IBERIA BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A340-600

I flew from Madrid to Buenos Aires, and I have to agree with the previous review regarding the footrest. This was uncomfortable (I am 6' 3"), but by some nifty shifting of my legs, I did manage to find a few comfortable positions allowing me to sleep. The seat does go to a fully flat bed, but the footrest is metal and does dig into your lower legs. I thought the cabin was spacious and bright, room around your seat is ample, and I slept for about 7 hours. The privacy between you and your neighbour does not exist. The food was good but nothing to write home about, the flight attendants were efficient and courteous. The entertainment system is modern, on-demand etc, but is limited in its variety of films. This review is for the outward leg only, I am yet to return, so maybe another review? Also, thank you to all of the previous reviewers, it was this site and you that convinced me to take a chance with Iberia.

IBERIA BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A340-600

Footrest uncomfortable. Tried to work around it by placing an extra pillow under my calves when I had the foot of the seat raised, but it was still less than satisfactory. Seat has an idiosyncrasy, in that when you are reclined and attempt to move the seat back up to reach the tray table for meal service, it will not move upright. The tray table has to be placed back into its slot before you can raise your seat back.

IBERIA BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A340-300

Overall, a good price-to-quality ratio. New Business Plus seat is much better than the old recliners, it is long and wide enough and it does go flat - although is not perfectly even. Got 7 hours of sleep anyway. Food was nothing special, below average for C class. FAs nice but a touch absent throughout the flight. IFE just ok, selection of movies and music is quite limited compared to that of other carriers. Amenity kit very nice.

New seats very nice - full length for my 6'3", flat and really horizontal, found service fine and friendly, wines good, food only fair. Bilbao-Madrid-Miami. Main objection was absence of ground contacts or assistance, as in no gate # advice at arrival, no help facilitating tight connection Terminal 4 to 4S at Madrid Barajas, no assistance or contact anywhere near chaotic MAD passport counters departing Spain at 4S.

MIA-MAD-MIA. The seat was very comfortable. I'm 6'2" and had plenty of room and I slept for 4+ hours each way.

Seat could only reasonably be classed as a extended recliner as is not totally flat or smooth profile. My feet overhung the end by around 6 inches (I am just 6 foot tall) which meant that my ankles rested on an uncomfortable metal foot rest which was painful even when folded flat.

Business Plus of Iberia is a fair enough bargain in comparison with better airlines. The seat is comfortable enough, food is more than average, entertainment is ok. The service could be better.

The new business class (or business plus) seats are much better than the previous ones, but still are far from being a real full-bed as advertised. It seems that these are the same seats, with more room and technically manipulated to be almost flat. The space is good, but when trying to sleep, the seat is not plain, keeping some unconfortable contours. Additionally, commands not always work properly.

Flat full bed, enough space for a confortable long flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires. Mediterranean food is also another plus from Iberia. Staff could be more friendly. Seat privacy is not sufficient.

Superb flat bed, very comfortable and plenty of space. Staff friendly, polite and attentive. The service is very much better than Air France - the AF seats are not flat, and a smile from the AF staff is rare.

By enlarging space between seats, Iberia offers a full flat seat. They had very similar pods like Air France and Lufthansa but with less seats you could now sleep much better with more than 2 mt. space between pods.

Iberia has begun reconfiguring the Business Plus cabin making all seats now fully flat and adding extra room between rows. The aircraft I used was one of the new "reconfigured" ones and it does make a difference when it is completely flat. The extra space allows for a bag to be on the floor in front of the seat and while sleeping, can fit comfortably underneath. Privacy is good, although the little divider does not fully enclose the seat but the rigid shell design allow privacy from the rest of the rows. Sitting and resting positions are easy to find as well.

Seat very comfortable in sitting and lie-flat positions. I managed 4 hours of sleep on an 11.5 hour flight between Madrid and Guatemala City. I am 1.8m tall and with the tilted seat I was glad that the seat in front was close enough that I plant my feet against it to prevent me from slipping. In Business Plus the service is good, though not as good as my experience with BA. Food is good and good choice of wines, but still not up to BA standards (my experience was pre the launch of new Business class). To listen to the video entertainment, I had to press my finger on the headphone connector for the entire flight because if I didn't then audio wasn't audible. That left me with a sore hand after some hours. Replacing headphones didn't work, so obviously problem was in the socket that you plug into. Also, as usual Iberia pays no attention to punctuality and makes no effort to organise the boarding process so it becomes a mad struggle.

The business class seats are within a rigid shell, arranged in 3 rows of 2 each. Because of the shell, there is no problem of reclining the seat into the lap (or laptop) of the person behind. The fully flat position does go under the seat in front, and this makes it difficult to have anything stored on the floor in the limited area available for that. There is actually much more floor storage available in the forward bulkhead seats. The motorized controls are easy to manipulate and there is a one button control that allows easy movement to the fully flat position. I found it necessary to use the footrest to maintain myself comfortably while sleeping. Also, the interior arm rest can be moved nearly entirely out of the way and that adds to the seat room, particularly in the fully reclined position. Overall, as comfortable a business seat as I have used across the Atlantic. Now, if there were only more commodious overhead storage.

Earlier reviews have been archived (prior to the date of last review above).