Emirates opens VIP lounge at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

By BA Staff

The entrance of the lounge is modelled like a Boeing 777

Coinciding with the match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, Emirates yesterday inaugurated its exclusive branded VIP Lounge at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid.

Unveiled less than four months after signing the prestigious five-year shirt sponsorship with Real Madrid, the new lounge was officially opened today by Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid Institutional Relations Manager and former Club player, and Fernando Suárez De Góngora, Emirates’ Manager Spain and Portugal.

Covering an area of 375sqm, the innovatively designed space can comfortably host more than 200 guests during match days. The bespoke design is modelled after the cabin of a Boeing 777 - the same aircraft currently serving the route between Madrid and Dubai. Interior features such as windows and space illumination have been thoughtfully reproduced to mimic the experience of walking through an Emirates aircraft.

The Emirates VIP Lounge will be open to its invited guests an hour before and after matches and is situated just below the VIP boxes from where guests can enjoy matches with an unparalleled view of the pitch and stadium.

Mr Gongora said:

“The Emirates VIP lounge is yet another milestone in the partnership between Emirates and Real Madrid, and highlights the immense value we see in our relationship with the Club and with Spain. The unique space will be instrumental in delivering unique experiences to our guests during matches, and will be a powerful platform for on-going engagement with our customers.”

Emilio Butragueño highlighted:

"It’s an honour for Real Madrid to reach millions of fans worldwide through a leading partner like Emirates. Our association with an airline of this calibre makes us stronger.”

Expected to host over 6,000 guests every season, the lounge welcomes invitees to comfortable seating, large plasma screens as well as gourmet food and beverages. The lounge is replete with imagery that capture Emirates’ on-board experience, global network, and action shots with the new Fly Emirates branding. All of this is set amidst a colour palette customers have come to associate with the Emirates brand.

The interior of the lounge is modelled like a Boeing 777 aircraft including the windows

Real Madrid has been part of Emirates’ sponsorship portfolio since 2011. Emirates also sponsors the Barcelona Open tennis tournament in Spain, a deal which runs until 2018. Emirates currently offers 21 weekly flights to Spain -  a double daily flight to Madrid and a daily flight to Barcelona, which will be upgraded to an A380 operation on 1st February 2014. 

Read more »

Airport lounge report: Iberia Dali business class lounge at Madrid Barajas Terminal 4

Guest post by Vishal Mehra
@vishal1mehra

During my trip from Barcelona to Lisbon via Madrid (read trip report here), I had intentionally chosen a long layover at Barajas airport as I wanted to both see the famous wavy ceilings which created quite a ripple (yes, the pun is intentional) when the airport opened in 2006, and I also wanted to explore the Iberia lounge at its home base.

As I got done with my little terminal tour and purchasing the customary refrigerator magnet from the duty free store, I proceeded to Iberia’s business class Dali lounge in Terminal 4.

Considering Madrid is the home base for Iberia, my expectations of the lounges in Madrid being superior and larger that those in Barcelona were fulfilled. The lounge was huge, as well as very impressive to say the least.

Divided into 2 areas, it had large areas of comfortable seating which was soothing for the eyes to see and invited me to sink my tired muscles into and relax. The central area shown above had a spacecraft design to it, with little chairs, and fountains inside it along with a wide selection of reading material, though again it was dominated by Spanish selections.

After relaxing for few minutes, I grabbed myself a beer and started exploring the lounge. There were reasonable options for food, including salads, pasta, sandwiches, wraps and sushi rolls. I would have ideally liked to see more hot food options as well but as this lounge serves the Schengen area flights with usually small layovers, it appears Iberia decided to serve more "to-go" options. There is a large choice area of alcoholic, non-alcoholic drinks and a café.

Besides your typical coffee machine, the lounge served various pastries, croissants, cornflakes, milk and tea options. The lounge also had a fancier coffee machine, though I must admit I did not try it all.

Something rather unique in this lounge was this dedicated wine bar which serves a wide variety of wines. This bar, I was informed, also hosts regular tasting sessions, but to my loss, there was no such session during my transit. I was still able to lay my hands on couple of reds.

The Dali lounge also features a dedicated quiet area in the back that had little beds for passengers opting to take a quick nap between their flights. Given the long days and hectic schedules of business passengers, who comprise the largest share of premium passengers, it would behove other airlines to incorporate a similar feature in their lounge offerings.

The business area had the obligatory few computers, internet access, a printer and a fax machine. Iberia though has to remove one very irritating feature. The wireless internet was accessible only through 30 minute cards which, though the front desk gave with a smile, is disruptive to a business passenger. By the time I went for my third card, the staff on duty graciously offered to give me an extra one to save me the trouble of coming back. I had to decline her offer as my flight to Lisbon was due to depart soon.

Though the TV lounge was largely unoccupied, barring one keen viewer. Again considering this lounge mostly serves intra-European flights, the lounge shows the extent to which Iberia has gone to make this lounge a pleasant experience for the many needs and interests of the passengers it would carry.

Overall, It was a very enjoyable experience at the lounge, and clearly one of the best that Iberia has to offer to its passengers. Iberia may be in deep financial mess it appears they have not spared any expense in making this lounge a comfortable experience for the premium traveller.

I must admit thoroughly relishing myself during these six odd total hours with Iberia minus few niggles. These six hours compromised of two lounge visits, in Madrid and Barcelona each (read Barcelona lounge report here), as well as two flights on Iberia’s A320, from Barcelona to Madrid and then from Madrid to Lisbon. All of this cost me 9000 avios and Rs. 5771. It's a price I would pay happily for so many firsts every single time.

- Vishal Mehra is a digital marketer at a global agency, smitten by travelling and commercial aviation. He tweets a lot and off late has taken to blogging as well. Visit his blog.

All images in this article are the copyright of Vishal Mehra and used with his permission. Unauthorised use and/or reproduction is prohibited.

Read more »

Trip report: Iberia domestic business class Barcelona Madrid Lisbon

by Vishal Mehra

Last week, I reviewed Iberia’s domestic Business Lounge in Barcelona.

Today, I focus on my first flight with Iberia from Barcelona to Lisbon, via Madrid. This was also my first flight in business class.

Barcelona El Prat - Madrid Barajas
Flight IB2713. Airbus A320. Seat 5F. Business Class
Departure - 18:50, on-time

For intra-Europe and many north African flight, most European airlines don't have a separate cabin for business class passengers. Instead, they use a mobile curtain that is moved after each flight in order to separate both according to the number of passengers flying business class in each flight. This allows airlines to be more flexible, since an Economy class seat can be converted into a business class seat just by moving the curtain.

My Iberia business class seat was essentially an upgraded economy seat with increased seat pitch (34 inches, instead of 31 in economy) and an empty middle seat for increased comfort.

As I settled into my seat I was offered water and something to munch on, while the cabin was getting ready for departure to Madrid. Our departure was smooth, and looking down at Barcelona I saw the beauty of the city once more albeit with an aerial view, bathed in sunshine.

Soon after reaching cruising height, a purser came over and asked for my choice of drink. As this was a short one hour flight, and it was early evening, there was no specific meal service. I must have waited for fifteen minutes for my apple juice to arrive before drifting off for a short nap.

I woke up while we were on our landing approach to Madrid Barajas and I never got my drink, and considering we were on approach, I did not bother reminding the crew of their slip-up. Humans tend to forget things and considering it was my first ever outing in semi business class, I was in good enough humour to forgive as well, but Iberia should take note of such slip-ups, which while minor, have large impact on passenger impression when they occur in the premium cabin.

Looking through the magazine I chanced upon Iberia giving out Pizza at 36000 feet to its passengers, which I thought was pretty unique.

We landed in Madrid on time, disembarkation was quick and I went to explore the airport's famous wavy-roof terminal and the flagship Iberia lounge.

Madrid Barajas – Lisbon Portela International
Flight IB3118. Airbus A320. Seat 1A. Business Class
Departure 2245, on-time
Seat 1A

I was excited about sitting in seat 1A, that magical number in airline seating wanted by enthusiasts, which was automatically allotted to me by Iberia. Business class was the same upgraded economy class with increased leg room, but this time there was just two rows of business class seats, and two out of the eight available seats remained unoccupied, including the aisle seat in my row i.e. 1C, giving me a full three-seater to myself.

Flipping through Iberia’s magazine, I came across this print ad featuring the Taj Mahal and promoting Incredible India. Bought a big smile to my face.

The pre-departure service consisted of a drink and nuts. I chose to go for a tried and tested cerveza, or beer (in English). Service on this flight was better, may be because it was a Schengen flight and I was surprised to find a full-blown dinner served during this short one hour hop to Lisbon. The fish and salad did not appeal to my taste buds, and I moved quickly to dessert.

As soon as I finished dinner we were descending to Lisbon and the beautiful city came in the view with bright lights and hills around it. The landing again was a smooth affair and within five minutes we were at the disembarkation point.

The only negative aspect of this flight was the exit through stairs and buses ferrying passengers to the main terminal. May be it was a short-coming of the airport, considering it was past 11pm at night, but then a full service airline like Iberia should work closely with airport authorities to ensure no dilution in their service offerings.

- Vishal Mehra is a digital marketer at a global agency, smitten by travelling and commercial aviation. He tweets a lot and off late has taken to blogging as well. Follow him on Twitter and visit his blog.

Read more »

Qatar Airways to aggressively expand European flights

Qatar Airways is significantly increasing its flights to key European capitals as part of an aggressive expansion programme.

Beginning October 25, the start of the Northern Winter schedules, the Doha-Paris route will increase from the current 11 flights to a double daily flight.

Madrid will be increased from the current four a week to a daily effective December 2.

Targeting the Greek community in Australia, the current daily flights on the Doha-Athens route will be doubled over a five-month period beginning in October.

One extra weekly service every Thursday, will be effected for Stockholm beginning October 25.

Read more »