When Iberia won’t pay your compensation claim
Updated November 2025. It’s been a year since the incidence happened and I’m still chasing Iberia, pestering the AESA (the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency), and reaching out to consumer rights groups in Spain. As I told Iberia, I’m not letting this go. There’s 2 reasons I’m not letting this go: 1) I’m still angry, 2) I want to give readers the information they need to get the compensation they are required to receive under law.
Below you’ll find the whole story, the steps I’ve taken, and the games and ineptitude I’ve experienced. But I might be close to getting resolution. Maybe. I cover that as well.
The original post (published on January 6th of 2025) with updates:
Has an airline cancelled your flight or did you experience long delays in reaching your final destination? If the airline is headquartered in the European Union you’re most likely entitled to compensation according to EU Regulation 261/2004.
The problem is that many airlines won’t willingly pay out what you are legally due. They make it difficult for you in the hopes that you give up in frustration.
That’s my situation with Iberia right now. And as I’ve told them in writing: “I’m not letting it go”. And it has nothing to do with the 600 Euros that I am due. I’m just angry. I’m angry about spending 6 hours in a customer service line. I’m angry about arriving at my final destination 36 hours later than scheduled. And I’m angry about getting crappy form letters in non-sensical English in reply to my compensation claims. Being angry is why I’m not letting this go.
In this post I’ll cover my personal experience, I’ll explain EU Regulation 261/2004, and I’ll go over how you can (hopefully) get the compensation claim that you are legally entitled from the airline.
What happened
I was flying Granada -Madrid – Mexico City with Iberia on October 30th, 2024. I had checked in online 24 hours before boarding so I had my two boarding passes. Iberia had contacted me via Whatsapp, an automatic message. Everything was on schedule, the flight would depart at 9:40 PM. Perfect.
I took the taxi to the airport. Immediately after going through security, I saw a message on the board: my 21:40 pm flight would be late…with an estimated boarding time of 23:30. That would mean missing my connecting flight to Mexico City in Madrid (scheduled for 23:55).
After talking to a security guard, I left the waiting area and went to the Iberia customer service desk. I explained the issue: “I’m going to miss my connecting flight. What do I do?” I was open to rebooking the flight for the following day.
The lady at the desk told me she couldn’t do anything even if she wanted to. “Go to Madrid, maybe your flight will be delayed. If not, they’ll help you when you get there”.
Famous last words.
It was 12:30 am when we actually took off from Granada, 3 hours late.
An automatic message came on as we approached Madrid telling us that for customer help we could go to gate K68 when we disembarked at Terminal 4.
Disembarking into the terminal in Madrid, everything was dead. No sign of other delays or other flights, no passengers except for us. There was no service personnel at gate K68. The big board didn’t have any indication that my Mexico flight was delayed. It was long gone. In fact, the next major international flight would be at 6:30 in the morning.
I had missed my flight.
It took me an hour to find Iberia Customer Service because there was absolutely no Iberia personnel anywhere. For your info; Iberia customer service is on the 2nd floor of Terminal 4 next to the check-in counters (so you have to leave the secure area).
It was 2:30 in the morning. This is what I saw when I got there.
Everyone was waiting to get Iberia customer service because they had all either missed flights or had flights cancelled. The old man in front of me (who almost killed me with his breath) told me there were 2 people working the desk.
I wish I could convey how slow the line moved. It seemed forever. People lay down where they were. Couples and families took shifts, keeping their place in line.
By the 2 hour mark I was still the last person in line. I had moved almost halfway from where I had started.
Soon after a new batch of people came in. They were all French.
The old man and I took turns watching each other’s place in line when we needed to go to the bathroom or get water.
It was around 5 am that there was a shift in the energy of the airport. Passengers started arriving for early morning flights. By 5:30 it was pretty busy. By that time I was getting close to the Iberia customer service area but saw it would take at least a few more hours – the line within the service area was a winding, clustered mess.
By 6:30 I was within the customer service zone. I had been in line 4 hours. The light had come up and tempers were short. A few newbies trying to get help for a boarding pass issue were told by a few loud queuers to get at the back of the line. A lady started crying. Most of the passengers I had lined up with at this point were lying on the floor, getting up only when the line moved.
By 7:30 I was nearing the end. I mentioned that when I had gotten there at 2:30 that there were 2 Iberia employees. Now there were 5. It didn’t seem to move any faster though.
I got up to the counter at 8:30. I had been waiting in line for 6 hours.
The lady behind the Iberia counter was nice. She rebooked me for a flight on the afternoon of the 1st of November (30 hours away). She printed out my boarding pass for the next day. I asked for a hotel voucher which she gave me…but I couldn’t check in until 12 which meant another 3 hours to kill in the airport. Finally, she gave a breakfast voucher for the restaurant downstairs (which, as I would find out, only covers you for a croissant and coffee).
It took 10 minutes and I was done.
I killed another 3 hours at the airport.
At noon I took the shuttle bus to the airport hotel that Iberia had booked for me. I took a nap, went for dinner in the evening (for which I had a food voucher), then went back to sleep.
The next day I was back at the airport for my flight to Mexico City.
All went well and I arrived in Mexico City 36 hours later than originally scheduled.
Of course that meant: 1) I lost 36 hours I would have spent with my mother (the reason for the visit), 2) I lost money on the bus tickets (non-refundable) I had bought to get to San Miguel de Allende.
So the delay had cost me both time and money.
EU Regulation 261/2004
The above is why EU Regulation 261/2004 was put in place. It is to compensate passengers when the airline is responsible for delays, cancellations or other kinds of disruptions to your flights.
In the case of delays, you are entitled to compensation if your flight arrived at its final destination 3 hours late (or more).
The amount of you compensation claim is dependant on the distance: For short distance (under 1500km) flight delays passengers are due 250€ in compensation. For medium distance (between 1500 km and 3500 km) flights they are due 400€. For long-distance (over 3500km) flights they are entitled to 600€ in compensation.
Again: note that regulation EU 261/2004 is only valid if the airline is an airline based in the EU and if the flight starts or ends in the EU.
In my case, I was flying a European airline (Iberia), was flying out of an EU country (Spain) and I had a delay to my final destination of 36 hours. The distance covered was slightly over 9,000 km so the entitled compensation according to the regulation was deemed to be 600 Euros.
So how to collect your compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004?
Iberia Customer Service
If you are in a situation such as what I experienced, you contact Iberia customer relations here. You just have to fill in the required fields and explain your situation and detail the compensation claim that you are entitled to.
A reader of this blog who experienced the same situation twice (and received compensation both times) gave me a template. I used it and I’m including it below (minus personal and banking info)
My letter to them on November 13th 2024.
Compensation Claim for Flight Delay – Flight IB1026 on October 30, 2024
Dear Customer Relations Team,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to request compensation for a flight delay that I experienced on October 30, 2024, while traveling with Iberia. I was a passenger on Flight IB1026, which was scheduled to depart from Granada and arrive in Madrid…from where I was booked on connecting flight IB0303 to Mexico City
Flight Details
Flight Number: IB1026
Departure: Granada
Destination: Madrid
Date: October 30, 2024
Class: Economy
Ticket Number: (fill in your ticket # here)
Regrettably, the aforementioned flight was delayed by over 3 hours, causing significant inconvenience and disruption to my travel plans: I missed my connection to Mexico City, waited for 6 hours at Iberia customer service at Barajas, and was delayed 36 hours in arriving in Mexico City.
According to EU Regulation 261/2004, passengers are entitled to compensation for flight delays exceeding 3 hours, which applies to my situation.
In light of this, I kindly request that Iberia provide me with the compensation of €600 as stipulated by the regulation. I have provided my bank account details below for the refund to be credited:
Bank Account Information:
Bank Name:
Account Holder:
Account:
I kindly ask for your prompt response and confirmation of the compensation process as specified by the regulation. Failure to do so within 30 days will mean that I will assume that this claim is not being processed and I will report the delay and the lack of compliance to the regulation to the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency which is charged with enforcing the regulation and passenger rights in Spain.
Please feel free to contact me via email if you require any additional information or documentation to process my compensation claim.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in resolving this matter. I look forward to a timely resolution of my compensation claim.
Sincerely,
Frank
When you submit the claim, you will get an automatic message from Iberia telling you that you will get a reply from Iberia within 7 business days.
4 days later I received this:
That was November 17th, 2024. I didn’t know what the above meant. They were apologizing but not really saying anything else. Would they pay?
I decided to wait for something further, it couldn’t possibly end there right?
I waited because I had given them a deadline of 30 days to pay.
Finally, a few days before the 30 days was up, I followed up.
Written December 10th, 2024
Compensation Claim for Flight Delay – Flight IB1026 on October 30, 2024
Dear Customer Relations Team,
I’ve previously written concerning a compensation claim (P20241113-54014771) and received an apology letter from Iberia. This however does not absolve Iberia from EU Regulation 261/2004 which clearly states that I am due compensation of 600 Euros from the flight delay that occurred on October 30th, 2024.
This did not need to happen. When I learned about the flight delay on the Granada – Madrid flight, I went to Iberia customer service in Granada and explained that it would cause me to miss my connecting flight to Mexico City. I was open to re-booking the flight. I was told that they couldn’t do anything and that I would have to deal with customer service in Madrid.
From 2 AM to 8 AM (6 hours) I stood in the customer service line at Terminal 4 in Barajas. There were 2 employees there to deal with a huge line of customers. Finally, I was rebooked to Mexico City but I would end up arriving 36 hours later than originally scheduled. Through it all, I incurred costs on bookings in Mexico City and, worst of all, lost 2 days that would have been spent with my mother who I was visiting.
In my previous letter I stated that I would give Iberia 30 days to respond to my claim. The 30 days expires this week and I will be contacting the AESA next week.
Again, this does not need to happen. Iberia can resolve this now with a meaningful reply. I will not be letting this go, contacting AESA will only prolong this exercise.
Thank you and have a good day.
Frank
It literally took less than 10 minutes to get a reply to this 2nd letter. Thinking about it, I think it might have been an AI generated response.
Resolution?? I didn’t realize there was a resolution in the poorly worded letter Iberia had sent me. Iberia was just playing games. It only further angered me that they couldn’t even provide an explanation.
I had to take it to the next level.
WHAT TO DO WHEN IBERIA WON’T PAY YOUR COMPENSATION CLAIM
Iberia (and other airlines) have a very clear strategy: they figure you won’t invest the time and effort to take the next step. They’re counting on you to give up. That’s their strategy.
There are 3 things you can do. I cover them below.
1.Write the AESA
The first thing you should do is contact the AESA: the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency. They’re responsible with enforcing the regulation of passenger rights in Spain. You’ll find the form to fill out here.
I wrote them on December 10th 2024, the same day as that 2nd letter from Iberia.
My December 10th letter to the AESA.
Hello!
I am writing you about a 600 Euro compensation claim under EU Regulation 261/2004 that I have ongoing with Iberia.
I was scheduled to fly Granada – Madrid – Mexico City on October 30th 2024 with Iberia. Unfortunately the first flight was 3 hours late. I ended up spending 6 hours in the Iberia customer service line in Madrid and, when finally rebooked, I arrived 36 hours later than initially scheduled in Mexico City. I incurred costs because of this and, more importantly, lost 2 days with my mother who I was visiting.
I’ve written on 2 occasions to Iberia. They apologize for the incident…but are totally dismissive of my claim for compensation. They don’t even explain why they are rejecting my claim. I advised them that I would contact the AESA and that didn’t change their attitude.
So I am contacting you to exercise my claim to this compensation.
I am at your disposal for any information and documents that you require.
Thank you,
Frank
I didn’t receive any response.
So I wrote them again on January 14th, 2025. I’m not going to bother including the email because it is basically a repetition of the above.
Again, I didn’t receive any response.
2025 hasn’t been an easy year: my mother died in March, my father in August. So I put aside chasing up with the AESA for a while. But when I came back to Spain in September I was in a bad mood and decided to write the AESA again:
My email of September 25, 2025.
Hello!
This is my 3rd time writing to AESA. I wrote December 10th of 2024 and then again on January 14th of this year. I have never received an answer. I’m sorry, this is why Iberia doesn’t respect EU regulations – it is because the AESA doesn’t seem to enforce passenger rights.
I have since communicated a few more time with Iberia and they have no interest. They disregard and give no justification for not paying the claim. They don’t care. And I hoped to get help from the EASA but it’s almost been a year since my first message and I don’t know if maybe you don’t care either. My next step will be hiring a lawyer. It makes me very upset that Iberia can just ignore EU regulations and treat customers with total disregard.
Thank you.
Frank Thomae
To my surprise, I received an email from them the next day (September 26, 2025). It’s a form letter (included here) but at least it gave me instructions on how to file a claim with the AESA.
How to File a claim with the AESA
There are two options: 1) online on the AESA website, but you need a Spanish Digital Certificate to sign in to the website or 2) mailing in your claim.
Easy right?
No, because the AESA is horrible. Nothing works: their website, their customer service. Nothing.
A) Living in Spain, I have a digital certificate. So I logged into their website online and started filing out the claim information. After filing it out for 20 minutes I arrived at the page when I had to upload my Iberia ticket and Identification. I didn’t work. I tried to submit my claim. It didn’t work.
B) I wrote them, telling them I had technical problems with the website and if they could help me finalize my claim. I received an automatic email telling me that my “consulta” (the reference number on my enquiry) is closed. So I went back to the form on the website, writing them a new request. I never heard back. I tried again. Nothing. There is just no way of getting a real person or getting information.
C) Not being able to file my claim online, I printed out the forms that had been sent to me in their email of September 26th. I filled out the forms, included all the required documentation, and sent it by registered mail to the AESA at the address listed on the letter (in Madrid). They received my package on the 14th of October (confirmed on the receipt of the post office).
In an ideal world, the next step is that the AESA orders Iberia to pay my case. That would settle everything.
The truth is that I have zero faith in the AESA. Will I even hear back from them??
This is where I stand on November 2nd. So my case is pending with the AESA.
But as I said, there are a few other options in trying to get your compensation.
B) Work with outside Law Agencies
I’ve read about people who hire law firms to settle claims. These firms make their money by taking a big percentage of the claim for themselves (I read that they keep about 40%).
But you have to be careful, some of these outside agencies are scammers and they’ll use your name and details to get the claim and never pay you. It seems to be a common theme.
The one with the best rating that I’ve come across is Flightright. Their reviews here. I don’t recommend going down this route except as a final resort. But if all else fails then it might be your last option.
(note: when filing out the AESA forms, there is a section for “Representatives”. Those representatives are these law firms. So they go through filing out the same forms as you would doing it on your own).
C) Reaching out to a Consumer Rights organization
FACUA is a non-profit organization, establish in 1981 with its goal being to protect consumer rights.
When doing research on them, I can across this story which mirrors exactly my situation: a family of 4 going from Spain to Mexico with Iberia who missed their connecting flight due to a late connection. Again, Iberia didn’t want to compensate the family.
The family contacted FACUA who contacted Iberia, telling them that they would be filing a claim with AESA on the family’s behalf. They never had to – when Iberia received information of the possible claim from FACUA they settled the claim with the family, paying out 2,400 Euros (600 Euros for 4 people).
I’ve written FACUA this week.
SUMMING UP WHERE I STAND AS OF TODAY
I’m waiting for AESA to respond to my claim. I’ve also written FACUA in order to apply more pressure on Iberia.
AS ALWAYS, I WILL BE UPDATING THIS POST IF/WHEN I GET NEWS.
November 3, 2025
Related: Reviewing Iberia Airlines
Related: Our worst ever Train experiences
Hello,
Just saw this post and would like to konw if you have had any success with AESA.
I am in the same situation. Entered the claim with Aesa on 03/Feb/2025 and since then got no answer.
The message I see on their website is still: “EN ESTE MOMENTO DE LA TRAMITACIÓN DEL EXPEDIENTE SE ESTÁN EFECTUADO LAS ACTUACIONES DE COMPROBACIÓN SOBRE LA CORRECTA PRESENTACIÓN DE LA SOLICITUD Y DE LA DOCUMENTACIÓN EXPEDIENTE(*).”
Any idea on how to make it faster? I am almost giving up and going to outside agencies…
Best
Hi Filipe. No, nothing. And I wrote them in late November and then again in January I believe. Typical Spanish bullshit and I guess it is no wonder Iberia doesn’t settle – they know AESA either does nothing or takes forever.
I’m going to wait a couple of more months and then go to an agency.
Best of luck, pls let me know if you get some news.
Frank
Hello Frank,
I just got word from AESA a couple of weeks ago. They needed more documents to complete my file.
Hopefully it won´t take another 8 months for the next reply…
Did you use any of the outside agents? Which one is currently the cheapest among the trustable ones?
Best
Hi Felipe,
Good about AESA: How did you file it: by mail or on their system? I find them horrible…
Did you read my updates? I contacted FACUA on Tuesday and they got back to me yesterday asking for documents. I think it might work out, fingers crossed. Give me a week or so, if I have news I’ll update this post.
FACUA, if it works, a better option than an outside agency. I had to pay 48 Euros for a 1 year membership (they’re a non-profit organization) and they are supposed to give legal aid to members. Better than an outside agency that will take 40% of the claim..
As I say, give me a few days.
Frank
I have a similar experience with Iberia. Booked with Iberia to travel from Ecuador to London with two stops, one in Ecuador and one in Spain. First flight was with LATAM and I was unable to check in for no apparent reason – LATAM say it’s Iberia’s fault and Iberia say LATAM’s. I believe it’s Iberia’s fault as flight changes had happened last minute and weren’t reflecting on my booking. No one at the airport could help me so the onus was entirely on me to resolve, bouncing between check in desk and Iberia phone helpdesk. Eventually, after I’d missed the flight because of no resolution, I was rebooked on three flights across South America and then the long haul back to UK. I got home 18h later than scheduled, missing a day’s work, travelling over two nights and so it took more than a week to recover.
LATAM have offered minimal compensation saying the EU regulation doesn’t apply.
I too intend to continue pursuing. The customer service at both the airport and since has been appalling.
Thanks for sharing this Sally. Just to let you know – have written twice to the AESA and (now 5 months later) have yet to hear back. Like all customer service in Spain, it is pure shit. I’m told by people who have experienced this that it will eventually be resolved…but so far nada.
But don’t give up! And share the word, people should know. Best yet, do what I did – I had to go back to Mexico last month and this time I went with AeroMexico. If at all possible, I’m making sure Iberia never sees a dime from me again.
Best of luck!
Not sure if this helps, but we were downgraded on a recent Iberia flight, and the Iberia phone customer service rep took me through a web page to file a claim to get reimbursed. From that claim, I got a message back within a short time saying that the case was closed, but I had not received any compensation. I called and spoke to a different phone rep, who gave me this page to file my complaint:
https://www.iberia.com/es/customer-relations/
Thanks Lawrence. Yup, that’s the page I used.
My original comment got cut off, but when I used this link I did get the reimbursement within a week along with a refund of the price I’d paid to select seats. I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t have the same success.
Thanks Lawrence. I’ll update this when I get some positive news.
I admire your perseverance. I’m sick of these big companies taking advantage of customers and getting away with it. Iberia is owned by the same company as British Airways, combined they’re one of the largest aviation companies in the world. And guess what? BA is horrible too, just saw this article on the airlines with the worst customer service in Europe and both BA and Iberia rank near the bottom https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/cheap-flights/europes-worst-airlines-revealed-customers-32194660
Thanks for that Trisha. I always say the true measure of customer service is what a company does when things go wrong, not when things go right. Have flown them a few times and the planes are modern, flights were on time, inflight service passable…but their website and customer service were always weak and that’s no good when things go wrong.
I’d keep harassing Iberia directly rather than just contacting AESA. Both letters they sent you were infuriating. I would keep engaging with them and insisting on the compensation since you’re entitled. Thanks for sharing this, I’ll make sure to never fly with this airline…
Thanks Chris. I’ll do both.
Iberia is terrible. They changed a flight from Bogota to Madrid to a day earlier. That was not possible for us and had to book an alternative flight on another airline. We had paid business tickets and getting the money back was a major hassle and I spent hours on the phone with no success. Finally, told my bank the issue and they handled it for me. Totally unacceptable.
Thank you for the feedback Anna. Glad to hear the bank was able to resolve it. I would have thought you’d get better service in Business than I got in Economy 🙂
Sorry you’re experiencing so much frustration with this.
My flight from Las Vegas to Frankfurt on Discover Airlines (owned by Lufthansa) was canceled in November and rescheduled for 2 days later.
Thankfully I knew about the EU regulation because the airline certainly didn’t volunteer the information.
Took a little bit of searching to find out where to submit the claim, but once I did it was surprisingly super easy and the money was transferred to me within a couple of weeks.
Hope your issue gets resolved soon.
Hi Patricia! I hope you are well. Where are you these days?
Iberia isn’t the worst airline but it’s far from the best. I’ve heard Turkish Airlines are the worst when it comes to paying out claims.
You’re right, no everyone knows about these regulations, in fact it’s one of our readers that told me. Now I’m going to spread the word! 🙂
I’m actually traveling at the moment and discovering some new places, it’s been fun! It’s great that you’re sharing info about these regulations; not a lot of people know about them, so it’s really helpful. 🙂