In November 2021, Iberia announced three routes to the United States, launching in the summer of 2022. However, since that initial announcement it has been radio silence from the airline, and schedules for the flights were never published, and the flights also never went on sale. That has finally changed.
Of the three routes, one is all new, one was announced pre-pandemic but was never launched, and one was launched pre-pandemic but was suspended. These new services complement Iberia’s existing destinations in the United States, which include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.
In this post:
Iberia adding Madrid to Dallas flight
For the summer of 2022, Iberia will operate 4x weekly seasonal flights between Madrid (MAD) and Dallas (DFW). The flight will be operated between June 1 and October 29, 2022, with the following schedule:
IB6146 Madrid to Dallas departing 3:55PM arriving 7:50PM
IB6147 Dallas to Madrid departing 9:25PM arriving 2:20PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, using an Airbus A330-200. The 4,966-mile flight is blocked at 11hr15min westbound and 9hr35min eastbound.
This new Iberia service will complement American’s daily flight between Dallas and Madrid, generally operated with a Boeing 787. The two airlines are part of the oneworld transatlantic joint venture, which includes American, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Aer Lingus. So the two airlines will be working together in this market, given the revenue sharing that happens with these arrangements.
Dallas is a huge hub for American, while Madrid is a huge hub for Iberia, so this flight should have plenty of connectivity opportunities on both ends.
Iberia finally launching Madrid to Washington flight
In 2019, Iberia announced plans to launch a Madrid to Washington flight (which was actually a resumption, as the airline operated this route somewhere around a decade ago). That was supposed to launch as of the summer of 2020. That didn’t end up materializing due to the pandemic, but that will finally be changing.
For the summer of 2022, Iberia will operate 4x weekly seasonal flights between Madrid (MAD) and Washington (IAD). The flight will be operated between June 1 and October 29, 2022, with the following schedule:
IB6131 Madrid to Washington departing 12:10PM arriving 3:15PM
IB6132 Washington to Madrid departing 4:45PM arriving 6:30AM (+1 day)
The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, using an Airbus A330-200. The 3,817-mile flight is blocked at 9hr5min westbound and 7hr45min eastbound.
Washington Dulles isn’t a huge oneworld hub, so I imagine this is primarily targeted at those traveling to & from Washington, with destinations in Spain & beyond.
Iberia resuming Madrid to San Francisco flight
In 2018, Iberia launched a seasonal Madrid to San Francisco flight. This returned in the summer of 2019, but was then suspended in 2020 due to the pandemic. This will be making a comeback next year.
For the summer of 2022, Iberia will operate 3x weekly seasonal flights between Madrid (MAD) and San Francisco (SFO). The flight will be operated between June 1 and September 30, 2022, with the following schedule:
IB6193 Madrid to San Francisco departing 12:20PM arriving 4:15PM
IB6174 San Frnacisco to Madrid departing 5:50PM arriving 2:10PM (+1 day)
The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, using an Airbus A330-200. The 5,812-mile flight is blocked at 12hr55min westbound and 11hr20min eastbound.
San Francisco is a huge market in and of itself, and on top of that Alaska Airlines has joined the oneworld alliance as of the spring of 2021, which will open up lots of connectivity beyond the Bay Area.
Business class award seats are available!
Now that these flights have been loaded into the schedule, this is a fantastic chance to snag some award seats. Best I can tell, each flight has two business class award seats loaded.
Not only can these flights potentially be convenient, but they’re also a great value when redeeming points:
- You can redeem 57,500 AAdvantage miles for a one-way business class ticket between the United States and Europe, with no fuel surcharges
- You can redeem Iberia Plus Avios for these flights with very limited surcharges; pricing varies based on the distance of the route and whether it’s peak or off-peak, but you can expect these to cost 34,000 to 75,000 Avios one-way
Bottom line
Iberia is launching some exciting new routes to the United States for the summer of 2022, including new flights to Dallas and Washington, and a resumption of flights to San Francisco. These are all cool routes, and they’re now finally on sale.
None of these routes really come as a surprise — the San Francisco route existed pre-pandemic, the Washington route was supposed to be launched in 2020, and the Dallas route seems like a safe bet, given the oneworld transatlantic joint venture.
What do you make of Iberia’s new routes to the United States?
Sure ! What a great addition to TATL ! I can’t stop raving about the amazing experience I had flying IB (once) before ! :D :D :D
I've noticed the pattern of 2 business seats per flight, but these new flights are showing only 4 blue class seats (that are bookable with partners). Does Iberia ever release more of these closer to departure? Looks like they've already been snagged for a few dates.
Of course, booking on iberia.com you can get Economy seats with Avios for a slightly higher rate.
Wonderful news to be able to use Avios from IAD without flying via London and paying the stupidly high fees on BA. Previously we had to fly via New York.
AA 36, DFW-MAD isn’t showing on Iberia award search anymore! Do I have to call Iberia to book it? Any other advice?
Great news! I love Iberia's Business Class product, in my view the best between Europe and the Americas. (Yes, QSuites are better, but who wants to backtrack to Doha before flying across the pond).
Just took a look and - Good Grief! - over $700 in surcharges one way! I thought that Iberia was supposed to be more reasonable than BA, but I was wrong.
I think it's a glitch, since YQ for all the ex-US Iberia routes show the same price on ITA Matrix.
Also, while I see no problem with business class award availability if you just want to go to Madrid, I see no availability for onward connections to Europe. For example, I’m trying to Rome in October from Dulles. No issue getting a seat any day if I just want to go to Madrid. But no connectivity any day / nothing offered if I try to Rome/Milan/ or any other destinations beyond Madrid. Why is that?
Love the Dallas - Madrid schedule! Better than AA's 5:00 pm flight, as by 9:30 pm, tired enough to sleep during the 9 hour flight
Lucky I'm assuming you just took one these. Do you know why tax/fees/fuel from MIA-MAD is a reasonable $132 but a whopping $730 for DFW-MAD? This is for award flights using AA or Iberia Avios. British Avios is $730 for both.
Yea... what's up with that? The flight from Madrid to DFW is reasonable though at $240. No clue why the DFW to MAD route is so ridiculous.
A 4:45 departure on a short TATL from Dulles? That sounds dreadful, Even in C, I would not sleep more than an hour before the plane got to Madrid.
My thought too, it leaves too early and arrives WAY too early in Madrid, that will be a very rough first day of staying awake to adjust to local time if Madrid is your final destination.
IAG must have some issues at IAD with slots or just poor decision making. EI has a flight from IAD to DUB that departs at 5:10pm and is blocked at 6 hours 55 mins. So you arrive at 12:05am ET. I can’t even conceive of taking a red eye that arrives before I normally would even be asleep. I also have no desire to arrive in Dublin at 5am! The only way around it would...
IAG must have some issues at IAD with slots or just poor decision making. EI has a flight from IAD to DUB that departs at 5:10pm and is blocked at 6 hours 55 mins. So you arrive at 12:05am ET. I can’t even conceive of taking a red eye that arrives before I normally would even be asleep. I also have no desire to arrive in Dublin at 5am! The only way around it would be to book a hotel in Dublin for the previous night and secure a guaranteed late checkout, but then that comes at a cost…
Not really much different than the United flights that leave around 5PM for Europe, arriving at 6 or 7AM, allowing connectivity to all of Europe. Or the summer Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt that leaves around 3:30PM from Dulles arriving in Frankfurt around 5/5:30 am, allowing for tons of connections. Or the United flight from Chicago to Frankfurt that leaves at 2/230PM arrives Frankfurt at 5AM. Or the fact that basically all of Iberia's east coast...
Not really much different than the United flights that leave around 5PM for Europe, arriving at 6 or 7AM, allowing connectivity to all of Europe. Or the summer Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt that leaves around 3:30PM from Dulles arriving in Frankfurt around 5/5:30 am, allowing for tons of connections. Or the United flight from Chicago to Frankfurt that leaves at 2/230PM arrives Frankfurt at 5AM. Or the fact that basically all of Iberia's east coast flights leave around this time and arrive Madrid at 6/6:30 am allowing for tons of connections. Bottom line - this is a very common time channel for flights to Europe from the US across multiple airlines - not really a huge deal and traditionally a popular way to get people to many European destinations in time for a full day. .
Dulles Airport has no slots. Any airline can come and go whenever it pleases. Aer Lingus has used that time period for years - must work for them.
It works well for connecting traffic. Nothing unusual here ; many other European airlines have similar schedules that arrive at 06-08h in the morning CEST to facilitate onward correspondances.