Barcelona Airport

In my opinion airports should be user friendly with architecture and design a secondary feature. I never noticed its architecture - just the distances between locations lack of signage and generally unhelpful rude staff. Arrived this week with 2 elderly passengers to pick up pre-booked car. Nobody could direct me to the car-hire desk - not even the airport information desk - just a general wave of the hand in the direction of a bus shelter uttering 'shuttle bus'. Several shuttle buses arrived - red/yellow/white/blue which one/confusion/frustration - eventually 2 hours after arrival car sorted. No consideration for elderly passengers - shrugging shoulders/not my issue type of attitude. On departure a few days later much the same with sparse signage which led to more frustration and time wasting. Staff giving different directions - downstairs - then upstairs - to the right - to the left. At the top of the escalator - two signs in two completely different directions saying 'Security/Departures' - no one to advise which route to take. Doesn't help when time is of the essence and elderly passengers trying to walk as quickly as possible. Would have to compliment an assistant who worked at a perfume counter at duty free who directed my party through a 'short-cut' to the boarding gate - without her help we would have missed our flight. Caters for young agile Spanish speaking community - not elderly friendly. BCN is definitely off my list of airports I will never use it again.

Terminal 2. They opened only two counters for check-in for our flight 2 hours before departure. There was a very long queue of passengers. The lady at our counter was working very slowy it took her about 5-10 minutes per customer to complete the procedure. All the time she was staring at her computer screen. The check-in of a lady in wheelchair lasted about 20 minutes. A couple with a kid in a buggy also took a lot of time. We had to wait an hour to check-in. Behind us there were dozens of people still waiting. There was no supply of information. When we arrived at our gate already past boarding time because the check-in took so long we saw that the plane hadn't yet arrived. But on the information boards there was no sign of delay. I went to the ladies room and it was the most horrible toilet I've seen. Personnel (at the counter at the coffee corner at the security) was very unfriendly and seemed very unhappy working there.

Terminal 2. Horrible experience. Poor information service staff very rude everybody gives different information. Me and my husband checked in and got our tickets stamped and were sent upstairs for control and to boarding gate. It all took a while because of an enormous queue. Than we get to the boarding gate and gave our tickets to stewardesses. They returned our tickets and said it is too late all passengers went to the plane already (plane was due to depart in 10 mins) and we have to buy another tickets to another city. Shocked because we'd gone through so many checks and didn't hear any call from megaphones nothing that mentioned our destination. We have been told that they do not call passengers. We ended up loosing our tickets. Very stressful and upsetting experience.

Its ironic that Barcelona with its reputation for good food should have the poorest airport food offering of anywhere in Spain or just about anywhere I know of. Some lucky cheap sandwich supplier clearly has the monopoly on food supply since no matter which bar you head for they have the same grotty selection of sandwiches and dry bocadillos.

Arriving from Rome with Vueling.com into Barcelona I have to admit that I really love this airport. It was huge and modern plus the atmosphere was really nice. It was really easy to get around to the city with the bus and train services available. It was a little inconvenient though to travel from Terminal 1 to 3 which I seriously think they have to do something about it quickly. Workers here are all fine except a little slow at the check-in counters. Overall very satisfied with the airport.

Terrible service by all staff who were rude and obviously unhappy about working there. Security was a complete shambles. Avoid this airport.

Terminal 1 is frankly a modern well-designed airport with the usual features of a good international airport. The check-in was smooth was opened exactly 3hrs before boarding time. However this being the 2nd time I'm flying out of this airport I have to downgrade my rating of 7.5 to a rating of 3 for extremely poor service all round in particular by the service staff manning the Information Counters and the personnel handling the Tax Free counters. I was especially disconcerted by the way the personnel treated tourists who needed help understanding the tax free process. On both occasions when I used this service the staff were downright rude and gruff when politely asked about next steps in the process. A modern fine airport marred by unprofessional staff. My entire experience of Barcelona was affected by this last stop at the airport.

Dreadful poor information and having to travel by shuttle bus to different terminals was a nightmare we had to rely on fellow travellers to help us due to no info supplied by airport.

This airport is horrible. There are no power outlets anywhere very little options for food and people seem to not know where anything is or how anything works.

We arrived in Barcelona from JFK in New York. The difference in the airport is stunning. JFK is dark dirty and unappealing. Barcelona is clean bright and an welcoming place to begin your time in the city. Customs and immigration very smooth. Many US airports could take a lesson.