Quick Trip to Seville. Transfer time in MAD
 

My wife and I are sneaking in a quick(4 days on the ground) trip to Spain and landed on Seville.

We will be arriving on AA36 in T4 at 8:40 in the morning. Tempted to be daring and try to catch a 10:10 AVE at Atocha, better price, more room, but looking more and more like I am being optimistic on our ability to get out of the airport and in a cab on time. Also looks like there is a C1/C10 train that goes to Atocha from T4, and takes ~29 minutes, would need to get off and through customs to get a 9:16 train. Anyone have experience here? Can also book on Iberia leaving at 11 to arrive at the same time, but like the scenery and room of the train.

Coming back will be on Iberia, same arrival times but leaving at 9am instead of 7am. Both get us in at 10AM for a noon flight, but being at the airport should be more likely to make the flight.

The transfer times between the airport terminals can be brutal, especially if you have to use terminal 4S (Iberia uses this especially). I ended up cancelling an Iberia ticket because the transfer time of 2 hours just wasn't enough after late arrival, customs, etc.

If you are hand luggage only...this might be feasible, but there's no room for error and not room for an unexpected line at passport control.

You will have to walk the length of T4S, go through passport control, take the train to T4 Main (protip is to always use the elevator to/from transit train), get a taxi (which does sometimes get to have a line at that time of day), the trip to Atocha, then security for the train and finally boarding on the train platform.

I would say if you go very fast you're looking at 1h15 or so to get it all done so I would personally say don't do it. Especially since you don't know it that well so any small thing could mess up your plan. Just either fly or get the next AVE and watch the turtles for a bit in Atocha.

There are trains every hour so I'd give yourself 2.5 hrs if you want to take the train. If you catch the 11:00 train, you'll get there right around lunchtime (13:30). On Iberia you'd get there around 12:30pm, and it'll take you another 30-45 mins to get to your final destination.

I'd fly this one. Have a cold beer or a glass of wine when you get to Seville if you have to wait for your AirBnB.

Don't understand the logic of already being at the airport but wasting time and effort travelling into the city to take the slower train. The route is not particularly scenic and whilst you might get slightly more space, that is offset by the longer time onboard.

I'm seeing more and more of this. I'm also usually pushing the envelope on connection times but not sure my wife will be up for running through the airport. There is an 11AM Renfe that gets us in at 1:30, and we can't check into the airbnb until 2 anyway. Debating doing a promo+ ticket to have the option to transfer if we don't make the 10 or just going for the 11.

Could also do much later and spend a few hours in Madrid

Transfers within T4 are pretty painless, especially if you only have hand luggage. Even between T4S and T4main. The annoying connections are between T4 and T1/2/3 so just get an Iberia Express flight to SVQ (yes it's uncomfortable, but it's a 45 minute flight)

I hope you're talking about SVQ to Seville city because this is just plain false in Madrid.

I am pretty sure that the driver would not be happy with 30 dollars...

Spain uses Euros.