catmandu

we are planning a family vacation for several family members to the Costa del Sol next year.

In order to avoid Heathrow airport as a connection point i am considering connecting either through Chicago/Madrid on to Malaga or through JFK/Barcelona to Malaga. We will be flying from DFW.

Is Barcelona a relatively simple airport to connect through as an immigration/customs point or would the DFW/ORD/Madrid connection work better?

We are making this trip in mid March next year so don't know whether Chicago or New York would be a safer connection point due to weather.

You can only control so much this far out!

Thanks for your replies.

Cathy Berg

LapLap

It's not clear to me what you're actually asking for here.

On an immigration point of view, it shouldn't make much difference your going through Madrid or Barcelona. It's a crap shoot anywhere in the world though, some immigration officials are unpleasant but in my own experience most aren't.

What you seem to be most concerned with is, quite rightly, the weather next March.

Will Chicago or New York be closed by snow? Who can tell? I would imagine that ORD had a slightly higher risk of being affected but this is just a European's perception of North America.

Best way to be prepared is to take out adequate travel insurance.

Of course, there's always the slim possibility that you'll encounter snow in Spain too - Madrid would be more likely than Barcelona to be affected.
Here are some photos from Madrid in February in 20005: http://momentosdeundia.blogspot.com/...in-madrid.html
But I've been stranded in Barcelona due to high winds and incredibly intense rain. And if it isn't the weather there's the possibility of industrial strike action.

Best thing is to arrange your flight with the least changes possible, that way there's one less thing to go wrong, and a higher chance of your luggage arriving too.

catmandu

Thanks for your reply LapLap. I guess i provided too much informtion to murky up my real question.

some airports are horrendous to connect through - like Heathrow - is Barcelona a smooth running airport versus connecting through Madrid or is Madrid the more efficient airport versus Barcelona?

That is the real and only question. I know the weather is like you said a crap shoot and you take what you can get traveling during the winter months in the US.

Thanks for your reply.

Cathy Berg

FlyingOnceMore

Barcelona or Madrid ?

As it's March, the new terminal in BCN won't be open, so having to change won't be a concern. BCN is one long terminal, very easy for connections.

MAD depends on the airlines you're using. It's easy too, if..... you stick to e.g. AA/IB as they're both in T4 which consists of the main T4 building and T4S midfield terminal connected by underground shuttle train.

Many other airline combinations at MAD would mean changing from T4 to T123

Without knowing who you're flying, I'd pick BCN.