The Iberia Business Class lounge at Madrid Airport, also known as the Premium Lounge Velázquez, is situated in Terminal 4S, the non-Schengen area. There is even an official page on Iberia's website. This is the lounge you will be using if flying British Airways or Iberia to London or outside the Schengen Area. There is no separate area for Oneworld Sapphire or Emeralds, so all premium passengers will get mixed together.

The first thing to note is the entrance is rather imposing and right in the middle of the duty-free shopping zone, as you can probably tell by the L'Oreal shelf to the right of the picture.

 

I did not take a picture of the reception, for privacy of the employees, so this next picture is a press image provided by Iberia.

The lounge itself is rather long and narrow, but also mostly symmetrical. Once allowed in by the reception you have the choice to go left or right. Unless you are intending to use the showers (right) or the working area (left), the self-service buffet and drinks facilities on both side are approximately the same distance away from the reception.

The entire length of the lounge has impressive floor-to-ceiling windows which provide more than 180 degrees of view out onto the apron, and 3 out of four runways visible. You can see the entirety of runways 18L/36R and 14L/32R (both 3500m in length) and the southern half of 14R/32L (4100m length). The only one you cannot see is 18R/36L.

To the Right

Starting at the reception desk in the centre of the lounge, then walking to the right you will see a whole load of seating with electrical sockets beside nearly every one. (240V AC and 5V 1A USB in all cases).

To the right of the following picture you can see a shower area which I will return to later.

 

Walking a little further then looking backwards you will a children's play area to the left

The play area has huge moveable cushions in the shape of “HOLA” and a big tv screen, 42 inches I think, plus two smaller Xbox consoles to the right which allows 4 players.

At the far right you reach this window which looks toward the East, South-East and South.

And the same dining area has a little bar area of its own.

 

Heading back towards the shower area you will see there is an entrance to a snoozing area with 4 cubicles, each with a curtain to darken the space, but a rather annoying motion-activated light. I would have taken a nap but these were all occupied.

To the right is the entrance to the shower area, with 6 cubicles.

 

To use the shower you hand over your boarding pass to the reception who then provide a 4 digit number to enter into the keypad on of your designated cubicle.

 

To the left

Starting back at the reception desk and turning left there is this seating area before you reach the buffet. The photo looks back towards the reception and you can see a small cinema area to the right.

 

That same cinema area, which I actually think is an inefficient use of space as there is seating for just 6 persons, 8 or 9 at a squeeze.

 

Walking as far left as you can go you will reach the window which looks out towards the East, North-East and the North.

 

And that window is right beside the entrance to this darkened and slightly moody dining area which only serves meals beyond 21:00hrs. It was a really nice and quiet area otherwise.

The same dining area shot from the other side and looking back.

 

Food and drinks

 

The drinks bars are evenly spread every quarter distance of the lounge and well-stocked. I would estimate you are never more than 15 metres away from a drinks area. There are refrigerators full of water, soft drinks, beers, and also coffee machines for hot beverages.

The self-serve buffets are located about 2/3 of the way towards each end. When I arrived at 11am there were these breakfast servings of bacon, scrambled eggs shaped into rather large dumplings, mushrooms and tortilla española:

 

There were also yoghurts and some cold cuts of ham.

 

 

And a few mini sandwiches with tuna or sliced chorizo, or chorizo sticks.

 

And when I went to the buffet area again at 12:30pm the above items were still there, but the staff had added some salad and mini sushi rolls.

My overall impression

This is a really nicely decorated lounge with the right facilities for nearly every type of traveller. Cinema, low-height seats, dining tables, bar level seats, conference table, round table.

There were plenty of drinks on offer, but the food was the biggest let down here. The food on display is not kept warm so I ended up eating cold bacon and eggs, and the lunch servings really did not appeal to me. Even the rice on the sushi did not look too good.

I did enjoy the beers on offer, trying every variant of Mahou, San Miguel and Alhambra beer on display. I did not try any of the wines or spirits as it was only late morning when I arrived, and I did not want to show up on my flight inebriated. But I will give those a try when I next pass through the lounge.