Air travel from Madrid to Barcelona

Does Iberia still have the "puente aereo" (air bridge) from Madrid to Barcelona ?
With frequent departures throughout the day your "open" ticket gets you on the next departing flight, just walk up.
The AVE high speed train has taken a lot of the air traffic since it began operating in 2008.

Can you: 1) buy a Tarjeta Dorada at the airport, and 2) buy a AVE train ticket there, and 3) get easy transportation from the airport to the Atocha train station?

That would open up another possibility

The Madrid Airport Express bus stops only two places once it leaves the airport - Plaza Cibeles, and Atocha Station. The fare is 5.50 euro per person, and the trip takes about 25-30 minutes. My suggestion would be to take the airport express bus to Atocha and buy your Tarjeta Dorada there. You might actually find better discounts on the AVE train by buying tickets before your trip, though. For example, I took the AVE from Barcelona to Madrid last year. By buying tickets about five weeks out, I got the normal 125 euro fare ticket for 39 euro. I'm pretty sure you can't beat that with last minute tickets even with the Tarjeta Dorada.

Not what you asked, and you do not say where you fly in from, but are you quite sure 'we' will be fit for a further number of hours of journey by whatever transport?

If your journey day is fixed there is little likelihood a Tarjeta Dorada purchase will beat the advance purchase of train tickets - but if you miss the train your purchase is lost.

Thanks Nancy, Neil and _syd,

You have provided good information and are helping me clarify both my thoughts and our plans.

We are flying from Merida, Mexico through Newark. We will be spending a night in Newark before the non-stop, overnight flight to Madrid. We arrive there around 9:30 am. I think we will be fit enough to get to Barcelona and get checked into a hotel :).

Initially I thought the flight to Barcelona would be the easiest option, and I still think that, but we also like to see new countryside, something we would do on the train but not on the flight. We are arriving on May 20 and will spend 4 weeks traveling in Spain and Portugal.

These days flying from MAD to BCN is not necessarily more advantageous than taking the train, neither price-wise nor time-wise. Flying takes 1h (plus the time to/from airports at both ends and the waiting time to board as well as to pick up the luggage at destination) while riding the high-speed train is exactly 2:30h from the centre of Madrid to Sants station in Barcelona. Note these fast trains are very punctual and extremely comfortable (http://bit.ly/180hrbX). But, if you're landing from Newark in Barajas airport you're already at the airport thus flying to BCN is a sensible option, isn't it?

I have never done immigration and customs in Madrid, so I have a question:

We are scheduled to land in Madrid at 10:05 a.m. I am looking at a Vueling flight to Barcelona that leaves at 12:10. Is that leaving enough time between flights?

You will not have the surety - and with your own thought 'in case there are delays in the Newark-Madrid flight' .............

Last summer our daughter was booked on Iberia from JFK through Madrid with a connecting flight to Granada. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:30 a.m. (Which it did) and the connecting flight departed at 9:00 a.m. (Which it did). She arrived cleared customs and easilly made the connecting flight without having to touch her luggage since it was going on the connecting flight.
Now, we did this knowing that if she missed the 9:00 a.m. Connecting flight there was a 1:00 p.m. flight which she could catch and without issue of being placed on the later flight by Iberia.
So the advantages are she booked the flight through to her final destination, had a back up option available and did not have to touch her luggage until she was at Granada (karma of having your luggage arrive is a different topic). For having been several days in route perhaps you will more highly value not having to change modes of transport on your arrival into the country.
Should you choose to take the train from madrid to barcelona then getting from the airport tomthe train station is relatively simple and the AVE is an excellent experience. Advance purchase of second class tickets, the on board service experience is equal to business class air travel, saves money. BUT....... Your train ticket is valid only for the designated time of the train you selected and is not transferable.
If it were me, I would stick to one mode of transport for the initial arrival.

A couple of years ago I booked round trip from Dulles to Madrid and added an Iberia hop to Barcelona to start the trip. Unfortunately, between booking the trip and going, Iberia went out of business and United/Continental simply dropped the leg without replacing it on my ticket. We ended up taking a flight from Dulles to Newark (I think, New York area) then changed to a direct to Barcelona but kept the same direct flight home from Madrid to Dulles.

Check out Vueling, the most popular local airline in Spain. There are an assortment of other European carriers that fly from Madrid to Barcelona for under $100. Make sure you double check the airports. Ryanair isn't the worst for someone who carries on their bag, like me, but they often fly from often inconvenient secondary airports.

Iberia never "went" out of business... must have been a different company, probably SpanAir.