We have booked with Iberia Air from JFK-Barcelona. We're concerned as we first touch down in Madrid at 7:10 AM.& then get on another plane that takes off at 8:25 AM. to Barcelona. I told the agent that I thought this was rather tight, but her answer was 'oh, everyone on this flight is going on to Madrid'. ( Hmm, I don't think so!) I asked how far away the second plane was & where to find it & she said she had no idea & I would have to check the 'board' when I got off the first plane. Well, this has me really worried. When I asked for my seat assignment, she gave us row 28.
So, here's my question: Would it help if I called Iberia & tried to get a row closer to the front of the plane? And--has anyone ever made this connection, is the second plane usualy close by or would it even be in a different terminal? I have visions of us being stranded in the Madrid airport for hours trying to get on a later flight to Barcelona.
Any advice?

I don't have great advice, probably some others who have done this exact thing may. However, Madrid isn't that large an airport, so that helps a lot. I think you can make that if the first flight is on time. Madrid was a little disorganized when I was there, I will admit, in that I kept watching the boards to announce my gate departure and, of course, the boards weren't working and supposedly everybody knew you had to go to this other terminal for the flight (except me, I don't know how they knew). When time was getting tight, I had to ask the clerk at the airline desk where the gate was, and they looked it up to tell me. The security lines are fairly long at Madrid, as you can imagine, at least for a small airport. You had to go through security several times -- twice, as I recall. Once to get to the general terminal area and then once again closer to the actual gate for your plane.

If you can't find your gate listed on the board, try to ask an agent ASAP, is my advice, instead of waiting for the gate number to show up on the board.

I think a row closer to the front could help, of course, but may not make much difference. A lot of those folks probably will be transferring to go to Barcelona, but certainly not all of them, as you suspect.

As long as you get to a gate close to your scheduled arrival time, I wouldn't be concerned. You will likely arrive at terminal 1 (orange) and need to transfer to terminal 2 (green) or 3 (red).

As Christina said, MAD is not large. Check out http://www.madrid-mad.com/maps.html. You will have to go through immigration between flights, but an hour should be ample.

I was just there in January and I think an hour and 15 minutes will be plenty of time, but of course it won't hurt to ask to be moved closer to the front of the plane. When the airlines set times for "legal connections," they determine how long it takes to get from one place to another and they don't allow connections for less time than it will realistically take. That goes for both passengers and transfer of luggage. In fact, they tend to allow far more time than you actually need. Unless you have a serious delay with your first flight, do not worry about your connection.

You don't need to worry, as Iberia has extremely freuqent flights from MAD to BCN. We're talking about a flight every 10-15 minutes when you're arriving, really.

After 8:25, there's 8:35, 8:45, 9:00, 9:55, etc...

If your flight from JFK is late, they will put you on the next connection.

How do you "know" that there aren't a lot of people on your plane making the same connection?

Your luggage will be checked through I assume.

Forget about getting off the plane first unless you are in First Class.

You are stuck with the reservations you've made. Assume the best rather than the worst for a change.

Hi Travelegs,

I make the connection from Madrid to Barcelona twice a year and I can tell you this about that: First of all, the flight you are taking is a "shuttle" if you miss it, they will put you on the very next one. These shuttles leave all day long from Madrid to Barcelona (more than once an hour during the busy times), the reason the travel agent couldn't tell you that is because I don't think the shuttles are on any actual "time schedule" , they just give you a laminated boarding pass when you arrive in Madrid and you go and stand in line for the plane as if it were a bus (when you board you just sota pick a seat). Overall the system works well
unless the airline or airport employees happen to be striking the day you arrive. This has only happened to me once over the past 7 years and I had to wait about 3 hours. Keep in mind that in Spain (my favorite country by the way), you will find most people much more relaxed about these things than in the US.

It is very possible that alot of the people on your plane will be going on to Barcelona, as Madrid is often a stop on the way for airlines. Being from a small town in Pennsylvania, my travel agents have very little experience with actual travel (especially out of the country)and although they can be difficult at times I try to work them through the situation, explaining why exactly I am being picky. Have fun! I'll actually be in Santiago de Compostela in July and I can't wait!

one nice, sane little touch from iberia is that they allow embarcation and disembarcation from both the front and rear of the plane greatly facilitating passenger flow.

why other airlines don't allow this very civil approach to cattle herding continues to baffle me.

Wow... I didn't realise desembarcation from both ends wasn't more common. Well, I suppose that if you have one of these tubes connected to the exit, it's kind of difficult to have 2. Lately, I've usually been flying Ryanair, and they always do that. Both embarcation and desembarcation as a matter of fact, but that's probably because there are no seats asigned. Tip: run to the back entrance and you'll still have an emergency exit seat