Spanish oneworld airline Iberia was caught denying a passenger boarding, claiming that the ticket wasn’t actually valid, when in reality, the flight was simply oversold. What’s perhaps the most interesting part of this story is how the airline admitted it lied!
Iberia denies passenger boarding, but lies about it
Australian YouTuber Kym Illman posted a roughly 11-minute video titled “Iberia Airlines LIED to me!” He booked a ticket on Iberia from Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Madrid (MAD) through Expedia. On September 7, 2026, he showed up at the airport around 2.5 hours before departure, but wasn’t able to check-in.
He was told he wouldn’t be allowed to board the flight. The reason? According to the check-in agent “Expedia needs to pay Iberia, and this time didn’t.”
So the guy ended up booking a new itinerary to get to Madrid, which included flying ITA Airways from Milan Linate (LIN) to Brussels (BRU), and then Brussels Airlines to Madrid. This itinerary cost hundreds of dollars, and got him to Madrid six hours later than planned.
As you’d expect when booking a third party ticket, he got the runaround. Initially he was told by Iberia that they couldn’t help him with the ticket since he booked through Expedia, and they were responsible for issuing the ticket correctly.
This is where it gets interesting. When he emailed Expedia and heard back, the online travel agency corresponded that they “contacted the airline, and they confirmed that the issue was not related to the payment.” The email continued that “according to their records, the flight was oversold, and as a result, they were unable to accommodate you on the scheduled flight.”
So he then reached out to Iberia, and they actually had a pretty impressive response, though weeks later:
- The airline confirmed that “we regret to inform you that your denied boarding was due to the flight being fully booked”
- The airline immediately issued a full refund, and also issued EC261 compensation
- Oddly, the airline claimed that it couldn’t pay for the taxi between Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate because the taxi invoice was dated prior to the incident (did the taxi driver put the wrong date, or what?)
My take on this Iberia denied boarding situation
I have several thoughts of this Iberia denied boarding situation. Regarding the initial explanation for the denied boarding:
- It is conceivable that a ticket wasn’t issued correctly (you can have a confirmation code without having a ticket number), in which case I would’ve checked for a ticket number, and would’ve immediately called up Expedia, since he was there 2.5 hours before departure, so he had quite a bit of time to spare
- I assume Iberia uses contract staff in Milan, so it’s pretty brash to just totally lie about something; one wonders if the contract agent made this up on the spot, if Iberia instructed the contract agents to deny boarding to the third party guests, or what
- I hate to give Iberia credit here, but I’m almost shocked that they admitted to Expedia, and then to the customer, that the flight was in fact overbooked, rather than trying to come up with some other imaginary excuse; like, I’ve made some pretty straightforward EC261 requests over the years, and have had airlines just outright lie to me in writing, so at least the company was honest in the end
Bottom line
Iberia denied a passenger boarding in Milan, claiming that Expedia (which he booked through) hadn’t paid Iberia for the ticket. There are some situations where tickets aren’t issued correctly, though that explanation was definitely suspect.
So the passenger ended up booking a separate itinerary, and then reached out to Expedia customer service. Expedia customer service said the airline confirmed the flight was oversold, and then the airline also confirmed that was true, and issued compensation.
It really is sad the extent to which airline representatives will just completely lie to customers, with zero shame whatsoever.
What do you make of this Iberia denied boarding situation?
Oof, glad Iberia got called out. I often say, EU261 is ‘better than nothing, but not perfect.’ While EU rules are way better for delays, cancellations, and duty of care, the US still handles involuntary denied boarding better. After Dr. Dao, US airlines do tend to pay volunteers well (up to $10K!) to avoid IDB; whereas Iberia supposedly can just lie about a fake ‘ticketing error’ to cover-up their mistakes. Ideally, we want US DOT...
Oof, glad Iberia got called out. I often say, EU261 is ‘better than nothing, but not perfect.’ While EU rules are way better for delays, cancellations, and duty of care, the US still handles involuntary denied boarding better. After Dr. Dao, US airlines do tend to pay volunteers well (up to $10K!) to avoid IDB; whereas Iberia supposedly can just lie about a fake ‘ticketing error’ to cover-up their mistakes. Ideally, we want US DOT for oversold flights, and EU261 for everything else! If only we could reform/merge these two systems…
Iberia had the typical overbooking problem here, though I think they did also get unlucky. It seems like the single third party contractor worker is to blame at MXP for lying to Kym – Iberia is only liable in that sense as the one who chose the contracted service provider, as opposed to being the issue themselves. It seems like Expedia also failed to ticket Kym's ticket correctly, and Iberia was left having to deal...
Iberia had the typical overbooking problem here, though I think they did also get unlucky. It seems like the single third party contractor worker is to blame at MXP for lying to Kym – Iberia is only liable in that sense as the one who chose the contracted service provider, as opposed to being the issue themselves. It seems like Expedia also failed to ticket Kym's ticket correctly, and Iberia was left having to deal with that as well.
Out of MXP, Expedia, and Iberia (all of whom messed up here), it reads to me that Iberia is the only one that admitted their wrongdoing, yet the one who got the brunt of the criticism.
Did Iberia claim that at any point? Seems to me like handling agent screwing up, with Iberia providing correct information when contacted. Obviously it's not any less bad (they are ultimately responsible for their representatives) but explains the stuff Ben wonders about, especially when it comes to "admitting the truth".
@ Samo -- Fair, but at the end of the day, consumers get into a contract with an airline. A contractor acts as a representative of the airline. If your bag is lost while flying with Iberia, you'd still claim that Iberia lost the bag, even if the baggage handling work is contracted out to a third party.
I agree - hence my comment on this scenario not being any less bad. But if Iberia never had intent to lie, that explains why they didn't try to cover it up either :)