Iberia Business Lisbon – Madrid
The flight from Lisbon to Madrid was just 45 minutes, but Iberia served breakfast even on this short flight over. I tried saying no, but the FA insisted that I have a look at what was on offer, which included an omelette, a small baguette, and granola along with some yogurt. I didn’t try the omelette so I can’t really say whether it was good or not.
Anyway before we knew it, we had landed at the beautiful Madrid Barajas Airport. I’ve raved about the design and elegance of this airport before in trip report from Spain a few years ago. It’s stunning but it sure means a lot of walking.
The Lounge:
Last time I was at Barajas Airport, I visited the Salvador Dali lounge before passport control and right past security. This time I was scheduled to depart on a flight back to the JFK so we went to the business class lounge located near some of the departure gates. The Velázquez lounge as it is formally called, is actually the lounge you want to visit at the airport anyway considering that it is the larger one of the two and features views of the tarmac at Barajas.
Access to the lounge is available for all departing business class international passengers, Oneworld elites (Sapphire or Emerald only).
The lounge is arranged as a corridor with seating along the windows and the buffet areas making up the area away from the large windows. It appeared like a place that had plenty of space, but boy did it fill up fast. Everyone was pretty much asking if the seat I was saving for my sister was vacant.
Food and beverages in the lounge are pretty average and limited in scope. The buffet featured a few breads, cereal. cold cut meats, and fruits while the beverages consisted included soft drinks, coffee, and some mid-tier alcoholic beverages. There were a few hot items, but none of them looked vegetarian. And quite frankly they might not have been too good given that they were hardly touched during our stay.
There is a kids play room in the middle of the lounge where I mostly saw adults lazing around or taking a siesta.
If you find no seating along the windows of the lounge, there is a dining table area in the back which appeared to be mostly empty while we were there. There is also a miniature food and beverage area there. This is perhaps my favorite area of the lounge and really is a quiet space to take care of work.
We had a decently long layover so I took advantage of the showers in the lounge. They were clean and well designed while the toiletries were Iberia branded and individually packaged.
The best part about the lounge was the abundance of power outlets and the views outside of the window at the runways. In the past I could easily see the nearby mountains, but this was a rather cloudy day.
Final Thoughts:
The Iberia Velázquez Lounge is definitely the nicer of the two lounges at Madrid airport. It is clean, functional, and moderately spacious. I must say that the seating was quite comfortable and well arranged to take in the views outside so kudos to them for doing that. While there is nothing to rave about in this lounge, there is also nothing to complain about either. Just a Tip: Head to the tables in the back if you think the lounge has filled up in other areas.
