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My review of 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 posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • aliks says:

    I hate the way Madrid refuses to allow Silver/Gold to use fasttrack – your boarding pass will say emerald/sapphire but the gate dragons at the entrance to fastrack will have none of it even if its deserted. Its doubly irritating as its located a little way away from the main entrance – a 50m roundabout walk to get back to the main entrance.

    I agree the Dali lounge is one of the best – in my opinion its a notch above Velazquez which has been a bit busy and light on food each time I’ve used it. Also, if you want to bring in a guest to the Velazquez you may be challenged to produce your SIlver/Gold card. I dont usually carry the card itself, so I had to hunt around on my laptop to convince the door girls.

    • DS says:

      Emeralds can certainly use fast track

      Emerald members traveling on flights operated and marketed by the following Carriers
      Iberia, American Airlines
      https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/emerald-privileges

      • Rome77 says:

        Yup. I’ve been denied fast track as Sapphire but never as Emerald – even with family in tow.

    • Jordan D says:

      Emeralds flying LAN are denied Fast Track; apologies from the airport staff at MAD, but they showed me the documents which clearly show that LAN (as operating carrier) has not paid for the Fast Track service.

  • Roger says:

    Did I miss the reason for not flying LIS-LON direct? No availability?

    If it was just to sample a MAD lounge, that would be a connection too far for me.

  • Peter K says:

    Just a comment to say I feel that this is the best review from Anika that I have read so far. Lots more of her personality in it. This is the way forward I think, great 🙂

  • MikeTravellingDad says:

    Dear All, after months of lurking over my morning emails, I wanted to give you a massive thank-you to all the team!

    I was in the Dalí last week, and while the space is lovely, there was ZERO food at 1430h (i.e. Spanish lunchtime) except for dreadful cardboard wraps with lettuce & mayonnaise! (Drinks offer faulous).

    To wade in with the Iberia-bashing, my return MAD-LHR on BA was cancelled due to the ATC strike. BA online did let me accept an alternative, but then “passed me over” to the Iberia page, which I filled in with all our details but which each time said “please fill in with the correct details”.

    There was an urgent (premium cost) number: 902 111 333, the reply to which was “no client has been assigned this number”.

    *sigh*….in the end went to my airport of origin (MLN) at 0700h to get the new boarding cards.

    There, THAT feels better! (after 30 years with Iberia…)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.