Madrid T4S lounge now open [Sala VIP Velázquez]
 

The new refurbished lounge in Madrid T4S is now open, and what a wonderful place... Admittedly its late so nice and quiet, but the facilities look great - showers, 2 x bar areas, reasonable selection of food and ample seating with power sockets. The beer fridge has a great selection too.

I have to admit i like LHR T5 first lounge, but food aside this bests it hands down.

I do get muddled by MAD lounges; is this one the very nice Velasquez or the dull Dali?

Velázquez, in the Satellite, so better for BA services and a few IB. Dalí is in the main terminal, and used by IB generally and BACF.

There’s 2 lounges: T4 and T4S.

T4S is the satellite terminal, Velazquez which has been refurbished.

T4 lounge is Dali, but still very nice.

T4 = Dalí Lounge
T4S = Velazquez Lounge

No more BACF at MAD unfortunately.

Dalí should be closing tonight - fully, not in two stages like Velázquez, for 6-7 weeks. Vouchers for a café y tostada and wifi should be provided.

Can anyone clarify this point. Have a three hour layover in Madrid main terminal this Saturday and I was hoping to use the Dalì lounge. I will be arriving on a BA fligt then departing on an Iberia domestic from the main terminal on a separate ticket, so will have to collect luggage and recheck. Is there any way of using the satellite lounge before departing from the main terminal if Dalì is closed? Any advice much appreciated.

Unfortunately no, not possible.
Rest assured that the collect and recheck process can take a good hour and a half, so your layover won't be as long as it seems.

I guessed that would be the case but would like to know if the Dalì Lounge has already been closed.

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The initial plan was for it to close the day after Velázquez opened. That was supposed to be Monday, but was today. I'd expect it to be closed from tomorrow onwards, and I can report back as of next Thursday.

Have they reinstated the Häagen-Dazs ice cream in the refurbished Velazquez lounge ?

The big question, was just about to ask!

Hope they haven't done away with the little Haagen Dazs freezer. :cool:

I must have missed it by a day as the divider was still up when I used it on Tuesday.

Oh well. Next time.

Just to clarify and it may help newbies to FT, is this an Iberia or BA or 3rd party lounge?

I assume its not a BA Lounge outright.

Looks great. Thanks.

These are Iberia's lounges, which is open to oneworld frequent flyers in the usual way. The main thread is to be found here:

Iberia lounges at Madrid Barajas (T4/T4S)

It is an Iberia lounge. Standard oneworld business lounge access rules apply, including guests for those with BAEC or other oneworld status.

It is an Iberia lounge

Oooo. We are flying from T4S to Guatemala City in less than 2 weeks, so I'll look forward to checking it out!

The Dali lounge was open yesterday (Wednesday) when I visited mid afternoon.

Flying to MAD next weekend so will get to try it out.

I went thru last week. I had no idea it had been closed. We had been to the lounge a number of times before on previous trips thru Madrid. We were there in the morning before our flight to ORD. Reasonable selection of items for breakfast: omelette, salmon, turkey, various sandwiches, cereals, and coffees. Didn't look at the alcoholic selections.

Dalí = bright spacious modern design

Velázquez = dark, grotty, low ceiling, garage style
(planespotters like it though)

Looks like Air France's CDG lounges.



Good that they have replaced the worn out 70s style furniture
but it looks like they have reduced the food and drink selection a lot...

Iberia. No BA outstation at MAD that I am aware of.

Not sure I like it or not. Those chairs don't look very comfortable compared to the old leather ones and the modern colour scheme is a bit on the bright side.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned. :D

I'm a bit confused now, I'm flying from Mad to LHR on IB3180 mid November, it says T4, so I'm assuming I won't be able to go to T4s for the lounge, do they offer any alternative? Is it worth contacting BA (the flight was booked with a BA codeshare number) and change the flights? I have a 3 hour layover there.
Thanks

I think we are still waiting for a definitive timeframe for the closure of Dalí but that is the lounge for your flight, in the main terminal building, and the indications are that for your flight you will be given a refreshment voucher and a wifi code instead of lounge access. And you won't be able to get to T4S, nor frankly is it practical, it could easily add 30 minutes to your trip just getting there and back. If you moved to a BA metal flight then you do get lounge access, but perhaps that has to be balanced against the fact that depending on your tastes the IB flight should offer better food catering during the flight.

You could try moving to a BA flight, depending on how flexible your ticket is, but that normally comes at a cost. One possibility: has your flight timings been moved by even 1 minute since you first booked it? That is one reason which would allow an agent to change to BA metal.

I was in the Velasquez lounge on Friday during its busy late morning period and it was very busy indeed and me and my colleague struggled to find a free space. I then went to the toilet and it appears they have gotten rid of the urinals, and no cubicles were free and people were queueing for cubicles, so I just went in the main terminal building. It was my least pleasant experience of the lounge to date. Decor is nice but it was fine before.

Was this last Friday (20th) rather than yesterday? That was before the second half had reopened.

Where are you connecting from? If you are arriving into T4S you can access the lounge there before "boarding" from an S gate onto a bus straight to the gate over in T4.

I am in the new Velázquez lounge right now and I am happy to report that the ice cream is still there. Although I am among those who preferred the old Mövenpick ice cream.

I'm just sitting in the Dalí Lounge (T4/HJK gates). It is still fully open.

According to the lovely lounge dragon, renovation will only start around mid November and should be completed by year end, latest mid January.

As others have stated earlier, the lounge will be closed entirely (not half/half like Velasquez).

I'll be flying out of MAD T4 on 12 Nov - now I'm very curious to see if I'll have a lounge to go to or not!

I do hate it when there aren't any urinals, but I'm not I'm brave enough to join you in your dirty protest :D

In case somebody doesn't know, there is a nice Priority Pass lounge in T4.

I visited this lounge for the first time the other day. As somebody who used to book with *A, I remember the Spanair lounge well, where the food consisted of a large bowl of crisps. So whilst the food selection in the Velásquez lounge, smoked salmon apart, isn't that great, it's still an improvement for me, and the lounge certainly looks great. The big difference to me was the staff, and their spontaneous interaction with guests. One chap was walking past whilst I was struggling to open my cava miniature, and immediately offered to help. Another one greeted me as I returned to the wine bar, and started explaining to me which of the reds he considered the best, and why. Imagine BA's harried contract staff at the LHR GFL doing that! They could so easily arrange tastings of the food and wine for them, like a good restaurant does, but that's so far removed from their way of doing things.

With its limitations, the food at the Velásquez lounge is perfectly packaged for pilfering, if you're that way inclined, to the point that it almost looks like they're expecting passengers in their meager economy class to do that. Not only are miniature water bottles available, but also miniature cava bottles, crisps, and sandwiches in plastic wrapping. I must admit to pinching a couple of containers of Spanish grated tomato/garlic/olive oil mix for my airline food survival kit.

They are designed to be taken away ;)

(IB's take on providing free F&B on shorthaul flights in Y to status pax)

I was in there yesterday. It's nice. Food isn't abundant, but otherwise everything was decent.

Hi, I have asked on the Iberia forum, however I like this forum more :D a question...

My parents are on IB from AGP - MAD - LGW tomorrow, both BAEC Silver, do they have access to this new snazzy lounge?