Airlines 1, Tom & Katie 0

Or How We Ended Up With a Night in Madrid

All was going well until we hit the immigration line in Madrid with 40 minutes until our flight and a sign that said it would take 25 minutes just to get to our gate area, not counting immigration. Got through immigration and ran to the train to the other gates, ran from that and hit a security check. We're done. But got through. Still showing 'Last Call' on the departures screen. Running. We can see the end of the concourse. And a woman walking the other way says to us 'Copenhagen? Too late.'

So, a visit to the Iberia info desk says we need to collect our bags which have now been diverted from the plane. A visit to the Iberia baggage office says we need to pick up our bags on the other side of this glass wall and then go to Iberia ticket sales. A visit to another Iberia baggage office confirms this and that our bags will be out soon. A visit to the Iberia ticket sales office says we need to talk to American (through which we had gotten the frequent flier tickets). A visit to the American ticket sales office says it was Iberia's fault their incoming flight was late and they should take care of it. Another visit to the Iberia ticket sales office tells us we didn't run fast enough and it wasn't their fault we missed the connection and the best they can do is get us standby seats on tomorrow's flight to Copenhagen. A visit to the SAS ticket sales office (in another terminal) says it will cost about $500 each to change our tickets from Copenhagen to Bergen to one day later. It's now about 4 hrs after we first missed the flight and we haven't gotten very far. A few more minor frustrations later, and we're at the hotel booking kiosk in the airport.
Ok, we'll get a room in Madrid, have a bit of time to walk around and have a good Spanish dinner, then hope for the best tomorrow...Assuming we reach Copenhagen, it seems flying there to Bergen is out. But we'll make it to Norway one way or another. And this is the part of the trip that's supposed to be smooth.
And good Spanish dinner we had. Paella, ham, chorizo, potatoes, olives. All on an active street, great for people watching. Then a bit of a walk through central Madrid to work off the dinner, wandering down side streets. Although our tiredness from an overnight flight and the airport saga prevents us from getting too into anything that looks like a lengthy diversion.


Recommend: Hostal Monte Carlo
Don't Recommend: Iberia Airlines