Traveling from Granada to Madrid to catch a flight

As a general rule, I always stay in the city of departure the night before. Too many chances of delays to travel on the same day as departure back home.

Madrid Barajas is massive, and on my last trip through there, the line was equally massive. March can have inclement weather. If missing a flight is going to cause you financial or employment hardship (or otherwise cause you major problems), then it would be best to be prudent.
If the flight is an international one, then you should be there prior to an hour and a half before the departure (even if checked in online and carry-on only, which I am assuming as a given)--which you cannot do regardless as you must transit across town when you arrive by train.
If you were going to arrive in MAD hours earlier, then I'd say go for it, but this is cutting it way too close (and I am someone who goes to the airport much later than most with regularity).

Is your return flight an international route? If so you should be at the airport by 1:35 PM. You really need to rethink your itinerary and overnight in Madrid. All you need is for your train or flight to delayed or cancelled to put you in a real bind.

Both options are cutting it very close, it's not a small airport.

It took me 35 minutes to walk fast between flights earlier this summer. There is no train or even moving walkways. And I did not have to retrieve luggage.

I do not see how either option will work. Arriving by plane which is the better of the two options gives you an hour and 45 minutes and you have to get luggage and go through security again and get to the gate. It may work but may not. You have to consider the cost of it not working. I have taken an unconnected flight upon arrival, although I would allow more time than you are, but would not upon departure as I can not eat the cost of a missed international flight.

I would go to Madrid the night before.

I had a plane from Granada to Madrid Barajas canceled last minute in March 2024. They bussed us to Barajas, but many missed their connecting flights. The Granada airport is small - we were told that the incoming plane could not attempt the runway. Those folks expecting to land in Granada were taken on to Malaga. The weather was not too terrible - I'm sure planes would have landed as normal in Chicago O'Hare. (Extra caution is fine with me - just giving you my perspective on conditions.)

Given my experience, I would not trust a flight from Granada to get me to a Madrid flight in your time frames - especially if flying on separate tickets.

As others have stated, Barajas is quite large and lines can be very long. If you are departing from 4S (common for the US), you must take a connecting train from Terminal 4.

Both of the timeframes you've stated are total non-starters, IMHO. International departure of 3 hours in advance of departure is not ill-advised for Barajas.

Lots of hotels near Barajas - shuttle transport for low cost.

These are the assumptions that you’re making:
1-there will be no delays in the train
2-you will not get sick or lose anything
3-if you fly, you’re assuming that the flight will not be delayed on your departure
4- there will be no train strikes

Spend the night before your flight in your departure city for peace of mind

THANK YOU so much for your feedback! Everything said makes sense. There is a train that leaves Granada at 6:55am and arrives in Madrid Atocha at 10:32 am. I was trying to avoid having to leave that early in the morning but we will take this train, giving us plenty of time to get from the Madrid train station to the airport several hours prior to our departure for Chicago, IL. Thanks again!

I would be more conservative than that; I'm in the "Be in Madrid the night before" camp. If the 6:55 train is cancelled in whole or in part, you'll end up on the 11:13 AM departure--the train that doesn't get to Madrid until 2:57 PM. Although the odds of a major problem on the 6:55 are small, buying two (or more?) one-way tickets home at the last minute would probably be very expensive. Even to NYC--probably the cheapest North American destination from Madrid, the cheapest non-stop ticket for today (Wednesday) is $4735 on Iberia; Delta is $6210. To pay less you'd either have a connection (or two connections) or wait a day. I'd expect late-March fares to be higher than fares for January 8.

This is not a risk I would take. Are you spending time in Madrid at the beginning of the trip? Can you shift Madrid to the end of your itinerary? Granada is quite far from Madrid, and there just isn't much rail service between the two cities.

Another suggestion:
Have a backup plan just in case the train is not running (I doubt that will happen).
Be ready to rent a car or hire a driver.
Research that information before your morning trip to Madrid.

I get the feeling you do not want to leave Granada on that Sunday because you have that as a planned day of sightseeing. That is understandable.

However, neither one of your options leave you any breathing room whether it be the train or flying. You are cutting your time to be at the airport really close to 4:35pm. Don't forget, possible check-in, security lines, and since the airport is so spread out, your walk to your gate may take a long time. My last flight arrival into Madrid from Miami it took me easily 25 minutes from the gate to reach the airport exit.

Also, don't forget on top of all the travel on that Monday to get to the airport in Madrid, you still have another 8+hour flight to Chicago plus whatever time to get through passport control at O'hare and finally travel to your home. Monday will be a very, very long travel day.

Buena suerte en tus viajes.

I have a general rule of thumb: I want to wake up on the morning of a transatlantic flight within a practical, affordable taxi ride of my departure airport, just in case my plans to use public transportation fall apart. One of our posters has mentioned being on an express train (heading toward Paris, I think) when someone committed suicide along the tracks. The train was many hours late, and a number of the train passengers were freaking out because they knew they were going to miss their flights.

Granada is 268 miles from Madrid's Barajas Airport. ViaMichelin estimates the driving time at 4 hr. 38 min., and a problem along the way could obviously push the travel time higher. I don't know what a taxi would cost, but you'd be paying for the roundtrip mileage (fuel and the driver's time). It wouldn't be cheap.

Too many things could go wrong. I’m in the camp of staying closer to the airport the night before departure.