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Review: the Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid

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Last weekend I (Anika) was down in Portugal visiting the new InterContinental hotel in Estoril, just down the coast from Lisbon.  My review will follow next week.

Our inbound flight from Lisbon was not as easy and straightforward as the outbound flight.  Let’s just say that my ‘not so great’ relationship with Iberia has not improved and I appreciate BA more than ever.

Outbound (BA): Fast track, lounge access, drinks and snacks in Economy, leg room and lovely flight attendants. London – Lisbon done.

Inbound (Iberia via Madrid): Fast track refused with my Silver card, Lisbon lounge like a sauna, flight delayed, changing in Madrid (I blame Rob for that though, he booked it!), ending up with just 30 minutes to check out the lounge and run to the other end of the terminal for the flight to London, literally no leg room (where BA puts 28 rows in an Airbus 320 Iberia squeezes in 30) and my gin and tonic (€7) came with blue tonic water:

blue tonic iberia

Anyway, although I only had a few minutes in the Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid, I still took some pictures for a quick review.  The bottom line is that it is well worth a visit.

When you sign in you can either go to the part on the left or to the right. The lady at the desk said it wouldn’t make a difference which one we chose as they were similar so we ended up turning left.  The lounge was huge with lots of sitting areas and enough room between them.

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid

The coffee bar had coffee, snacks and juices.

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid coffee bar

The self serviced bar had all the standard alcoholic drinks, however I didn’t see any champagne or prosecco:

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid

We were in the lounge between lunch and dinner which meant we found ourselves in front of a Pret A Manger-like fridge with sandwiches and salads. But, to be honest, we wouldn’t have had time for a proper meal anyway.

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid

Here are more sitting areas:

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid

And the TV room:

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid TV area

The lounge also has a relaxation room with beds where people were actually sleeping – hence no picture of the actual room.

Iberia Dali VIP lounge in Madrid relaxation area

Conclusion

As much as I don’t like Iberia, the Dali lounge was decent.

I can’t say much more about it as I didn’t have enough time to properly sit down.  It is definitely a good lounge for a quick drink and a snack and worth making time for if you are heading back to London or transferring to another Iberia flight.

If you want to find out more, there is a page on the Iberia website covering the Madrid lounges which can be found here.


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Comments (24)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rome77 says:

    I quite like this lounge: the small tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice cream being a particular favourite.

  • John says:

    €7 for a drink in a plastic cup??

  • Dali Man says:

    Er, this isn’t the Velazquez lounge!

    Also, importantly, it’s not in the middle of T4S – this is the Dali lounge and it’s in T4. T4S is for international outside of Schengen area flights.

    For what it’s worth, the Velazquez lounge in T4S (not the one in this article) is the best lounge I’ve ever been in. Absolutely huge and with amazing food and views. If you like wine they also seem to have a self service by the bottle area.

    • Paul says:

      That makes sense, I’ve been to the lounge a few times in 4S and the pictures looked similar but different to how I remembered it. As you said there are plenty of mini bottles of Cava to help yourself to

      • Rob says:

        In her defence, she had been on the booze for 48 hours non stop by this point 🙂

        Article corrected, a couple of comments removed as they are no longer relevant.

        • Ralph says:

          Lol

          I see my reply was removed about her expecting French or Italian sparkling wine in a Spanish lounge. Crazy.

          And about the good leg room on BA.

          • Rob says:

            Just tidying up Ralph, nothing personal!

          • HiDeHi says:

            Agree, the Iberia velaquez(Terminal 4s)is a good lounge. Small personal bottles of Cava and decent selection of hot and cold food. Definitely competes with the BA lounges for food and comfort and much better than most other lounges out there. Have not been to this Dali (Terminal 4) lounge.

  • Greenpen says:

    In the Velazquez lounge you will find lots of little quarter bottles of cava in the drinks units.

  • Harry says:

    I absolutely love the Velazquez lounge in Madrid (as opposed to the Dali lounge here). It’s big, not overcrowded, decent food and much better wine than any other lounge I’ve visited.

    Your Iberia experience doesn’t sound brilliant but my personal experience has been extremely positive. I find the Iberia long-haul business class seat infinitely more comfortable than BA club world. I’m also a big fan of Iberia catering which if light years ahead of BA in business class on the London-Madrid route…although in economy there is no complimentary food or drink. Hope you get better luck next time!

    • dps says:

      I agree; Sala Velazquez is more spacious and (except during 2 IB longhaul departure “waves” late morning and after 2200) less crowded; food more varied (including salads and pasta on request).

      Being in 4S, it’s accessible when flying BA as against IB to London. I have also never failed to get a shower within a few minutes of arriving longhaul from Latin America en route to London.

  • Lumma says:

    I’m flying JFK to MAD on iberia business, then back to London on economy booked on a separate ticket. Does anyone know if I can use the lounge as it’s quite a long layover. I know there’s an arrivals lounge but these lounges look better.

    I did ask the Iberia English twitter team but I’m sure it’s manned by people who use Google translate to answer your questions. Which would be hilarious if you didn’t want to find out some information.

    • James T says:

      Yes, I did this last year and was accepted into the Dali Lounge without any questions. Its covered in the One World Lounge policy if you have any problems – https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access

      It’s a great work around to fly like this to be honest – I saved a fortune when I travelled MAD-EZE, GIG-MAD with short hauls to/from LHR on separate tickets.

      • Lumma says:

        Great. This is the exact response I got on twitter from iberia

        “Hi, they can be use only when you flight on business class Kind Regards”

        I told them I was flying in on business and out on economy

  • Waribai says:

    Whichever lounge it is, let’s face it you’re probably not going to be disappointed by turning up here mistakenly.
    I also liked the article, well written and interesting info. Keep up the good work!

  • David says:

    For business class on LHR-MAD route, Iberia’s widebodies are miles ahead with flat beds, ok-ish food, AVOD but crew are generally more of a miss than hit. As for BA CE on the same route, we last flew a 767- old seats with minimal recline, no AVOD, ok breakfast but crew were excellent.
    In economy, BA every time. In business- Iberia on widebodies.
    As for Madrid Iberia lounges, the T4S lounge was nicer with better food and drink options (even than galleries lounge in LHR) but that might be just my opinion but the IberiaT4 lounge was overcrowded with minimal offerings.

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