Seat assignments make no sense

Okay...So I have a flight this coming July on Iberia...Madrid to LAX nonstop--#6171...returning from my Celebrity Constellation cruise...

When I go to the Iberia website, it says the plane is a "330" and we have been assigned seats 7J and 7L...

When I look on SeatGuru.com, it also says the plane is a 330...

Problem is that there is no Seat 7L...7J is a Business Class seat...(We bought our tickets through BA Frequent Flier (Avios) and were ticketed as "Coach"...

There is another site I found that says the plane is not a 330, but rather a 340...

There ARE seats 7J and 7L on the 340...and these are business class seats...and that appears to be the only Iberia aircraft that has both a 7J and a 7L!

Any idea what may be going on here? I am tempted to call...but if they really have us in Business Class seats, I don't want to mess that up...

I dunno but my luggage spent a week on Iberian Air back in 1997. Our luggage didn't arrive in Barcelona. Two days later it got there. They put it on Iberian Air an hour before then went on strike. It took then 10 more days to get us our luggage. After that I lost all faith in them - but good luck to ya! :)

Your flight is currently on a A340, which they will no longer be using. Discussed on FT here, and there's also a seat map.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1289663-all-about-iberia-a340-200-a-2.html

Your flight isn't until July. Sadly, they aren't giving you a business class seat.

Call Iberia (if they have a phone) and see what they say. If it was me I would fly someone else and make sure you pack your carry on "as if you will NEVER see your luggage" if you do that All will be OK :)

Don't don't don't fly Iberia!!!!

Call Iberia (if they have a phone) and see what they say. If it was me I would fly someone else and make sure you pack your carry on "as if you will NEVER see your luggage" if you do that All will be OK :)

Don't don't don't fly Iberia!!!!

Yup, my luggage saw more of Europe than I ever will that week.

Your flight is currently on a A340, which they will no longer be using. Discussed on FT here, and there's also a seat map.

 

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1289663-all-about-iberia-a340-200-a-2.html

 

Your flight isn't until July. Sadly, they aren't giving you a business class seat.

Iberia's web site shows both A330 and A340 on the direct flight from MAD-LAX. Some days it's a 330 and others it is a 340.

Okay...So I have a flight this coming July on Iberia...Madrid to LAX nonstop--#6171...returning from my Celebrity Constellation cruise...

 

When I go to the Iberia website, it says the plane is a "330" and we have been assigned seats 7J and 7L...

 

When I look on SeatGuru.com, it also says the plane is a 330...

 

Problem is that there is no Seat 7L...7J is a Business Class seat...(We bought our tickets through BA Frequent Flier (Avios) and were ticketed as "Coach"...

 

There is another site I found that says the plane is not a 330, but rather a 340...

There ARE seats 7J and 7L on the 340...and these are business class seats...and that appears to be the only Iberia aircraft that has both a 7J and a 7L!

 

Any idea what may be going on here? I am tempted to call...but if they really have us in Business Class seats, I don't want to mess that up...

It looks like it just depends on what day you are flying as to which bird you will be on....some days it is a A330 and others a A340. But of course this far out it could change 32 times if they make equipment swaps. I really wouldn't worry about it until about a week or so out. Your reservation is showing up in their system so I wouldn't worry about it one bit.

The only party who can answer your question is the airline.

We had a similar non-sensical seat assignment on a BA flight from LHR to YYZ. I don't remember the seat numbers, but they were in a row that didn't exist on any planes that could fly that route, so we asked and found out that row was assigned for upgrades so we ended up going from WT+ to business class. They just couldn't finalize the seats until just before boarding.

Suffice it to say, I didn't complain about not getting the seat assignment I prepaid for ;)

Iberia is replacing this A340 with the A330-200. By the time of OP's flight, seven months away, he should be on the 330. And, row 7 is the second row in economy, not business class; business class ends with row 5.

Call Iberia (if they have a phone) and see what they say. If it was me I would fly someone else and make sure you pack your carry on "as if you will NEVER see your luggage" if you do that All will be OK :)

Don't don't don't fly Iberia!!!!

It might actually help the OP if you offered some rationale for your opinion, particularly as it doesn't actually answer the question at hand. ;)

It might actually help the OP if you offered some rationale for your opinion, particularly as it doesn't actually answer the question at hand. ;)

I thought it was obvious that Iberia lost their luggage and had terrible customer service afterwards.

Sorry yes, in fact never got the luggage... Early 2015 finger pointing and lies, promised deliveries of bags that did not exist. Disappearing reservations, paid upgrades not honored. The list goes on and on. Booked direct not thru a third party booking engine (Expedia etc). Thank god for our credit card company, Travel Guard and my TA. We had a good time, let it go. I packed each of our carry ones as if we would never see our bags and guess what 11. Months later my bag and DH bag has never been returned. I found the airline to be incompetent, untruthful and unwilling to provide a single piece of paper needed to file a claim. Silence is mostly what we got and when we did get someone it was a canned response that made zero sense.

I had claim tickets and I do what I always do with my checked luggage... Take a picture of the bags before I close them up and of the exterior of the bags in case I need to file a claim. I take pictures of everything and that's what saved us!

Were these bags stolen by airline employees? Maybe, maybe not, could well have been airport employees in the U.S. Or Europe.... Who knows but they were given into the safe keeping of the airline and they failed on every level. Including canceling our return trip! Fun times but I have moved on!

This particular trip was not cruise related... And these reservations did not involve Cruise Air.

I thought it was obvious that Iberia lost their luggage and had terrible customer service afterwards.

An understatement if ever there was one! It was a perfect storm of a travel nightmare!

Thank god for our credit card company, Travel Guard and my TA.

Be careful mentioning TA's on this forum. Most regular posters don't use or like them :)

Be careful mentioning TA's on this forum. Most regular posters don't use or like them :)

A great TA is worth her weight in Gold, plus she provides considerable OBC and other credits. In this case I thank god for my Travel Agent (by CC rules I have not named my TA). If you don't have a good TA you should consider looking into Benefits they offer and the Cruiselines don't.

I thought it was obvious that Iberia lost their luggage and had terrible customer service afterwards.

I was responding to Jvillegal and she had said nothing about a personal experience with Iberia. She has subsequently added that information.

Be careful mentioning TA's on this forum. Most regular posters don't use or like them :)

:rolleyes:

A great TA is worth her weight in Gold, plus she provides considerable OBC and other credits. In this case I thank god for my Travel Agent (by CC rules I have not named my TA). If you don't have a good TA you should consider looking into Benefits they offer and the Cruiselines don't.

:D

Iberia actually said we were a "no show" for the flight, never mind I have boarding passes, bag tags and flew on that plane! So they cancelled our return flights :(

My TA caught wind of all this while we where in the air and unaware. She actually monitors her clients flights! We just had no idea how bad things were going to get! Yes sir, while we were actually on that airplane and in the air they Swore we failed to check in! Guess they did not know who gets on their planes.... Scary !

First, let me thank everyone who answered the question...

Sounds like it's a new plane, has a 7J and a 7L...and, unfortunately, they are mere coach class seats...

I was sort of hoping there was an upgrade of sorts, intentional or not...

But, it's okay...we'll be at the tail end of a 24 night cruise/vacation and, I am sure, all will be well with my universe...

As to people's dislike for Iberia, I get it...

I haven't heard the most favorable things over the years...

OTOH, things like lost luggage and difficult customer service are not peculiar to Iberia or any other airline...

When you've traveled enough...as I have...you will find you will experience this sort of thing on lots of airlines.

My big lost luggage story was on Swiss Air...I flew to Heathrow, my suitcase flew to Zurich...They caught up with me four days later as I was leaving Mold, Wales for Stirling Scotland--after promising me my luggage would be at my hotel every day...I had to call in every day to update my new hotels...And Swiss Air never compensated me...not one dime...for any of my inconvenience or extra expenses...

I've had a flight home from Istanbul on British Airways one time that ended up being a four-leg, 36 hour marathon due to delayed flights and missed connections.

I've had a flight on American that had me stuck in Chicago overnight instead of at my destination...and another that forced me to sprint full speed from one end of Miami Airport to the other in order not to miss my ship in San Juan.

Everyone's got a plethora of airline horror stories...

There is good and bad with every airline...

With this one, there is clearly enough good to outweigh any fears of lost luggage or anything else. The flight is NONSTOP from Madrid to Los Angeles...and that is hard to find. Most of what usually goes wrong, in my experience, is related to those stops...that's where connections get missed, that's where luggage gets left on the first plane or transferred to the wrong plane.

The nonstop means that, as long as the luggage makes it on the plane, it WILL go to LAX...It means we won't have to deal with a delay that causes us a missed connection. It means we will go through US Customs in Los Angeles and not at JFK or Vancouver or wherever...

We were also able to use our frequent flier miles...and those are getting extremely difficult to use nowadays--to where I've resolved myself to avoid them more often that not--switching my credit card usage from an AA Visa and a BA Visa to a generic Capital One Venture Visa.

For me, for now, this flight is as good as it gets...far more advantages to outweigh the fears of whatever might go wrong...

My tale of wooh is simply a story about the important of a well packed carry on, a good TA and Travel Insurance. Keeping a smile on your face and a sense of adventure! Don't let the small stuff ruin a great trip [emoji4] Safe Journey!

When you've traveled enough...as I have...you will find you will experience this sort of thing on lots of airlines.

So true. I always chuckle when folks state that after a bad experience once on airline X they'll never fly them again, and after a subsequent bad experience on Y, they'll never fly them again either, and so on. With that philosophy, eventually they will have to stop traveling because they'll run out of airlines. :D

So true. I always chuckle when folks state that after a bad experience once on airline X they'll never fly them again, and after a subsequent bad experience on Y, they'll never fly them again either, and so on. With that philosophy, eventually they will have to stop traveling because they'll run out of airlines. :D

I do not believe anyone on this thread said "I'll never fly them again" though in my case they better be the only airline in existence before I think about flying them again. Stuff happens and you just need to be flexible. Safe Journey!

My wife and I and another couple flew on Iberia in the summer of 2014 from Ord to Madrid using AA miles. The flight and service were excellent.

Of course if I had JVillegal's issues I would also be reluctant to fly with them.

If I can get an Business Class international lay down seat using miles I would fly on almost any airline. I have not really heard about a lot of issues with Iberia. Alitalia is the one airline that I would avoid because of the large number of complaints.

I do not believe anyone on this thread said "I'll never fly them again" though in my case they better be the only airline in existence before I think about flying them again. Stuff happens and you just need to be flexible. Safe Journey!

Lighten up, LOL. I never said those comments were made in this particular thread (although you were pretty darn close to saying such regarding Iberia). Rather, it was a lighthearted aside about such comments which DO get made on a regular basis.

Free Lie Down FC tickets and I'd fly the Devil Express! :) (aka United Airlines)