Madrid Airport - Domestic to International

[TayanaLorna]

The only non stop flights from San Juan (SJU) to anywhere in Europe that i can find are on Iberia to Madrid (MAD).  The flights do not operate every day - at least in February/March 2024.  No problem as we can work around that.  Our outbound destination is Rome.  We will stay overnight in Madrid in order to catch an Iberia flight with arrival in Rome the next morning.  Again no problem. 

 

My question is regarding our return from Athens.  There is no Iberia flight from Athens which would arrive in time for the Iberia flight back from MAD to SJU.  The ONLY flight early enough to make the connection in MAD is a morning Aegean Air flight with a 3 hr 35 min connection.  The Aegean flight is domestic arriving in T1 or T2 MAD.  There is no code share between Aegean and Iberia so we would have to collect our bags in the Domestic terminal and transport them ourselves to check in and go through security in T4 the International terminal.  Is 3 hours enough time to do this?  We are early 70's in age, mobile but slower - running through a terminal does not happen.

[Globaliser]

6 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

My question is regarding our return from Athens.  There is no Iberia flight from Athens which would arrive in time for the Iberia flight back from MAD to SJU.  The ONLY flight early enough to make the connection in MAD is a morning Aegean Air flight with a 3 hr 35 min connection.  The Aegean flight is domestic arriving in T1 or T2 MAD.  There is no code share between Aegean and Iberia so we would have to collect our bags in the Domestic terminal and transport them ourselves to check in and go through security in T4 the International terminal.

 

It looks like you're considering A3 700 arriving MAD T2 at 1220, and then departing MAD T4S on IB 6301 at 1555 - is that right? Would you be booking this on a through ticket?

 

As far as I can see on a quick check, this is a valid connection for a through ticket, and A3 will through-check to IB. So if you book a through ticket, I can't immediately see why you'd need to claim your bags at MAD. (Codeshares are not the benchmark for this, nor is a domestic/international classification - and in any event ATH-MAD is international.)

 

In any event, the published Minimum Connection Time for this looks like it'll be 2:45, and you're comfortably beyond that (with almost a whole hour extra). So on a through ticket, even if you do need to claim your bags, that should easily work out fine unless there's some major snarl-up (in which case all bets would be off anyway) - the MCT allows for whatever steps you have to go through to get to the next flight.

[FlyerTalker]

51 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

(Codeshares are not the benchmark for this, nor is a domestic/international classification - and in any event ATH-MAD is international.)

 

ATH-MAD is certainly international, but it's intra-Schengen.

 

Ain't treaties wonderful?

 

🙂

 

And to follow up....my somewhat hasty research shows that there are through fares available for ATH-SJU using IB.

 

 

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, Globaliser said:

 

It looks like you're considering A3 700 arriving MAD T2 at 1220, and then departing MAD T4S on IB 6301 at 1555 - is that right? Would you be booking this on a through ticket?

 

As far as I can see on a quick check, this is a valid connection for a through ticket, and A3 will through-check to IB. So if you book a through ticket, I can't immediately see why you'd need to claim your bags at MAD. (Codeshares are not the benchmark for this, nor is a domestic/international classification - and in any event ATH-MAD is international.)

 

In any event, the published Minimum Connection Time for this looks like it'll be 2:45, and you're comfortably beyond that (with almost a whole hour extra). So on a through ticket, even if you do need to claim your bags, that should easily work out fine unless there's some major snarl-up (in which case all bets would be off anyway) - the MCT allows for whatever steps you have to go through to get to the next flight.

Yes correct flights.  Thank you.  However the ticket indicates "self  transfer" and says we will have to claim our bags, check in for the connecting flight and go through security.  Being Schengen, we won't have to clear customs in Madrid.  However it still is a bit more involved having to claim bags from Aegean and get to the international terminal to check in for the Iberia flight.  It would be easier if there was an early morning flight on Iberia to MAD.  I see there is one now but it does not show up in March '24.

[Zach1213]

One other option might be to get to Madrid and spend the night to meet up with the SJU flight the next day. There are a lot of decent, affordable hotels in the area around Barajas airport, or (since the SJU flight is later in the day) just head in to Madrid for the night which would open your options for hotels, restaurants, and things to do. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by Zach1213

[TayanaLorna]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

ATH-MAD is certainly international, but it's intra-Schengen.

 

Ain't treaties wonderful?

 

🙂

 

And to follow up....my somewhat hasty research shows that there are through fares available for ATH-SJU using IB.

 

 

Yes there are several itineraries ATH-SJU on Iberia but they all make 2 stops.  

[Gardyloo]

2 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

However the ticket indicates "self  transfer" and says we will have to claim our bags, check in for the connecting flight and go through security.  

Does this mean you've already purchased the ticket?  

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, Gardyloo said:

Does this mean you've already purchased the ticket?  

I did not purchase the one way ATH to MAD on Aegean connecting to the Iberia MAD to SJU.  It indicated self transfer and was $1,121.00.

 

I figured if I had to self transfer on that connection, why not just do a round trip SJU to MAD and then 2 separate tickets one way to Rome and then back from Athens.  I discovered that an Iberia round trip SJU-MAD costs the same as a one way ticket on Iberia.

[Globaliser]

10 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

I figured if I had to self transfer on that connection, why not just do a round trip SJU to MAD and then 2 separate tickets one way to Rome and then back from Athens.  I discovered that an Iberia round trip SJU-MAD costs the same as a one way ticket on Iberia.

 

Have you actually bought your tickets? The key question is whether you have a through ticket, or whether they've been written as two separate tickets. "Self transfer" always rings alarm bells for me, because some unscrupulous travel agents use this as code to indicate that you have two separate tickets without spelling out the risks involved.

[TayanaLorna]

Thanks everyone for your comments and help.  We did book our tickets round trip SJU-MAD on Iberia with an overnight in Madrid and a 1 way early morning Iberia flight to Rome.  At the end of our trip we have a 1 way from ATH-MAD on Aegean with a 3 hr 35 min layover in Madrid before our Iberia return to SJU.  Will trust we have enough time to collect bags and change terminals with the 2 hr 45 min connection time and hope there are no flight time changes or major delays.  At least it is on our way home.  We saved well over $700 per person doing it this way. Our fare class includes seat assignments and checked bags and the Iberia flights are changeable with no fee.

[Globaliser]

14 minutes ago, TayanaLorna said:

At the end of our trip we have a 1 way from ATH-MAD on Aegean with a 3 hr 35 min layover in Madrid before our Iberia return to SJU.  Will trust we have enough time to collect bags and change terminals with the 2 hr 45 min connection time and hope there are no flight time changes or major delays. ... the Iberia flights are changeable with no fee.

 

As you're on two separate tickets, the published Minimum Connection Time is irrelevant. It only applies to work out which connections are legal on through tickets; it gives an indication of what the airlines think is a reasonably safe connection time on a through ticket, which typically means that bags are transferred automatically.

 

But it sounds like you know the risks. Don't forget that "changeable with no fee" doesn't exclude the possibility that you'll have to pay a fare difference.

[TayanaLorna]

10 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

As you're on two separate tickets, the published Minimum Connection Time is irrelevant. It only applies to work out which connections are legal on through tickets; it gives an indication of what the airlines think is a reasonably safe connection time on a through ticket, which typically means that bags are transferred automatically.

 

But it sounds like you know the risks. Don't forget that "changeable with no fee" doesn't exclude the possibility that you'll have to pay a fare difference.

This is true.  Thank you.  I may "sit" on this for awhile, watch fares and perhaps change return to have another overnight in Madrid.  Love that city.