Schengen Question About Luggage
 

My wife and I are flying to BCN next month on AA/IB. We are flying DFW to MAD on AA and connecting MAD to BCN on IB. My question is whether we have to claim our luggage in MAD and go through customs there then recheck our bags for the domestic connection. I know that normally your baggage is checked through to your final destination if you are connecting from one Schengen country to another. However, since our final destination is within the same Schengen country we are arriving in from the US, does this change things? Thanks!

Your bags will be checked through BCN

Baggage has nothing to do with Schengen. If you are travelling on a single ticket your baggage will travel to your final destination without your intervention.

Thanks for the information!

When arriving on a non-Schengen flight you clear immigrations (passport control) at the first Schengen airport.
Once in Schengen territory, there is no passport control.

As already said, if one ticket, bag gets checked through and you pick it up only at final destination.

I think that the United States and Mexico are the only countries that require you to collect your bag upon arrival on an international flight if on same ticket and then re-drop it (bag is tagged to final destination so not really necessary to "re-check" bag in the US)

I am sure most countries require passengers to clear customs at port of arrival from an International destination and then recheck baggage.

Australia and India are places where I have been through and had to recheck baggage for domestic flight.

To expand on the information given by carlosdca, BCN will know from the tags on your checked bags that even though you have cleared EU immigration, your bags have not yet cleared EU customs. If there were any goods in your checked bags which needed to be declared to customs, you would do it at the EU airport where you claim them. In this case, BCN.

As far as I recall, Colombia(BOG), Panama(PTY), Chile (SCL), Argentina (EZE), Peru (LIM), all of Europe (including LHR) and the 3 big middle east hubs don't make you collect bags but at final destination?
I am not familiar with Asia or South Pacific countries.

Certainly not in Europe/Schengen, where you clear immigration at your first entry point and customs at your destination.