Iberia operates three lounges at Madrid Barajas airport. All of those are located in its Terminal 4, and there is one in the Schengen departure area of the main building (Iberia Premium Lounge Dali), one in the non-Schengen departure area of the satellite building (Iberia Premium Lounge Velazquez), and one in the arrivals hall.
The one in the non-Schengen area – Iberia Premium Lounge Velazquez – was recently renovated, and so I was excited to visit it prior to my Iberia flight to Tokyo back in October.
Continue reading to see what the lounge was like and whether it’s worth visiting (spoiler alert: yes, it is).
Location, Opening Hours & Access
The Iberia Premium Lounge Velazquez is located in the non-Schengen part of Terminal 4S.
As such, to get there, you first have to check in the main building of Terminal 4. Then you have to clear security, take an automated train to the satellite building, clear immigration, and then you can head into the lounge which can be found in the middle of the duty free shopping area.
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To be able to enter the lounge, your flight will need to be departing from an “S-gate” in Terminal 4S and you will either need to have a oneworld Emerald or Sapphire status, or be traveling in business or first class on a oneworld airline.
The lounge is open 24 hours a day.
Lounge Tour
Behind the door was a large and nicely designed reception desk staffed with four agents at the time of my visit. The other side of the wall separating the reception from the lounge itself served as a reading material stand. While there were both English and Spanish magazines, etc., the selection wasn’t that extensive.
The lounge was long and fairly narrow with windows overlooking the apron and runways surrounding it from three sides. There was a large general lounging area with lounging chairs as well as “walled” sofas by the windows along the lounge’s long side, especially in the central part of the lounge around the reception.
Towards either end of the lounge, there was a variety of “specialized” areas.
Throughout the lounge, there were more than enough power outlets and flight information displays.
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Now, let’s take a look at the various areas – and let’s start by turning left at the entrance.
Besides the general seating area along the window, there was an “Enjoy” section with a couple of sofas and a television. Next to it were a coffee corner and a “Work” section which only consisted of a single conference table with six chairs.
Unfortunately, there were no cubicles or other semi-private working areas.
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Further down, there was a buffet area with several counters filled with a good selection of food and drinks, and two dozen or so tables. As usual, I’ll talk more about the contents of the buffet further down in the “Food and Drinks” part of this review.
While the buffet area was at the end of the long part of the lounge, the lounge continued behind the corner. Turning left at the end of the lounge, there was a small seating area which led to the lounge’s dining room.
The seating area consisted of about a dozen black sofa chairs arranged around coffee tables and a drinks corner. This area offered nice view of aircraft at some of the adjacent gates.
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As for the dining room, it featured plenty of tables for two and four people, a snacks and drinks counter, as well as some sofas along its walls coupled with coffee tables. During limited hours (I believe from 9PM), a la carte dining service seems to be offered in the lounge.
When I visited in the morning, though, the dining room was empty, and so it was a great area to get some work done. Especially so since the chairs were fairly comfortable and some of the tables were equipped with power outlets.
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Going back to the reception and to the right, there was a “Play” section for kids. Besides a nice HOLA-shaped sofa, there was a video game console and a TV playing animated movies.
Then, there was another buffet area which offered roughly the same contents as the one on the other end of the lounge. Besides that, there was also a “cafe-like” seating area with some lighter tables and chairs (compared to the ones in the dining area) and a self-service bar.
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Other than the above, this part of the lounge also included shower rooms and a sleeping room – although I didn’t visit either of them so cannot report on the details.
Food and Drinks
Throughout the lounge, there were plenty of drink stations – they were at each of the buffet areas, in the dining room, as well as in a couple of other places. There were canned and bottled cold soft drinks, and there were coffee machines with Illy coffee and some teas.
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Alcoholic drinks – as far as I noticed – were only available in the bar area on the right end of the lounge. There was a selection of more than 20 kinds of liquor, 7 bottled beers, and a variety of wine.
In terms of food, perhaps the biggest attraction of the lounge (at least in theory) is its a la carte dining service. Unfortunately, though, it’s only available at night, and so I wasn’t able to experience it since I visited the lounge mostly during breakfast hours. I cannot find any review of it elsewhere online either, so if you happen to know what the menu looks like, etc., please leave a comment at the end of this post.
Instead, during my visit, there were only some sandwiches and wraps, and apples and oranges in the dining section of the lounge.
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Of course, there was a much wider selection of things to eat than the above in the two buffet areas of the lounge.
There was a selection of lighter items including fruits, cereals, bread, cookies, etc.
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There was also a “yogurt station” where one could make a yogurt with a selection of sauces and toppings, as well as a salad bar with a decent selection of ingredients.
Other than that, the selection of cold items included some sushi rolls, cold cuts, and sandwiches.
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As for hot items, they were limited to omelettes, mushrooms, and bacon.
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Iberia Lounge Velazquez Madrid Barajas Summary
Together with The Qantas London Lounge, this has to be my favorite lounge in Europe (out of the ones that I had the chance to visit). I really liked the decor and design of the lounge as well as the fact that it offered good apron views.
While I would have welcomed a bit more in terms of hot meal options, the wide range of cold breakfast items compensated for that. And, there is only so much you can do during breakfast time – I am sure their lunch and dinner selection would have been better.
To sum it up, I had a great experience overall – unlike on my Iberia flight from Vienna to Madrid.
3 thoughts on “Review: Iberia Premium Lounge Velazquez at Madrid Barajas Airport”
Two things to clarify: the dining room opens for dinner at 9:30 pm (not 9:00 pm). Also the food, while a la carte, is no different than the buffet options offered in the regular dining areas.
Hi Jules, thanks for the additional information!
Leaving tonight from terminal 4s to Brussels, as being a Schengen flight can I access the lounge as a business Iberia ticketholder?