Raffles

I write this from a hotel in Valencia. Ms Raffles has disappeared off to her parents, leaving me with a weekend to kill. The lure of the 12,000 miles OneWorld bonus proved too much, hence my trip.

I already had the qualifying BA leg in the bag, so all I needed was one leg on another OW carrier. An I-class one-way to Valencia (booked on Opodo, IB flight code, IB metal) set me back a princely 120 quid, and I'm coming back on EZ on Sunday for 40 quid. This is not as much tightness as the fact that the EZ flight is better timed!

I took the afternoon off and pitched up at Terminal 2 at about 1.30pm for a 4.40pm flight. I had already OLCI'd and PYOBP'd on the IB website, which has two quirks not found on BA OLCI - it opens 36 hours in advance, and you cannot change your seat! It gave me 2D and thats what I was stuck with.

As discussed on here recently, it was an easy stroll from T2 to T1 where I went into the BA lounge. There was a brief discussion about whether I should be allowed in - one lounge dragon asked her colleague, who said 'I normally let them in if they are flying IB. They have there own club but people don't seem to like it'. The fact that I was entitled to use the BA lounge under OW rules did not come into it!

An hour in the BA lounge and a bit of T1 shopping later, I wandered across to the IB lounge in T2. And it was not great. Not as bad as the LH lounge next door, to be fair, but almost. It was redeemed only by the free cava in the fridge and the 2 PC's. It was basically far too small for the number of people, and by the time I left to board it was standing room only - literally.

Boarding was not good. We were all hemmed into a pen by gate 2, and then boarded by row from the back. Since I had changed my seat to 1F in the lounge, this meant even more hanging around.

On board, I had 1D-F all to myself. There were 3 rows of Club and about 6 pax. Seating is 3-3 but with the middle seat blocked.

The first surprise was when I was handed a menu after take-off - you don't see those in CE these days. And this is what we got:

Mixed lettuce and chunky vegetable salad, topped with breaded halibut cajun and chicken and mushroom skewer
Selection of cheeses
Summer fruit cake in mango sauce
Tea

Plus all the bread rolls you wanted. I also managed to knock back another 2 bottles of cava!

All in all, I didn't find the IB experience as bad as I expected - although I would have been annoyed if I hadn't been able to use the BA lounge in T1, since the IB lounge is simply not up to scratch. It may be quieter when smoking in public areas is banned next year, since a large chunk of the lounge was given over to smokers who will have to go elsewhere!

I'm now looking forward to a couple of days in Valencia - and to my 12k OW bonus miles posting without any problems!

oiRRio

No real surprise as IB intra-Europe has got some positive reviews here.

BTW wrt intercontinental flights the view of many on FT is that new Iberia J (Business Plus currently only on the A346) is better than Club World and even AA J although I haven't yet had a chance to sample it.

KenJohn

Matches up to my experience last November.

Middle seat in business is never used even if the flight is fully booked. The flight to Madrid before mine was cancelled and they were scheduling people to flights on the following day rather than filling up the middle seat. Ace! ^

As there was a backlog of flights all afternoon and with business class passengers from 6 delayed IB flights trying to squeeze into the IB lounge, there was not even standing room. We went over to the Serviceair lounge as with have Priority Pass cards. Didnt realised about walking over to T1 until recently. Most other passengers were going into the IB lounge stocking up with vino and cava and then bringing them out to the main waiting area outside the lounge. The lone lounge staff was too overwhealmed to protest.

Great food on board IB business. Quiet a selection on the one tray. I would rate the food over BA CE even before the Gate Gourmet fiasco. Love the mini clothes peg they use as the napkin pin.

Brian_1

Shame IB as well as BA are pulling off the route then.

You'll only have the choice of low cost carriers for a direct flight there now.

B

Swanhunter

Shouldn't that read..

"..better than AA J and even Club World....."

PhilH

I suffered deja vu when I saw that thread title!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397961

oiRRio

No, I meant it the way I wrote it although I realise it's all down to indivdual opinions.

Thought I could slide that one in without anyone noticing.

number_6

Strange how the only people praising the new IB J have not actually flown it ... not quite sure what that means, but it is quite a trend on FT. The new IB J does sound superb on paper, but there are some disquieting elements of the service package. For example, IB new J includes a massage and spa service (their version of the MB Spa), however their web site states that this is in T2 at MAD ... which was great when IB was using T2, but now IB is in T4 ... so either they didn't move the spa, or they deliberately put it in a difficult to reach location to cut down on the traffic. Or just forgot about moving it. In any case, classic IB.

I'm not brave enough to fly IB new J; their F service was OK and I flew that several times (and those spanish brandies are superb), but making the simplest change to your ticket is next to impossible on IB so I try to avoid them now, for better or worse.

oiRRio

That would be like people who haven't yet flown the new IB J criticising it.

IIRC a few FTers have commented positively on the new IB J seat and service having flown it. Like pretty much all other airlines some flights are better than others on IB.

Swanhunter

Just too sharp for you.

Personally I would be quite keen to give the new long haul product a go. The positive reviews from FT'ers who have 'been around' (in the nicest possible way) would leave me to beleive there is plenty of good stuff in the product. On paper it certainly looks very good.

Some of the IB I class fares are very appealing - HAV is one that caught my eye.

StevieJ

I went on IB last week LHR to BCN in one of my (very) rare non-Y trips and found IB C not bad at all. Food was little weird havinbg cod and veal together but quality was good and nice comfortable seats with middle blocked. Just wiating for the 12000 miles to post.

astralclouds

This is somewhat spooky.

I'm off to Valencia next weekend on my 12k mileage run, as Ms astralclouds is off to her parents for the weekend. (!!)

Slightly peeved by the fact that I booked this a month ago, only to be required to attend a meeting in MAD last week which could easily have covered the requisite OneWorld qualifier.

I did, however, book a return I-class via iberia.com (�194 IIRC) outbound on BA inbound on IB metal. So at least I get the 80 TPs in addition to the 15k (approx.) total miles.

Would be interested to hear of any retail or gastronomic tips from your experience.

fraisse10

Not IME. See my trip report of last March.

JonNYC

I've seen far more of the exact opposite-- people (even one of this forum's most "enthusiastic" posters) condemning IB's service without having actually tried it. IMHO, that's far more prevalent than the phenomenon you're referring to.

I've flown IB new-J 4 times and find it to be great-- the IFE especially, better than BA J, IMHO. The seat itself is great, certainly better that AA J but, I would think most here (or anywhere,) would find BA's NCW seat more comfortable for sleeping. For me, I'd take the IB seat for both sleeping and relaxing, it's a great product.

colmc

Beware - that route doesn't appear to be operated by planes with the new IB long-haul J class. Indeed, someone on FT reported it's actually being operated on behalf of IB by Air Air Atlanta Icelandic..a scary proposition!