Madrid Barajas Airport

Not Verified | Not only is this airport the most dirtiest place I’ve experienced the people who work in the airport are clueless. Something truly needs to be done. This is my second bad experience with this airport and I’ll never fly through here again. Who separates terminals so far apart! Forget your connecting flight if you have one. And the walking is ridiculous! Tell me what is the point in having to go up escalators and down escalators with mile long hall ways. No common sense when building this hole of what you Spaniards call an airport.

Not Verified | After reading some awful reviews I expected this airport to be an awful customer experience. Incoming 4s at night was way better than expected. Return domestic out of 4 was good. Lots of services, toilets, water fountains etc. Terminal 4 is about 1km long so wear comfy shoes and arrange assistance if needed. During the day this terminal was pretty busy but I never had to queue for a toilet which is remarkable. It handles the traffic. Allow time though for security and the walking. Outgoing 4s in evening fast through security but the young man yelling at everyone at passport control ruined my experience, and left a bad impression overall. Yes we the users of airports are customers and we expect a little service and kindness (as long as we are not breaking any law). The escalators down and up to access the 4s train are endless and the route to passports and gates circuitous. For first time users it is a little confusing and here’s a tip: yelling and being rude to confused customers is not helpful or very kind. Perhaps some customer service education from the Japanese for who small acts of kindness is a cultural service level. Clearly these people hate their work. If so quit and work where you have no contact with people. We deserve some respect while using your airport and visiting your country.

✅ Trip Verified | We had a 1h 40 min connection during our flight from Tel Aviv to Santiago de Compostella in Madrid airport on September 30. Due to some problems before departure the flight to Madrid was late about 40 min. Obviously it is nearly impossible to make a connection from terminal 4s to terminal 4 (including a train) in less than an hour. So I hoped that when we come to passport check we'll be given a precedence. Nothing of the kind. The line was huge and immigration staff refused to help us in a very rude way. Finally I begged other people and they let us go before them.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst airport I've experienced. First, many escalators down to take a train to get to international gates. Second, train takes 8-10 mins to get to passport control with endless escalators up. Third, this is the fun part, passport control, it was 11:30 and people with flight times of 12:10 and 12:20 were all crammed in a tiny area and people were on the verge of missing flights, they asked the staff to open a priority line for those about to miss flights. This is standard operating procedure at all other airports I've experienced. Many of the passport control lanes were closed and there were 100+ people in line! The staff barked rudely in Spanish it's your problem - not mine. In my 25 years of flying I have never encountered this, not even in USA notoriously for unfriendly airport staff. People had to beg passengers in front to let them get to the head of the queue and staff continued to scream in Spanish, as if international travellers not fluent in Spanish could suddenly understand Spanish because you scream louder. Those who didn't beg passengers in front of them missed their flight. Fourth, after getting your exit stamp it's 10 minutes walk to the gate! We ran and ran through a maze of duty free shops and made it to the gate at 12:05 for a 12:20 flight, we were the last ones on, other passengers who didn't beg the folks in front of the queue missed the flight. Horrific experience, never fly out of Madrid!

Not Verified | This is the worst terminal and experience I've ever had, poorly designed, people are rude and lazy, appearently nobody took the time to have the user experience when it was built. You could be stranded for hours lost in the confusing and contradictory signs.

✅ Trip Verified | I don't know if all gates are this way but the Delta gate was awful. No restrooms in the gate area, so if you've entered the gate (after showing your passport and boarding pass) you have to leave to use the restroom or get water and go back into the pre-gate entry line! No food there either. The seats were hard plastic and there were exactly zero outlets. There was one on a pole, but it didn't work. For a major city airport, this was a sub-par experience. Delta, if you have any control over your gate space in Madrid, please upgrade it!

NotVerified | This airport is the worst airport I have seen in my entire life in terms of giving its users “freedom” to navigate it. The people that work there are extremely rude, not willing to help, and not cooperative at all in any way, shape, or form. The disgusting behavior of these workers have shocked me so much that I will avoid any connection whatsoever with them. It’s a disgrace of an airport. The only “plus” that it has are the little Starbucks booths where you can drink coffee, other than it’s bad. Also, there are no smoking areas/rooms anywhere. I needed to go outside to smoke, come back inside and has to go through security again. What a disgrace.

✅ Trip Verified | Which sort of major international airport doesn't have announcements to inform passengers of gates or the moment the boarding will start? I found this quite weird. No smoking area either. Bathrooms and the airport in general were very well cleaned.

✅ Trip Verified | Delayed flight so had time to sample the delights of T1. Food and drink: third world choice at London prices. Exhorbitant prices for drinking water, no free water fountains. Toilets: too few, half of them closed, filthy. WiFi surprisingly acceptable. Most franchise staff rude. Airport info staff tolerate your queries, but there is no sense they want to help, it's just a job.

✅ Trip Verified | Do not let the appearance of this airport fool you. It presents lovely but it is an absolute nightmare to navigate. I have traveled extensively for over 30 years and by the time I got to the lounge I was exasperated and frustrated by the pure insanity of trying to find your way to the VAT refund and business lounge. Someone needs to sit in the shoes of a traveler and experience what has been created. The signage is a joke and the assistance from staff proves that they don’t know where anything is either. Then you get to the beautiful lounge which is over 50 meters long. At one end they serve beers and at the other end they serve wine. It’s a disaster and I couldn’t wait to get on the plane.