Jsnww81 From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1771 posts, RR: 19 Posted (4 years 9 months 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 17653 times:
This is my first trip report in several months. I haven’t stopped traveling, but most of my trips lately have been repetitious business trips to the same places – Pittsburgh, Durham and Indianapolis. I’ve also made a few pleasure trips (to Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe and Nashville) but as these places aren’t very exciting I haven’t gone to the trouble of putting together a report.
My most recent trip, on the other hand, was plenty interesting… an eight-day trip to Spain, Portugal and Morocco with a few friends from college. We started planning our trip back in February, and after a lot of consulting and coordinating of schedules, put together an itinerary with stops in Lisbon and Marrakech (my friends opted to stay in Spain an extra week and visit Madrid, Sevilla, Granada and Cordoba, but I had to get back to work!) I’d also be spending one final night in Madrid on the way home before I picked up my flight back to Chicago.
Since I’m a slave to American and their AAdvantage program and my friends are loyal to United, we also chose to fly out to Madrid separately. I was lucky to score inexpensive tickets on Iberia’s nonstop A340 flight from Chicago, while my friends would be on United to Frankfurt and switch to Spanair for the hop to Madrid. For the Lisbon trip, we first looked at Vueling, but didn’t find their flight times particularly convenient, and since we’d be connecting on to Marrakech on Iberia anyways, it just seemed easier to pay a little more for an Iberia flight.
My final itinerary was ORD-MAD-LIS-MAD-RAK-MAD-ORD, with all segments operated by Iberia (except for RAK-MAD, which would be a Royal Air Maroc codeshared with Iberia.) It would be my first time on an Iberia longhaul flight, my first time using the new Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas, and my first trip on Royal Air Maroc.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Chicago O’Hare International Airport
I took a cab from my office (in the John Hancock building in downtown Chicago) to O’Hare. Traffic was fairly light and we made it to ORD in about 35 minutes. The weather left a little to be desired… gray, weepy skies and low visibility. As we got closer to O’Hare, however, I could see plenty of planes taking off and landing, so it appeared the weather wasn’t affecting flight operations too badly.
I wanted to get to ORD early to ensure that I got a window seat for the flight to Madrid. For several weeks prior to the trip, I had been battling both Iberia and American (I had booked the tickets through AA.com) for a seat assignment. American could assign me a seat, but didn’t have an up-to-date seat map from Iberia, so they kept assigning me seats that turned out to be occupied. Iberia refused to help, saying that since I had an American reservation code they couldn’t assign my seat either. At one point I actually had a four-way conference call set up with myself, an AA reservations agent, an Iberia agent and someone from the Oneworld desk, all trying to sort out the situation.
They were finally able to assign me a seat, but Iberia said they couldn’t guarantee it and that another passenger who booked through their website could take it at any time. I’m extraordinarily picky about where I sit, so I wound up having to call the Oneworld desk every few days prior to my trip to confirm that my seat hadn’t been taken. Long story short: when I checked in at the Iberia counter at ORD’s Terminal 3, I got the seat I wanted… although the whole experience doesn’t say much for Iberia, or for the “seamless travel experience” that Oneworld claims to provide.
Iberia also wasn’t able to check my luggage all the way through to Lisbon, since I had purchased two separate tickets for ORD-MAD and MAD-LIS. I had anticipated this, and gave myself a nice long connection at Barajas, so it was no problem.
On the way to the concourse I snapped a picture of American’s longhaul on the rain-sodden Terminal 3 ramp:
Thus availed of my luggage, I headed through security and down Concourse H/K to the Admirals Club. If you’ve ever been to the ORD Admirals Club, you know it’s a huge facility, taking up two floors and basically the entire rooftop of the H/K junction. It’s also got one of the best views at O’Hare due to its elevated position.
A view from the Admirals Club looking toward the end of Concourse K. The 777 at Gate K16 is preparing to leave for London Heathrow. Pretty much all of American’s 777 flights at ORD (to Heathrow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Delhi and now Frankfurt too) use three gates at the end of Concourse K, although occasionally one will use a gate on Concourse L too:
I was able to get one of the small tables on the south side of the club (no small feat during the afternoon rush) where I could watch transatlantic arrivals on runway 9R. Over the course of an hour I saw arrivals from Swiss, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic (who have just restarted flights to Chicago), SAS, Air France, Alitalia, Air India, and Lufthansa (pictured):
I could see my Iberia A340 parked over at Terminal 5, waiting to be towed to its gate at Terminal 3. Iberia used to always use Gate L8 (to such an extent the gate area was actually decorated in Iberia colors, with IB logos on the walls) but lately they have been running their Madrid flight from Gate K19 more and more often. Today I’d be leaving from K19, which made walking over from the Admirals Club much easier.
Iberia Flight IB6274
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Madrid Barajas (MAD)
Departs ORD 4:40pm, arrives MAD 7:40am next day
Airbus A340-300 (EC-HGV, Maria Guerrero), seat 29A
Flying time: 7 hours, 40 minutes
This was my first flight – ever – on an Airbus widebody, and my first time on one of Iberia’s longhaul flights. Two cabin attendants met each passenger at the aircraft door, reading their boarding passes and directing them down one of the two aisles. The jetbridge had been hooked up to the 2L door, so I had to walk through a short section of the Business Plus cabin on my way to my seat in Economy. Business Plus looked fairly nice – the seats have rear shells, so I assume they recline to flat position (or at least almost flat) and there was plenty of legroom. Certainly not as impressive as American’s Flagship Suite or United’s First Suite (and probably not as good as the product on AF or BA) but it looks like Iberia has a reasonably competitive longhaul product, given that it’s an F/J hybrid.
Back in economy, I found my seat, on the left side of the cabin behind the wing. The flight was fairly full – I’d say about 85% - and the aisle seat next to me was taken. Unlike Iberia’s shorthaul fleet, which has blue seats, the A340 seats had a kind of gross-looking yellowish-blue upholstery. Legroom was reasonable – comparable to what I’ve seen on American’s longhaul flights, so I’m guessing seat pitch was 32 inches.
It started raining fairly hard outside after I took my seat, and although I tried, I couldn’t get my digital camera to focus on anything but the water droplets covering the window. None of the pictures I took on our taxi came out as a result.
We pushed back about ten minutes beyond schedule and made a quick taxi out to the threshold of runway 32R (a popular runway at ORD for transatlantic departures, given its proximity to Terminals 3 and 5.) We took off to the northwest and were swallowed up by the clouds almost immediately after rotation. I had heard the A340 felt underpowered on takeoff, and I have to agree – it seemed like we never really picked up speed, even after we became airborne. Still, the plane was definitely flying, so I can’t complain.
Climbing above the clouds:
We made a few turns in the clouds and then emerged into the sunshine. The captain came overhead and in both Spanish and English outlined our route of flight – along the St. Lawrence Seaway to Montreal, then across New England to the Atlantic and straight across to our landfall in Galicia.
The crew started inflight service about 90 minutes after we left Chicago, beginning with a drink service. I was pleased to find that alcoholic beverages were free to Y passengers on Iberia, even if all I got was an anemic-looking “half can” of Mahou beer (still more than I’d get on most US carriers!) Next up was dinner, which I had been looking forward to, since inflight catering on European airlines is generally better. Nothing, however, prepared me for what I got:
It was easily the worst meal I’ve ever had an airplane. The chicken meat was purple-colored, the rice was dry and sticky and the salad was wilted and soggy. The bread was cold and rock hard, and dessert, despite being the best part of the meal, was nothing to write home about. A second piece of bread was offered by one of the cabin attendants (walking down the aisle saying “mas pan, mas pan, mas pan” in a flat deadpan voice) after we’d all been served. While I’m usually grateful to receive a meal on a flight – especially these days – this was truly, truly awful food.
As for the flight crew – I’d read plenty of trip reports maligning Iberia’s longhaul cabin crew as inattentive and indifferent, so I was curious to see if my experience would be similar. The crew were a little bit older than I expected, although they definitely weren’t the lumbering 65-year-old dinosaurs you find on United or American. They were typically European, however – their uniforms were freshly pressed and starched, the men’s ties were straight, and not a hair on anyone’s head was out of place. European cabin crew, almost without exception, look fantastic compared to their American counterparts. Definitely a nice reflection on Iberia, even if they were serving horrible food.
After dinner was cleared away, the lights were dimmed and the movie – “Little Miss Sunshine” – was screened. The Maria Guerrero didn’t have PTVs (I don’t think any of Iberia’s A340s do in coach) so the film was shown on the rather clunky CRT displays above the center block of seats. The picture quality was pretty poor, but the film itself was good for a few laughs, and helped kill two hours of the flight.
When the movie ended I tried to get some sleep and managed to doze for maybe an hour or so. I kept getting jerked awake by the extremely loud chiming of the flight attendant call button, which was so loud that almost all of the passengers commented about it at one point or another. Almost any time someone rang their button, the whole plane would wake up.
Before long it grew light outside again:
We crossed the Spanish coast and I could see clusters of lights shining through the pretty heavy cloud cover below. About an hour out of Madrid, the cabin lights were switched back on and we were served breakfast – a container of orange juice, a warm croissant, small plate of melon and a cup of coffee.
A video explaining arrival and transfer procedures at Madrid’s new Terminal 4 was shown on the screens, followed by a plug for Iberia’s new flights to Boston, Washington and Bucharest. As the sky grew brighter the plane slowed down and began its descent toward Madrid, although there was little to be seen out the window except for thick clouds.
Our approach, especially through the clouds, was quite bumpy, and took us to the west and south of central Madrid (essentially looping around the city to line up with the runways at Barajas.) When we finally dropped out of the clouds, we were passing above the A-4 autovia and the town of Pinto south of Madrid:
The Warner Brothers theme park in San Martin de la Vega (which in true European style has its own rail line connecting it to the city):
Crossing the Jarama River on the base leg to Barajas:
My previous trips to Madrid had been during the summer or the dead of winter, and I couldn’t believe how lush the hills around the city were in the spring. I had no idea Spain could be so green!
Final approach to runway 33L took us past Arganda del Rey and Mejorada del Campo, roughly parallel to the R-3 toll motorway, which crossed under our flight path several times over the course of the approach.
Pretty houses all in a row – the suburban enclave of Velilla de San Antonio:
Finally we came in over the rooftops of San Fernando de Henares, skimmed the A-2 highway and touched down smartly on runway 33L at Barajas, passing the daily US Airways 767 from Philadelphia as we slowed down. I shot a video of the approach of landing – I uploaded it to Google Video, which is the only host I could find that takes videos larger than 100MB (my camera shoots .mov files, so the audio got all messed up during the upload – you’ll probably want to turn the sound down when you watch it): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-83701708091503109&hl=en
Turning off the runway with the Terminal 4 complex and the Cuatro Torres (four towers) office complex under construction in the background. The amount of construction taking place in and around Madrid is staggering:
Terminal 4S (the satellite, which handles all of Iberia’s intercontinental flights) and the main Barajas control tower:
A last look at the Maria Guerrero as I left the aircraft through one of the glass-enclosed jetbridges:
My last trip to Madrid was in December of 2005, just a few weeks before the airport literally doubled in size with the opening of Terminal 4 and two new parallel runways. Today Barajas has something almost no other airport in Europe can claim – room to grow – and I was eager to check out the new terminal complex.
All I can say is wow – Terminal 4 is spectacular. I’d seen plenty of pictures, but the scale of the building doesn’t really sink in until you step off your plane:
The high ceilings do a good job of making walking distances look shorter than they actually are. We arrived at the last gate on the south end of Terminal 4S, and it took a good five or six minutes to walk to the immigration counters at the midpoint of the building. The queue at immigration was short – all of Iberia’s transatlantic flights were arriving, so most of the desks were open. I got another “Madrid-Barajas” stamp in my passport, but it was barely visible – I don’t think the immigration officer had put any ink on his stamp that morning.
From immigration I went down what felt like twelve escalators to the underground train station, where the shuttle trains leave for the main Terminal 4 complex. The train ride alone takes almost five minutes and crosses under two aircraft aprons, several taxiways and runway 18R-36L. Again, the scale of the terminal is really something to behold.
Once inside the main building I went back up another series of escalators to baggage claim, where eight carousels have been set aside for non-Schengen arrivals (there are probably 15 or 20 additional carousels for domestic and Schengen flights.) There were lots of flights arriving and people crowded around each carousel, but the sheer size of the terminal and the high ceilings gave the place a quiet, museum-like feel:
It took another 20 minutes or so for our luggage to show up (bags from Terminal 4S have their own separate tunnel, running alongside the train tunnel) and when they did they came out of both ends of the carousel, which kept everyone on their toes watching for their luggage. My suitcase showed up safe and sound, so I headed out through customs and into the massive (notice a trend here?) arrivals hall.
I had about two and a half hours until my flight to Lisbon was due to depart, so I headed back up another levels to recheck my bag. It was a little chilly at this end of the terminal – the entire landside of the building was covered in white plastic sheeting, evidence of the massive terrorist bomb that went off in December, destroying a parking garage and shattering all the glass on the front of the building.
Upstairs I found myself in Terminal 4’s ticketing hall:
Again, the building was strangely quiet despite the large numbers of people milling around. Iberia uses about half of the seven or eight check-in islands, with the rest going to its partner airlines (LAN, American, British Airways, etc.) and the other airlines using T4 (Vueling, Iberworld, Avianca, Egyptair, Aeroflot, Brussels Airlines, Air Algerie, Turkish Airlines and a host of others).
The queues at Iberia’s economy class check-in looked pretty formidable, so I headed over to the dedicated “aisle” for Business and Business Plus customers (ahhh, the perks of being a Oneworld sapphire!):
Check-in took about 30 seconds and I said goodbye to my bag for the second time that day, then set off to explore the rest of the terminal. The check-in area alone feels bigger than the “old” terminals at Barajas, and there are numerous “canyons” cut into the floor to let light down into the baggage claim areas.
Huge floor-to-ceiling windows at either end of the terminal offer a nice view of the gates on either side:
With several hours left until my next flight, I decided to hop on the shuttle bus and head over to the old terminals to check out the scene there. T4 is linked to Terminals 1-3 by frequent shuttle buses (an extension of the Madrid Metro finally opened as well, so you can connect between the two terminals by train as well – if you want to pay for the ride.) The shuttle bus was crowded, but it was nice to get out of the airport and see some of the countryside around Terminal 4. All of the surrounding hillsides were covered with construction equipment, furiously building new houses, apartment buildings, highways and office buildings. From the M-12 (which fronts the new terminal) we swung onto the M-13, and about ten minutes after leaving Terminal 4 we were pulling up in front of Terminal 2.
I had expected the old terminals to be vast and empty now that Iberia and friends have moved out, but to my surprise they seemed just as busy as they did back in December 2005. The Terminal 2 ticket hall (which is where you used to check in for most Iberia domestic and European flights) was absolutely packed with people. Spanair and Air Europa have taken over the terminal – now that Iberia is gone, most of their flights can use jetbridges instead of remote stands – and it looks like they’re doing pretty well!
Over at Terminal 1 it was the same story… passengers thronging everywhere and check-in lines stretching out the doors. The building still handles quite a bit of longhaul traffic (Cubana, Delta, Continental, US Airways, Aerolineas Argentinas, AeroMexico, LAB and more) plus European flights (Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, SAS, Ryanair, easyJet and lots of others). I picked up a few timetables, but mostly just walked around, amazed at how busy the place was.
Back at Terminal 4 I went through security (so nice not to have to remove my shoes) and checked the departure monitor. Since I was flying to Portugal I’d be leaving from the main T4 building and not the satellite. I headed over to Iberia’s lounge to pick up a bite to eat and check the place out:
The lounge is nice, but it’s basically on a raised platform above the main concourse and as such it doesn’t feel very secluded. The whole place reeked of smoke too, from a smoking area located in one corner. I’m fairly tolerant of smoking but the haze of smoke in the lounge was heavy. I walked to the other end of the facility, stopping at the buffet on the way to pick up a few pastries and something to drink.
I spent about half an hour in the lounge, checked my email on the computer stations provided, and snagged a copy of the Financial Times. Around 11:15, I left the lounge and headed out to my gate (HXXX) for the flight to Lisbon:
Looking the other way down the huge H-J-K concourse:
Iberia Flight IB3110
Madrid Barajas (MAD) – Lisbon Portela de Sacavem (LIS)
Departs MAD 11:55am, arrives LIS 12:05pm
McDonnell-Douglas MD-88 (EC-FND, Playa de la Concha), seat 27F
Flying time: 50 minutes
Our aircraft was parked at the gate, but boarding didn’t start on time – at around 11:30 the passengers formed a line at the gate (which I joined) but the gate agents didn’t begin taking boarding passes until about 11:50, five minutes before we were supposed to depart. No reason was given for the delay – oh well. I was able to get a shot of the plane through the very dirty windows:
Once on board I found my seat and settled in. The MD88’s cabin looked pretty worn out, although the seats were markedly wider and the legroom was better than it had been on the A340. The flight itself was about half full, although most of the passengers were concentrated at the front of the plane. I had an entire row to myself in the back, but up front every seat seemed to be filled.
At the gate, preparing to push back:
We left the gate around 12:15pm and the engines were started. The MD80 series gets a lot of heat on these forums, but it’s one of my favorite aircraft, especially at the back where you can really hear the engines. In these days of “eco-friendly” 737NGs and A320s, it’s nice to find an airplane that really sounds like an airplane! Give me a seat in the back of an MD80 any day. One of the cabin crew (there were four flight attendants) read the safety briefing as we pushed back, repeating it in English but not, interestingly, in Portuguese.
Taxiing out to the threshold of runway 36L. Terminal 4 has a prime position at the junction of all four of Barajas’ runways, so taxi times were always nice and short. Here’s Maria Guerrero, the A340 which had brought me to Madrid from Chicago, preparing to depart again:
About to take off:
Departure was to the north on runway 36L. Our takeoff roll seemed to last forever – I know Madrid is at a high altitude, but it wasn’t particularly hot outside so I was surprised at how much runway we used before we rotated:
Climbing out over the R-2 motorway north of the airport:
A company A320 took off alongside us on runway 36R:
Interesting geometric patterns in the Ciudalcampo housing development outside of Madrid:
We turned off the runway heading and turned toward the west. The early-morning cloud cover was starting to burn off, although the Sierra del Guadarrama north of Madrid was still partially obscured:
Our MD88 quickly reached cruising altitude for the short hop to Madrid. The flight attendants never got up from their seats; aside from offering copies of El Universal and El Pais prior to departure, there was no inflight service on this flight. I thought that there would at least be an attempt to sell beverages, but I guess 30 minutes isn’t enough time for Iberia to offer its wonderful (sarcasm) “Tu Menu” buy-on-board service. I was glad I had swiped a few extra cans of soda from the Iberia lounge.
Somewhere over Extremadura, near the Portugal border and about to start our descent into Lisbon:
The flight passed without incident; from Madrid to Lisbon is less than an hour of flight time. The weather in central Portugal looked to be about the same as it had been in Madrid – scattered clouds and warm temperatures. The spoilers came up and we came in over the far eastern exurbs of Lisbon:
Banking hard over the Atlantic coastline southwest of Lisbon:
Passing by the “Christo Rei” statue (modeled on the one in Rio de Janeiro) and the very impressive Ponte 25 de Avril, which connects central Lisbon to the southern bank of the Rio Tejo:
The approach into Portela Airport was spectacular: the airport is pretty much in the middle of the city, so we came in right over central Lisbon, passing over the Campolide district, the huge Amoreiras shopping mall, the Parque Eduardo VII (where my hotel was located) and then low over the Avenida da Republica, high-rise office buildings and countless tower blocks of flats. We landed on runway 3 and rolled out to the last right-hand turn off (the runway is quite long, but the taxiway to the terminal stops halfway down its length.) I shot a video, although again you’ll probably want to turn the sound off since Google Video messed up the audio: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3056473701178885351
The airport seemed quiet this time of day – just a handful of narrowbodies from TAP and other European carriers. All of TAP and SATA’s widebody flights had already departed for Africa and South America – the only widebody left was this BRA 767-300:
Turning into our gate – I’d been hoping we’d get a remote stand so I could deplane via stairs, but since the airport was at such a low ebb there were plenty of jetways available:
We deplaned into Portela’s main passenger concourse, which was crowded, dirty and full of people (I’ll write much more about Portela in the second piece of my report). Right after I took this picture, I realized that I left my jacket in the overhead bin on the MD88, and had to run back to the gate to try and get it:
*****************************************************************************************************************************
That’s it for the first piece of the report… Iberia’s longhaul offering wasn’t quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be, despite the legitimately terrible dinner. The short flight to Lisbon was quick and painless, although the lack of any kind of inflight service was disappointing. Lisbon is a fantastic city – I’ll post some photos in the next part of the report. Stay tuned until then!
Semsem From Israel, joined Jul 2005, 1779 posts, RR: 4 Reply 3, posted (4 years 9 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 17345 times:
I recently flew Iberia from JFK to Geneva via Madrid on the A340 and my opinions were as follows: White cabin relatively dull but seats comfortable. No individual video screnes and I was unable to see any movie on the few TV screnes. The crew were distant and very reserved.
However this is where we differ. The food was fantastic. We got mozzarella and tomato to start, a delicious chicken curry and cheese cake. Also cheese.
Breakfast it seems was better than from Chicago. A blueberry muffin and croissant with apricot jam and strawberry yoghurt. The coffee was also among the best I have had on a plane.
The old MD80 to Geneva was in terrible condition. Broken pieces in the toilet and broken arm rest. You also have to pay for food. A small cheese sandwich and coke was about 7 Euros; $10 US. However I enjoyed my flightrs on Iberia and would fly them again. Note they only give you 33% of the miles on the American Airlines frequent flyer program; not 100% if you fly economy.
I agree with you in regards to Madrid Airport. It is very impressive and I spent 5 hours there. Did not get bored. As the bomb in the parking garage had gone off 2 weeks before I visited that. However Barcelona Airport in contrast is the pits.
Landing in Lisbon is prettty scary flying low over skyscrapers. Unfortunately I was in the aisle but got a good idea. Your video brought back memories. Thanks.
Chuckles1225 From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 159 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (4 years 9 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 17254 times:
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): it’s nice to find an airplane that really sounds like an airplane! Give me a seat in the back of an MD80 any day.
Amen to that.
After a long break its great to read another report from you, being that they are always superb. Thanks for all the pictures inside T4 at MAD, very impressive. Does AA directly operate any flights to MAD or LIS or are they all codeshared? Either way im sure you enjoyed the mix up of an A340 over an AA 767. Looking forward to part 2.
ask not what your pilot can do for you, ask what you can do for your pilot
BA319-131 From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2001, 7742 posts, RR: 57 Reply 5, posted (4 years 9 months 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 17225 times:
Great report, manythanks.
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): At one point I actually had a four-way conference call set up with myself, an AA reservations agent, an Iberia agent and someone from the Oneworld desk, all trying to sort out the situation.
They were finally able to assign me a seat, but Iberia said they couldn’t guarantee it and that another passenger who booked through their website could take it at any time
- In this day and age you think this would be easy!
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): I couldn’t get my digital camera to focus on anything but the water droplets covering the window. None of the pictures I took on our taxi came out as a result.
- Shame,but interesting too, not tried pics through a rain covered window yet.
- It looks it! Such a shame, IB can provide decent food, I had a wonderful meal on a domestic flight in 'C'. I can safely assume the catering was US based........?
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): European cabin crew, almost without exception, look fantastic compared to their American counterparts
CXA330300 From South Africa, joined May 2004, 1471 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (4 years 9 months 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 16952 times:
Great report! Can't wait to see LIS-MAD-RAK!
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): One of the cabin crew (there were four flight attendants) read the safety briefing as we pushed back, repeating it in English but not, interestingly, in Portuguese.
Most Portuguese speakers can understand some Spanish, due to the similarity between them (though more so than Spanish-speakers understanding Portuguese).
The sky is the limit as long as you can stay there
Flyboy7974 From United States of America, joined Jan 2003, 1540 posts, RR: 3 Reply 8, posted (4 years 9 months 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 16855 times:
Hey there, well, we crossed by a matter of minutes as that afternoon I was arriving on HP/US 320 from PHX/LAS. Surprisingly enough, somehow ops in LAS was able to work out an earlier slot than our normal flight arrival time, and thus, we had to leave LAS 13 minutes early, but even with that early push, we still arrived into ORD on 4/26 about 345pm. You described ORD to the t regarding the weather, low overcast, just a dreary day with on/off rain showers, and as we taxied in, I even made a note of passing your Iberia A340, I figured something like this might eventually happen with all of us flying around the country at different times, at one point some of our paths would come this close.
On a different note, once inside the terminal and off our B757, I was actually disgusted with the ORD terminal from just a personal humane standpoint. Due to weather and I'm guessing from what I overheard was a few days of continuous weather, there were people everywhere. As I was walking past Chilis in the F terminal, I passed a good friend who I knew in college some five years or so ago, he's currently flying with AA Eagle, and he was telling me that this Thursday afternoon was typical regarding the weather. His 4 flights through the day had all canceled leaving him with only one leg left, ORD-GSP, and he just was laughing being that at only 50 seats, the flight was booked to 76 as we looked it up. All the flights looked like this though, everything just kept rolling over he said, flights canceled and people just kept getting rolled over. Something that I have never, ever heard of, never, he was saying that AA actually had to add an additional sector to DFW that evening to get people that had been stuck in ORD out and to another hub, so AA flew them all to DFW to get them on their way to their destinations, looked like an MD-80 from the pax load, but it avoided the consistent roll over effect of all the cancelations because of the weather and the area hotels being so fully booked already. As we stood there in the hallway and moved to the side to talk for a few before I moved on, it broke me when next to where we decided to stand was a mother of two very young children, and she was only maybe about my age in her mid 30s, and you could tell that traveling had taken its toll on this young family and she mentioned that they had been stuck there since the previous Wed morning and they were just wearing thin, and it was sad because the lil guy about 2 was crying because he was just so hungry. It really upset me, god this poor family had been just stuck there and trying to get home from visiting her parents and with the weather, they ended up getting stuck in ORD due to all the cancellations, but, after a few minutes of seeing this and talking with her and trying to lend a helping hand, and this was just one of hundreds laying around, I finally didn't feel right and gave the lil dude my Chicken Crispers to go meal that I had just gotten from the Chilis there in the F terminal. If my ticket hadn't said April on the date, I would have thought it was Christmas the way that little dude's face lit up and how quickly he ate the entire meal. Just felt right but again, sad how many people I saw just stuck, and yeah, of course we all know it's the weather and nobody's fault and not the pax nor the airlines, but at some point, wow, too much is too much and that little guy was it for me.
CV990 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (4 years 9 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 16679 times:
Hi!
First of all your report was very nice, great details and of course great pictures. I noticed that you landed in RN03 to LIS airport in one of the few airlines that still fly the MD80 family....IB ( I still hope to fly again in their MD87/MD88 before they withdraw them...). I agree with you, LIS airport sucks so that's why I'm in favor that we built a brand new one at least in the next 8/10 years...it just doesn't work...and you must consider yourself LUCKY to get an airstair...lately that's becoming more and more "difficult"....normally you'll have what I call - "The around LIS airport touristic bus ride" - when you just board a bus and you go around LIS airport for about 10/15 minutes! Well in the summer it's not bad at all, but in the winter with rain, wind, cold that's absolutely non-sense! But Lisbon the city can overpass all that big frustration you have, I hope you enjoy it!
Regards
WINGS From Portugal, joined May 2005, 2829 posts, RR: 73 Reply 11, posted (4 years 9 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 16533 times:
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): That's it for the first piece of the report... Iberia's longhaul offering wasn't quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be, despite the legitimately terrible dinner. The short flight to Lisbon was quick and painless, although the lack of any kind of inflight service was disappointing. Lisbon is a fantastic city -- I'll post some photos in the next part of the report. Stay tuned until then!
Great Trip Report Jsnww,
It is only a shame that Lisbon has such a lousy airport. Had you arrived in Porto (Oporto) things would have been very different as Porto is equipped with a modern and well equipped infrastructure.
I'm also please to read that you enjoyed Lisbon. It is indeed a beautiful city.
Quoting Gte439u (Reply 1): I'm glad you like Lisbon; it is my favorite city in Europe. I think that it is under appreciated as compared to other European capitals.
Have to agree with you. Hopefully in the future this tendency will change.
Mke717spotter From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 2047 posts, RR: 6 Reply 12, posted (4 years 9 months 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 16311 times:
Very nice report and pictures! Judging by the pic of the food you took on your flight from ORD, I wouldnt have guessed that it tasted bad, it actually looked pretty good. But I guess you can't judge a book by its cover eh?
Will you watch the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions on Sunday? Only if coach Eric Mangini resigned after a loss.
Tsaord From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 14, posted (4 years 9 months 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 16198 times:
This is a small world after all!! I worked at the X-ray machine at Iberia the day you left!!!
I mis working that flight as I went to 1st shift for this bid.
Nice to hear Iberia isn't all that bad. I may fly them for my birthday next year. Lisbon looks like a fantastic city. I see Iberia has a lot of onward conenctions to lisbon out of ORD.
O and I was finally told that Iberia uses gate K16 during the summer months when they switch to the 600 series. When it goes back to the small 340 they go back to L8 at ORD.
Jsnww81 From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1771 posts, RR: 19 Reply 15, posted (4 years 9 months 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 16180 times:
Quoting Tsaord (Reply 14): This is a small world after all!! I worked at the X-ray machine at Iberia the day you left!!!
Wow, who would have guessed? I dropped off my bag with an older gentleman though, so I must have missed you.
Quoting Tsaord (Reply 14): I was finally told that Iberia uses gate K16 during the summer months when they switch to the 600 series. When it goes back to the small 340 they go back to L8 at ORD.
I figured maybe the switch had something to do with this. I was on the -300 series going over to Madrid but the -600 coming back... I'll have more on the -600 in my return report.
Quoting Mke717spotter (Reply 12): Judging by the pic of the food you took on your flight from ORD, I wouldnt have guessed that it tasted bad, it actually looked pretty good. But I guess you can't judge a book by its cover eh?
You're right, in the picture, it looks much better than it actually was. Ugh, the chicken was so terrible.
Quoting WINGS (Reply 11): Here are some of my favourite spots in Lisbon.
Yep, I visited all of those places except the last one (the TV tower.) Lisbon is a great city... very walkable (although lots of hills, so I'm glad I brought good shoes!) I actually stayed right off of the Praca Marques de Pombal, which is pictured.
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4608 posts, RR: 34 Reply 16, posted (4 years 9 months 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 16150 times:
What an awesome report... I love reading one that is detailed and full of photos.
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): I took a cab from my office (in the John Hancock building in downtown Chicago) to O’Hare.
I miss Chicago. I think I had a buffet lunch in JH Building before, it is a restaurant on a very high floor that has a view of the south side of the city. Great memories there...
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): European cabin crew, almost without exception, look fantastic compared to their American counterparts.
ANYONE would look fantastic compared to the FAs on US carriers! Hahahaha... Even the grandma-FAs on GA, JL and SQ (there are few, surprise surprise!) look so elegant.
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): All I can say is wow – Terminal 4 is spectacular. I’d seen plenty of pictures, but the scale of the building doesn’t really sink in until you step off your plane:
What an expansive looking terminal. It looks like a very earthy KLIA.
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): It was a little chilly at this end of the terminal – the entire landside of the building was covered in white plastic sheeting, evidence of the massive terrorist bomb that went off in December, destroying a parking garage and shattering all the glass on the front of the building
Well, the wonders of travelling. Sometimes you just find yourself within a situation that you would otherwise only have read about in the newspaper. Remember the earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 that cause the collapse of the Cypress Freeway? I had just left the city when that quake happened and was somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on the way to NRT on a JAL flight. When I arrived in Tokyo, apparently a quake had just hit too and the glass windows had all shattered and was held together by a lot of duct tape criss-crossing here and there. On my continuing flight back to Singapore, there was even an aftershock to be felt while waiting in the boarding lounge and needless to say, I was so excited about experiencing my first ever earthquake. I have never had another similar experience since.
Quoting Jsnww81 (Thread starter): The flight attendants never got up from their seats; aside from offering copies of El Universal and El Pais prior to departure, there was no inflight service on this flight. I thought that there would at least be an attempt to sell beverages, but I guess 30 minutes isn’t enough time for Iberia to offer its wonderful (sarcasm) “Tu Menu” buy-on-board service.
They need to take a page out of the service manuals of MAS / SIA on how they manage to pamper passengers on short hops between SIN and KUL! Flight time block to block of 50 min and you are only in the air for 20-25min. First Class passengers gets meals (one-plate affair) while the cattle class gets OJ, coffee or tea. Aircraft type ranges from the puny 737 to A330 and 777.
I enjoyed reading every bit of it and hope to see the other reports soon.
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
LGAtoIND From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 490 posts, RR: 1 Reply 21, posted (4 years 8 months 3 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 15115 times:
Excellent report. It is always fun to hear about some of the less talked about European carriers like IB, AZ, EI, etc. I flew AZ JFK-MXP a few years back and, being an Italian airline, I expected the food to be awesome, but to my surprise it was pretty awful.
LH459 From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 886 posts, RR: 2 Reply 22, posted (4 years 8 months 3 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 14913 times:
Very nice report, with excellent attention to detail. The only thing that made me curious was why you didn't check your bags all the way through from ORD to LIS?
"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is temporary; the evil it does is permanent" - Ghandi
Jsnww81 From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1771 posts, RR: 19 Reply 23, posted (4 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 14683 times:
Quoting LH459 (Reply 22): The only thing that made me curious was why you didn't check your bags all the way through from ORD to LIS?
I definitely tried to! I purchased the ORD-MAD-ORD and the MAD-LIS-MAD tickets separately, but when I checked in at O'Hare the Iberia agent tried to merge the two itineraries so that my luggage could be checked all the way to Lisbon. The computer wouldn't let her do it, however, so I had to collect my bags and recheck them. It really wasn't much trouble... I used the Iberia Business counters in Madrid and the whole process took less than five minutes.
KstateinALB From United States of America, joined Dec 2006, 717 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (4 years 7 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 14046 times:
From personal experience....MAD is absolutely one of the most amazing airports architecturally in the world. Although it is a hassle having to get to 4 from where BA checks in...that was a riot when I was there....
IB looks pretty good, I loved BA so I'd pick them over IB, but for intra-spain flying, IB is good.
BTW...fabulous trip report, I look back at some of the past ones all the time.
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