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Madrid Barajas Airport Passenger Reviews and Madrid Airport Traveller Reports
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MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 11 November 2010 by J Tydeman (UK)
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Customer Rating : 1/5 |
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Despite a huge and seemingly well-planned airport with the luxury of enough runway and
terminal space, this place is soulless and manned by staff who simply don't care; many I have
encountered are just rude and seem to go out of their way to be unhelpful. Having travelled
through this place several times I would avoid it. The only problem is for Latin America, the
alternative is often Miami, probably one of the few airports which is as bad.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 8 November 2010 by J Benito (Spain)
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Customer Rating : 1/5 |
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I use this airport frequently (at least twice a month) and use all terminals, although lately
I am mostly confined to terminals 2 and 4. A regular issue at all terminals is the poor
management of security checks. Passengers are forced to walk loaded with plastic trays and
trolleys to the conveyor before security. Some old people barely manage. When this was pointed
out to the Security attendant he said "this layout is not for the passengers confort, but for
our confort". Just goes to show how much they care. After removing all metal objects the gate
pinged as I passed through. After asking what had pinged (for my info to avoid it in the
future) I was told I did not need to know and was subsequently frisked. Frisking is done in
view of all the rest of passengers. After the walk to the conveyor belt, how much more
humiliating can it get? Terminals 1,2, and 3 are certainly dated, but they wok efficiently to
get you in and out fast. Terminal 1 was clearly a late addition and there are some long
distances to manage, but not too bad. Lines in general are manageable and baggage actually
comes out very fast from these terminals. What I do not get is the design of Terminal 4. It is
clearly designed to make it look nice, but not to be good for managing passengers and planes.
An architecture principle states that form follows function, but not in the case of Terminal
4. The main building is 1,200 metres long which makes impossible to walk through in less than
15 minutes to exit from one of the ends. Huge baggage claim areas, with unused belts, still on
average it takes 50 minutes to get the baggage from landing. This may be very pleasing to the
architect, but I hate it. It is new, so they had the chance to do it right, and they messed up.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 11 October 2010 by B Smith (Spain)
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Customer Rating : 4/5 |
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In and out of T4S last month. Security check (at 0630) very efficient and quick, and journey
from taxi drop off to gate S51 (halfway down the building) in T4S was about 20 minutes. An
eternal problem at Barajas is retail opening hours, but a couple of shops and Mcdonalds are
open early in T4. Only the one cafe open at that hour in T4S though. Arriving back at T4 was
something of a revelation. Early on, 40-minute waits for bags was the norm (and this got into
the Madrid newspapers) so they did at least bring in estimated arrival times for baggage on
the monitors. Now they actually manage to get bags there ahead of the estimate - they turned
up within 5 minutes of arriving from T4S (so about 20 minutes from stepping off the plane).
Someone's reprogrammed the baggage belts and it's not too bad at all. So about 30 minutes from
leaving the aircraft to getting in a taxi (at a now very well managed pick up point).
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 6 September 2010 by R Titchener (UK)
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Customer Rating : 3/5 |
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Nightmare - the airport is huge, overwhelming and no one seems able to help. Also make sure
you leave enough connection time between T4 and T4S - you need at least 30-40 mins and that's
without going thru security. My heart was in my mouth because I almost missed my flight not
realising how long to get between 4 and 4S this - I ran for my life when the penny dropped-
and you run, and run and run - you never seem to get to the end of the corridor.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 19 August 2010 by Jane Smith (UK)
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Customer Rating : 1/5 |
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Do not transit at Madrid airport. Just travelled back from Lima and all the passengers
transiting had a long journey to another terminal where they had to go through security again,
all their duty free purchased at Lima was confiscated. The only way to avoid this was to exit
the airport and go back to check in buying a suitable bag to put the duty free in en route.
Huge numbers of very angry customers and probably happy airport staff who get to drink all the
booze they confiscate. The only time this had happened to any of the passengers before was in
India. Staff were rude and unhelpful and the queue built up as passenger after passenger
struggled to work out what they could do to avoid throwing away expensive and valued presents
and souvenirs.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 13 August 2010 by Miles Canne (Spain)
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Customer Rating : 4/5 |
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Departed from and arrived back into T4 last week. After previous criticisms I've made on this
site about long, long waits at T4 baggage reclaim, I have to say that this time, bags were on
the belt within a couple of minutes. I hope they can keep it up! Passport control officer even
managed a smile too.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 23 June 2010 by E Ang (Singapore)
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |
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Customer service is grotesque. Airport employees are not helpful and did not put in the effort
to help passengers who need assistance. They also lack the knowledge of their own airport.
Asking them questions about airport facilities only return answers like "No" and "I don't
know". If they can't help, who can? Their handling of customer's lost luggage also reflects
lack of centralized management and proper operation procedures. We were transferred from one
desk to another just to try and find a piece of luggage they forgot to place onto a plane.
Nobody had any idea where the lost luggage was and who was supposed to be responsible for it.
Ultimately, upon reaching the desk which was supposed to handle our matter, the employee
seemed reluctant to help. This made our experience of traveling through that airport both
uncomfortable and infuriating. Management could do much more to improve the service side of
the airport.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 28 March 2010 : by F Tisner (UK)
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Customer Rating : 5/5 |
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Terminal 4 is huge but I had no problem finding my way through. Check in was alright although
queues at the BA/IB counters can be long since the autocheckin machines never seem to work
properly. Connecting to the Satellite terminal can seem like a lot, but the train is fast and
literally took 2 minutes from security- the queues of which can vary from non existent to
horribly chaotic- to the train station in the lower levels. The Satellite is identical to the
main building but in a much more human scale. No calls to board which is partly good because
the airport is quiet but bad because you need to check the screens constantly -though these
are plentiful throughout the airport. Shopping is good in the main terminal but bad in the
satellite, though you get pretty much the same offer in terms of restaurants/cafes. IB's VIP
lounge has improved a lot though - finally there's WiFi! Airport was clean. Only major
drawback - if you get your gate changed last-minute (something quite common in flights that
are a bit delayed) you might need to run given the huge distances.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 18 March 2010 : by A Klein (USA)
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |
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This airport is not well-suited for business travelers. There are no electrical plugs to be
found anywhere. You must bring your computer's battery fully charged from home, and use it
while you wait for your connection. And then, of course, you may have no battery left on your
next flight. Definitely not recommended if you plan on bringing a laptop computer.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 9 March 2010 : by D Manning (UK)
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Customer Rating : 4/5 |
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Terminals 1/2/3 are gigantic and dated, and the walk from the Metro to the terminals
(particularly Terminal 1) is a trek. But having just flown into and out of Madrid this past
weekend, the signs regarding the supplemental fare are all over the place. They're on the
trains (in English and Spanish), on platforms, vending machine screens, on station walls, even
on large stickers on the floors. That supplemental fare of one euro is peanuts on top of the
normal fare, which is also one euro. I'm not aware of that many capital cities in Europe where
you can get from the airport to the centre for two euro. So the layout of Terminal 1/2/3
leaves much to be desired but I had minimal queuing times when I travelled.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 6 March 2010 : by Sean Moore (USA)
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Customer Rating : 3/5 |
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I cannot fathom why some people are giving this airport favorable reviews. I grant you it's a
very modern and clean airport, but the place is a monster. It's GIGANTIC. Really, I think the
airport planners are guilty of overkill because Barajas is just too big and poorly laid-out to
be functional. During my first time here I got lost and wound up doubling back and going
through immigration about two or three times. Flying out, it took me literally about 40
minutes to get from the airport Metro station to my departure gate inside Zone U (if I hadn't
been jogging most of the way, it probably would've taken even longer). I was there the day
after the strikes in France which made the situation even more chaotic. As a result, the lines
were long and most airport staff were predictably unenthusiastic. The airport is directly
connected to the Metro (which is convenient) however there is a poorly-publicised supplemental
fee to enter or exit the Metro from the airport, on top of the fare itself. Non-European
passengers should bear this in mind before they burn up all of their euros on their way out of
Europe, because another HUGE problem is that none of the airport merchants (including the
Metro kiosks) accept credit cards or ATM cards which aren't Spanish. I learned this the hard
way.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 17 February 2010 : by S Ketch (Netherlands)
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |
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Terminals 1,2 and 3. What a terrible, terrible place to be! Had to spend a night there, it was
a pure nightmare. Dirty, small, cold, no chairs whatsoever. The way from metro to the check in
takes ages (up to 15 mins), so dont be late. Spain should be ashamed of this place.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 15 February 2010 : by Miles Canne (Spain)
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Customer Rating : 2/5 |
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Terminal 4. Wonderful design, spotlessly clean, and courteous, efficient security staff.
Marred by rude immigration personnel, overpriced catering outlets that don't accept cards and
keep bizarre opening times, and on 1st February, 2210 arrival, an 80 minute wait at baggage
reclaim. In my experience this is standard, irrespective of airline/alliance.
MADRID BARAJAS AIRPORT customer review : 9 February 2010 : by M Alonso (Spain)
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Customer Rating : 4/5 |
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T4 is great. Maybe too big for short time transit. Unfortunately T1,T2 and T3 doesn't reach
today's standard. Transfer to satellite T4 is fast and effective, but sadly it doesn't give
that service to the old terminals which make transfers very inconvenient.
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