Originally Posted by
worldwidetraveler
My flight from EWR arrives MAD T1 at 10:05am. The next possible? Iberia T4 departure is at 12:05pm. The flight I am booked on (now cancelled) was to leave at 1:45.
My concern is if I get changed to the 12:05 departure & miss it because of a late MAD arrival. Would Iberia "protect" me on their later flight?
Ok, from the description and routing I assume you have two different tickets, CO to MAD and IB from MAD to somewhere else. In this case IB has no obligation and will most definitely not protect you if your inbound is late. Unless you have a changeable ticket, then it's a whole different matter of course. The two hour connection is tight as T1 and T4 are pretty far apart and you still need to pass immigration and customs at T1, not to mention the risk of any delays.
Don't do it, settle for the later one to ease your nerves. Since you will have pelnty of time, you could always take the metro from the airport to the city for a while - it costs next to nothing and gets you there in 45 minutes directly from the terminals. Have a relaxed lunch, stretch your legs a bit after your TA flight etc.
Originally Posted by
worldwidetraveler
I believe that if I select the later flight but get to Iberia early, they would not put me on their earlier flight unless I paid more $$ (assume there's an earlier flight stand-by charge).
No, there's no such thing as a stand-by charge with European airlines. The only official way you could get on the earlier flight is that you have a changeable (read: more expensive) ticket and get it changed to that flight and pay any change fee and fare difference if applicable. Unofficially agents can do it, but usually need a good reason for doing so like the later flight being massively delayed, overbooked or anything like that. It doesn't hurt to be polite and ask anyway, but odds are slim.
What is your route? Have you checked LCC alternatives, there are quite a few of those now on the Spanish domestic market and the big advantage for most of them is that they depart from the old terminal complex (T1/2/3) which saves you the hassle of going to the far away (albeit very impressive) T4.