Review of Iberia flight from Madrid to Zurich in Economy

Intro

Hola Amigos,

Welcome to this FR on a Pre-COVID flight on Iberia between Madrid and Zurich (not that much has changed service-wise). 

A good friend of mine invited me to her home in Zurich, and since I still had some days for holidays, I looked over IB's app and found a very reasonable fare ( plus I wanted the Avios)…

So here it goes… 

At Madrid Barajas airport

I took the Metro to Terminal 4, where IB's hub is. As usual, a convenient and confortable ride

On the way to the airport, IB mailed me about checking my bag for free, and that I could do it on one of the Business Class counters…I didn't hessitate.

The whole deal was nice and quick, now if IB didn't charge for the seat selection, it would have been an almost perfect check in experience. Now off to security…

It wasn't too crowded, and I was off to the AENA  Plaza Mayor Lounge in no time. Again, not too crowded…and I managed to have some chow and a G&T before my flight. If only the view was a bit leess underwhelming, it would be just perfect. At least I had a straight view to my future ride!

Boarding

I got a SMS telling me it was time to board and so I went to our small One World A319.

T4 has awesome architecture, but sometimes I feel it has a lot of wasted space… 

A view to the big guys across the field

It turns out this was the very same plane that took me to to Vienna a couple of months before.
It still had the old recaro seats, that were a pinch better than the current ones, albeit with a very tight legroom. 

The cabin still sported IB's old logo. It's a shame they let it go. Cleaning, as you may see…was mediocre

I planned to pick up some slack with work while flying, but it was physically impossible

now we were good to go

Taxi and Takeoff

Our little A319 was packed to the gills and now, we left the Airbus-centric hub behind, towards RWY 36R

En route, we crossed T4S with the big folk

And small folk too

MAD is designed for the convenient taxi for T4 and T4S flights (this is not the case for the other terminals and airlines) and so we were off to Switzerland in no time!

Enroute to zurich

IB's European service is null. No IFE, BOB and…they are basically a bus that flies you across the continent.

The cabin looked dated…unfortunately it was not updated for something better… 

I can't stop being amazed by how dry Iberia is and its contrast with the rest of the continent.

No snow over the Pyrinees

Now into France, flying just south of Lyon

We entered Switzerland over Geneva

Then, Bern came to view

And we moved towards the German border

Basel (?)

I then lost my bearings…but we made a north to south approach to RWY14

Yep, we are in Switzerland

Gruezi Zurii

Another Airbus stronghold

We made it to Pier B/F, nothing extraorinary on the way to baggage claim…which did take some time to come out

Once outside, my friend was waiting for me…concluding this trip and FR