Bumped off Iberia flight from Peru

Catnip2015

My fiance and I were recently travelling to Peru and we had various issues with our flight reservations.

We originally booked the flights through American Express Travel.

These flights were ticketed by LATAM Airlines and operated by Iberia Airlines.

Something went wrong at one stage of the communication between LATAM and Iberia as we got the booking code and e-tickets from LATAM, but no booking code was created for Iberia. We did not find out about this until we tried to check in online the day before our flight to Lima, and in the end we ended up trying to check in at the desk in Manchester. There we found out that Iberia did not have any reservation for us, despite being able to confirm that our e-tickets were valid.

Luckily the guy at the check in was able to contact the Iberia office in Madrid to manually create our reservations and we were able to go on our way to Lima.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for our return flights. Having experienced the above on our outbound flight, we contacted Iberia and LATAM customer support during our holiday to try and rectify the issue and avoid the same problem at check in for our return flight. Both Iberia and LATAM claimed not to be able to do anything at that time and reassured us that we would be able to check in at the desk on the day just like our outbound flight.

However, when we got to the check in desk on the day, we were informed that due to overbooking of the flight out of Lima, it was not possible to manually create new seat reservations for us as there were no seats left on the plane, despite us paying for the tickets well in advance (the flights were booked back in April 2025).

This resulted in us being bounced around between the desks of LATAM and Iberia at Lima airport in an effort to try and get us on the flight with the end result being that we had to take a different flight than our original one (luckily it was only 4 hours later than planned), offered by LATAM.

My question to you is: are we entitled to any compensation from Iberia as we essentially have been bumped off our flight without any notice or offers of alternatives? 

Westin

What have American Express Travel said about the situation you faced?

eskbanker

The UK/EU flight delay/cancellation regulations do provide for compensation for denied boarding, but the regulations only apply to those with a confirmed reservation, so if lack of that was the root cause then it would appear unlikely that any compensation would be payable under those regulations, although no harm in pressing the ticketing agent for something if they've messed up.

MyRealNameToo

eskbanker said:

The UK/EU flight delay/cancellation regulations do provide for compensation for denied boarding, but the regulations only apply to those with a confirmed reservation, so if lack of that was the root cause then it would appear unlikely that any compensation would be payable under those regulations, although no harm in pressing the ticketing agent for something if they've messed up.

You are entitled to compensation for being bumped due to the airline having overbooked. Youre not entitle for compensation if you are denied boarding for being drunk or if you volunteer to be bumped etc.

The potential sticking point is the requirement is that you have a valid reservation given the issues between the two airlines. 

Catnip2015

Westin said:

What have American Express Travel said about the situation you faced?

We have not been able to get in touch yet with them, will try again.

Alan_Bowen

I assume your flight out of Lima is the problem and that was with LATAM with a connection at MAD to Iberia for the onward flight? If so, then your flight was on a non EU airline flying from a non EU airport and EU/UK 261 doesn't apply at all. Unless Peru has its own rules, and trying to enforce them might be an issue, you may have no claim. My experience with Iberia is that they tend to completely ignore correspondence even when it leads to litigation!

eskbanker

Alan_Bowen said:

I assume your flight out of Lima is the problem and that was with LATAM with a connection at MAD to Iberia for the onward flight?

OP said the 'booked' flights were operated by Iberia, who do fly regularly between Madrid and Lima?

Catnip2015

eskbanker said:

Alan_Bowen said:

I assume your flight out of Lima is the problem and that was with LATAM with a connection at MAD to Iberia for the onward flight?

OP said the 'booked' flights were operated by Iberia, who do fly regularly between Madrid and Lima?

You are correct, Iberia was the operating airline for the flight out of Lima, LATAM was only involved as far as arranging the tickets and taking payment (and solving our issues).

Catnip2015

Sent in the claim forms to Iberia, now we wait...

Catnip2015

Iberia as expected are trying to worm their way out of responsibility...
Will have to look at escalating channels.