willymy

We will be flying Iberia r/t from BOS-MAD. My intention is to land in MAD and then take a way one flight to Barcelona. Is it practical to have our luggage tagged straight through to Barcelona? My other options would be to stay in MAD the first four nights and then either fly or take the train to the other cities we want to visit. All comments are welcome

craigthemif

I've flown to MAD, picked up my luggage and headed upstairs to the Puente Aereo check-in and dropped off my luggage again... It can be done without too much problem - even better if you book the Puente Aereo using Avios, in which case you aren't even committed to a given flight. (helpful if your incoming flight is delayed)

In principle you should be able to tag your luggage straight through, despite having 2 separate tickets. But it will depend on the agent in BOS more than anything.

Note that baggage reclaim in Barcelona is different depending on your departure point. A simple MAD-BCN comes out in the Puente Aereo wing, and all international connecting baggage comes out at the international arrivals area.

TPJ

The title is misleading!

Iberia bad handling in Madrid - why do you assume you will get bad handling????? MAD T4 is quite an efficient terminal (just compare to CDG or LHR) and there is nothing wrong with IB handling there.

kauppias

Perhaps the title is a typo bad/bag?

Koby

Yes... IF you are flying to Barcelona immediately (which you don't seem to have decided yet), and IF you'd be flying IB to BCN (which is not the only option).

Not sure what other comments you are looking for... but personally I always prefer to get to an hotel as soon as possible after a long-haul flight. So I would visit Madrid first, and then use the train to get to Barcelona.

willymy

Koby

My thoughts were like this. Long flight in business shouldn't be too bad. Since we are returning home from MAD at the end of the trip I figured we could start in BCN and work our way back to MAD with stops in between. That said, if we continue through to BCN is it better to have bags tagged to BCN in BOS or retrieve luggage and re check them. I'm pretty certain we will use IB from MAD to BCN

Koby

In that case I don't see why it would be better to retrieve end re-check the bags? Have them sent straight to BCN. (But as craigthemif says, it also depends on the check-in agent at BOS...)

Just keep in mind that, if this is on 2 separate tickets, IB is under not obligation to help you when your flight from BOS arrives late and you miss your connection. Although in reality they probably will put you on a next MAD-BCN...
(Buying a ticket for the Puento Aero that craigthemif mentions avoids this because it gives you the right to use the first flight to BCN after you arrive at MAD. But I find it expensive, and BOS will probably not send your bags to BCN in this case because you will not have a reservation for a specific flight. But I have no experience with this.)