traveling to Spain in March 2009
 

my family and i are traveling to Marbella in March. My question concerns the procedure at the Madrid airport.

we fly from Dallas via Miami to Madrid and then on to Malaga.

Do we clear immigration/customs at the Madrid airport and have to physically retrieve our checked luggage and recheck it again for our flight on to Malaga?

i am concerned that we have about an hour and 50 minutes to connect at the Madrid airport for our Iberia flight on to Malaga. and i might consider just carrying my luggage onto the planes since i travel very light anyway.

Thanks.

Cathy Berg

You clear inmigration in MAD, but you don't retrieve your luggage there. As you come from outside the EU your luggage will have a white tag (luggage inside the EU has a green tag), so when you claim your luggage in AGP the custom officers may ask you to open it as they'll be able to identify that you come from a country outside the european borders

connecting in MAD
 

that is awesome. Thanks so much. Looks like we should have plenty of time to do our connection in MAD.

Cathy Berg

I think you should have enough time for the transfer. Be aware of the fact that the terminals are spread out. You probably are arriving at T4. Know your terminal for the connecting flight and catch the airport transport accordingly. See here
http://www.madrid-mad.com/terminals.html

You will only need to move from T4S to T4 by train after going through passport control, which will seem very quick and calm by American standards. You should easily be fine with 30 minutes.

Upon arrival at AGP, do not proceed to the baggage claim for your flight but continue to the very last carousel, I believe number 26 to first collect your bags, then move to the far end where you place them yourself on a short conveyor for an X-ray and then collect them after they pass through. They will take you aside if needed, but is very very rare.

http://www.aena.es/cartografia/termi...i=4112&t=2&p=0

This last carousel is glassed in and just before the terminal departure doors to your left. This area becomes very congested and confused at times as bags from all non-schengen flights and at times AGP can have 20 UK flights in one hour if you are very unlucky.

If you have a rental car booked proceed straight ahead and down a long ramp to the lower level or if not proceed out the double doors to your left and into the congested terminal waiting room with ground transportation directly ahead and then to the right half way down for the Marbella bus. The buses hold the limited schedule very well. Taxi best from Marbella bus terminal. All taxis are set fare so the driver can look in the book and tell you the fare prior to journey, even from AGP.

http://www.ctsa-portillo.com/ima/pdf/marbella.pdf

Trip to Marbella
 

Thanks so much for all this information. I had checked on the Madrid Airport map and it does appear we will have a short transfer between terminals. But thanks for the additional information once we arrive into AGP.

Cathy Berg

I am traveling to Malaga in May. I am taking a Delta flight from MCI to JFK to MAD then taking an Iberia flight from MAD to AGP (Malaga). After contacting Delta they told me to allow 150 minutes for baggage transfer between flight at the Madrid airport. So this way I can check my baggage in at the Kansas City International airport and pick them up in Malaga since Delta has a baggage agreement with Iberia. Delta and Iberia fly out of different terminals, and I believe it doesn't take too long to get between them.

I just wanted to post the info for anyone who might be looking to fly into Malaga and needed to stop in Madrid to switch airlines.