Having been out of the country during this security mess and flying via MAD I was quite disappointed to see threads that were providing information on what was going on at the airports turn into political discussions. Not really helpful to those of use trying to figure out what to expect at the affected airports.

IMO, that's what the mod should control. I would suggest taking a thread with information only about the security procedures at the various airports so those who actually need the information can find it (

That being said, here is what we experienced connecting through MAD.

1. Starting out, I'll say the MAD airport is very poorly marked, especially when traveling through it the first time. I point this out since it makes the security process more difficult to manage.

2. Our flight arrived about 1:50 before AA 37 was scheduled to depart. We had to change to the remote international terminal. The flight boards had no gate listed for AA37.

3. We went to the Iberia club and tried to find out from them what we needed to be aware of for security. They just said AA would call them when they were ready.

4. The board had AA37 boarding time as 30 minutes before the 1:10 scheduled time.

5. At 12:30, with no gate posted on the board in the Iberia lounge, we decided to head towards the plane (since we could see the AA tail via the window at the end of the Iberia club).

6. When we got outside the club, the first board we saw said AA37 was at gate U70 (I'm assuming this is probably where it always is located).

7. Gate U70 is almost at the end of the terminal. As we approached we saw two huge lines. Walking down the side of the lines (about 4 gates worth) I could see that there was an Iberia line and an AA line. The Iberia line was longer since they had several flights departing for the US at that time.

8. We navigated over to the AA line. Once we got in line an AA rep came by and asked to see our boarding passes and asked us if we had gone through security clearance. We hadn't as there were not really any signs and apparently they were positioned between gate 60-65 (i.e. far away from the lines and gate 70).

9. Hiked back to the security check point (AA's security screening and check in).

10. Once cleared there we hiked back down to the line, which was no longer and spent 30 minutes in line.

11. Got a security pat down (once at the front they separate into a male and female line).

12. Everyone's bags get opened and checked. Mrs. Deac83, who had all the small wrapped gifts did not have to unwrap anything and they apparently just poked around a bit (and her bag was filled with a lot of different objects). For me apparently the cable I use to secure my laptop to immovable objects is not allowed as the Spanish only speaking screener could only say 'destroy' over and over again. He called a non-English speaking uniformed guard and asked him if it was allowed. He told him no. I asked for some one that spoke English but they refused to produce anyone. So of course I wasn't missing my flight over a $20 cable, but I have no idea way it's not allowed (obviously the x-ray screeners for the past 5 years allowed it).

13. Plane departed 30 minutes late.

Several other points:

- spoke to a couple of women who had arrived 2 hours early for the flight and they said they were not allowed to clear security. Were told to wait and it was not a problem. Clearly by time they did get in line they were with us. If we had known or the Iberia lounge had communicated this we would have been sitting by the gate instead of in the Iberia lounge.

- Basically pax are told to allow extra time but AA/aiport is not spending the money to clear pax earlier.

- AA/Iberia was of no help. The AA.com website is useless to try and figure out what you need to do.

As for the flight.
- No last hour lock down
- No banning of electronics.
- Basically nothing was different once on the flight.