I'm presently in Marbella and my wife is flying to AGP in another day to meet me there. She's flying US PHL-MAD and taking an IB flight to AGP. I've arranged through our resorts concierge for a car and driver to pick my wife up at AGP when she arrives there.

We're very confident that things will go smoothly.

However, if things do go wrong, and the US flight is delayed arriving at MAD, my wife must arrange a different IB flight. She must also call our resort concierge ( from MAD ) to advise them of the flight change so that the concierge can call the car company to advise them of her new AGP flight. Otherwise, we get charged for the missed connect.

Since our cell phones don't work out here, a payphone is the only way. Anyone have insights on how the payphones work and where to find them in T4 terminal ?

Once again, I'm not expecting problems, but I'm just trying to have Mrs. Jerseyfinn prepared if something does go awry.

Barry

I'm presently in Marbella and my wife is flying to AGP in another day to meet me there. She's flying US PHL-MAD and taking an IB flight to AGP. I've arranged through our resorts concierge for a car and driver to pick my wife up at AGP when she arrives there.

We're very confident that things will go smoothly.

However, if things do go wrong, and the US flight is delayed arriving at MAD, my wife must arrange a different IB flight. She must also call our resort concierge ( from MAD ) to advise them of the flight change so that the concierge can call the car company to advise them of her new AGP flight. Otherwise, we get charged for the missed connect.

Since our cell phones don't work out here, a payphone is the only way. Anyone have insights on how the payphones work and where to find them in T4 terminal ?

Once again, I'm not expecting problems, but I'm just trying to have Mrs. Jerseyfinn prepared if something does go awry.

Barry

Do your phones not work because they are Verizon/Sprint (non-GSM) phones? Maybe one of the lounge folks can help, since they usually speak decent English in the SpanAir Lounge.

European Pay Phones are actually not difficult to use. I believe most Spanish pay phones accept coins and have instructions in English, or at least did a few years ago. The only trick is that after you insert coins, there is a button near the coin slot which actually injects the coins into the phone. If the phones don't accept coins, you should be able to buy a phone card at a gift shop.

Thanks for the advice Usa and Alpha.

We don't take our cell phones to Europe as they don't work here. Never explored whether we can make them work here as we make due without them.

We're just in an unusual situation should her arrival time in MAD be too late, creating a potential misconnect as she would suddenly need to communicate the change with the resort for the pick up on the connecting end.

I see that PHL is under a low ceiling state with ATC. Of course I'm 6 hours ahead so this may all change by departure time for MAD.

Both the Spainair and phone card suggestions are useful. Let's hope she doesn't need to use them. At least she's UG confirmed PHL-MAD and not checking any bags if she does have to scurry to T4. And she's done the trip before and will know how to move about efficiently.

Funny how the cell phone has taken over and you very rarely use a pay phone anymore.

Barry

Just thought I'd update on how the wife's MAD flight goes.

They board on time ( 5:30 PM) and proceed to hold at the gate until past 7:30 because of a flat tire. The repair truck also dinks the cargo door creating more delay. By the time they pull back, they're at the end of the queue and don't go airborne until 8:38PM. They arrive in MAD 2 hours late.

She rebooks her IB flight and catches a later AGP flight. She was ready to head off in search of a payphone when an American pax behind her offers to let her use his phone. Chivalry still lives.

Barry