Originally Posted by
rsachek
We’re taking a cruise from Trieste the following day, so it wouldn’t be a total disaster to miss the connection. That said, we do have some pre-cruise plans that would be ruined, not to mention spending 7.5 hours at MAD without lounge access. Long haul is PE and the MAD-VCE is Blue. No status. Unfortunately, no J awards were available.
The Air Europa flight MAD-VCE isn't much improvement over the alternate later IB flight. I think it departs one hour twenty minutes earlier, so it'd only be a ~6 hour wait. I guess that's better than nothing.
I thought about cancelling the MAD-VCE part of the trip and self-connecting later in the morning to VRN, then training to Trieste. Though longer by train, we'd still arrive in Trieste earlier than just sitting around MAD. Or cancelling this itinerary entirely and rebooking somthing else. But I'm not sure if Iberia would still ding me the award cancellation/change fee since technically the 55 minute connection is allowed.
OT but impressed at the hand luggage only for a cruise!
Is there any avios redemption availability ORD-MAD the day before + you can leave a day earlier + don't mind spending a day here?