I needed to get to Madrid (“MAD”) one Monday in February 2019 in time to get a ‘special’ flight to Frankfurt at 3pm. Gatwick is my closest airport, so I had a choice between Easyjet, Iberia and Air Europa. I’d never flown the latter before, so I was interested to give them a try, to add points and miles to my Air France frequent flyer account (Air Europa is in the Skyteam alliance). Air Europa’s morning flight UX1014 is scheduled to land in MAD at 13:35, so I figured that would be OK for a transfer passenger with no bags, to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4.  But I was worried about Air Europa’s recent punctuality on the route, which I noticed on flightradar.com wasn’t very good.  This one-way booking in Business class cost £193.

Business class passengers flying Air Europa are invited to make use of the ‘Number One’ lounge in Gatwick’s South Terminal. I’ve used this lounge before and wasn’t much impressed with it, scoring it 2/10. It’s a shared lounge, where anyone can pay to access, so it’s often very busy. There’s a very limited selection of foods and alcoholic drinks are rationed. There are great views of the apron and runway, but once again I’d say the lounge is worth no more than 2/10 again.

I went to a crowded boarding gate when required, and shuffled to the front of the queue to find the business class line, and shortly we were invited to board the plane. But when we got down to the aircraft door we were held there for 5 minutes because the cleaners hadn’t finished their tasks, which showed a worryingly poor lack of communication by the ground staff!  I boarded at 09:55, but the whole process was slow and poorly managed: maybe boarding by ‘zones’ would be better, and FAs should keep an eye out for economy pax putting their bags in the business class overhead bins.  The aircraft operating was a Boeing 737-800, registered EC-MPS.

There were only 2 rows for Business class today, in a 3-3 configuration, although the middle seats were left vacant, as is common in Europe. But Air Europa doesn’t bother  fixing a tray to the space (which BA et al does), or doing anything to the headrests to highlight the space – it’s just normal looking economy style seats. There aren’t even any seat cushions.  I’d nabbed seat 1F on the front row, where legroom is usually much better, but I found the legroom a little tighter than on other European carriers. But it was perfectly fine for a 2 hour flight.

Doors closed ten minutes behind schedule at 10:20, and 5 minutes later the captain came on the intercom to tell us we would have to wait on stand a further 10 minutes because of Spanish air traffic control. And so we pushed back at 10:35, 25 minutes late, and took off at 10:50 from runway 26L.

Thirty minutes into the flight we were served brunch. Two quarter slices of orange and grapefruit and one grape constituted a ‘fruit salad’ and there was a quite nice yogurt with banana. But the main course was a trendy little oven pot of very dry baked ‘scrambled’ eggs with 2 revolting slices of boiled marrow (which tasted of fish),  a soggy padron pepper and a single cherry tomato on top. Two mouthfuls were enough. 2/10.  I had a cava and orange juice to drink.

During the flight I asked the FA if he could call ahead to get me some assistance in getting to Terminal 4 in time for my connection, and just before landing he confirmed the captain had done so.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, but I want to note that the aircraft only had some overhead IFE screens, not personal ones, and there were no headphones to listen to the programming. Also there was no in-seat power for device charging.

We landed at MAD on runway 32L at 13:42, but to my great annoyance we parked “off stand” at 13:50 (15 minutes late), where buses waited to take us to the terminal. As I went to disembark the FA told me to exit via door 1R directly onto an assistance vehicle crammed with wheelchairs.  I waited anxiously; I was told we had to wait for another pax with mobility issues, who was going to be last off the plane. And then the men on the ‘assistance van’ told me they were not taking me to Terminal 4, but just across the apron to Terminal 2!  I was not happy and decided it would have been better for me to get the bus with the other pax, but it had already departed. But I was told to go down the steps and wait for the next one, as it would still be quicker for me!  I made it to immigration and then out “landslide” to find I had to get a shuttle bus to T4.  I missed my connecting flight!

With the benefit of hindsight I should have flown to MAD with Iberia, because they operate from Terminal 4, but I chose Air Europa because I wasn’t impressed with Iberia last time I went to MAD, and they were a few hundred pounds cheaper.  Inflight catering is equally poor on Iberia, but you get a better Gatwick lounge, better punctuality, and a more professional feel to everything.  I felt that Air Europa should have provided better transfer assistance to me, as a Business class passenger with Skyteam Platinum status. That they didn’t, shows them to “not really care” about premium pax. 2/10

PS To make matters worse, I didn’t receive any miles or points on my FlyingBlue account for this flight!  I’ve never seen a Business Class ticket which doesn’t earn miles.