the horror that is i*berianair

so off we went from london to madrid and then onwards to guayaquil. considering how (relatively) little we paid for the flight, we should've seen this coming. 

1. delayed 2h from madrid to guayaquil because... GET THIS.. they forgot to CLOSE the (auxillary) door. thank goodness they realised this when we were JUST ABOUT to take off and had to back track up the runway, returning to the bay. 

2. completely bypassed quito! it worked for us (final destination guayaquil) and we were on time despite the delay leaving madrid but oh boy there were many unhappy passengers stranded in guayaquil for the night when the plane decided NOT to stopover at quito en route LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO.

3. delayed another 2h when leaving guayaquil for madrid. the plane had come in from quito on time but we weren't allowed to board. saw the captain and crew strolling in about 30minutes after our scheduled departure, and took off late. there was no air con or ventilation on the plane for the first few hours either.

4. late arriving into madrid, almost missed our connection. turns out our connecting flight from madrid to london was similarly delayed so passengers like us could board. took off over an hour late, missed heathrow window, ended up circling FOREVER before we could land.

5. rubbish service - on the 12h flight from madrid to guayaquil the stewardesses were playing on their iPads instead of attending to passengers. same returning from guayaquil. when passengers were boarding, crew just hung around the galley, no help with bags whatsoever.

6. the selling point for our long haul flight was an 'individual front pocket'. i kid you not. by the time you're bragging about a seat pocket, something's seriously wrong.

give me singapore*air any time! we've traveled some pretty dubious airlines. from being told while mid-flight to move to the back of the plane on a malaysian*airlines flight to kunming to "balance" the plane, to air*italia delaying us for 6h in milan without explanation, this consistently disastrous iberian*air service takes the cake.

airline rant aside, the rest of the holiday was rather lovely. will post more tomorrow!