Has anyone a flown with 'Iberia airlines'. If yes, how is it?

I'm planning a trip to Barcelona.

I have 2 options either to go with Iberia have a stop over in Madrid or I go through Air France and will stop over in Paris

My concern is that if the Air France flight gets delayed I'll lose my connection but if I take Iberia even if flight is late or anything I'll at least be in Spain (Madrid).

(Departure is from Dallas, TX)

3 hours ago, Menaughty said:

Has anyone a flown with 'Iberia airlines'. If yes, how is it?

I’ve flown Iberia business and Premium economy.  It’s ok, but I prefer American Airlines (AA) to Spain.  AA has nonstop flights to BCN from JFK & Miami - so I’m surprised there’s not better AA connections from DFW ?  
My experience is Iberia is very efficient & organized - missed flights are quickly rescheduled at their Madrid hub with nothing required by passenger: agent meets you upon of arrival of delayed flight with new departure information.  
The Paris airports seemed caught up in the bigger European airport issues this summer while the airports in Spain operated efficiently as usual.  

I have flown Iberia business only but the flights were uneventful, so I cannot comment on their ability to sort things out quickly when things go wrong. I hear their customer service is horrible but I never needed to use their cs. So be careful about that. However, their food and wine selection is better than american companies. 

On a different note, I almost always choose the european airlines over american ones because of EC261. For Eu arrivals EC261 only applies to EU airlines. So I would say I would avoid AA at least for the outbound flight. IB and AA are transatlantic revenue sharing so usually you can choose any airline you want for the same price. 

IB vs AF: I have never used AF but I actually actively avoided AF: their safety record is not as good as you might think. I can't think of anything good I heard about AF so never wanted to try AF. Plus MAdrid is more fun for hiring than Paris, so there is that.

9 hours ago, young11 said:

 

On a different note, I almost always choose the european airlines over american ones because of EC261. For Eu arrivals EC261 only applies to EU airlines.

US airlines flying into EU are covered.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-eu261-flight-compensation/

I have no recent, first-hand experience flying on Iberia but these customer reviews make interesting reading:

https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/iberia/

As young11 suggests, Iberia's customer service may not be the greatest.

2 hours ago, tassojunior said:

US airlines flying into EU are covered.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-eu261-flight-compensation/

Flying into EU with non-EU airlines is not covered by EC261. As I stated, for EU arrivals, EC261 applies only to EU airlines. For example, if one flies AA into BCN directly and gets delayed, AA has no legal obligation to compensate. For EU departure, Ec261 applies to all airlines, so it doesn't matter if AA or IB. see below: "Remember these are European flight regulations and so only apply to flights departing from an EU airport, or flights landing in the EU with a European airline. "

https://www.airhelp.com/en/ec261/ec-261-compensation/

 

15 hours ago, young11 said:

I actually actively avoided AF: their safety record is not as good as you might think.

Strongly agree. I know of 2 major crashes in recent years by AF where pilot errors were the cause. 

From my experience Iberia has not been anything to compliment, my friends in Spain did not think highly of it and frequent travelers I know have not had the best experiences. The upgrade I paid for business class was not worth it in my opinion.

I was able to find a flight where an American Airlines airplane takes you to Madrid and then from Madrid it's Iberia Plane that takes you to Barcelona, also the same coming back.

So the flight from Madrid to Barcelona and vice versa shouldn't be too bad because it is a short flight.

My only confusion is that, will the custom immigration thingy happen in Madrid and then I go to a different terminal because technically the second flight is a domestic flight?

30 minutes ago, Menaughty said:

My only confusion is that, will the custom immigration thingy happen in Madrid and then I go to a different terminal because technically the second flight is a domestic flight?

not always a change of terminals in Madrid for domestic connections - but it does happen frequently.  I’d plan for 90 minutes minimum just in case.  Public transportation in Spain is extremely efficient most of the time.