Aleta

Iberia has some flights Barcelona to Madrid for which you cannot make reservations. The only ones allowing reservations are 6:30 am and 9:55 am.. Our American Airlines flight leaves Madrid at 1:00 pm, so I don't want to take the 9:55 and chance it with a scheduled arrival of 11:10.
How busy are these flights without reservations? We will have our huge suitcases from a 2 week cruise. We would be flying on a Sunday morning. How early would be need to arrive at the Barcelona airport to secure a seat on an 8:30 am flight?
Other choices are to go Span Air and arrive at a different terminal at 10:00 am or going the night before and changing hotels yet again.

Robert2533

You don't mention what the date is, but I would imagine that if Iberia isn't allowing you to make a reservation on the flight you want, on the date your want, it simply means that there are no seats available on that flight. You'll have to try another flight, airline or date.

Maribel

Hi Aleta,
I would certainly do the 9:55, arriving (with no delays) at T4 at 11:10 with a 1 pm departure from Barajas, because boarding will probably start around noon.

On www.iberia.com I see a scheduled 7:50 flight, IB2707. Is that not available for your date?
And I seem to be able to book the 8:30 on line. Maybe I can't if I try to continue the booking process?

Aleta

Robert, that is not the problem. There are specific flights for which Iberia will not allow booking ahead of time, they are a commuter-type service.
Iberia tells me the only flights I can book ahead for that morning are the 6:30 am or the 9:55 am, with nothing in between
Maribel, as you say "With no delays", I wouldn't worry about making the connection since Iberia and American are both in terminal 4. Yet we will still need to pick up luggage and re-check it on AA. But if we miss the flight, we don't get to fly out business class until the next day, and only if there are seats as we are flying on mile awards. We had this happen when flying Lisbon to Madrid, landed late right next to our American flight, and they closed the door as we were running towards it.
So, Maribel, if we land at 11:30 am, can we pick up luggage, get to American for check-in, and still make it to the gate? I think it's a push.
So now I'm looking at Span AIr, but it arrives in terminal 2 and we have to lug those horrid big suitcases. IT does give us more time.
This is why my original question was about these non-reservation flights, are they pretty full on Sundays, do frequent fliers get seats before us?

laclaire

I don't understand why you are going with Iberia. If you have a good reason (miles, or whatever), then yes, but BCN-MAD is great on Clickair (www.clickair.com) and Vueling (www.vueling.com).

As for frequent fliers getting seats first, I have taken that flight many times and it is first come, first served.

Another option that might be less stressful for you is to fly out of BCN on a late flight and stay at the Madrid airport. I have noticed that my vacation is all but over on the last night, so spending the last day in BCN then getting to Madrid and knowing that the last day will be sleeping in, a leisurely breakfast, and arriving on time for the flight sounds pretty appealing.

Maribel

Hi Aleta
The landing at 11:30, check in with American, switching from T4 to T4 satelliete and making it to the gate for a possible boarding starting around noon for your 1 pm departure is a real push that I would never attempt to make.

And I hate transfering from T2 to T4 with heavy suitcases on and off the shuttle bus. It's a pain.

But I haven't taken a non-reservation flight on the Puente Aéreo shuttle, so I'm sorry but I can't answer that question.

I wouldn't think that on a Sunday morning (no business traffic) the planes would fly full, but I'll leave it to others to give you a definite answer. If it were my situation, I would be at the terminal at El Prat with lots of time to spare to check in and buy the ticket for the shuttle, but that's me. I really don't like to push it. I hate to gamble that way. If I experience a delay and miss my transatlantic flight, the mess is on me.

I just looked at the Puente Aéreo shuttle schedule, Barcelona to Madrid on iberia.com, and I see an 8:45 flight (IB 845) as being the earliest that operates on Sundays. I don't see an 8:30 one.
But the schedule may change for your date-don't know.

Maribel

Aleta,
Yes, you do have the Click Air-Vueling (now merged) option but is there a flight that would get you to Barajas on Sun. morning with plenty of time to switch to T4 and re-check luggage?

I assumed you preferred Iberia so as to check your luggage all the way through (same alliance) and not have to change terminals.

Aleta

Yes, in a perfect world we would fly Iberia so that we would either check luggage in Barcelona all the way to Dallas, or at least arrive in Madrid's terminal 4, which is where American has its departure.
I was also trying to avoid another hotel change by not going to Madrid the night before our departure on American.
Vueling only has afternoon flights on Sunday, no flights on Click Air.
So I will weigh buying a sure ticket on Spanair and getting those suitcases over to terminal 4, or taking my chances on getting on the Iberia flight with no reservation on Sunday.
Thank you all for such quick responses.

lincasanova

If your bags are not checked clear through you will need enough time to go OUT and stand in line and do the entire process.

I also would rather sleep the last night near Barajas and forget this stress.

I would not trust non-scheduled non- bookable flights on a Sunday to even FLY if there were not enough passengers to make the shuttle worthwhile. The Puente Aereo is a businessmen's shuttle so Sunday would be risky, IMO.