Complaint Rating:

We traveled with Iberia from London Heathrow to Guatemala City via Madrid in November 2006. Our flight from London was delayed because the air crew did not arrive in sufficient time to clear security. On arrival in Madrid, Iberia staff made little or no effort to help us make our connection. In fact, we think they deliberately delayed us. Non-connecting passengers were allowed off first. We were then bussed to the international terminal only to be delayed further as the security gate was locked.

When we eventually arrived at the departure gate, our plane was still on stand. But we were not allowed to board as Iberia claimed our luggage had not been transferred. This was proved to be a lie when a first class passenger with no hold luggage was also denied boarding.

Two other passengers on our holiday actually made the connection by alighting with the non-connecting passengers and a bit of queue jumping. However when they boarded the plane, they found their seats had been reassigned to other passengers. The only possible inference is that we were denied boarding as the flight had been overbooked. Were the delays simply a ruse to avoid paying compensation for bumping we wonder?

We have written and emailed Iberia's customer relations department in Madrid. The Air Transport Users Council has also written to them 3 times on our behalf. But 18 months have elapsed, and we have still not heard from them. And it is impossible to get through to a human being on the phone.

No reputable company would treat customer complaints in such a way.