Dont know whether 1 ticket or 2 but booked as one journey so I assume 1.
I see the point about clearing customs. I guess my point is that it shouldnt have happened at all. I have flown connecting flights from non EU to an EU destination that stopped in a different EU country en route and not had that issue.
My point is that surely check in in Panama had the ability to route them through. That they didnt strikes me as incompetent. Plus the usual surly Iberian attitude meant that they were just met with blank faced refusals as opposed to any logic.
Eventually in Madrid they managed to get someone seemingly half way sensible to took ownership of the problem and agreed to accommodate them overnight but it apparently took a lot of throwing toys out of pram to achieve.