Airlines overbooked: Denied boarding with Iberia Express

We chose to fly to Madrid with Iberia Express, a Spanish airline. A cheap flight deal made us book tickets on Skyscanner six months before the travel for 31€ per person (total 3 of us). The flight was from Stuttgart, Germany on May 29 with a total flight time of 2.5 hours. The flight’s scheduled departure was at 16.20 hrs. We reached the airport 2 hours before the departure. So we went directly to the counter to obtain boarding passes.

Iberia Express overbooked

The counter staff printed the boarding passes but the seat numbers were left blank. He immediately reached out to the higher officials, came back and informed, ‘Airlines overbooked‘ (total 12 overbookings). So we waited near the departure gate to have our seats allocated. At that point, we didn’t know what to do. But we proceeded towards the boarding gates with great hopes of flying.

Denied boarding due to overbooking

Post security checks, we waited for the officials to open the gate for boarding. We approached them with our problem but they said, ‘Please wait until all the passengers had finished boarding. If some passengers didn’t turn up, then we will allocate you free seats‘. Now the overbooking increased to 16. We got this information from a fellow passenger who checked-in after us. Despite overbooking, Iberia was selling this route for 250€. even until the last 30 minutes. We verified the same in Skyscanner. It shows how greedy the airlines are for money. 

Iberia express greedy for money

We thought we were the only one in this situation, but to our surprise, there were about 12 more passengers along with us. This included families with kids too.  As passengers started boarding, we were eager to know if we could make it in. The empty seats were now allocated to 10 waiting list passengers. Finally, we were denied boarding due to overbooking. We were 6 of us left behind. It was 16.45 hours when the flight took off and we were still wondering what they would do to us.

Sorry, next possible flight

The official came back cutting a sorry face and explained to us the situation. The Iberia Express was overbooked and we 6 were denied boarding because we had booked the flight early for a very cheap price. The preference was given to other passengers who had booked for higher prices and other passengers who had connecting flights from Madrid. We thought that we had to face this situation because we did not check-in online earlier, but when we spoke to the other passengers, they revealed that despite having checked-in online they were denied boarding.

Why us?

No one understood what these guys were actually up to. We constantly bombarded him with who, what, when, how questions but he was like a parrot repeating only one line,’ In case you miss this flight, we provide you accommodation, food and search for the next possible flight. I am sure these airlines know how to pacify their unsatisfied customers.

Meal coupons

We exited the departure area and headed towards the Customer Service Lounge as instructed by the staff at the departure gate. They handed each one of us with a 7.5€ meal coupon. All the cafes and restaurants inside the airport accept this coupon. The authorities instructed us to wait for at least 2 hours for the next update on our flights. 

Our flight on the next day

Tired of all the drama, we went to Burger King for a quick bite. Meanwhile, we discussed how the airlines would handle our situation. We came back exactly after 2 hours and there was bad news waiting for us. The airlines had decided to put us on British Airways the next morning at 11.00 am which had a layover in London and then a flight to Madrid. The total flight time was 5.5 hours. 

Overnight accommodation

To compensate for the denial, authorities provided accommodation at a 3-star hotel ‘Wyndham’ 🏨 just opposite to the Stuttgart Airport. The hotel gave us a dinner voucher worth 25€ and breakfast were complimentary. What more could we ask for? It was hard to decide whether we should be happy or sad about this situation. 

EU Compensation rights

In Europe, if your flight is delayed, canceled, or denied boarding, you are entitled to compensation according to EU regulation 261/2004. According to this regulation, Iberia express owe us 250€ as compensation per person. This price depends on your total travel distance,  duration, and cause of the delay. Don’t forget to ask for compensation rights from the customer care counter because sometimes they forget to hand it over to you.

Passenger claim for denied boarding

The customer care told us that we could claim our compensation at Madrid Airport. He told us to find an IBERIA service center, complain about the situation, fill a few forms and the staff may compensate the amount as cash immediately. It sounded all simple. I believe that this is the general instruction they say to all passengers. We boarded the next day our scheduled flight and we finally reached Madrid exactly 24 hours later. All this was okay, next came the hard part of claiming the compensation. We went directly to the Iberia counter at Madrid Airport. The staff there was not keen to help us at all. He just asked our boarding passes, typed something on the computer and awkward silence for 2 minutes.

The lame excuse at Madrid airport

The excuse he gave was ‘This booking is from Iberia Express and our customer care is for Iberia’. How could we be so stupid to believe him and not fire back any questions at him? He told that he would not be able to help and asked us to claim it online on their website. You need a lot of patience to deal with these people.

Ray of hope

Post vacation, we headed back home from Malaga Airport. We explained our problem in another Iberia Customer Care. The person immediately found all our information on the computer and handed out the form. He also said, ‘Iberia and Iberia express belongs to the same firm’. We quickly filled the form and handed it back to the staff. Make sure you write your name and email bold and clear as it the only way they communicate. He told us,’Iberia would take at least 23 days to reply. So please be patient’. His quick gesture satisfied us.

Chasing for compensation

Coming back to the present situation, it’s been over 3 months and we are still chasing them for compensation. We reached them through all possible platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Phone, Email but they aren’t responding at all. They have a standard answer, ‘We forwarded your request and we will be back with an answer soon‘ cancelled According to the latest conversation, they said, ‘A refund will be made’. But regarding this issue, not a single soul approached us. Upon extensive research on the internet, some insisted to take the issue to the next level.  The event happened on May 29, 2019, and until September end, there was neither compensation nor a final communication on our issue from Iberia express. 🤞 

Finally after chasing Iberia for months in all possible ways like writing continuous emails, filling forms, contacting through Facebook, twitter, Iberia express made us 250€ compensation. I feel, ‘Yes, I have achieved it’. The best result was from Twitter. Write to them your complaint number, reach them often. On September end, the airlines came out with a final response. Iberia express finally credited the compensation in October 2019.

”Sometimes things don’t go as per planned”– Anonymous