Checking in for return flight while in Spain

I You can only print boarding passes ~24 hours ahead of when your flight leaves. So I assume you are leaving today or tomorrow, and have return flights booked for Oct 2. This is completely normal, I've never seen it any other way.

Often your hotel will let you print there. Otherwise an Internet cafe (look it up now so you know where one is). Or check in on your phones, if you have them and your airline accepts e-boarding passes.

Finally, There is always the old-fashioned option! Go to the airport on the day of your flight - 2-3 hours ahead - and get your passes at the check in counter!

This is not a major problem - at least it should not be. Even in the US you cannot print boarding more than 24 hrs in advance. EVERY hotel we have used recently will print boarding passes. Common practice for both locals and tourists. Not sure of why you have this concern for the need for return boarding passes before departing. And as earlier suggested you can always get boarding passes at the airport. And I am not understanding your comment about only alternative is to book and pay for two return flights. I assume since your are trying to print return boarding passes you have already paid for two returns flights.

I am missing something here so enlighten me as to what it is.

We had this dilemma recently when returning from NYC to Montreal after a transatlantic crossing from the UK. We were unable to print our boarding passes on the ship so we just lined up at the airport and checked in with an agent as in days past, got our boarding passes and Bob's your uncle.

If you will be checking luggage, and standing in line for that, then I don't know that the online check-in saves time. Some airports also have automated check-in kiosks with less line than the staffed desks.

Never have had any issues with asking the hotel to print the boarding passes. Some even let me get behind the counter and do what I needed on their computer. Never been charged for this in recent years.

Many flights I have been on withing Europe you can't get your boarding pass until you get to the airport to check in anyway.

Even if you buy different return tickets (not sure why you would want to do this) you still cannot print the boarding passes today for a flight that far in the future.

When we were in Madrid this spring, we checked in with Delta online and had the boarding passes emailed to the hotel's computer. They printed them off for us.

If you are traveling with a smartphone, get the app for your airline. It will alert you when it's time to check-in and allow you to do it online on the app. You can get an electronic boarding pass on the app, which if you prefer (I did) can then be converted to a paper boarding pass at the airport. I just did this a few days ago with Delta and a few months ago with United - worked fine.

If you won't have a smartphone, you can use the hotel's computer, as said above. And yes, if you can't do any of these things, you can still get it at the airport, the old fashioned way. This is not true for some budget airlines, but these allow check in weeks ahead. The ones that don't allow it until 24 hours before will all do it at the airport for free.

The most important thing is to be checked in (to avoid being bumped, have first dibs on your preferred seat, etc). Whether you actually have the paper, or even electronic, boarding pass before you get to the airport is less important for an international flight. That's because they need to see your passport, so you can't just bypass the check-in process completely and go right to the security line, as you can for a domestic flight. If you do computer check-in, there's usually an option to just check in and pick up the boarding pass at the airport; before I had a smartphone, that's what I did, with no problems.

Your hotel has a computer and a printer - after all they have email. Don't worry. They'll help you when the time comes.