This is nightmare fuel, especially the part where everything looked fine until bag drop. Boarding pass issued, seat assigned, app happy, and then suddenly “ticket invalid” on Christmas Day. That’s exactly the kind of failure that makes people lose trust in an airline completely.
Any time a call center touches a ticket, especially for name changes, it feels like rolling dice with Iberia. The fact that even their own agents couldn’t explain or fix it, and that the flight left with an empty seat, is just brutal.
Really appreciate you posting this as a warning. Most people assume once you have a boarding pass you’re safe, and clearly that’s not true here. Being stranded while your partner flies alone and missing Christmas is way beyond an inconvenience.
Hope EC261 comes through, but you’re right. No compensation fixes that experience. Hard to blame you for calling this your last oneworld flight.
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