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Bad surprise at Madrid Airport

Bad surprise at Madrid Airport

Old Oct 18, 2014, 3:17 pm
  #1  
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Bad surprise at Madrid Airport



arrived MAD 8:25 , departure: 16:45 terminal K

Too lazy to go out, we waited at the airport.

We were told that our gate # would be posted 1 hour prior to departure.
OK

Noticing our seats were far apart, I got a new boarding pass issued at the Ibera counter around 15:30. "Yes, as the board says - terminal K"

15:45 I asked an other agent "Yes, terminal K - number will be posted in 15mn"

16:10 : posted as terminal M
same agent "No, it says M but it will be K" (??????)
me : "just in case, how far is M ?" ... "right here, not far" (pointing behind him - on the runway " (????)

16:15 , other agent "terminal M. Go down all the way this side, take the train downstairs"

a hoard of VERY unhappy passengers galloping to the right terminal.

One bright side, the plane was not going to leave with half of the passengers missing (small plane fairly empty).

Thank you Iberia - nearly missing a plane after sitting in the "right" terminal over 8h was a first for us.
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Old Oct 19, 2014, 6:45 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: May 2014
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Originally Posted by femuse


arrived MAD 8:25 , departure: 16:45 terminal K

Too lazy to go out, we waited at the airport.

We were told that our gate # would be posted 1 hour prior to departure.
OK

Noticing our seats were far apart, I got a new boarding pass issued at the Ibera counter around 15:30. "Yes, as the board says - terminal K"

15:45 I asked an other agent "Yes, terminal K - number will be posted in 15mn"

16:10 : posted as terminal M
same agent "No, it says M but it will be K" (??????)
me : "just in case, how far is M ?" ... "right here, not far" (pointing behind him - on the runway " (????)

16:15 , other agent "terminal M. Go down all the way this side, take the train downstairs"

a hoard of VERY unhappy passengers galloping to the right terminal.

One bright side, the plane was not going to leave with half of the passengers missing (small plane fairly empty).

Thank you Iberia - nearly missing a plane after sitting in the "right" terminal over 8h was a first for us.
What a horrible and ridiculous situation, sorry . But in all honesty this should not even been remotely a surprise. Madrid is one of the, if not the, worst airports in Europe. A moron obviously designed it, plus Spain is probably tied with Italy and Greece in never being able to be properly organized for anything.
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Old Oct 19, 2014, 8:07 am
  #3  
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Thanks. I feel better now.

I was wondering if WE were the morons.
The last time we flew to Madrid was about 35 years ago and my memory of that flight is rather foggy.

We now know what to expect when flying back in 3 weeks.
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Old Oct 19, 2014, 8:17 pm
  #4  
 
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I passed thru MAD yesterday, and I agree, T4 is a really crappy terminal.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 7:40 am
  #5  
 
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I'm still kind of grateful when the worst thing about MAD T4 is the delays/organization issues. A year or so ago I flew through there after what must have been a fumigation, and every crevice (especially the spaces between the moving walkways) was spotted with dead cockroaches. That was memorable!

Also, though you may well know this already, after an 8-hour delay you're probably entitled to compensation from the airline.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 8:23 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by JR14
an 8-hour delay you're probably entitled to compensation from the airline.
it was a 8-hour layover.

I had forgotten:
right at the beginning, passengers were forming about 6 lines at an Iberia counter - NO signs of any type [? word of mouth ??]
one passenger for Munich, 2 for Barcelona, me for Bordeaux.
We were redirecting each other to the maybe correct line.
I remember someone saying "Where do I go ??? my flight is posted for one gate on one board, a different one on another board"

Should have been a tip-off of things to come.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 8:36 am
  #7  
 
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I honestly don't understand how T4 is anything but easy to use. Sometimes long walks, yeah, but it's all pretty straight forward. Granted, I may be biased since it's my home airport and I can imagine it would be a tad more difficult without speaking Spanish.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 9:05 am
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Originally Posted by LupineChemist
I honestly don't understand how T4 is anything but easy to use. Sometimes long walks, yeah, but it's all pretty straight forward. Granted, I may be biased since it's my home airport and I can imagine it would be a tad more difficult without speaking Spanish.
It's very very pis-poorly organized.
1. Long walks from anywhere to anywhere. Curb to T4S gate = 45 minutes!!!!!
Security lines are usually pretty quick, train ride takes forever due to the distance. Long lines at passport control. Another long walk to the gate. A pis-poorly organized line to go through the secondary security check for US-bound flights (yea, that's thanks US and AA, but other airports can make it happen much quicker).
2. Coming the other way, the bags take forever to come out!

3. Signage sucks - things aren't intuitive, placed in the wrong places.


One saving grace - lounges are very nice.
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Old Oct 20, 2014, 10:04 am
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Originally Posted by LupineChemist
.... it would be a tad more difficult without speaking Spanish.
One good thing:
everybody we talked to [Iberia counters, welcome counters,..] spoke very good English.
one woman mentioned she spoke 5 languages and was now learning Japanese.

This airport has indeed a lot of problems, language is not one of them.
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Old Oct 21, 2014, 2:27 am
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Originally Posted by Palal
It's very very pis-poorly organized.
1. Long walks from anywhere to anywhere. Curb to T4S gate = 45 minutes!!!!!
Security lines are usually pretty quick, train ride takes forever due to the distance. Long lines at passport control. Another long walk to the gate. A pis-poorly organized line to go through the secondary security check for US-bound flights (yea, that's thanks US and AA, but other airports can make it happen much quicker).
2. Coming the other way, the bags take forever to come out!

3. Signage sucks - things aren't intuitive, placed in the wrong places.


One saving grace - lounges are very nice.
1. I've never had the experience of it taking that long. I guess maybe for the very end of the piers for a US flight with the extra security line, but it's a big airport. It's hard to have a big airport in a small space. I have never had more than a minute or two in passport control and I'm not an EU citizen (though I do have a Spanish resident card).

2. Yeah, luggage from T4S is a bit of a pain, though I do try to avoid checking luggage whenever possible and it's generally pretty good when landing in T4, which is the vast majority of my flights.

3. I don't understand that at all. Aside from the annoying being dumped directly into duty free from security, I don't get how any of it isn't intuitive.


All in all, the biggest problem is that it was designed to grow with the 2007 Spanish economy. We will get back to those levels someday, but in the mean time it's much larger than it needs to be at the moment. That said, international business is one of the bright spots of the Spanish economy so it's useful to have MAD as a gateway.

Also, it's way better than T1/T2 so there's that
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Old Oct 23, 2014, 5:33 pm
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Originally Posted by LupineChemist
Also, it's way better than T1/T2 so there's that
In T1/2 bags come off within 10 mins, metro access is another 5, so I'd take that over T4 any day. In T4 (not S) bags also take forever.

Signage - the signs are all there, but in some places they're not where you'd expect them to be.
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Old Oct 26, 2014, 4:49 am
  #12  
 
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Yes the way finding (signage and flow) in T4 is pretty bad. I go through a couple of times a year and always get confused. This is what happens when you employ a British star-chitect...

IB lounge in T4S is nice though, great views.
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