Barcelona Airport

Not Verified | Filthy restrooms. Far too few toilets that are disgusting. There are often lines to go to the womens toilet. Third world airport. Avoid it if you can or go to the yoilet at home or in the aeroplane

✅ Trip Verified | Arriving into Barcelona from Madrid on Iberia, we landed at Gate A1, which has a special baggage claim attached to it just for passengers from Madrid. However, there's apparently a rule that your bags only get sent there if you started your journey in Madrid; since I connected through Madrid I was told to walk 10 minutes to the main baggage claim. The bags also took a long time to come out, and it seemed like they were unloading one bag per 30 seconds. None of this was helpful given that I had flown through the night and was extremely jetlagged and sleep deprived. Once through Customs the arrivals area is OK, and it's very easy to get the Aerobus into the city, but I'd recommend waiting for a bus with seats; standing on a bus on the freeway is no fun. I flew out on Vueling a few days later. Taking the Metro to the airport was nice, while it was much slower than the Aerobus, it was also much less crowded and is covered by your Metro Pass if you have one that's good for a specific amount of time, such as a daily pass (though the T-10 pass doesn't work). The check-in staff were mostly absent and rude when found, but that may be Vueling's fault instead of the airport's. Security had reasonable lines, but there are turnstiles that block the entrance to security, and the boarding passes from some airlines apparently don't open the turnstiles (this seemed to affect passengers on Lufthansa and Swiss the most). There were plenty of places to eat and drink once past security; they were expensive, but not unusually so for an airport. The airport does have an outdoor patio past security; unfortunately, the patio is overrun with smokers and there's no hope of getting fresh air over the stench of cigarette smoke. Overall, Barcelona is a decent airport, but it still has a number of issues which need to be ironed out.

✅ Trip Verified | Will we start with the positives? Decent variety of shopping and eating options in T2 and the airport is clean. The bad? Staff are absolutely awful, especially at security. Rude and abrupt. I arrived earlier than the standard couple of hours due to the ongoing security personnel strikes and was gobsmacked at the staff on hand at this part of the airport. The entire crowd was repeatedly told to ‘hurry up’ to get in the security queues. Then, when my boarding pass wouldn’t go through the initial check because I was early, I had a member of staff laugh in my face, tell me go back to check in and told me it wasn’t his problem. He then proceeded to talk to his colleagues about me, thinking I was daft enough to not get the tone being used even if I didn’t speak the language! God awful and embarrassing for the city.

Not Verified | Stupid and awkward airport design. If you follow the flow and security’s instruction, theres no way you can enter the shopping areas. Really stupid design, people just ended up entering the gate area and watching the shops from the above and couldn't find a way down. And there are only small shops up there with chocolate and brands where you can find from most countries. Awkward and the worst experience I have ever had. As previous reviews have mentioned, should have done something about it. If you have hours before departure and planning to do some last minute souvenirs shopping, but ended up at the gate area, it would be utterly awful.

Not Verified | This place is a literal joke and a laughing stock of all European airports. There’s no signs, no help desk and no one has a clue what’s going on. I can’t stress enough how hard you should try to avoid this airport at all costs. Flying budget airlines can be stressful enough and flying them out of this airport is setting yourself up for a bad time. Good luck out there.

Not Verified | My flight was delayed for 6 hours and I was pretty angry with that already. American Airlines treats their customers pretty poorly in such situations. Only a complimentary voucher for 20€ was given to spend at any food location. Unfortunate surprise awaits you right after security gates. My gate was E70 something, on the second floor you have only Burger King, Cafe pans and some other cafe across Duty free. You will look down with tears, as a first floor is loaded with different nice places to eat and shop. Everyone works slowly, only a few staff members understand English. To me it’s impossible that they hire people to work in International Airport without any knowledge at all. There are no sitting area available to rest, all benches and chars has a singular occupation divider. Lack of check-in services, no express electronic terminals, at some point its like cave man century. Plan your trip very well, and use any other airport but never Barcelona!

Not Verified | Beware if traveling on easyJet to the UK. the departure lounge (gate M) is exclusive to easyJet flights and has nothing there other than a small duty free shop (does anyone actually buy from here anymore?!) and a cafe offering an insipid hot dog and crisps for eur12.75 chips are an extra eur5 some burger deals for an extortionate price and no other food options to buy from. We were looking forward to having Burger King as advertised now in the airport. NO that’s your lot. Eat before you get to the airport unless you are prepared to re-mortgage. The bag check staff are rude .. no easy signs to make sure you are taking out electronic equipment etc so you have to go round at least twice. Surly staff. Apart from one man on the passport control desk I was amazed but maybe it’s because we were leaving! EasyJet you are not looking after your passengers.

Not Verified | Very poor experience in security - on entry to the area there was hardly any space for people to load trays with their loose items, toiletries etc. and no staff or signage to assist or direct people. This led to a bunching up of people prior to going through the scanners and a lot of confusion. Some of the security staff were extremely rude - despite us and those around us trying to cooperate. My partner was spoken to very rudely (unprofessionally so) because he had forgotten to put his sunglasses on the conveyor (again, some assistance beforehand would have avoided this). He was still being 'told off' while he was trying to comply! We know security have to do their job but no need to treat people like cattle.

Not Verified | Very disappointed by the behavior of the security. They were very rude and in their incivility they subjected my family to 3 so called random searches within 30 minutes. It becomes a statistical fallacy when one individual family on vacation is subjected to 3 searches in a half hour period. That is a bogus excuse for randomness. Worse still the insistence of a lady officer to do a pat down when I insisted that it would be a violation is detestable and repugnant. I requested that a male officer be brought to do the pat down and this lady refused and went ahead. The whole experience was embarrassing and inappropriate. I deserve an apology from this airport.

Not Verified | I must reiterate all that is said before, how this airport functions is a surprise. My arrival at the location was fairly easy but having flown through before I am still astounded that in a country where the outside temperature was about 30C haven't bothered with real air conditioning! Be prepared for a hot and uncomfortable visit if you have to wait for anything! On departure back home we had be forewarned that the Security staff were limited and striking so take extra time. I arrived 4 hours early and survived security, which I would describe as a whole lot of people shouting at each other! Then to Passport control with the officer barely even acknowledging my existence. Having passed safely through I was feeling great that now we could get a coffee and have a browse at the shops, how wrong I was. I was flying from Gate D on the top floor and was greeted with a Glass wall looking down onto the massive shopping area which apparently I couldn't visit. There is nothing more frustrating than thinking, "Surely there is a way down? Maybe I'm going mad?" No you cannot go to the shops if you depart from gate D or E! Having spent a good 30 minutes walking up and down with the family and checking for signs it was obvious that zero consideration was given and you are effectively trapped. I have never been to any other airport with such a ridiculous situation exists. My family require Gluten free food and absolutely zero effort has been made at Gate D or E so we had have over priced crisps for dinner! If you wish to attend this promised land of food and shops then do not enter security gates after initial check in if flying from gate D or E. Look for the tiny, tiny sign saying "las tiendas del aeropuerto". Good luck!