Here are my comments and thoughts on this route. I have flown 5 return trips MAD-HEL-MAD in the last 12 months on the “AY operator by Iberia” or “Iberia for Finnair” flight.



7 legs I have upgraded Y to J with either Avios or Cash, 2 legs I paid for J directly, and 1 leg I spent in Y, so unfortunately I do not have any comments on how Finnair Platinum or Lumo are treated in Y, but my guess would be that you do not get anything extra.



In my experience, upgrading with Avios or Cash from Y to J tends to be very easy. I have even upgraded 2 people at a time using cash several times, and I have pretty much always managed to the do the upgrade, which of course is much more economical than paying for a J fair directly. Easiest way to have several people upgraded has been the website check for upgrades section instead of the app though.



There tends to be anything between 3-6 rows of J depending on demand.



Iberia crew tend to be kind, but, you will have to be proactive to get additional drinks, but this tends to be relatively easy as a lot of staff moves between J and Y, and you can just stop them as they move past to request something. Have an aisle seat helps a lot with this.



I have also walked to the forward galley to request a wine and have not had any problems with that.
By the way, try the Brandy if you want a desert drink.



Meal service is standard Iberia short haul business. Choose between two mains. Recently, in the last 6 months, on the Iberia flights I have taken, it has tended to be a choice between a seafood main and a pasta main. That is to say, the 10:15 flight from MAD to HEL is normal dinner service, not breakfast.



On the MAD-HEL-MAD they tend to not offer any drinks during the first hour of flight or so, which is a bit unfortunate. They then roll a drinks trolley, and shortly afterwards dinner.



Last week I tried getting a drink proactively about 40-50 minutes into the flight and was told to wait since they were preparing service. 20 minutes later they rolled the drinks trolley and i got my drink.



After dinner service ends the staff disappears behind the curtain, and if you want anything you either have to flag someone down who passes through, or go and ask for it in the galley. To give you an idea, on several flights I have gone to the bathroom and they have been napping behind the curtain, so no surprise that there isn’t any proactive service.



Regarding MAD airport:



If you are in a hurry going to the airport, and saving 5-10 minutes getting to T4 is important, grab a Taxi. There is a dedicated car lane when entering the terminal for taxis and busses. If you take an Uber or Cabify, it will be cheaper, but it will take an additional 5-10 minutes for them to get a “parking spot” to let you out, since they aren’t allowed to use the taxi lane.

Finnair’s checkin desk is also right at the start of the terminal, and Uber drivers tend to take you to the opposite end. Note that even though it is IB for Finnair, Finnair still has their own checkin counters, with 1 dedicated to J, and you cannot use the general Iberia ones, you have to use the Finnair one.



5-10 minutes for 15-20 euros price difference means that I usually grab a Uber anyway, but if you are about to miss your flight because you left late, then Taxis give some extra time. This is for me living in the north part of Madrid, but if you are in the city centre the price difference is most likely smaller, as any place within the M30 ring road has a 35 fixed price on taxis. Note however, that for T4, the fixed price does not include the toll cost of using the roll road going to T4. It is normal and legal for them to charge this separately (this causes a lot of confusion for tourists), but they should always ask if you want to take the toll road or not. It is around 2 euros if I remember correctly, so not a large cost, and saves you maybe 4-5 minutes of travel time. If you are not in a hurry and you don’t want to pay, you can tell them to not use the toll. Note however, that if you are travelling outside the M30 ring road, and you are paying per km on the meter instead of the fixed fee for inside the M30, then it is cheaper to take the toll road, as it cuts the total kilometres travelled and not taking the toll road means you are going to driver a longer distance and hence pay more.



Priority security is good and fast generally at T4. It can be a bit hidden if you do now know where it is. Its about 20-30 meters to the right of the main security entrance, but tucked between shops that go further out than the security entrance, so you might not directly see it. There are 3 automatic gates, but people for some reason always form a queue on only 1 of them.. so use the other free gates..



The IB Schengen lounge in T4 is ok, much better than the J lounge in Helsinki in my opinion, but Barajas lacks a first class lounge, so it’s a typical busy business lounge. Note that entering the lounge is a bit frustrating since after priority security you have to turn left and move against the flow of traffic, through the exit of the normal security to enter the lounge.



Once entering the lounge you kind of have 2 queues, one for J tickets which is the one “behind”, and then the status one where there sometimes is a queue. If your ticket gives you access you can go past the people queueing (using the "back J queue) to the desk and use the automatic gate to enter.



If you grab the 10:15 flight, they will be serving breakfast, so sausages, hash browns, eggs, bread, cheese, ham, croissants, sweets, etc.



The lounge is split into two, once you enter you have the main area, then there is a connecting corridor/bar area, which is the only place you can grab wine when they are primarily serving breakfast, and at the end of the corridor there is another breakfast setup identical to the main one. If the main area is full packed, check the opposite side, sometimes there is less people there. August tends to be more quiet as there are fewer business passengers due to August being the main holiday month.
Walk to the gate tends to be rather long, around 10-15 minutes. Boarding tends to start on time (or 5 minutes early), as indicated in the ticket.

If you do shopping in tax free, you sometimes get a discount coupon with your purchase, that can be used on your next purchase, so the trick is to first buy something small (water bottle) to get the coupon and then shop whatever you are going to buy.

Wine prices are not great compared to what you can get outside of the airport, but naturally cheaper than Finland.