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Something we never knew …. Iberia has a secret Arrivals Lounge in Madrid Terminal 4

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Here’s something we never knew – Iberia has a well-hidden arrivals lounge in Madrid’s Terminal 4.

Reader Lorcán emailed us with a mini review and some pictures as no one seems to know that this lounge exists.  It turns out that it actually launched four years ago, but not only did Lorcán struggle to find it, he even struggled to find any Iberia staff who knew where it was.

EDIT 2023: This lounge has now closed

Where is Iberia’s arrivals lounge in Madrid?

There is no signage to the arrivals lounge.  What you need to do is follow the signs to the train station on level -1 of Terminal 4.

The lounge is located within a transit hotel which is opposite the Madrid underground and commuter trains access points.  When you get to level -1, do not enter the station but walk in the other direction – it will be in front of you although not well marked.

This is what you’re looking for – if you don’t see this, look for signage saying ‘Premium Air Rooms’ which is the name of the transit hotel:

Iberia arrivals lounge in Madrid Terminal 4

The lounge itself was fairly small with about nine tables, each seating two people.

Lorcán was the only one using the lounge for the hour or so he spent there.  It is quite clear that many people don’t know it exists, although with just nine tables this is probably sensible.

Iberia arrivals lounge in Madrid Terminal 4

You can leave your luggage in a secured area so you don’t have to drag around your suitcases.  The lounge also offered an ironing service and had a number of newspapers and magazines.

The breakfast on offer was very simple with a range of juices, cereals etc.

Iberia arrivals lounge in Madrid Terminal 4

As well as the ‘Sala de Llegadas’ arrivals lounge, there are 22 hotel rooms which can be booked for 3 – 6 hours.

Iberia’s VIP Arrivals lounge has excellent shower facilities that are part of the hotel rooms.  If you are not arriving as a premium passenger, you can book the showers for a fee – the attached bedroom will be locked out so you can’t grab a quick nap at the same time!

Who can access the Iberia arrivals lounge?

The Iberia Sala de Llegadas arrivals lounge is available to:

Iberia business class passengers IF your final destination is Madrid – you cannot use it if you are connecting, which presumably disqualifies a lot of potential users

Iberia Plus Platinum cardholders, flying on any oneworld airline or Vueling

Iberia Plus Gold and Iberia Singular cardholders, flying on Iberia

Importantly, oneworld elite members are not eligible – if you have arrived in economy with a British Airways Gold card, you’re not getting in.

You must be arriving from a flight of at least four hours duration, so you won’t be popping in after your trip from London.  It WILL be useful if you are taking a long-haul flight to Madrid.

Unlike the British Airways arrivals lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5, which we reviewed here, the Iberia arrivals lounge is open 24 hours a day.

Remember that long-haul Avios redemptions on Iberia are SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper in terms of taxes and sometimes require fewer Avios too.  New York on an off-peak date in Business Class is 68,000 Avios return and around £175 in taxes, compared to 100,000 Avios and £600+ of taxes on British Airways, for example.  You can learn more about redeeming Avios on Iberia in this article.

You can find more details on the Iberia arrivals lounge on this page of iberia.com.

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Category

Iberia and Iberia Plus

Comments (37)

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

  • darrenf says:
    11 Mar11 March 05:06

    Sorry to nitpick but it’s “Sala de Llegadas” (two Ls, not one, and visible in the first pic). “Legadas” means legacies, not arrivals!

  • Tony says:
    11 Mar11 March 05:53

    “As well as the ‘Sala de Legadas’ arrivals lounge, there are 22 hotel rooms which can be booked for 3 – 6 hours. These are run by a private company, not Iberia, and can be booked here.”

    Noe also that proper overnight stays can be booked. It’s not cheap but given the lengthy bus rides involved to other MAD airport hotels, this is quite an innovation.

  • BJ says:
    11 Mar11 March 06:50

    OT: at least 4 new amex offers appearing this morning – virgin trains, europcar, journey and urban massage.

  • Steve S says:
    11 Mar11 March 07:30

    “ It is quite clear that many people don’t know it exists, although with just nine tables this is probably sensible.”

    Oh no!!

  • Lumma says:
    11 Mar11 March 08:39

    Strange, I used this when I flew Iberia business and I thought I’d read about it on HFP. They definitely mentioned it on the flight though.

    I had a long wait until my flight back to London and was quite happy to sit there for a few hours (again I was the only person in there) but the receptionist came up to me to remind me that’s it only an arrivals lounge and I can’t sit there all day.

    I think you have to ask them to let you use the toilet as they’re the shower rooms for the hotel rooms too.

    If I was connecting same day on either Iberia or BA I’d probably just use the normal Iberia lounges and not bother with this.

  • Julian says:
    11 Mar11 March 09:17

    Something tells me this lounge is now about to become significantly busier following its promotion to this frequent flyer group…………..

    • TGLoyalty says:
      11 Mar11 March 09:19

      I knew about it from other blogs but doesn’t make it any easier to find. I gave up on my last trip and headed straight out to the city

      • Shoestring says:
        11 Mar11 March 09:43

        Yep me too, I can’t see it suddenly getting popular though – everybody already had breakfast etc on the plane and if the showers aren’t free of charge, it’s a bit of a waste of time.

        • Julian says:
          11 Mar11 March 09:48

          Perhaps only useful then for those who suddenly feel thirsty or hungry again once they have collected their bags.,,,,,

        • EvilDoctorK says:
          11 Mar11 March 15:21

          I did try to use it once before a few years ago for a shower and there was some pretty lengthy registration procedure ( involving a passport iirc ) only to be told at the end of it there was a wait of several hours for a shower ( no idea why as the place looked deserted )

      • Bagoly says:
        11 Mar11 March 19:57

        I booked a relevant flight, googled in case there was one, found on other blog, and used it.
        Apparently it was set up in 2015.
        I seemed to be the only guest at the time.
        And yes registration did take some time.

  • Mark says:
    11 Mar11 March 09:53

    It’s worth remembering that although booking outbound LH flights via Madrid incurs UK long haul APD, the same is not true for inbound flights.

    When I experimented with the taxes and fees pricing, booking London to Madrid, Madrid to destination and destination to London via Madrid as three separate bookings didn’t make it more expensive than London to Madrid return and Madrid to destination return.

    That has the advantage of making the connection in the return trip a bit easier, with IB responsible for dealing with any missed connection due to delay in the first leg.

    If you do this you won’t be able to use the Sala de Llegadas and would have to use the departure lounge in T4 instead, but given the size I guess that’s deliberate……

    • Lumma says:
      11 Mar11 March 10:09

      Surely there’s nothing stopping you clearing passport control and using this lounge if you want to?

      • Doug M says:
        11 Mar11 March 10:11

        When they scan your LH to Madrid boarding pass it may show you’re changing in Madrid, not completed the journey.

  • Doug M says:
    11 Mar11 March 10:09

    OT: Curve on Android. When you get messages from Curve, is there an in app option to see them? The alert doesn’t always show the full message, also can be accidentally cleared. There doesn’t seem to then be an option in the app to see what the message was.

    • Lumma says:
      11 Mar11 March 10:10

      I thought you also got an email from curve each time which you can just reply to if you need anything else?

      • Doug M says:
        11 Mar11 March 10:15

        No for me. They have my email as I can see it in the details on the app. But within the app there’s really nothing maintainable other than the card that’s linked.

        • Peter 64K says:
          11 Mar11 March 10:49

          Same problem for me. I have to clear other alerts/push notifications I have on my phone then it allows me to see the full curve message.

    • the_real_a says:
      12 Mar12 March 02:32

      I reported this bug several times during beta and just gave up. The avacado munching millenials at curve clearly don’t use android as a daily device…

    • Alan says:
      12 Mar12 March 08:15

      They’ve recognised the issue and it’s on the list to be fixed (no timescale though)

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