smerch1468

We are planning a trip to madrid for my mums 70th and will all be travelling club europe.

Can anyone who has been to city airport and madrid provide some info about lounges etc. Is the city airport lounge modelled on the galleries lounge in heathrow.

Assistance appreciated.

sgm

No lounge at LCY (LCY-SNN-JFK has a gate lounge!).

Still LCY can be a really nice experience, except security tends to be very slow at times (+ 30 min). Can be as little as 5 min in the afternoon.

Prospero

Basic info on the MAD lounge facilities listed here...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-database.html

Land-of-Miles

Figure on about Ł30 a head to create something approximating a lounge experience in a pleasant bar/restaurant at LCY depending upon the duration of your stay.

MAD Lounge is sorely lacking iany kind of food if you arrive there outside a designated meal time.

dannysherwood

I used that MAD lounge a month or so back and i was very impressed, it was really quiet, nice view of the runway and a good selection of food on offer including icecream!

Drink selection was good and in the afternoon when i travelled there was a tapas styled hot food selection, the usual cold food offering and champers. Great seating too and they announced the flights which was nice.

You have to connect to it from the main terminal and thats a good 20 minutes away via the train, but its a great airport, think Spanish T5, i really liked it! Enjoy!

Kuki

LCY is absolutely one of the best airports in the world (IMHO), even there isn't any lounges at all (expect that jfk-thing). Always has been fast entry to "other side" and they always serve a great nacho plate /w pint on the restaurant ^

OPebble

The BA flights from MAD leave from T4S. The lounge is an IB Lounge (but thankfully not run by IB). This is used by all eligible BA PAX. As it is in the non-Schengen area it is not such a pig-sty as the main T4 lounge and is actually a haven of tranquility with great views over two runways.

If you are there over lunch and don't forget that the Madrilenos tend to take a late lunch, there is a pretty good buffet at both ends of the lounge. Outside those hours there are sandwiches, mini-cabanos and pre-wrapped cheese portions.

edi-traveller

LCY used to have a really fast security. Now it has been revamped and has fallen victim to a problem facing many UK Airports - letting idiots design security machines with tray return mechanisms that slow everything down.

Have you noticed how when they implement these things that are supposed to make things better that they make it worse.

And like self service checkouts in supermarkets - they end up needing more staff to help people cope with the inadequacies of the system.

TravellerFrequently

Yes!

I do not understand why there is a slightly larger food provision outside of the official meal times as determined by the airline/lounge management team.

Still, the food is better than in past years IMHO and at least the management company can clean the lounge, which was not always the case when it was managed by IB.

LCY8737

I would suggest booking this in ET from LCY or if you want the CE experience doing it from LHR. The LCY-MAD configuration is 2-2, exactly the same in both cabins, the only difference is the dry salad leaves you get in CE. LCY as an airport is optimized for passing through it quickly, so no lounge.

globalste

I fly this route and the Heathrow-Madrid route twice a month. This is my pitch in:

Agree that security in LCY is now bobbins and that machines slow the whole thing down. On Monday there was a baggage belt failure, as all check-in desks rely on the same belt the whole checkin area went into meltdown with people queuing out of the door.

The Embraer is much more pleasant for flying on than the Airbus that BA/Iberia use and economy actually has a decent breakfast on it.

There is no lounge in LCY and more often than not, nowhere to sit down either which may cause problems. LCY has lifts up to the security, but I have never noticed them down to the apron, so stairs only.

Food onboard Iberia in Club is very good, and the lounge at T3 is really good too with a good view of the runway, decent food offerings and an extensive drinks bar.

Flying into Madrid on BA you cannot use the Valaquez lounge, so if connecting you must use the Dali lounge in T4. Getting from T4S to T4 can be a confusing experience if you haven't done it before and involves a train and several lifts, takes about 20mins.

If you are travelling with older people, I would strongly suggest going from Heathrow for the following reasons:

1) Better Club experience for lounges and space on board
2) Less risk of standing around in the airport
3) Far less walking because you will arrive at T4 on Iberia, so just walk straight out to baggage reclaim

I am not sure what the complaints are about the lounges, I think even the domestic lounge is well-stocked, providing you have a taste for spanish-style food that is. As mentioned, often there is tortilla, tapas, usually ice cream, always have sandwiches and salads and well-stocked wine (where you can have someone do wine tasting with you on request)

oxtailsoup

We are flying LHR-MAD(BA) and then MAD-LEI(IB -Air nostrum). Which terminal do Air Nostrum fly from and which lounge is available?

Thanks

shefgab

I used both the Terminal 4 (IB domestic and IB to LHR) and T4S (BA to LHR) lounges in Feb this year.

T4S has better food, especially during meal times (which are a bit random - lunch starts at 2pm I think?), and a great view of the tarmac. Sit yourself at either of the far ends, and it's very peaceful. There are also mini bottles of cava, which are quite nice.

The T4 lounge has slightly less on offer, and no view, so can be a bit depressing. Still, it beats haveing no lounge access at all.

OPebble

They fly from T4 so as BA lands in T4S you need to get across to the main building. I think that there is the equivalent of Flight Connections at LHR but as I usually terminate my trip in MAD I must admit that I haven't really noticed.

smerch1468

As always every minor detail is covered, many thanks for this info.

As suggested perhaps if there isnt a club europe experience from the terminal at city airport that we should go economy class to madrid(only me and mum are travelling there and meeting family in madrid). Then on the way back when there are 6 of us we should use the airport lounges in madrid.

Also is there a good selection of vegetarian food as my mum is vegan.