Good morning from Madrid, ESP! 
where I had a really good time. Apart from the typical touristy things one must do when traveling, I also met up with some family as some have actually came here from Cali, COL 
like lots of them. Yesterday we were even at a wedding which is probably the main factor on why we came here in the first place. Madrid all in all is a fantastic city, the sights are amazing and while decently packed, it wasn’t too crowded, can’t say the same for our next destination, Barcelona. Barcelona is probably much more popular than Madrid for tourists. Some may even believe Barcelona is the actual capital of Spain and not Madrid. But besides that, I had a great time in Madrid and now we get to experience 2 days in Barcelona before we move more eastwards in our Europe travels. We’ll be flying with Iberia on their Airbus A321 in economy class, I’m glad you’re joining me on this trip so let’s get going!
After a brief 15-20 minute Uber ride from our apartment, welcome to Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas International Airport. I hope you don’t me saying that because we will be saying it A LOT on this trip series. Iberia operates out of terminal 4 here at MAD which is the primary terminal of this airport at least in my view. If you see a picture of Madrid’s airport, it’s likely from T4. Iberia’s check in area is large given that this is their primary hub. The line I was in consisted of self check in machines and then the baggage drop off at the actual counters. The line moved decently fast which is great given with the sheer amount of Iberia flights, this place can get crowded. The security check was also slightly painless, if anything it took us more time waiting for our bags after security than in the line itself. After security we took an escalator down to the departures hall where as you can expect, a duty free store was present selling all sorts of stuff even shirts of the Spain National Team as it is World Cup season. I had not eaten anything for breakfast so I stopped by a cafe to eat a ham and cheese sandwich 
which was very good. The terminal itself is actually very modern, clean and spacious which makes it feel much more luxurious than it actually is. Terminal 4 also has a main concourse and a satellite terminal, the main concourse is are for their domestic flights and Schengen Area flights while the satellite terminal is for long haul international or non Schengen destinations. As we are flying within Spain we will be here in the main terminal. There wasn’t a whole to do until boarding began so I kind of lounged around the waiting area and began writing this trip report because I had the time. I also took some pictures in the terminal with my mom because of just how iconic the architecture of this place is.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas (MAD/LEMD)
Destination: Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat (BCN/LEBL)
Flight Time: 0:51
Airbus A321-200 (Iberia)
Server: None (Real Life)
Parker at gate J54 is our ride to Barcelona this morning, EC-JQZ, a 20 year old Airbus A321-200 delivered to Iberia all the way back in April 2006.
We have not yet seen a very smooth and well organized boarding process this entire trip, and today was certainly no exception. Line up when we want to and push to the door, very organized 
Iberia’s A321s all have 217 economy class seats in a 3-3 configuration. The first 6 rows feature a typical European business class cabin with the middle seat blocked. The seat model found here are B/E Aerospace Pinnacles. The remaining seats are Recaro SL3510s with no middle seats blocked as this is the traditional economy cabin or what Iberia calls “Turista”
I also did not pre select my seats in advance and I got seated in seat 26A which may seem like a window seat right? Well it technically is. But take a look at Iberia’s A321 seat map and you’ll see it’s not, you see it’s one of those window seats which don’t actually have windows. But it’s not the complete end of the world though, you see if you look at the seat map again, it is actually an EXIT seat for door 3L. While this flight is definitely short, I’ll take the sacrifice of no window for unlimited legroom. Besides, looking at Flightradar24, it doesn’t look like the active runways at both MAD and BCN offer any views of either city so it’s whatever. The seat itself is comfortable and I’m not that tall so I could’ve easily handled a normal seat without the extra legroom. Unfortunately, you will have to place pretty much everything you have in an overhead bin as of course it’ll be obstructing the exit door. Boarding ended soon but we were held up at our gate as there was a runway change at Barajas Airport but the captain said we should hopefully make up some time en route to BCN, like it mattered anyway because A we don’t have a window and B, we’ll be taking off from MADs RWY 14L so we wouldn’t see the city anyways. Either way, the runway change situation got sorted out and we made our way over to RWY 14L for take off!
We would only cruise up to 27,000ft on this short hop across Spain
The crew soon began their cabin service not long after take off and I didn’t get anything. But from what I could tell, it looks like nothing was free (yes even water) by looking at the menu on board, it seemed that everything had a price tag. Now it is a 50 minute flight so it isn’t the end of the world but still something I should mention, also to my understanding, we were on mainline Iberia, not Iberia Express so I don’t know what was going. My guess is that they’re different on longer flights but it’s still something that’s worth mentioning. However, their buy on board menu like most European airlines EXCEEDS what you’ll find in the United States 
by a LONG SHOT. In the US or at least on One World partner American Airlines, the only thing on the menu are snack boxes and cheese platters. Even the ultra low cost carriers back in the states don’t have extensive menus compared to their European counterparts. As an American, there was really no need for a meal on this flight since I’m used to getting nothing anyways but I’m glad the option is there for those who do want something as different regions of the world all have different operations in terms of catering and in flight menus.
Iberia has free WiFi with Inmarsat EAN — powered satellite wifi onboard with full internet access being another addon. You can access their website free of charge to check flight information and the weather at your destination which is really useful. The inflight menu is also on the website so in case you’re too lazy to get yours physically, you can always access it digitally. There wasn’t a whole lot to do on this flight but luckily, we soon began our descent into Barcelona.
Our approach this afternoon would be a simple straight in approach into BCNs RWY 06L
I tried to use the window of the seat behind me to try and see the view of our final approach over the Mediterranean coast of Spain but the view wasn’t great and you can see why I didn’t bother using this as a substitute to not having a proper window
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to Barcelona, ESP! where I only have the remainder of today and the entirety of tomorrow before we depart to our next destination just across the Mediterranean Sea 
Anyways, Iberia was exactly how I expected them to be on a short domestic hop. They weren’t fantastic but now awful either, it was how I expected them to be for the most part. The seats were good enough, the crew was nice and WiFi being present gives them an advantage over my TAP Air Portugal flight from a few days ago. One thing TAP did do better however is their cabin service consisting of Chocolates 
and water while on Iberia we got NOTHING, not sure if this flight being domestic had something to do with it. There was however a very extensive buy on board menu which is always a plus. Overall, I had a good flight with Iberia and would fly them again if the price is right!
We have arrived at Barcelona’s Josep Taradellas El Prat International Airport. This aircraft will now be flown back to Madrid to await its next mission. As for us, we will be making our way to baggage claim 
to pick up our checked bags which took some time. But once they did come out, we got into our Uber to get to our hotel to drop off our belongings before exploring what Barcelona has to offer in the very little time we have here.
That will be it regarding this flight on Iberia’s Airbus A321-200 in economy class from Madrid to Barcelona, ESP and I hoped you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for our next destination and airline and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 
