Mapping Spain Monthly Recap:  October 2024 (the Iberia/Barajas edition)

Mapping Spain Monthly Recap:  October 2024

I’ve previously written about my adventures with Iberia: well, if you ever want to know what happens when you miss your connecting flight with them, I have lots of info and tips in this post. And if you’re curious on how I was delayed by 36 hours and spent 6 hours in a customer service line then read on…

Before I get there, I’ll start with what I usually start with when doing these monthly recaps: the weather.

October started to be downright cold in Granada. Indoors can get cold if the sun doesn’t shine into your home. In fact we moved our “office” into the 2nd bedroom where the sun shines throughout the day. Nights got very cold and we actually had to pull out our big, woolly blanket to keep warm. Days outside were near perfection though with average temps in the low to mid 20’s (Celcius). Personally, as people who don’t like the excess heat, October was great. It’s hard to believe that just 2 months ago (in August) that it got so hot that we spontaneously decided to stay a night in a hotel. People have told us that weather in Granada can be extreme. They’re right. As far as rain, we got a few major storms in October and had some grey days but that’s about it.

So that’s my weather report. I know people are always curious about weather in different places in Spain and want to know what a place is like during different months. That’s why I describe it in detail.

But the major event of the month (that was otherwise pretty uneventful) was my experience with Iberia. As I write this I am in Mexico having arrived about 36 hours later than planned. 

---

---

The connection that never was

I was flying Granada -Madrid – Mexico City. I had checked in online 24 hours before boarding so I had my two boarding passes. Iberia had contacted me via Whatsapp, an automatic message that told me that I would be kept abreast of the flight status. Perfect.

So it was a surprise when I arrived at Granada – Jaen airport (officially Federico García Lorca Granada Airport) and found out that my 9:40 pm flight would be late…with an estimated boarding time of 23:30. That would mean missing my connecting flight.

So I went to the Iberia service desk where a nice lady told me that because of the Dana (the major storms that hit Spain, particularly the Valencia area), Iberia was having delays all over the place. When I asked if my flights could be changed for the following day, she said that she couldn’t make changes. “Go to Madrid, your flight might still be waiting for you. If not they’ll help you when you get there”.

Famous last words.

It was 12:30 am when we actually took off, 3 hours late. A good 50 minute flight to Madrid. An automatic message came on as we approached telling us that for customer help we could go to gate K68 when we disembarked at Terminal 4.

Disembarking into the terminal, everything was dead. No sign of other delays or other flights, no passengers except for us. There was no service personnel at gate K68. The big board didn’t have any indication that my Mexico flight was delayed. It was long gone. In fact, the next major international flight would be at 6:30 in the morning.

I had missed my flight.

---

---

Iberia customer service at Barajas

Where to get help? Even airport personnel didn’t know. The guard manning the trains connecting terminal 4 and terminal 4s (where my flight was meant to depart) told me to go to terminal 4s. When I got to 4s the immigration officer told me the whole terminal was closed and to go back to Terminal 4. There, another guard told me Iberia help was at luggage carrousel 10. No. I met an Iberia employee on his way home who actually gave me the proper info – Iberia customer help is on the 2nd floor of Terminal 4 next to the check-in counters.

When I got there I saw this line in front of me.

Everyone was waiting to get Iberia customer service because they had all either missed flights or had flights cancelled. The old man in front of me (who almost killed me with his breath) told me there were 2 people working the desk.

It was 2:30 am at this point. I had landed at 1:30 but with all the running around trying to locate help I had lost an hour.

I wish I could convey how slow the line moved. It seemed forever. People lay down where they were. Couples and families took shifts, keeping their place in line.

By the 2 hour mark I was still the last person in line. I had moved almost halfway from where I had started.

Soon after a new batch of people came in. They were all French.

The old man and I took turns watching each other’s place in line when we needed to go to the bathroom or get water.

It was around 5 am that there was a shift in the energy of the airport. Passengers started arriving for early morning flights. By 5:30 it was pretty busy. By that time I was getting close to the Iberia customer service area but saw it would take at least a few more hours – the line within the service area was a winding, clustered mess.

By 6:30 I was within the customer service zone. I had been in line 4 hours. The light had come up and tempers were short. A few newbies trying to get help for a boarding pass issue were told by a few loud queuers to get at the back of the line. A lady started crying. Most of the passengers I had lined up with at this point were lying on the floor, getting up only when the line moved.

---

---

By 7:30 I was nearing the end. I mentioned that when I had gotten there at 2:30 that there were 2 Iberia employees. Now there were 5. It didn’t seem to move any faster though.

Then there was a giant kerfuffle when a man barged in shouting at the Iberia employees. With him were a gang of equally irate Uruguayans who had been “screwed” around. Something to do with boarding passes. A loud debate ensued between customer service staff and the 10 or so passengers who had butted in line. When it finally it died down, the angry Uruguayans had new boarding passes and we were still waiting in line.

I got up to the counter at 8:30. I had been waiting in line for 6 hours.

The lady behind the counter was nice, maybe because the client before her was an angry young American woman who was clearly in touch with her bitch side. So when I got there she was apologetic and helpful. I had automatically been rebooked for a flight on the afternoon of the 1st (30 hours away). I asked her to give me a similar seat to what I had paid for (Iberia charges 40 euros per leg for seating on these international flights). She did and printed out a boarding pass for the next day. I asked for a hotel voucher which she gave me (but I couldn’t check in until 12 which meant another 3 hours to kill in the airport). Finally, she gave a breakfast voucher for the restaurant downstairs (which, as I would find out, only covers you for a croissant and coffee).

It took 10 minutes and I was done.

By this time it was 9 am. I went for breakfast. I wrote my mom telling her I’d be arriving about 36 hours later than planned.

After breakfast I found a seat and killed another 2 1/2 hours watching people going about their airport business. I kept myself occupied by taking photos of some of the more interesting people I saw.

---

---

The free hotel stay

At 11:30 I caught the shuttle bus to the NH Madrid Barajas Airport Hotel, a 3 star hotel about 5 km away. I arrived, checked in, was given a box lunch which included a ham and cheese sandwich, a coke and a muffin. I went to my room, took a hot shower, sat on the bed watching BBC news while having lunch. Then I went right to sleep.

I woke up at 7 pm after a 6 hour nap. Went for supper downstairs for the free meal provided by Iberia. It was very simple, a buffet featuring grilled chicken and a mixed rice dish. Was actually very good and I was even served wine. The restaurant filled up, most of them other “flight refugees”, most of them French.

Then it was back upstairs where I watched a bit of TV. Couldn’t sleep, I was already suffering jetlag despite not having left the country. Must have been 3 am when finally I did.

Woke up at 8 am, went for buffet breakfast (again, with few options but everything they had – scrambled eggs, bacon, mergez sausages, many bread options – were good). Killed some more time and at 11 Am I took the shuttle bus back to the airport. In the end, the NH Barajas was simple but good and the staff excellent. They’re one of many cheap 3 star hotels surrounding Barajas (a few years back Lissette and I had a similar night between flights and stayed at the Ibis Styles which was also decent for what it was).

---

---

Finally boarding but…

Back at Barajas Terminal 4, security went smoothly, immigration barely looked at my passport before stamping it. I was ready to board. But that was too simple. At the gate everyone was told that they had to line up to have their hand luggage weighed. That’s something new, Iberia weighing (and charging) for overweight hand luggage. And I had just bought 2 bottles of liquor. But I noticed that they were only weighing rolling bags and not backpacks…so I quickly moved my 2 bottles into my backpack. My turn came up, had my bag weighed and the Iberia agent put a printout on my bag confirming it weighed 7 kg (I asked her the limit and she said it’s 10 kg…so be warned)

Then back in a separate line for boarding.

That was followed by what would be a good 10 hour flight to Mexico city.

And THAT was my Iberia adventure.

---

---

It could have all been avoided…

I was livid waiting in line those 6 hours at the airport. Because this could all have been avoided.

Iberia knew my Granada – Madrid flight was late and that I would miss my connecting flight. They could have cancelled the Granada flight and rebooked both flights (that’s happened before with other airlines). I could have gone home, spent 2 nights in my bed and not gone through all the hassle of the last 36 hours. And Iberia would have saved money – they must have spent a lot of money lodging me and feeding me in over that day and a half.

It’s all about communication and service breakdowns.

Why didn’t I get an updated Whatsapp message telling me that my flight to Madrid would be 3 hours late? Why did I have to go to the airport to find that out?

Why was customer service in Granada so powerless to change anything? She could have told me that I would miss my connecting flight and made changes to my booking.

I get that Spain had a horrible tragedy and that flights would be delayed. But if all these passengers were stuck, why only 2 service agents tending to all these passengers during the night?

I’m not even angry anymore, I just don’t understand how all this couldn’t have been resolved.

So some takeaways if you’re in the same situation

• I would have said ¨go online and always monitor your flight status¨. But I did that when the flight was already 2 hours late and according to Iberia the flight was still on time, so….
• Know that the Iberia Whatsapp service is useless. Despite telling me that I would be updated on my flight status that was not the case. In fact, while waiting around during the 3 hours that my flight was late, I fooled around with it and sent them messages. It’s powered by Meta (Facebook) and it’s all AI. You can’t get a real person. Again, all useless and a waste of time.
• Know that Iberia customer service is on the 2^nd floor of Terminal 4 at the check-in counters and that they’re open 24 hours a day. That means that you have to leave the secured area and go upstairs. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise (except if it’s daytime hours. Then check gate K68 in Terminal 4 (I don’t know the exact hours because even going on the Iberia website I can’t find that information. Again, just useless).
• Know that Iberia may automatically change your connecting flight if you’ve missed your connection. You can actually check that by yourself: go to the original email Iberia sent you when you booked your flight and go to ¨Manage my booking¨. I did that waiting in line during those 6 hours and indeed saw that they had changed my flight. It didn’t help though: I wanted to make sure my seat was reserved and I wanted hotel and food vouchers. Had that been also automatically added then I wouldn’t have continued waiting in line.
• Be aware that Iberia now checks the weight of your carryon baggage at the boarding gate and that suitcases can’t exceed 10 kg. But know that they don’t weigh (for now) backpacks so you might try redistributing your carryons as I did…

I hope others can learn from my experience.

Related: Iberia Review #2 (aka the crappy things about Iberia)