The following is a full review of my Iberia Airlines A340-600 economy class experience from Madrid to London in August of 2019.
I know what you’re thinking. Iberia retired their last A340-600 in 2020. Is a full review of this experience even necessary? This probably isn’t going to be all that helpful for anyone doing research for an upcoming trip.
But let’s get real here. Since when has common sense ever prevented me from having a bit of airline related fun?
Iberia A340-600 (EC-IZX) side view illustration by NorebboStock.com.Our a route from Madrid to London this afternoon as IB3166.
My full review of Iberia Airlines A340-600 economy class from Madrid to London (LHR)
Iberia has a long history of flying large widebody aircraft between Madrid and London’s Heathrow Airport. Most every long haul aircraft in their fleet (all throughout their history) has been assigned to that route at some point or another.
In 2019, they were operating at least one A346 between these city pairs on a daily basis.
Arrival at Terminal 4 Madrid Barajas Airport
I arrived from Amsterdam in KLM 737-800 economy class approximately 3 hours before this scheduled departure to London. Never in all my years of flying have I had a more nonsensical transfer experience. Long story short: moving between terminals at MAD is straight up maddening.
The time: 1:26 PM. The place: Terminal 4. The mood: sphincter-clenching, yet curiously optimistic.“Sphincter-clenching” because (as we all know) the Madrid Barajas Airport is massively intimidating. “Curiously optimistic” because I’m a naive idiot who never believes that anything can possibly be that bad.Correction: massively intimidating, yet stunningly beautiful. This may be one of my favorite airport terminals in the entire world (at least when I’m not complaining about the massively intimidating thing).10 minutes later: “Beautiful shmeutiful!” No matter what gate your flight will be departing from – you will have to walk an extremely long way to get there. At least there are moving walkways.I know. You would’ve seen pictures of the plane by now if this were any other airline review. But nope. I’m still walking.Honestly? I didn’t even know if I was walking in the right direction. The departure gate for my flight to LHR was listed (quite vaguely) as “S”. The hell is this sh*t?Finally! Iberia A340-600 spotted (and sphincter fully relaxed).
The boarding process for flight number 3166 to London
10 minutes prior to boarding, they had everyone queue up into organized lines (one for each zone).
Once boarding commenced, they shuffled everyone down the jet bridge in an orderly fashion – only to have the operation ground to a complete halt at the aircraft boarding door. It turned out that the cleaning crew wasn’t quite finished yet, so we all had to wait.
I’m still miffed that (after that after all these years), the thing I remember most about this flight is the convoluted gate numbering scheme – and not how awesome it was to fly on an Airbus A340-600.GRUPO3, baby! That’s Spanish for “first class,” right?Have you any idea how difficult it is to describe something as long and girthy as an Iberia A340-600 without it sounding totally disgusting? It can’t be done.
Seat overview
Economy class on the Iberia A340-600 was configured in a somewhat dense 2-4-2 layout. That said, legroom was excellent by long haul economy class standards. The seats were well-padded – which is something I don’t find myself saying all that much these days.
Menus? On every seat in economy class? For a one hour and 49 minute flight? God I miss 2019.These were pretty nice looking economy class seats IMHO. Even by today’s standards!Legroom was pretty good as well. LOL at anyone who chose to fly between Madrid and London on this day in Ryanair 737-800 basic economy instead.There were video screens too! Yeah, 2019 was a long time ago, but it wasn’t exactly prehistoric times or anything.“Does this Iberia A340-600 make me look bald?” Yes Scott. Yes it does.Fact: Being bald ain’t nothin’ but a thing when you’re sitting in a really comfortable (and well-padded) long haul economy class seat just like this.
The departure out of Madrid
Would it shock you to know that there were no weather delays? It shouldn’t. This is Spain after all (where the sun never stop shining), so airlines don’t usually have the luxury of blaming Mother Nature for delays. Thankfully, Iberia was on it today, and they didn’t have to scramble for excuses.
“Like, vamos already!”Holy sh*t it actually worked. I’m better at this Spanish stuff than I thought.By the way, this was a very full flight. And none of these people (not even one) appreciated my efforts to get us pushed off the gate on time today.Actually, a quick check of my records reveals that we were running 3 minutes behind schedule at this point. The lack of appreciation is understood.On a more serious note, the performance difference between the A340-600 and A340-300 was like night and day IMHO. This thing ripped out of Madrid faster than a pregnancy rumor in a small town!
In-flight entertainment
This may be a vintage airline review, but there’s nothing old school about what I’m about to show you. In-flight entertainment on those old Iberia A340-600s was legit. We’re talking large video screens at every seat, an excellent assortment of movies and TV shows, and even wi-Fi. It was pretty good for 2019.
Back in 2019, my idea of reviewing the in-flight entertainment was taking a picture of the home screen (and calling it a day). I regret to inform you that this concludes the overview of the video entertainment system.I wasn’t a total slacker though. These Iberia A340-600s featured Wi-Fi, and I documented the crap out of it. This is the main screen.In-flight Wi-Fi was expensive back in 2019! I was a lot more impulsive (and stupider) back then, so I have no idea how I resisted the urge to pay €30 for an hour and a half of mediocre connectivity.10367 m? Check. 871 kph? Roger that. A346? Hell yeah, brother!There were no electrical outlets in these seats, but they did include cutting-edge charging technology via USB-A. Remember – this was hot stuff back in 2019.Oh, and that user interface? You should’ve seen how awesome it was.
The food
Being served a (free) small snack in economy class on flights within Europe was common in 2019. Unfortunately, Iberia had a slightly different take on this. On one hand, their in-flight menu was fairly impressive. On the other hand, nothing (not even drinks) was complementary. #wompwomp
A menu with a handle? Right on.€3 for a can of soda sounds cheap, doesn’t it? And if that isn’t enough to set your heart aflutter, they even had orange freakin’ Fanta. I’m still kicking myself for not ordering one of these sandwiches (especially the one in the middle that looks like an A340-600).The snacks weren’t all that appealing IMHO. Pass.
Seat comfort
Comparing these the comfort of these seats with the comfort of other Airbus A340 long-haul economy seats is probably the best way to describe my thoughts on this matter:
Nope. Flying on an Iberia A340-600 wasn’t as romantic as you remember. Your recollection of it being semi-comfortable is still valid though.The best thing about these economy seats? They were squishy and soft in all the right places. That’s what he all males said.I don’t even recall letting loose expletives about the lack of legroom. This was comfy! Perfect for long haul IMHO.“Getting all artsy fartsy with this pic of the in-flight map will blow their freakin’ minds.” In other news, we’re 3/4 of the way to London.“Oh, and look at all the places I can go on Iberia Airlines!” Looking at my flight log will tell you how short-lived that enthusiasm was.On a side note, remember when browsing the in-flight magazine used to be a thing? Flying was a lot different back in the olden days.
The descent and arrival into LHR
Because I had inadvertently dropped my trusty ‘ol GoPro 5 down an open ventilation opening next to my seat, it was hard to fully appreciate the sights and sounds arriving into London. I’ll spare you the details of all that drama – but I made a video about it (if you’re curious).
Flaps extended! Based on my very limited Flight Simulator experience, this looks to be Setting 2. I would have recommended dumping fuel though (just to be safe).Based on my limited knowledge of geography, this looks to be London. I spy the Parliament Building (and Big Ben)!The River Thames? I’m not even kidding about the limited knowledge thing.Welcome to London!I’d like to think that arriving 7 minutes early had everything to do with my clever (but firm) “vamos!” comment back in Madrid, but the more realistic explanation is that Iberia is good airline. Who knew?I only had two really regrets. First: I was never able to try the Iberia A340-600 on a long haul route. Even in economy class, this would’ve been one hell of a way to fly between Miami and Madrid IMHO.Second: why (oh why) did I pass on that A340-600 shaped sandwich? That’s trip report / airline review gold if I’ve ever seen it. Live and learn I guess.
Pros and cons
To this day, and this was the best intra-European economy class flight I’ve ever had. And that’s saying a lot considering that not only did I drop my camera down a ventilation shaft mid flight, they didn’t serve any free snacks or drinks. It was fun.
Pros
The seats were incredibly soft and well padded.
Legroom was excellent – and more spacious than other European airlines at the time.
Video screens at every seat!
Cons
The 2-4-2 seating configuration felt a bit dense.
The price of Wi-Fi was ridiculous (though typical of the time)
I was not a fan of the camera swallowing air vents.
Hi sanspotter another awesome review, but I was wondering if when SW gets extra legroom seats and redeye flights, if you could do those. It would be greatly appreciated by me and my friend Henry!
Thanks! I’m definitely going to review the new Southwest extra legroom seat when it becomes available – can’t wait for that! The redeye flights though? I’m slightly less enthusiastic about reviewing one of those haha.
Nice how you finally made a dedicated review for this flight! As a Spaniard, I have to say that I miss the Iberia A340. I fly through MAD fairly often, and before the pandemic it was always fun to spot all the stunningly beautiful A346’s at Terminal 4S (the satellite terminal used mainly by Iberia & their Oneworld partners for non-EU flights). And now they’re all gone…
Unfortunately, I never got to fly in one, but I did fly on Iberia’s long haul Economy product once, on the A330, from MIA to MAD (about a year before this flight), and honestly, my thoughts on it are… conflicted. Iberia’s long haul product has a lot going for it. The (fabric) seats, as you say, were really comfortable, the IFE interface looks great, the cabin was well-kept & even had mood lighting, and the food was tasty. However, almost every Iberia staff member we encountered, both on the ground & onboard, was cold & unhelpful and it felt like they didn’t want to be there, which soured the flight for me. But hey, every other aspect was really good/great, so I guess it was a good flight on balance.
Oh, and, since this is a nostalgic review, I just noticed that in the first pic of the “arriving 7 minutes early” collage you taxied past a BA 747-400. RIP… (at least the A380’s are still around. But why did they have to keep the ugly quadjet?)
Yeah, I’ve got a handful of flights from over the years that I never wrote a formal review for. This was one of them – and I’ll be publishing another tomorrow. I’ll eventually get to the rest whenever I find myself without any content for “new” reviews.
Can’t believe that you’ve never been on an Iberia A346! I thought that was a requirement for every resident of Spain. 🙂
It was really fun flight though, and I too regret never being able to do a long haul flight on one of these things. Their A350 looks intriguing though. I hope to give that a try eventually.
Quinn
Hi sanspotter another awesome review, but I was wondering if when SW gets extra legroom seats and redeye flights, if you could do those. It would be greatly appreciated by me and my friend Henry!
Scott (SANspotter)
Thanks! I’m definitely going to review the new Southwest extra legroom seat when it becomes available – can’t wait for that! The redeye flights though? I’m slightly less enthusiastic about reviewing one of those haha.
Peter
Nice how you finally made a dedicated review for this flight! As a Spaniard, I have to say that I miss the Iberia A340. I fly through MAD fairly often, and before the pandemic it was always fun to spot all the stunningly beautiful A346’s at Terminal 4S (the satellite terminal used mainly by Iberia & their Oneworld partners for non-EU flights). And now they’re all gone…
Unfortunately, I never got to fly in one, but I did fly on Iberia’s long haul Economy product once, on the A330, from MIA to MAD (about a year before this flight), and honestly, my thoughts on it are… conflicted. Iberia’s long haul product has a lot going for it. The (fabric) seats, as you say, were really comfortable, the IFE interface looks great, the cabin was well-kept & even had mood lighting, and the food was tasty. However, almost every Iberia staff member we encountered, both on the ground & onboard, was cold & unhelpful and it felt like they didn’t want to be there, which soured the flight for me. But hey, every other aspect was really good/great, so I guess it was a good flight on balance.
Oh, and, since this is a nostalgic review, I just noticed that in the first pic of the “arriving 7 minutes early” collage you taxied past a BA 747-400. RIP… (at least the A380’s are still around. But why did they have to keep the ugly quadjet?)
Scott (SANspotter)
Yeah, I’ve got a handful of flights from over the years that I never wrote a formal review for. This was one of them – and I’ll be publishing another tomorrow. I’ll eventually get to the rest whenever I find myself without any content for “new” reviews.
Can’t believe that you’ve never been on an Iberia A346! I thought that was a requirement for every resident of Spain. 🙂
It was really fun flight though, and I too regret never being able to do a long haul flight on one of these things. Their A350 looks intriguing though. I hope to give that a try eventually.
No comment on the aesthetics of the A380 lol.