Iberia Business Class Between Chicago and Munich
The Kimpton DeWitt, Amsterdam
AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam
The Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
The Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
The Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part II
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part III
The aloft Munich
AIM: Our Time at Dachau
AIM: Our Time in Munich
The Hilton Munich Airport
My friend C lives in the Chicago area so it makes sense to use that as our gateway city. I bought an American Airlines ticket between Memphis and Chicago and flew up the evening before our overseas flight, just to make sure there was no rush. As we were driving from her house to the airport I realized I'd left the charging cords for both my tablet and my phone at her house. Oh well, we'd stop and pick up one on the way. Then I realized I'd left my tablet at her house too! At least I had my phone so we did stop to get a cord but it was not my favorite way to begin a vacation!
Outbound: Chicago to Madrid
Iberia Airlines is a oneworld partner of American so our business class tickets gained us access to the American Airlines lounge. It's quite nice for a domestic lounge and the food actually looked pretty good. With a 4:35 PM flight we ate dinner before heading to the airport and knew we'd be served dinner on-board so we just had a few munchies. The lounge was fairly crowded so I didn't take photos but it was a good place to relax and enjoy free wi-fi.Iberia 6274
ORD to MAD
Aircraft: Airbus A340-600
Scheduled: 16:35 – 07:35+1
Actual: 16:47 – 06:55+1
Airbus A340-600
Seat: 1G, aisle (Business Class)
We boarded the plane via door 2L so I crossed through the galley and walked down to the front row. We had seats 1E and 1G so we both had aisle access yet could talk with each other. Since it was an overnight flight and there was nothing to see out the window this worked well for us. If you fly on this aircraft be aware that in the center section, the pairs of seats alternate with two closer together with storage on the outside of the seats followed by two seats where the storage area is between the seats and it's more difficult to speak with each other. This second set of seats would be more useful if you're traveling solo and none of the single window seats is available.
A pillow and a blanket were waiting for us at our seats along with the inflight magazine and the safety cards. I guess they're hoping people will actually review the safety cards if they have to move them out of the way?
Since our seats were close to each other, we had large armrests/storage areas on the aisle side of our seats. Here is where we found a compartment for our headphone and I used this to store my glasses while I slept. The amenity kit was sitting out on the armrest.
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| No, the lotion wasn't named after me... |
The foot cubby under the IFE screen was plenty large for me. I liked that there was an area for shoe storage underneath the foot cubby. The IFE screen itself was also big enough that I didn't have trouble watching movies.
While I'd never seen a tray table designed like this, I really liked it. It was stored vertically by the entrance to my seat. Though it folded down easily for eating, I could also push it away and still be able to get out of my seat. That's so nice because then you don't have to wait for your dinner tray to be taken before you can leave your seat.
The seat and IFE controllers were embedded in the partition on the right (aisle) side, just above my armrest. Both items were intuitive and easy to use.
The partition separating me from the aisle was quite wide and halfway down was the headphone jack as well as the USB port. Below that was a holder for a water bottle. This was a great idea as it was easy to reach even while fully reclined.
For my pre-departure beverage I selected orange juice. This definitely wasn't the same ol' stuff I buy at the grocery. It may not have been fresh-squeezed but it was quite tasty.
The official records say we pushed back 15 minutes late though my watch said it was nearly 30 minutes late. But the nice thing about long-haul flights is there's more time to make up for a minor delay and in this case we even landed early. Before take-off the menus were distributed. The cover features Iberia's signature colors.
The dinner and breakfast menus:
Other items offered were an Aperitif, Snacks and beverages available on-demand. Other than a bottle of water we did not eat between meals as the flight is relatively short.
Coffees and teas available:
The wine list:
Spirits and liquor:
Meal service began about 1h 20m after our scheduled departure time. The service began with a hot towel:
A glass of ice water and a ramekin of nuts were next. I found I was
For our starter we had chicken consommé, a small salad with oranges and dried cranberries, prosciutto with mozzarella, a cherry tomato with pesto sauce, a cheese plate with a (single) grape and a choice of bread. At least the bread was warm.
C selected the veal with broccolini, potatoes and carrots for her entrée. She said it was fine but not particularly memorable.
I selected the mushroom ravioli in a wine sauce with mushrooms on the side. I chose it over the shrimp because I'm not a huge shrimp fan and it's hard to mess up pasta. But it was a bit heavier than I'd hoped and perhaps I should have tried the shrimp.
For dessert, there was no chocolate. What kind of choice is that? I had the apple cake and caramel ice cream which were decent but, again, not chocolate.
Then it was time for sleep. Or at least we tried - after all, that's the purpose of getting the flat bed seats, right? But we were on row 1 and the flight attendants kept opening and closing cabinet doors in the galley. Even though they had the curtains pulled to block the light some, we could still hear them opening and closing cabinets. Then we hit minor (to me) turbulence. If it weren't for the fact that we were trying to sleep it wouldn't have been an issue but it was a bit annoying. It bothered C even more as she started to feel a bit sick to her stomach and had to get into a more upright position. Fortunately I didn't have that issue though I didn't get any deep sleep.
About two hours before our arrival into Madrid the flight attendants began serving breakfast. I wasn't really hungry as we'd had dinner less than four hours prior, so I was fine with the light breakfast that was delivered on a single tray. Fresh fruit, juice, toast, a croissant and yogurt with coffee or tea was plenty of food.
Layover in Madrid
As I mentioned in the intro post for this trip, the flight we booked had a "normal length" (2-ish hours) layover in Madrid before connecting to Amsterdam. But just a few weeks after booking our flights, the morning MAD-AMS flight was canceled and we were shifted to the afternoon flight. Rather than stay at the airport from roughly 7:30 AM until our AMS flight left at 4:35 PM we booked a private city tour. They met us at the international arrivals area and we didn't have far to walk to the car. From there we drove around the city for just under four hours. Had it not been raining we would have gotten out of the car a couple of times to enjoy the city but we just made some mental notes and added it to our list of places we need to explore further.When we returned to airport, we headed to the Iberia lounge, intending to lunch there. Instead we learned it was closed for remodeling and we were given a certificate for a sandwich, a side (like chips) and a drink at one of several restaurants. Ah, the glamorous life. We made use of our certificates and then found a third-party lounge we could access with the Priority Pass cards we have as a benefit of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It wasn't fancy but we were able to have free wi-fi and we charged up our electronics prior to our last flight of the day.
Connection: Madrid-Amsterdam
This flight was on an A320, which meant we had the usual intra-Europe business class seats. If you're not familiar with that, it means even in "business class" the seats are normal economy seats but they don't sell the middle seat and with better service. The partition between "business" and "economy" is just a little curtain that hangs over the top of the last row of business. It's on a sliding track so they can size the business class cabin to the exact number of tickets sold.We were served dinner though I don't believe there was a choice. Knowing we weren't going to eat again until breakfast I ate what I could of the beef, quiche, tomatoes with onion and dessert.
We actually landed a bit early and had booked Blacklane to take us to the hotel. The train comes right to the airport and we had considered taking it to the city, but we didn't know exactly where our hotel was and we didn't want to be dragging luggage all over the place while we looked for it. On our return trip we had no qualms about taking the train, especially since we were staying at an airport hotel for the night and didn't have to worry about missing a flight.
Return: Madrid-Chicago
I'm skipping the Munich-Madrid portion because it was not very memorable. We probably got breakfast but we had nibbled while in the lounge in Munich and so I'm sure I just picked out a few more nibbles.The flight back from Madrid to Chicago was very similar to our outbound flight except for the food, of course. And thankfully we didn't have the same turbulence we'd encountered on the outbound.
Iberia 6275
MAD to ORD
Aircraft: Airbus A340-600
Scheduled: 11:50 – 14:15
Actual: 11:51 – 13:59
Airbus A340-600
Seat: 4L, window/aisle (Business Class)
We pushed back on time and taxied for about 20 minutes before take off. Lunch service began about 50 minutes later and began with a hot towel:
We had our choice of beverages and some more (cold) nuts:
Our appetizer tray had several items: gazpacho with egg, cheese with quince past and grapes, a salad with black quinoa and tomatoes, goose terrine with baked apple slices and tomato brunoises and a piece of bread.
C and I each selected window seats for this trip so we were not sitting together and I don't know which entrée she had. I had the cod with wild mushroom ragout and (overly) steamed broccoli. As with the outbound meal it was edible but not memorable.
I got excited when the dessert was announced as a trip of chocolate cake but I was puzzled when I saw it. No matter, it tasted like chocolate and was pretty decent.
Snack time came about an hour before landing with a service of ham, sausage and cheese, tomatoes and fresh fruit along with our choice of bread. I wasn't super-excited about all that meat and would have liked to have had more fruit but at least I wasn't hungry when we landed.
The menu had the same cover and welcome page as the one on the outbound trip so I won't repeat them here. The lunch and snack menu:
The other services, like the Aperitif, between-meal snacks and beverages were identical to the outbound, as were the coffees, teas, wines, liquor and spirits so I won't repeat them here.
The crews were nice though not exactly proactive. Of course comparing flight crews anywhere to those on Asian carriers is probably a losing proposition as the Asian crews are typically superb. But I try not to bother the flight crews unnecessarily anyway.
If you want to use American Airline miles to get to Europe you've really got three choices: American, British Airways and Iberia. American is very stingy with award seats on their own planes; they'd rather you fly one of their partners. British Airways somehow gets away with unbundling the fuel costs from the price of a ticket and thus they impose fuel surcharges on their award flights. For a long-haul flight in a premium cabin this can be as much as $450. So much for a "free" flight, eh? So the other choice is Iberia. If you book in advance you can often find two business class seats on most flights. No, it's not super-luxurious but it is 1-2-1 seating (unlike BA) and you can actually find seats (unlike AA) so if I go back to Europe using AA miles I'll likely flight Iberia again.
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