Iberia’s Website Is Down – No Surprise

UPDATE:

It Appears the website is working again for some. Please feel free to post success or failure in the comments. 

Iberia announced a generous promotion (perhaps a mistake in terms) that earns recipients 9,000 avios per ticket. While the deal has been curtailed, that hasn’t slowed down interest to the point that the website has failed – intentionally or unintentionally. 

Iberia Website Failure

Whether you are trying to buy tickets on Iberia’s website or just access your account, sorry Charlie, it’s not working. It’s not a surprise given the amount of traffic to their site for their current promotion which has likely been far more popular than intended.

This failure to load applies to any extension of Iberia.com as well.

Honest or Nefarious?

Assuming best intentions from Iberia, their wesbite simply can’t handle the load of inbound traffic currently trying to make reservations or access their Iberia Plus accounts. I, like apparently many others, want to access to ensure that my account information is valid prior to booking a bunch of tickets that I may not travel on and certainly don’t need.

However, International Airlines Group (IAG) is the owner of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and other smaller subsidiaries. British Airways recently came under fire for canceling mistake fares to India that the competition has been quick to point out were more expensive in the case of a mistake than WizzAir’s normally priced fares. It has been open season on British Airways because of the unilateral action to cancel fares that were more expensive than the going rate anyway, that they waited ten days to cancel, and offered little recourse.

When this deal was first advertised, many asked whether or not it would be honored. Representatives from Iberia have stated that it would, but there is nothing to really hold them to that. While IAG can’t stop anyone from purchasing through a third-party, the inoperability of the Iberia website does seem at least reasonably suspect.

It’s also reasonable that Iberia has an unforeseen amount of traffic, causing it to fail. Both seem entirely possible which isn’t good for IAG. Their brand is so tarnished by the way they handle reasonable fare mistakes that the assumption of good intentions can’t be provided.

What Should You Do If You Haven’t Booked Yet?

I find myself in this position. I have an Iberia Plus number but I remember several times being locked out of that account. I certainly take a risk if I can’t get access to that account and book a bunch of tickets I don’t need and can’t use.

Then again, this is a tremendous value. If you make a trans-Atlantic journey on Iberia using these Avios in a premium cabin, you could easily save yourself $2000-3000 on a ticket, even after the cost of acquiring the points is considered. For lots of little trips where the fare is high but the distance is short, they could save you even more money, one trip at a time, several times over.

But I don’t trust IAG to do the right thing regardless of whether the decision to honor is under separate Iberia Management control from that of the much larger British Airways, a fellow IAG company. I will not take the risk, even if it means missing out on the biggest deal of the year if I cannot confirm my account information on their website first.

Have you been able to access your account? If you already got in on this deal, where are you going? If you haven’t why didn’t you proceed?