Ogre727 From Spain, joined Feb 2005, 693 posts, RR: 2 Posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 10608 times:
Eighth and ninth legs
MEX – MAD: January 17th, IB 6402. A340-600. Seat 8A
MAD – ZRH: January 18th, IB 3474. A319. Seat 2A
I decided to do just one trip report for this leg. Mainly because I was sooooo tired for this trip that I didn’t take as many pictures or videos as I should have.
I had hired a driver for that day (Saturday) so I could go to the pyramids and other places. I do have to apologize to the Mexican friends here in the forum, but I have to say I hated Mexico city with a passion. It was crowded, traffic was very annoying (although not the worst I have experienced, my friends from Caracas will know what I am talking about), and everything was dirty. Maybe it was because it was the final city in the world tour, but I was very unimpressed with the city. I will give it a second chance.
The driver took me and my colleague to the pyramids (cool, but a tad disappointing), to the Frida Kahlo museum (very nice), and to Xochimilco, which is something of a local Venice…
Around 5 PM we asked the driver to take us to the airport. We arrived to the terminal and walked to the Iberia check in stands. They were absolutely empty.
The Iberia ground personnel was very nice and professional. They checked my bag all the way to Zurich. I was a bit worried that they would charge me extra. My suitcase was 25 kgs when I left Switzerland 2 weeks before. I hadn’t bought anything, but now it was weighing 32 kilograms!!! Anyways…
We headed through the airport to the lounge, which is a little difficult to find.
Pictures of the airport:
We got to the lounge. It was a Mexicana lounge and it was nice. However, there were these really loud and obnoxious people in it. At first, I thought they would be there for a short while, but they ended up staying there until I left.
The lounge has a nice view of the runways, unfortunately it was getting dark really fast.
Picture from the lounge:
Finally, I was so annoyed by the people in the lounge that I decided to walk to my gate and try to take a picture of the airplane. I couldn’t as the view was blocked. This is the picture I was able to take:
This is the boarding area, a big mess:
There were millions of people trying to board the Iberia plane (it was after all an a340-600), so I walked to the front and went through with other business passengers.
Some pictures of my seat, my plane, etc:
It was raining really hard:
The take off was uneventful. I do have to say that the camera on the back of the plane is really really cool. This is my video from the take off:
I have to say that I dislike Iberia with a passion. I think that they are unfriendly (flight attendants, that is), robotic, and in general food is not nice. This flight was no different.
Hot Towel:
Dinner:
Dessert:
At the risk of sounding really gay, I will say that the problem with Iberia is that they lack finesse for all they do.
By the way, for the third time in my young life and second in the past 12 months the entertainment system was broken (this was business class, not that it’s ok in economy, but you get me). The headphones worked, but no sound came out. I plugged them in the seat right next to me (which was empty) and they worked fine. Very annoying. The amount of movies was rather small.
Pictures of the entertainment system:
FS2004-like view from the wing:
I slept almost all the way through, but not thanks to the seat, which was the most uncomfortable of all the seats on this trip. Breakfast arrived when we were about 1 hour away from Madrid (I think):
It was yummy:
This I don’t know what it was, but I took a bite (huge one, I know) before taking the picture:
After deplaning we went through security. The following happened. My colleague had bought some tequila in the Mexico duty free. I told him that he would have problems in Madrid, but the lady who sold it to him said that she would seal it and that he would have no problems. I differed but he chose to believe her. Anyways, when we went through security, they told him that he couldn’t take the bottle through, but he could check it in if he wanted. Check in is a good 20 minute walk from T4, so he said no, got all mad and threw a big tantrum, yelling at them and telling them they were wrong, and that this was stupid. As he spoke no Spanish (he is British) he kept asking me to translate his insults into Spanish, which I obediently did.
After he understood it was hopeless, we walked to the Iberia lounge, which I do have to say is very nice. Some pictures:
We walked to the gate for our plane to Zurich, and after we boarded the plane got delayed over an hour. The captain was nice enough to inform us constantly but it was still annoying as I was really tired by now.
Sorry, there are no pictures of this flight and not any more comments as I slept through the whole thing. The only thing is that the landing was very scary again, the weather was awful.
I truly hope you liked my round the world odyssey. In about two weeks I have another trip planned to SFO, NYC and EZE, all in J. The nice thing about those is that they are in J as well and I will be able to compare the service with other one world members: American Airlines (from ZRH to SFO, NYC and EZE) and British Airways (EZE to ZRH).
Globetraveller From Germany, joined Apr 2008, 379 posts, RR: 21 Reply 1, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 22 hours ago) and read 10438 times:
It is great to see that your interesting Around the World tour is back ogre727. I really enjoyed reading about your fast pace travels around the world and I am hopeful that I will be able to do the same someday soon.
Atlwest1 From United States of America, joined Jan 2009, 1046 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 10247 times:
Absolutely fantastic series of trip reports. You have a fantastic skill for keeping the reader interested. Im so so so sorry you had a hard time sleeping. Hopefully you have made up for it by now. I am so looking forward to your next trip report. Bravo good job.
ALL views, opinions expressed are mine ONLY and are NOT representative of those shared by Southwest Airlines Co. or Airt
LatinTraveller From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 84 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 9854 times:
Marry Me. Lol these sets of trip reports were amazing!!
Mexico City is something to get used to, but I choose chaos over boring stability so to each his own...
And it seems like you got a concha for breakfast on IB...Mexican sweet bread...Nice eh?
Quoting Ogre727 (Thread starter): the seat, which was the most uncomfortable of all the seats on this trip.
Just for the record, it's exactly the same seat model used by LAN, South African or Air Mauritius (among others) in their business class cabins, made in France by Sicma Aero Seat.
The only difference is that on IB, only the bulkhead rows are what we call "fully flat seats" (horizontal/parallel to the floor once fully reclined). The seats on all other rows get flat (180º), but they are a bit angled, not horizontal.
Ogre727 From Spain, joined Feb 2005, 693 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (4 years 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 8418 times:
Quoting IBERIA747 (Reply 5):
Not what I would call "uncomfortable".
You wouldn't. I do.
Perhaps all has to do with perceptions. The seat seemed more uncomfortable of all the seats on my rtw trip: the headrest kept coming off, the headphones didn't work, the TV screen was small and of low quality and the seat itself didn't seem to recline as much as the one in LAN. Again, maybe perception.
Of all the one world airlines I have flown in the past 6 months: Cathay, LAN, Qantas, American, British Airways and Iberia, Iberia offers consistently and noticeably a lower-quality product in my personal opinion.
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