Hello to all and welcome to my second trip report. In this occasion the trip takes me to Europe, specifically to Spain. The main reason of this trip is to see some universities in the country and also to visit all my relatives who live in that wonderful place. After I made the decision to make this trip began my first doubt. How will I arrive? Well the options were pretty clear. There are three nonstop flights from CCS to MAD and three different airlines. The first option was S3. They were offering a pretty cheap ticket. But the problem was that they were oversold and in my opinion their 767 sucks! Then the second option was UX, they were not as cheap as S3 but they are operating an A330 so the chances weren't that bad. And finally there was IB, they offered a ticket for the same price of UX and the huge difference was that they were using an A340-600. So after checking the three options and considering that I'm a Lanpass member it didn't took to long to make my decision, I was going to fly to MAD on IB.

Now that I had the main ticket it was time to find the options to travel inside Spain. So after checking all the websites (Vueling, Spanair, Iberia, Air Europa and Clickair) I found three great deals. And finally I had a real interesting itinerary for my summer vacations:

Aug 6th CCS-MAD on IB A340-600
Aug 10th MAD-SCQ on IB A320
Aug 21st SCQ-BCN on XG A320
Aug 25th BCN-VLC on IB Dash 8
Aug 27th VLC-MAD on IB CRJ-200
Aug 28th MAD-TFS on JK MD-83
Sep 5th TFN-MAD on JK MD-83
Sep 6th MAD-CCS on IB A340-300

As this is the 1st part of the report I will write about the CCS-MAD-CCS leg. If you want to check out the part 2 (The national flights) please click here.
Spanish Flavor Pt.3: Canary Islands (Pics+vids) (by Cybergus Sep 9 2007 in Trip Reports) Spanish Flavor Pt.2: La Peninsula (Pics+vids) (by Cybergus Sep 9 2007 in Trip Reports)


August 6th, 2007.
Flight: IB6700
Aircraft: A340-600 (EC-JLE) "Santiago Ramón y Cajal"
ETD: 17:10
ATD: 18:05
ETA: 07:35 (Aug. 7th)
ATA: 08:15 (Aug. 7th)
Seat: 25L


View Large View Medium

Photo © Stefan Hofmann

View Large View Medium

Photo © Jakub Sulima


Finally the day arrived. I was pretty excited since the night before. I woke up pretty early cause I wanted to be really tired in the night to take some sleep in the flight. Well my journey to the airport began around 12 o'clock. Now that the highway to the airport has a new bridge there is no reason to get worried about the traffic. Considering that there was an accident in the highway we made a really fast approach to CCS. I arrived to the counters at 12:40 p.m, there was already a huge line that took me for surprise because I was there almost 5 hours before the flight. Here is a picture of the checking area.



Anyway the line began to walk really fast and I reached the counter at 13:15. I made my check in and asked for a window seat. The lady at the counter was really nice and she offered me the 25L which I accepted without complaining. After I got my boarding pass I went with my parents to TGI Friday's to lunch. Around 14:30 it was time to say goodbye. I went through the first security point very quickly. Then I made the line for the passport control which was huge. Well when I was almost the first one in the line a security agent from the airport came to me to ask me a few questions about myself. I understand him because there are a lot of drug trading problems in CCS so seeing a guy around 20 years old traveling alone came very suspicious to them. Right after answering all the questions I went to the emigration progress where my passport was stamp. Then I enter in the gates zone. I made a first stop in the duty free store to buy a few things like bubblegum and chocolates for the 8 hours flight. I paid my stuff and then it was time to go to the VIP lounge. In the VIP lounge I served myself a Baileys and then I connected my computer to the Wi-Fi zone. Here are the pictures.

My Bayley's as usual!
[img http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/8774/p1010525ge0.jpg[/img]

The Vip


My Boarding pass



I chatted a little bit in MSN and checked out my emails. At 16:35 it was time to go to gate 23 to board the beautiful A340-600. But for my surprise when I arrived to the gate my name was call. I had to go downstairs to the ramp to open my luggage because the National Guard needed to check out some stuff from it. Well the thing is that I and 10 more passengers went with an Iberia agent to the basement of the airport just to ensure that our baggage didn't have anything wrong. This activity was the responsible of the delay of the flight. As I was the first one to get the baggage checked I ran directly upstairs again and boarded the plane without any more complications. I sat down on the 25L which was obviously a window seat and waited for the pushback of the plane. Here are some pics.

S3's 767 bound to MAD


Leg Room


Cabin overview


S3's 757 arriving from MIA


At 17:55 doors were close and right after the pushback begun. It took about 2 minutes to start the 4 engines of the little baby. Then a safety video was played. At 18:04 we were already at the beginning of runway 10. We waited for a VH Dc-9 that was landing and then it was our time to takeoff.

The takeoff was very quiet and very smooth I must say. I was a little bit impressed of it. Here is the video.



We climbed very slowly and then we made a left turn to reach our course to Europe. About 30 minutes later the flight attendants gave us the earphones and a sort kind of socks that you could use during the flight to be more comfortable. I didn't use them by the way. I turn on my ipod and put some music to my long journey.



At 20:00 (CCS time) dinner was served. You could choose between Pasta and Meat. As I ate pasta the day before I chose meat. Also I ordered some wine to drink. Here is the picture of my amazing menu.



I must admit that dinner wasn't bad at all. Obviously as all the airplane food you can't compare it with a restaurant, but this one was quite nice. The wine was also very good, indeed I drank two bottles (Yeees I was pretty drunk before bed time!). Well after I ate the diner and started getting dizzy the F.A cleaned up the main cabin. Then lights were turn off and the first movie was played. It was "Waitress" (It looked pretty badly so I preferred not to watch it). As the cabin was pretty dark I tried to sleep a little bit but I couldn't. The flight was filled with a lot of turbulence but it wasn't anything to be worried. Like at 23:00 (CCS Time) I finally get to sleep, but 1 hour later the cabin crew turned on the lights again indicating that we were near MAD and it was time for breakfast (At this moment I wanted to kill Iberia's crew for waking me up!). Back to theme, the breakfast looked very nice too. It was a ham and cheese sandwich, fresh fruit, some kind of yogurt and Orange juice. As my jetlag was pretty huge I wasn't hungry at all so I only ate some fruit and drank the juice.

Near MAD


F.A serving us


Like about 45 minutes later the plane started to descend. The F.A cleaned up the cabin again and right after they were giving the immigration form. As I am Spanish I didn't need it. Well at 8:05 (MAD Time) we were almost on finals for Barajas and the TV's were showing information about the T-4 and the connection flights.



Downwind


We touched down at 8:15 and finally I was in Barajas after 8 hour and 20 minutes. Here is the video of the landing (With claps included...) and some pictures when we were taxing to the terminal.



Look who arrived before us


Some IB planes...no doubt who is the king of Barajas.




The people disembarked the plane really fast. I walked all the T-4 and I must admit that is just amazing. It left me breathless. Here are some pictures of it.



The connection train


After I got down of the connection train I went to the Immigration line. The Venezuelans line was really huge but as I said before I'm Spanish so I went through the citizen's line which was empty. In fact they didn't stamp my passport. The policewoman in charge just said to me "Welcome to Spain again sir".

Then it was time to go to the baggage belt to pick up my suitcases. It didn't take to long to get them so I put them in the little trolley and went outside to take a cab.

The belts


My flight


And finally here ends my first day in Spain after a long trip. I hope you enjoyed the first leg as I did. Here are some pictures of Madrid.




Some Airlines in MAD




Me and the most wonderful stadium in the world!



A month later...

September 6th, 2007.
Flight: IB6701
Aircraft: A340-300 (EC-GGS) "Concha Espina"
ETD: 12:20
ATD: 14:45
ETA: 15:20
ATA: 17:08
Seat: 18A


View Large View Medium

Photo © Carlos Vaz - SJU Aviation Photography

View Large View Medium

Photo © Suresh A. Atapattu


The fatal day arrived  . It was time to go back home...what a shame! I woke up at 8:00. Get ready and at 8:30 the taxi was already at the gate waiting for me. I reached the airport at 9:05 and went directly to the check in counters. I checked in myself and everything was perfect. The lady gave me my boarding pass and told me that the departure gate was still unconfirmed so I had to check out the displays. I passed through the security points and started my journey to gates U, S and R.
To get to that gates you must take the train so that is what I did here are some pictures.

Going to the gate


The train

[img http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/1174/p1020621vz4.jpg[/img]

On the T-4S


My breakfast...a chicken wrap


Iberia's heavies



After getting around in the duty free shops for a while I checked out the departure flights board and there was my flight with its gate. It was R7 so I went directly to it. I sat down and waited for the boarding time. At 11:42 boarding was call. As usual in all the Venezuelans flight the people like to make huge lines to board the plane. They don't understand the meaning of the boarding by seat section. So I just laughed and waited for my turn to board. Here are the pictures.




The famous boarding line




At 12:10 everybody was inside de bus. Doors were closed and the jet-bridge was already deployed. I looked at my watch and it was 12:20 time to go.



Leg Room


But the plane didn't make the pushback. Something was wrong. Twenty minutes later the captain made the announcement. We were a little bit delayed because there was a problem with the airport's fuel trucks. So we had to wait inside the plane with a lot of heat and with no drink service for two hours. At 14:34 we were finally refueled and it was time to go. We made the pushback and get towards to the runway without any problems. At 14:45 we were ready for takeoff here is the video.



The takeoff was pretty slow. Ten minutes later the F.A made a real important announcement. They were asking for a doctor onboard. Apparently a lady a few rows before mine had a heart attack. For our miracle there was a doctor inside so the F.A gave him some medical supplies and he was able to nurse the lady. After this not so grateful moment the flight continued its route. We had already 2 hours in flight and the IB staff started the meal service. We could choose between tasty paella and a chicken plate. Of course I chose Paella. Here is the picture.



Then the first movie was played. For my luck it was Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. As I hadn't seen it before I watched it. When it ended it was time for the second movie. Pirates of the Caribbean 3...I felt very lucky my favorite movie!

Well after 3 hours of pure movies we were 2 hours for our arrival. The F.A started again the food service with a snack. I thought it was chicken but then when I taste it I didn't guess what it was. Here is the picture of the awful snack.



When I finished with the snack it was time to fill up the forms of immigration and customs. When I was filling them the plane was already descending towards CCS.

Cabin view




Twenty minutes later we were on final approach to Simon Bolivar. We touched down at 17:08. Here is the video of the landing.



As you might heard on the video some people clap which I find pretty stupid but bah! Whatever. Then we taxied to our gate which was Gate 18. Everybody disembarked the plane without any problems (Including the lady that had the heart attack). The immigration line was quite long considering that 3 flights from MAD arrived at the same time (UX, S3 and IB). But the baggage claim was really fast. My two suitcases came out without any problems and finally I was again in my hometown after an amazing month.

Well this was all my Trip report I hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to all the people who made this trip possible.

Tavo

[Edited 2007-09-10 00:00:05]

I flew Iberia recently to New York and I enjoyed the flights. Many people seem to complain about them. The pictures of the meal returning could not be seen. Maybe it's my computer. Not sure. Thanks for the pictures.

Great trip report!
The T4 at MAD looks really amazing, l can't wait to check it out next month when l'll see it for the first time, and your pictures really helped me on what to expect from it, and if your have more pictures from it please post them!

AA300B

Great report. The MAD terminal looks amazing and I love the bright colors there.
I thought that IB's A346 had PTVs but looks like they don't. Is that only for this route or every route???

Very nice! I like to see some pictures from CCS that i have been flying to/from in FS2004 Flight Simulator...  
Iberia seems to have a quite OK product but you hear a lot bad about that airline most of the time.

Really good TR. Lov eit with all the pics and the videos.

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): Look who arrived before us

Pretty funny that S3 arrived just before you.

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): As you might heard on the video some people clap which I find pretty stupid but bah! Whatever

It was really long time ago I heard people clapping when the a/c lands.

Last was back in 2004 when I flew with LH to LAX.


Really good TR.

Nice trip report Gustavo!!! Your meal pix remind me of the delicious Paella restaurants in Madrid... I visited MAD for the first time in February and returned quickly in May. I live in Los Angeles and it is a shame there are no nonstop flights to MAD. Of course you remember, Air Madrid had announced the nonstop, but they are no more. But that will not stop me from going back again this year... Excellent trip report and I look forward to more of your TR's!!

Gustavo...
What a great report man.. great pics of MAD and I agree with you about the Real Madrid!!!!

Great TR!!!! Thanks a lot.....

Gustavo,

amigo, a really great report (of course all 3) !!!

Btw, it looks IB never change the meals hmmmm??? Had exactly the same meal 2 years ago with them ....

cheers
Avianca

Hey Gustavo!!!! Great T.R. Now I have a better idea about IB, is not bad at all!!! and the food looks really nice!!! do you feel the Difference between A346 and A343?

Excellent the all 3 T.R. see you soon!!!

Thank you so much for all your comments.

Quoting AA300B (Reply 2): The T4 at MAD looks really amazing, l can't wait to check it out next month when l'll see it for the first time, and your pictures really helped me on what to expect from it, and if your have more pictures from it please post them!

I have a few ones...what i can tell you is that the T-4 is much better than the T-2 in certain things. But the T-4 is too big. I think that IB should improve their service there because sometimes you can feel the disorganization that surrounds them.

Quoting Buck3y3nut (Reply 3): I thought that IB's A346 had PTVs but looks like they don't. Is that only for this route or every route???

No. None of IB's A346 has PTV's in Y Class. Is really a shame considering that other airlines like LAN has PTV's in their long haul fleet.

Quoting Siege2L (Reply 6): But that will not stop me from going back again this year

Not this year but next one. IB is planing to add more A346 for 2008 to open the LAX route by the year. At least that is what i read on Avion Revue.

Quoting RICARIZA (Reply 7): great pics of MAD and I agree with you about the Real Madrid!!!!

Thank you so much compatriota! jajaja! Ala Madrid!

Quoting Avianca (Reply 8): Gustavo, amigo, a really great report (of course all 3) !!! Btw, it looks IB never change the meals hmmmm??? Had exactly the same meal 2 years ago with them ....

Gracias Avianca!...jajaja i can't complain at all...they were pretty good meals regarding all the bad comments i've heard about IB's service.

Tavo

Hi Gustavo !
Really very nice TR and good pictures and videos. I enjoyed it very much. And I am happy that you had some good IB flights without complaints....
BTW. What is the brown thing on the left side of your paella ? Looks awsome.

Nice TR, many thanks.

All in all, they looked ok on these 2 flights you had, though they could have served some water during the 2 hour wait for the fuel to be sorted.

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): in my opinion their 767 sucks!

- I'd take a 767 over a 777 anyday, but a 333/340 over the 767.

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): Here is the picture of my amazing menu.

- Food looked ok apart from your last meal, what on earth was that!!??

Best Wishes

Mark

Nice report,

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): I paid my stuff and then it was time to go to the VIP lounge.

How did you get access to OW lounge at CCS? from your boarding card I can see you don't have elite status (OW Emerald/Saphire) and you were flying Y.......just being a LA FF doesn't grant you lounge access.

Very good trip report.

My only remark would be to use, if possible, clickable thumbnails for the pictures. This enables the report to load far more quickly, especially for those who have a not so fast connection.

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): But for my surprise when I arrived to the gate my name was call. I had to go downstairs to the ramp to open my luggage because the National Guard needed to check out some stuff from it. Well the thing is that I and 10 more passengers went with an Iberia agent to the basement of the airport just to ensure that our baggage didn't have anything wrong. This activity was the responsible of the delay of the flight.

In fact these controls are time consuming, and not once on my last four flights CCS-CDG did we leave on-time.

In each and every case it was due to the length of the controls, be it for people called "downstairs" to open their suitcases, or for the manual control taking place in the jetway.

Last Friday I even received an e-mail from Air France Venezuela that I translate thereafter:

"Due to the strict controls of the National Guard -Anti drug Commando in the airport and in order to avoid delays, difficulties and unnecessary losses of time, we urge you to take in consideration the following recommendations for the luggage to be loaded in the cargo hold of the plane.

Avoid placing certain articles in the luggage to be loaded in the hold, such as:
- Flours, powder milk, cafe and/or any other type of food in powder.
- Books, gifts packed in boxes or bottles of glass or plastic
- Chocolates or candies.

We suggest placing these articles in the carry-on luggage, as long as such they are allowed within the restrictions."

I would personally add "too many electrical adapters and cables", as I was once called downstairs as my suitcase did contain various of these adaptors (computer, camera, video camera, cell phone a hard disk, shaver -- did anyone noticed that nowadays a fair part of the luggage is filled with such items ?).

Quoting TGV (Reply 14): In each and every case it was due to the length of the controls, be it for people called "downstairs" to open their suitcases, or for the manual control taking place in the jetway.

yes these manual control on my wife and me delayed our last flight to FRA ....they controlled us at least 1o minutes

[quote=TGV,reply=14]"Due to the strict controls of the National Guard -Anti drug Commando in the airport and in order to avoid delays, difficulties and unnecessary losses of time, we urge you to take in consideration the following recommendations for the luggage to be loaded in the cargo hold of the plane.

]

Quoting Orl777 (Reply 9): Hey Gustavo!!!! Great T.R. Now I have a better idea about IB, is not bad at all!!! and the food looks really nice!!! do you feel the Difference between A346 and A343? Excellent the all 3 T.R. see you soon!!!

Orlando! Thank you so much for your comment. Yes you're right IB is a double face airline. Sometimes their service is just over standing and some days they are just a horrible experience. Of course i felt the difference between both A340. The 600 Series is more quiet and smoother. It also has a better equipment inside, just look the LCD displays onboard. The 300 Series is ok for now but they are a little bit more louder and uncomfortable.

Saludos Bro!

Quoting Chiguire (Reply 11): Hi Gustavo ! Really very nice TR and good pictures and videos. I enjoyed it very much. And I am happy that you had some good IB flights without complaints.... BTW. What is the brown thing on the left side of your paella ? Looks awsome.

Yes they were pretty good. The brown thing is a Chocolate Cake. It was delicious.

Quoting BA319-131 (Reply 12): Nice TR, many thanks. All in all, they looked ok on these 2 flights you had, though they could have served some water during the 2 hour wait for the fuel to be sorted. Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): in my opinion their 767 sucks! - I'd take a 767 over a 777 anyday, but a 333/340 over the 767. Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): Here is the picture of my amazing menu. - Food looked ok apart from your last meal, what on earth was that!!?? Best Wishes Mark

Thanks for your comment Mark. I still don't know what the hell was that horrible thing. It looked like chicken but believe me it didn't taste like chicken.

Quoting UPPERDECKFAN (Reply 13): How did you get access to OW lounge at CCS? from your boarding card I can see you don't have elite status (OW Emerald/Saphire) and you were flying Y.......just being a LA FF doesn't grant you lounge access.

Thanks for your comment. I didn't get into the OW lounge. The VIP lounge that i went was the Skyteam and Priority Pass Lounge. As i have a Priority Pass member card i can enter to those lounges worldwide as much as i want. Here is the link if you want more info: www.prioritypass.com.

Quoting TGV (Reply 14): Very good trip report. My only remark would be to use, if possible, clickable thumbnails for the pictures. This enables the report to load far more quickly, especially for those who have a not so fast connection. Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): But for my surprise when I arrived to the gate my name was call. I had to go downstairs to the ramp to open my luggage because the National Guard needed to check out some stuff from it. Well the thing is that I and 10 more passengers went with an Iberia agent to the basement of the airport just to ensure that our baggage didn't have anything wrong. This activity was the responsible of the delay of the flight. In fact these controls are time consuming, and not once on my last four flights CCS-CDG did we leave on-time. In each and every case it was due to the length of the controls, be it for people called "downstairs" to open their suitcases, or for the manual control taking place in the jetway. Last Friday I even received an e-mail from Air France Venezuela that I translate thereafter: "Due to the strict controls of the National Guard -Anti drug Commando in the airport and in order to avoid delays, difficulties and unnecessary losses of time, we urge you to take in consideration the following recommendations for the luggage to be loaded in the cargo hold of the plane. Avoid placing certain articles in the luggage to be loaded in the hold, such as: - Flours, powder milk, cafe and/or any other type of food in powder. - Books, gifts packed in boxes or bottles of glass or plastic - Chocolates or candies. We suggest placing these articles in the carry-on luggage, as long as such they are allowed within the restrictions." I would personally add "too many electrical adapters and cables", as I was once called downstairs as my suitcase did contain various of these adaptors (computer, camera, video camera, cell phone a hard disk, shaver -- did anyone noticed that nowadays a fair part of the luggage is filled with such items ?).

Thank you for reading the report. I will have in mind you're suggestion for the next T.R. The Controls in CCS are getting worst everyday. They have to do something to make their controls without delaying the flights. A lot of people in my flight lost their connections in MAD with the one hour delay. BTW AF made a good move telling you that.

Saludos y Gracias (Greetings and thank you so much)

Tavo

Tavo, really cool report! I liked it a lot... thanks for taking the time to write it and for sharing your cool pics, especially the one at the Santiago Bernabeu... you should frame it.

I don't know why but I thought CCS was already and all-A346 route. I was wrong.

I will go now to Parts 2 and 3 to read about your European flights and adventures; I am quite sure they are great reports too.

Would be nice to see, at some point, a report by you about a trip to Mexico. Any plans for something like that?

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 17): Tavo, really cool report! I liked it a lot... thanks for taking the time to write it and for sharing your cool pics, especially the one at the Santiago Bernabeu... you should frame it. I don't know why but I thought CCS was already and all-A346 route. I was wrong. I will go now to Parts 2 and 3 to read about your European flights and adventures; I am quite sure they are great reports too. Would be nice to see, at some point, a report by you about a trip to Mexico. Any plans for something like that?

Hey Eddie...thank you so much for taking your time to read my report. It's a shame that CCS doesn't receive the A346 everyday. I'm quite sure that in the very near future it will be a daily A346 because the demand on the flight is huge.

About the Mexico trip i'm open for the invitation. CUN is one of my dream places (I'm a real fan of Tequila and Party, so this Cancun is my heaven). But i think it will have to wait a little bit. My next trip will be again to MIA in December so i will try to make a T.R about that (Considering that i've already made one about MIA on LAN).

Well Eddie one more time thank you so much for reading the report and keep posting

Greetings from CCS.

Tavo

Quoting Cybergus (Reply 18): It's a shame that CCS doesn't receive the A346 everyday. I'm quite sure that in the very near future it will be a daily A346 because the demand on the flight is huge.

yes the demand is high, but I do not think the demand is as high like other LATAM desinations in the IB network like BOG, LIM, EZE, SCL or MEX...

Tavo!

Awesome report, brother!

Finally, I had time to sit down and read it slowly, I really enjoyed it!

Quoting Cybergus (Thread starter): (At this moment I wanted to kill Iberia's crew for waking me up!)

Ha! I can feel the awful taste of the juicy jet-lag when someone turns on the damn lights xD

Quoting Cybergus (Reply 16): It looked like chicken but believe me it didn't taste like chicken.

That's what they say when they serve snakes too...

Quoting Cybergus (Reply 18): It's a shame that CCS doesn't receive the A346

I heard that LH might send the -600 sometime soon, that would be simply AWESOME

Quoting Cybergus (Reply 18): I'm a real fan of Tequila

REALLY??? Why don't you tell us your stories haha!

Tremendo report mi pana!

Kike

Quoting 797 (Reply 20): I heard that LH might send the -600 sometime soon, that would be simply AWESOME

Buenas tardes amigo!

intresting, and well it would make sense as my parentes have always problems to non-rev on the LH flight   , joke beside yes the LH flight is nearly always packed and not only in ECO... were did you heard this -600 rumor?

cheers
Avianca

Quoting 797 (Reply 20):

Kike...thank you so much for reading the report.

Quoting 797 (Reply 20): That's what they say when they serve snakes too...

Soooo true!. Airplane food is always a Pandora's Box.

Quoting 797 (Reply 20): REALLY??? Why don't you tell us your stories haha!

JAJAJAJA really funny!!!. I won't tell anything!!      

Saludos Bro!

Tavo