Pre-flight
This flight was booked during summer high season so was approximately €160 one way which is quite expensive for an intra-europe flight. I had been toying with the idea of an upgrade to Business class for €200 but didn't and instead paid €15 to sit in the quiet zone. More on both of those later!
What's strange is you really have to compare prices between IB and IB Express, IB had a cheaper one-way outbound and IB Express on the return. Both flights are operated by Iberia Express.
Boarding was chaotic, in a small part of Dublin airport (old A gates for locals), and there seemed to a large number of groups and of standby passengers. Our seat reservation didn't seem to buy us any sort of priority boarding and we (like most passengers) boarded in a glut in Group 4. This could have been better.
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Registration: EC-MBU
Departure Time: 11.20
Arrival Time: 15.00
Seat: 5C
Operated by: Iberia Express
INFLIGHT
So firstly, there was nothing quiet about this zone, we were sat behind a family and it was quite loud. Noise cancelling headphones come in so useful. Secondly, Business Class was filled with standby passengers, so the cabin was full including most middle seats. Glad I didn't spend €200 on that.
The inflight service was nice, decent wine and pringles for €7, really can't argue with that…I always find Iberia crew are not memorable, mix of slow inflight service, we did get offered chilled wine from the back galley which was a welcome surprise :)
I noticed from behind the curtain that Business Class (revenue passengers) were being served off the Buy-On-Board menu, again very disappointing.
One thing I will give them credit over is their inflight entertainment streaming service "Club Express Onboard", a great selection on TV (I watched some Family Guy in English), movies and press. And for all us AvGeeks a cool AirShow channel.
Arrival
The rest of the flight was uneventful, its a nice time to fly and the wine helped! We arrived into a small section of gates for UK & Ireland (Non-Schengen) in Terminal 4 beside an Iberia A319, and took a cab to Madrid downtown. I do love Terminal 4's architecture, the pictures probably don't do it justice!
I love the fact that I2 is selling their front seats as quiet seats when there is literally no separation of the cabin and people often disregard it even if they're in one. The only add-on is probably a slightly improved pitch as those seats could be used for J class if demand requires so... and providing J class by BoB choice is definitely not something one should adore. Swiss does it too from their GVA base. Thanks for this report :)