Next month I’ve a long haul Iberia flight (in J) arriving from GIG into T4S at 11-10am which is the end of a OW award. The onward OW flight that suits me best is a 1-00pm departure to LGW on BA out of T4S which would obviously be a separate revenue ticket.

1) Will I be able to connect the itineraries and interline the baggage straight thru?
2) Even if I do should I expect the bags make at a connection of less than 2 hours at T4S assuming I OLCI on BA?

I transited thru MAD from GRU to LHR last week. As I wanted to store the duty free in my bags for the intra-Europe portion I checked them thru just to MAD. They were very slow in coming out arriving something like 60-75 mins after arrival. That and the meandering though well signposted nature of T4/4S didn’t exactly inspire confidence. My gut feeling is that the connection is just about viable if the first flight is on time and I can interline the bags. Otherwise I could well run into trouble. This was my first time thru the new terminal so it may have been a one-off.

Any thoughts?

I've used the new MAD several times and it was fine, there shouldn't be a problem. I think BA is switching to T4 from T4S due to pax complaints at how long it takes to get out of the terminal. They were in T4S originally (idea being it was the non-schengen terminal). That doesn't really change anything (5 min train ride between T4S and T4), if they have made that change. MAD is claiming the lowest rate of mishandled luggage of any airport in Europe, fwiw, since the new T4 opened. Two hours is more than enough for interlined luggage, which is of course possible on BA with separate tickets as long as it is another OW airline, and it is.

Cheers for the info, AA said the same (without the useful detail) but all the more reassuring when it comes from one of the more authoritative voices on the OW fora. ^

I decided to roll the dice on this and hope for on time departure from GIG. After 10 days in Rio for Carnaval it won't be the biggest risk I run that week.