Read more from this trip – 17-days in Europe and the Middle East:

• Introduction: 17-days in Europe and the Middle East
• Finnair Business Class New York to Helsinki (JFK-HEL)
• Finnair Business Class Lounge – Helsinki (HEL)
• Finnair Business Class Helsinki to Brussels (HEL-BRU)
• Hilton Antwerp Old Town
• Iberia Dalí Premium Lounge Madrid
• Nakar Hotel – Palma de Mallorca
• Sala VIP Formentor Palma de Mallorca
• W Barcelona
• Tickets Food Review
• Royal Jordanian Crown Business Class Barcelona to Amman (BCN-AMM)
• W Amman
• Hilton Dead Sea Resort and Spa
• Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge Amman
• Hilton Tel Aviv
• Dan Lounge Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv (“TLV”)
• Iberia Business Class Tel Aviv to Madrid (TLV-MAD)
• Iberia Velázquez Premium Lounge Madrid
• American Airlines Business Class Madrid to New York (MAD-JFK)

Introduction

Lounge Visit Details:

• Date visited: August 11, 2019
• Where: Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport Terminal 4S
• Class: Business Class Lounge

Iberia has two lounges in Madrid, the Dalí Premium Lounge in Terminal 4 that primarily serves short haul flights, and the Velázquez Premium Lounge in Terminal 4S that primarily serves long haul flights.

After landing from Tel Aviv I arrived at Terminal 4S, which was convenient since my onward flight to New York departed from the same terminal. The Velázquez lounge is located in the duty free shop and unlike the Dalí lounge is easy to find thanks to well placed clear signage.

Access

Customers flying First or Business Class on any OneWorld airline can use the Velázquez Premium Lounge. OneWorld Emerald and Sapphire members can also access the lounge and may invite one guest to join them. The guest must also be traveling on a flight operated and marketed by a OneWorld carrier.

Seating

I thought the Dalí lounge was big, but the Velázquez is even bigger. It’s HUGE! At almost 27,000 square feet it’s the largest lounge I’ve ever visited. It can accommodate up to 500 people and giraffe friends.

The lounge has several different types of seating options. There’s three seater privacy walled sofas upholstered in red leather, which feature a cushioned seat and back for support. I saw a few people sprawled out on these taking a nap.

Along the wall you have swivel chairs with a glass side table. You’ll find plenty of type F 230 V power outlets to charge your devices.

There’s also speciality seating areas including a dedicated work area. It doesn’t offer much privacy, but may be ideal if you’re working with a group of colleagues. Again, there’s plenty of power ports and in this section they’re located in the middle of the work desk.

If you’re looking to veg out and enjoy some Spanish language TV head to one of the entertainment rooms. Here you’ll find more privacy walled sofas (in black) and some bench seating options. In my opinion the TV was kind of small for the size of the room.

Pro-tip: Grab a window seat. The Velázquez lounge is my favorite at Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport thanks to the floor to ceiling windows with excellent views of the apron.

Food and Beverage

As a point of reference I visited the lounge at around 10am so there were only breakfast items available. I was happy to see some healthy options including a Greek yogurt station. There were blueberries, raisins, berry puree, orange puree and sliced almonds to accompany the yogurt.

Those looking for a hearty breakfast wont be disappointed. They had a hot food station with cheese omelets and bacon.

They had a second hot food station with Spanish omelets and marinated mushrooms. I can attest that the Spanish omelets were delicious.

There are several Egro espresso machines scattered throughout the lounge. They produce an excellent cappuccino, espresso or laté. These retail for over $23,000 per machine, which blows my mind.

In the back corner of the lounge they had a proper sit down restaurant, which appeared to be closed during my visit. Iberia’s website claims that it’s open for lunch and dinner, but I’ve heard from several frequent flyer giraffes that it may only be open for late night dining.

Moving along you’ll find a sexy wine bar. It looks like it could be staffed by a bartender, but during my morning visit it was self serve.

To the right side of the bar they had several chilled wines and sparkling wine options. The sparkling was Villa Conchi Cava Brut. It had flavors of ripe fruit and citrus, but at $12.99 a bottle may be best used for making a mimosa. I may have mentioned this before, but giraffes LOVE mimosas.

On the left side of the bar they had 8 different Spanish red wines available. I’ll have to come back in the evening and do a proper wine tasting.

The wine bar also had a diverse selection of mid-range liquor including several gins, vodkas, rums and whiskeys.

To the left of the hard liquor was a Coca-Cola branded bar cart. I wasn’t familiar with the beverages inside so had to look it up. Coca-Cola Spain recently launched a line of eight new premium mixers called Royal Bliss. I’m coming back here before a late afternoon flight in December so I’ll report back on this.

Overall Verdict

First Class Giraffe Approved

The Iberia Velázquez Premium Lounge at Madrid Adolfo Suarez-Barajas Airport is stunning. There’s plenty of comfortable seating with lots of natural light and excellent views of the runway. The buffet options were decent for my morning visit and the beverage selection was quite good. While I wouldn’t necessarily come to the airport early to visit this lounge it sure is a great way to kill a few hours before your flight.