow
  • Heathrow Terminal 5 and The British Airways Galleries South Lounge
  • IB3167 London Heathrow to Madrid
  • Crowne Plaza Madrid Airport
  • Exploring Madrid for the morning
  • Back to Barajas and the Iberia Lounges
  • BA461 Madrid to London Heathrow
  • To the trains!
  • Two sides of the IAG coin

Two airlines owned by one group – International Consolidated Airlines Group. Yet, as “full service carriers” yet both on the same side of a very different coins.

Yes, there are efficiencies that are being made (for example, headphones in Iberia C are the same as Club World and the infamous grey sick bag) – but each airline showed their own personalities and warmth With Iberia, the crew were warm, happy to top up drink, and happy to make money on the duty-free cart, whilst the British Airways, there seemed to be a focus on customer service and making the plane work hard.

Both however have kept their own identities – no matter how much IAG tries to re-brand all its airlines with an Eurowhite body, and coloured swoops on the tail.

Both flights come with a solid “try them out” recommendation from me – least of all for the novelty of trying out a narrow body on such a short distance (and if you want further wide-body fun, LATAM also operate a Boeing 787 between Madrid and Frankfurt, normally with cheap Business and Economy Class fares)

But in single lines…

British Airways Galleries South Lounge – Slowly improving.

a row of bowls of food

Iberia Business Class – More than passable for a short-haul flight, and one product I’d like to try when flying long haul.

a seat in an airplane

Crowne Plaza Madrid Airport – A more than passable airport hotel

a bed with a wood floor and a chair   I

Iberia Schengen Lounge – Adequate for short-haul, with lots of different spaces.. But full-on lounge dragons in the area.

a woman walking in a hallway

Iberia Non-Schengen Lounge  – Much better catering here, and as well equipped as the Schengen lounge. But its placement smack bang in the middle of the duty-free shop…?

a man walking in front of a store

British Airways Cub Europe in BA First – Improvements all around. But it does show off the issues of Eurobusiness seating

a seat on a plane

And that’s it for this trip report. I hope you found it a bit different from the usual ones I write here. In addition, I’d like to thank Tim at Points to be Made for suggesting this mad idea, helping film the video and edit it.

Coming next

In a couple of weeks, I begin a long trip… combining two trips into one – my regular trip to Chicago, as well as Aircraft Interiors Expo and The Passenger Experience week.  Please therefore join me in More Business and More Pleasure – A Divided Trip report with American Airlines and British Airways. 

Until we meet again in the trip report pages – safe travels!


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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Filed Under: Madrid - Wide Bodies, Trip, Trip Reports, Trips

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