I've been to Europe more times than I can count, but this one piece of info I just can't remember...isn't that funny???
Traveling Philly -> Prague with a change in Madrid before we get to Prague. So PHL -> MAD -> PRG is the itinerary. When we land in Madrid I know I'll go through passport/customers, but what about my checked luggage....do I pick it up there and have to recheck? Go back through Security??? I just can't remember.
If you're traveling on one ticket, the baggage should be checked all the way through. And since the Czech Republic and Spain are both Schengen countries, you'll go through immigration/passport control in Madrid, but not customs until Prague.
Tim, Do you have all of your flights on one ticket or are you flying to Madrid on one ticket that you bought separately from the ticket for the flight from Madrid to Prague? If it is all on one ticket, you should go through passport control in Madrid and pick up your luggage in Prague but have no passport control there. You should receive your boarding pass for the flight from Madrid to Prague when you check in for the Philadelphia to Madrid flight. Depending on how the Madrid airport is laid out, you may or may not have to go back through security after passport control. If the flights are on separate tickets, you will go through passport control in Madrid and then collect your luggage. After you collect your luggage you will be outside of the secured zone and have to go through security after you have checked your luggage for the flight to Prague.
When you arrive at your first European destination you go through immigration AND customs. Since your subsequent flight leaves from a country in the Schengen zone and arrives at one, there won't be customs inspection in Prague. In Madrid your plane will most likely arrive at terminal 4S and your departure, hopefully, will be from terminal 4 which is connected by a 3 minute underground rail ride. All baggage is collected at T4 Arrivals area. Though not positive, I believe you'll remain airside and not have to go through security in Madrid. Just check your luggage for the flight leg to Prague. If you depart from any other terminal, you will go through security a second time.
Yes, I'm flying on one American Airlines ticket actually from TYS->PHL->MAD then Iberia (codeshare) MAD->PRG. I've transited through MAD on a previous trip (on one ticket), and it was a horribly disorganized event that I don't want to repeat if I can help it. thanks for the info.
When you arrive at your first European destination you go through immigration AND customs.
That's not true if you're making a connection. You will still go through immigration, but not necessarily customs. I've connected through several European airports, flying on to other European airports, and I don't think I've ever gone through customs at the first airport. This seems to be confirmed by those on this thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/customs-in-schengen-zone.
Tim,
As the others have said, if you're flying on one ticket with code share connections, your checked baggage should be directed to your final destination. I've made many flights to Europe with various airlines (mostly Air Canada and their European code share partners), and that's always been the case (however it's usually a different story on the way home).
As the previous reply mentioned, you will go through Immigration / Passport control when you arrive in Madrid, but you likely won't have to deal with Customs (which is usually just a walk-through anyway). You will most likely have to go through security before boarding your flight to Prague, as I've always found that to be the case with connecting flights.
Well now that I'm here and it's still fresh on my mind let me answer my own question. Flying TYS->PHL->MAD->PRG on American Airlines although MAD->PRG was on codeshare Iberia Airlines. Talked with AA before departure and was told no way could we get that final Boarding Pass for MAD->PRG while in TYS airport checking in. When we arrived to checkin yesterday we were initially told the same story...we'll have to get that BP when we arrive in Madrid. That is, until 1 super intelligent checkin lady arrived to tell all the others "Yes, we COULD get the BP in TYS". And sure enough she took our group and went through the checkin process all over again and DID print ALL the boarding passes. Our baggage tickets were marked PRG and we were told we wouldn't have to check them again.
So - the conclusion is: If you're told something is impossible don't necessarily believe it. Seems that's the story you'll hear if the employee doesn't "know" how. Thank heavens for that one agent who was intelligent enough to know how and dedicated enough to go through the whole process again!
When we landed in Madrid we followed the crowd through passport control and even though we never officially exited the secure area we ended up at another security check in line where we went through the security scanners again. At the entrance to the scanners our boarding passes were checked, and the 2 unfortunate souls who used the kiosks to check in at TYS and a single manual boarding pass was issued by an agent for the MAD->PRG section, those 2 boarding passes were missing the barcode so were rejected before we entered security. Those 2 people were sent back to the Iberia desk to get NEW boarding passes.
We never passed a baggage claim along the way, and sure enough our bags ended up in PRG like they were supposed to.
Just FYI - seems a lot depends on the employee who checks you in!
