Madrid Barajas Airport

Beautiful Madrid Airport is difficult to maneuver because of bad and confusing signage. I'm not entirely dumb, but lettering of gate nos. and concourses are illogical. My flight departed from gate M, but the sign only read A-L. I kept walking back and forth, even trying to find someone to help without having to walk all the way down to the last gate. No info desks or customer service agents around. They assume that you'll find M if you keep walking down the A-L aisle, and past L. The only person who was kind was a janitor who wanted to practice his English as I was frantically trying to get to the gate. When I finally reached it, there was a US college student who said he was just as confused. Have been to Madrid airport 4 times, and each time I've gotten screwed up.

Terminal T2 in Madrid Barajas is great. Dedicated to Skyteam and Star Alliance airlines check-in, it offers plenty of space, alleys, check-in desks. Rarely you see cues. Security controls are fast and efficient. Plenty of shops and food alternatives. Connected T3 bording terminal (Skyteam dedicated, boarding doors E) is fantastic, with huge ceilings, lots of seating space. No queues or people standing on the ground like in other airports. Toilets are many and quite clean. Food is available at reasonable price (generally well within 10€ for a snack and beverage). The overall impression is of an efficient and modern structure.

I have passed through Madrid Barajas T4, both departing and arriving, several times during the last couple of months, most recently on a leisure trip but also for business. The buildings - the main terminal and the satellite - are vast, spacious and impressive, but signs and display screens are not as abundant and coherent as they could be - something which, in my experience, is not at all unusual in Spain. Another weak link is the prevalance of overpriced fast food outlets, given Spain's excellent gastronomic heritage, and I sometimes wonder if the lack of adequate seating is a crafty ploy to push passengers into them. No wifi is inexcusable in this day and age, and someone really should tell the staff here that a smile costs nothing.

As nearly everything in Spain, this airport is a rip-off. It has no free wifi. Yes, you have a free option to select when connecting, and you are suppossed to get 15 min free wifi but, youll get nothing apart from an error message saying there are too many connections and promoting you to pay. The minimum time you can purchase is 24 hours minimum.

At the check-in counter, there was enough space and clear indications. MAD has many ground transportation options, to the city and to other cities from T-4. After checking in less than 3 minutes, the bagagge control VIP, was still faster. In less than 10 minutes since my arrival at the building, I was at the lounge which is managed by a government organization (AETNA) and serves many airlines. They are under renovation, therefore, the service is assured in the old lounge. You have few options in food and drinks. WIFI is available.

Really good airport even if cleanliness is not the best. Airport staff friendly. Went to the terminal 4S for an international flight.

An elegant airport but in terms of treatment of passengers is a cross between Miami (rude and heavy-handed security and immigration) and Frankfurt (long walks for transit plus indifferent and extremely rude security). I was stopped for a random check for who knows what (they refused to let me know even though the first test was positive and was told I had to deal with the police). I protested that I did not have anything and I was happy to go with someone they ask me to follow elsewhere after I collected my wallet, passport and trolley, but was told I had to leave everything behind. I refused to do this so they ran another test which of course was negative. In the Iberia lounge I was told that security is increasing random checks and that a lot of Iberia's passengers using the lounge have complained that security staff have been very rude. Not a pleasant experience. Not a nice airport to transit. I assume they so a lot of checks drugs because of the amount of flight arriving daily from South America. Fine, do your test, but respect my rights and that of other passengers and there is no need to be rude. Under European law the authorities have the obligation to explain what they are doing and to specify why I was told to follow someone elsewhere. This was not done in my case. Avoid this airport if you can.

My three trips through MAD were uneventful. Fairly good shopping. Clean, modern architecture. Good signage. The downside? The airport is just too big. Gate to the subway (the metro) took forever. Long walks. An intra-airport train. More walking. But all in all, a good experience, and so much better than the aging, chaotic U.S. airports.

Rude and disorganised at TS. We had to go through passport control again despite having gone through security checks at GRX after we landed from Granada. We tried to explain to the passport staff we had 10 minutes to make our connecting flight. Instead he ignored us and physically pushed away one of the people trying to talk to him. Finally 20 minutes later they put more staff on the desks. We just made our flight at T4 even though boarding had closed.

I was flying from Madrid Barajas Airport, Terminal 1 to London Stansted and everything was ok. However, when we got to the departure gate section there wasnt much to do, most shops were closed. Boarding started 15 minutes after scheduled gate close.