So my previous plan of doing AF to Madrid and Iberia to LCG has failed as Iberia has cancelled my flight. The only other option I found was Ryanair from Madrid to Santiago. So i booked it for $27 including seat and priority boarding.

Question. I will have a tight connection. I ladn at 7:15 AF and Ryanair flight is at 8:20pm. From everything I have seen this flight is usualy delayed and I am hoping it is on that date as well but I cant count on it. I assumed this was not going to be a very big problem since I think id got from T1 to T2 or vice versa but now I am reading tht Ryanair requires a stamp in my boarding pass since i am Non european passport.

Is this doable? I will have to leave the secure area and redo security. This wil be in Madrid on a Tuesday in November. What are my chances here?


Also, I have a carry on and my backpack, from what i hear I *should* be ok since I saw that they allow a carry on and a small personal bag but I want some real data here.

thanks. first time on AF and Ryanair.

Absolutely impossible.

Regardless of whether the flight is delayed or not, Ryanair will close checkin promptly 40 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure.

Ask Iberia to rebook you on the Air Europa direct service UX7231 that flies daily (except Saturdays) from MAD to LCG at 21:25 [though there is no guarantee that they will!]. You could have booked this flight from AF - they codeshare on it (as AF4826)

Well might be a little to late as I already got my refund. Is there a way to book that one with avios??

Also, yes I have seen the air europa code shared with AF but its $220!! Ryan air was $27,

I don't have bags to check in and when I look online it sasy you can check in something like 30 days before. So wouldnt' that be enough? So the only problem is the stamp???

AF = Air France?

If so, you'll arriving T2 and need to go to T1. High risk but you may be able to do it.

Ryanair says that all non EU passport holders must go to the visa document desk but I'd doubt that should be required in an intra-Schengen flight (as you don't even need a passport to board the flight, a resident permit should be enough)

Big backpack + Carry on would not be accepted. A school bag + Carry on yes.

That is my big questions is whether I risk not getting stamp or going thru the process of getting stamp. From everything I have read i would need a stamp even if its intra schengen since I am not a european passport holder.

I have a normal backpack, i guess like the ones you would take to school, it shouldn't be stuffed either so it shouldnt look too big. Ill make sure to have my head pillow and jacket on so the backpack will be emtpy and lok smaller, thats basically what I put in there anyway. I figured I am ready to pay a fee in any case when I get there and a normal carry on.

I don't know how true this is for Spain, but for flights inside Portugal, stamps are not required. They are required for all international flights, including those within Schengen.

List of docs accepted on domestic flights.

IIRC for domestic flights it will tell you on the boarding pass if you need a doc check or not.

You can always ask them on live chat

This is good! lol

I know I probably should have picked the normal flight that PP mentioned but it was $200 difference. I don't fly until november so I guess i have many months to worry lol

Thanks for sharing your experience!!!

I meant, you could/should have bought your AF ticket as terminating in LCG rather than in MAD. If it cost anything more, it wouldn't have been anywhere near $220 more, and you would have the convenience of a single ticket.

UX flights cannot be purchased using Avios (as they are Skyteam members) - why not see if you can use your Flying Blue miles?

No it was significantly more, I think it was like $229 for the whole thing. I paid less than a hundred this way. Originally it wasnt a problem since I would have been flying iberia 2 hours later I guess it didn't occur to me that they would cancel the flight entirely.

My other option was just spending the night in madrid and flying out in Am. Even doing that was still cheaper than the whole ticket on AF to LCG. That is my backup plan in any case.

If from now to November Iberia opens up that flight again, I will just eat the $27 from ryanair.

My thought was i will attempt the ryanair route since its the last option for the day (and no air europa at $220 is outof the question) and if not Ill just spend the night and fly out in am. If not ill take a train hahahah or rent a car, I wil figure it out once I am there.

I am hoping tho that I don't have any problems and I can make my flight, which will be much more likely if its delayed. I amjust worried about that stamp.

I am working on getting my spanish passport and maybe i will have it by then, let's see, if i do then i can forego the stamp right? just show that passport instead?

If you have an EU passport then you are good to go.

However, you will presumably already have given details of your current passport when buying your Ryanair ticket, and these details will end up printed on the boarding pass together with any direction such as "Go to Document Check". How the boarding staff would deal with a situation where you present with a travel document different to the one stated on your boarding pass, I am not sure!

This flight is available on every Tuesday in November at these prices (Flying Blue redemption)

Good point, altho I am not sure that I have put any document in yet, I saw that part on my account and left it blank, all I needed to get my ticket was my name and to put nationality. I created an account on ryanair so I culd get the flight on the app but I purposefully left the travel documents blank, im pretty sure of this.

I don't have flying blue miles, so it would have to be cash. I have 4,500 avios which allowed me to pay $30.70 for the iberia flight. I paid cash for my AF flight.

If you have Skymiles, you could probably also use them to book the UX flight.

skymiles delta right??

Yes I will have a ton of those once my meet my spending later this month. I might go that route then and forego the ryanair $27 bucks lol just to avoid the hassle. Thanks!!!! I will definitely look into it!