"one of the worst experiences"
VA Congdo (United Kingdom)
❎ Not Verified | Used Terminal 2C (Easyjet) which is generally pretty good for check in. But security is some of the worst I have ever experienced. The staff are so rude, badly organised, confused, shouting and refuse to use any language except Spanish. They will demand you get your items off the belt really quickly, then they shout at you to move when you take it to any table by the belt as well! I saw one woman taken to a table by one of the security staff to have bags checked, then left there, and another member of staff demanded she move! My husband (who doesn’t speak Spanish) was asked to wait on the side after going through, thinking they would do a body search. But no, they just kept him and another passenger waiting whilst they searched other passengers. He asked what he should do, but just received responses in Spanish (which he can’t speak). Eventually they asked to check his bags - even though another staff member asked me to take them! After the check, he stayed at the table for a few seconds to get his things together, and was told off (again in Spanish) for not moving! When one of the staff saw me click a negative review on the opinion counter at the end, she screamed at me “fine, do that if you want!” All in all, one of the worst experiences I have had at airport security recently!
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | January 2018 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"incompetent and rude security staff"
D Francis (Netherlands)
✅ Trip Verified | Traveled a lot but never before experienced such incompetent and rude security staff. The person handling the scanner in my line was absolutely fussy about what should be placed in separate boxes, but also how it was placed. She managed to send the person before me back 3 times because he did not have his items properly placed in his box. I was watching and it was absolutely unclear what she wanted. She didn’t speak anything but Spanish, and neither did anyone else of the staff. Then my wife was ‘told’ the same thing, something wrong with how the items were placed in the box. She had to go back and shove her box between the long line while the chaotic situation continued. Because now 4 boxes were used for her stuff, somehow we lost sight of one of the boxes with her iPad, iPhone and e-reader. They went missing in the chaos. The staff were not interested in helping out and even annoyed by ‘our problem’. No help, no service, nothing. In the end we managed to find back the box. Instead of being happy, the staff gave us a nasty stare and went back to harassing the next in line. Again, I’ve seen many Airports and it didn’t always go smoothly, but this was so bad it made me register on this site just to share the experience.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | January 2018 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"staff were astonishingly rude"
C Foster (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I travel fairly frequently and have been to many airports. Barcelona is the worst airport I have had the misfortune to visit. The staff were astonishingly rude and spoilt the experience. Toilet were dirty too - half of them were blocked. Revolting.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | January 2018 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Worst airport I have been to"
R Vee (Portugal)
❎ Not Verified | Worst airport I have been to. I had a connecting flight in December and staff at the airport were extremely unhelpful + there were no signs to point which terminal I needed to be in. When I found out I needed to be in another terminal, the bus took 25 minutes to get there! I nearly missed my connecting flight because of all this! Furthermore when at the boarding gate, I watched the staff in charge of an elderly couple in wheelchair, being rude to the couple. Today I have another connecting flight and the airport is just such a mess. Nowhere in Europe is there border control after you have gone through the gates with your boarding pass. I was going to get a coffee and relax now that I only needed to wait for my gate number but I decided to go check where the gate is and try find a coffee nearby when I came across passport control with passengers cutting the queue, chaos as they thought they were going to miss their flight and everyone around me complaining that they did not know they needed to go through passport control. Had I not walked down to find my gate (over 1 hour in advance), I too would have been one of those passengers. I did have to queue up for 30 minutes which means goodbye coffee and straight to my gate which was now open. Will definitely avoid this airport for connecting flights!
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | January 2018 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"I have never experienced delays"
D Norris (Spain)
❎ Not Verified | I do not understand all the bad reviews of BCN airport. I live in BCN and travel to and from the airport fairly regularly. Apart from a strike during the summer I have never experienced delays going through security (Stansted is far worse and I have often found the staff there quite rude and sometimes aggressive). Any delays in departures or arrivals have always been down to problems with Ryanair or EasyJet.
Experience At Airport | Arrival Only |
Date Visit | December 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"staff do not like to speak English"
E Aalto (Finland)
❎ Not Verified | Experienced several incidents where staff were really unprofessional. Physical appearance of the airport was quite good, but problems arose from the staff mainly. At the security control, after I had taken the usual accessories to the x-ray machine, one worker talked to me loudly in Spanish. When I replied in English that I didn't understand she started almost screaming in Spanish and pointing to my shoes for me to remove them. At the passport control I showed my new Finnish passport and the authorities spent 10 minutes looking at it, not sure why since they didn't tell me reason, but I assume they wanted to check that it was real. When they "were ready" for my passport they asked for my credit card. When they found several cards with my name indicating my Finnish nationality, they let me go finally. Also at the information desk as well as at the check in desk, staff were so impolite and had complaining tone all the time while talking. I've noticed at several places at the airport that staff do not like to speak English. Even after you show them that you don't speak Spanish they reply many times in Spanish, and I just had to guess what they were saying.
Experience At Airport | Arrival and Departure |
Date Visit | December 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"don't care about passengers"
K Pearce (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | One of the worst operated airports. We arrived 1.5hrs late by Ryanair 9814 on November 30 (landing time 00:40 instead of 23:20!) and when we landed it occurred that buses were not on tarmac, then only one came, left not fully packed, had to wait for second one. Exactly same thing happened in August and September. They simply don't care about passengers. To finally finish with a last piece of abuse only 2 points for passport control were open. Wish you all the worst Barcelona airport.
Experience At Airport | Arrival Only |
Date Visit | November 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"distinct lack of any useful information"
Stephen Disley (United Kingdom)
✅ Verified Review | It looks very imposing, all that glass, chrome, marble, spacious halls and up-market shopping. However look beyond that and the cracks show. There is a distinct lack of any useful information as to where anything actually is. Signs are often put in out of the way places, and are vague as to where they are actually pointing (even the toilets are a well-kept secret) making it difficult to find out even where your aircraft is actually going to board, both as to which Gate and where that Gate is. I needed to get to one place but could see no way of getting there, so I ducked under the barrier, and got told off (I was in too much of a hurry to argue). Once I got to the departure area only McDonalds was serving food. No napkin provided so I washed my greasy hands in the Gents (once I had found it) only to find neither hand drier worked. Also seating is distinctly lacking, and again, hard to find Finally wifi does not work (but does it at any Airport?). Obviously a lot of money has gone into this Airport, but it has all the hallmarks of a white elephant.
Experience At Airport | Transit |
Date Visit | October 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"airport staff were unfriendly and rude"
S Irving (South Africa)
✅ Verified Review | I wish to never return to Barcelona airport again. The airport staff were unfriendly and rude. The passport control inspector did not even throw a glance at me all the while chatting with another guy in in the next window and at the end almost threw my passport back at me. I asked for directions and was given only cold and curt responses.
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | October 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | N/A |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Wifi Connectivity | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"by far the worst experience I have ever had"
Carol Brown (United Kingdom)
❎ Unverified | I flew in and out of this airport and it's by far the worst experience I have ever had at an airport. 25 degree heat and no air conditioning on and an hour queue to stand in at a busy airport. I ended up feeling sick with the heat it was ridiculous. When I eventually got to the desk I asked whether the air conditioner be turned on and the very rude lady said something about cabin crew and I tried to explain again and she just basically said it's not her fault, then spoke in her own language to her colleague. I just wanted to know who I would see to address the situation eg customer services, as I had already asked at the information desk and she just said upstairs. Security was organised chaos and a free for all. Terrible airport!
Experience At Airport | Departure Only |
Date Visit | October 2017 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Queuing Times | 12345 |
Terminal Cleanliness | 12345 |
Terminal Seating | 12345 |
Terminal Signs | 12345 |
Food Beverages | 12345 |
Airport Shopping | 12345 |
Airport Staff | 12345 |
Recommended | no |