Flight connection - Madrid to Barcelona

[Bethany Beach]

Flying US Air from Philadelphia to Madrid with a 3 hour layover until catching a Spanair flight from Madrid to Barcelona. We have never been to Europe so haven't experienced a connecting flight in that continent.

 

I have not been able to get the same answer from various airline reps, so thought I'd see if anyone has actually experiences this connection. My questions are

 

Will we go through customs/immigration in Madrid or will we get on Spanair and then go through customs/immigration in Barcelona?

 

If we go through cus/imm in Madrid, do we exit the terminal and then look for the terminal for Spanair? Will we have to collect our luggage or will that automatically be transferred? I have been told that our luggage will automatically be put on the Spanair flight, but would like to know if anyone actually experienced this.

 

I have printed the MAD terminal map but it is hard to tell how large the airport really is as far as walking from one terminal to another.

 

We leave this Wednesday evening, but this just came to mind as thunderstorms are predicted and even in nice weather one is lucky to have a flight out of PHL leave on time. I just want to be organized when we get there in case time is short.

 

My husband does speak half decent Spanish, so that should help if we get lost, I suppose.

[andynapril]

If I remember correctly we did have to go back through security (they made me throw out my tiny little bottle of airplane wine :(), but we didn't have to exit the airport or anything. I'm pretty sure we cleared customs in Barcelona, but it was our first time too & we had no problems figuring out where to go. It was pretty easy. Hope this helps.

[HeinBloed]

Flying US Air from Philadelphia to Madrid with a 3 hour layover until catching a Spanair flight from Madrid to Barcelona. We have never been to Europe so haven't experienced a connecting flight in that continent.

 

I have not been able to get the same answer from various airline reps, so thought I'd see if anyone has actually experiences this connection. My questions are

 

Will we go through customs/immigration in Madrid or will we get on Spanair and then go through customs/immigration in Barcelona?

 

If we go through cus/imm in Madrid, do we exit the terminal and then look for the terminal for Spanair? Will we have to collect our luggage or will that automatically be transferred? I have been told that our luggage will automatically be put on the Spanair flight, but would like to know if anyone actually experienced this.

 

I have printed the MAD terminal map but it is hard to tell how large the airport really is as far as walking from one terminal to another.

 

We leave this Wednesday evening, but this just came to mind as thunderstorms are predicted and even in nice weather one is lucky to have a flight out of PHL leave on time. I just want to be organized when we get there in case time is short.

 

My husband does speak half decent Spanish, so that should help if we get lost, I suppose.

 

You will land in Madrid,

 

clear immigration (as you are entering the Schengen-Zone)

and then walk to your next terminal.

 

You will land in Terminal 1

Spanair departs from Terminal 2

 

But Terminal 1 and 2 are well connected and next to each other and you can walk easily from one Terminal to the next. We are talking about few minutes. So you will not leave any building. Just look for "T2" and your gate on the departure board as you will get the boarding pass directly from US Airways for your connecting flight to Barcelona but it might not show the gate.

 

Your baggage will be transferred automatically to your next flight and you will not see it before Barcelona.

 

3 hours is very much as you should not expect immigration like in the US. Everyone need seconds to get through the counters.

 

Currently Madrid expects for today 23°C and sunshine.

 

So have a great cruise.

 

Regards,

HeinBloed