BARCELONA AIRPORT FOR TOURIST (NON SPAIN)

During my Euro trip I used a lot of Ryanair services. It’s the cheapest one that we could get and so far the track record was okay, so. When Mia and I traveled the first time, all plane tickets we booked are Ryanair except for the one from Prague to Milan, we used EasyJet service because they’re the only budget flight serving that route.

I went into the next Euro trip the next year with my parents, and my mom was not a huge fan of budget flight, she loves the price obviously, but she’s afraid of flying. Moreover, in her mind, budget means less save (I have no say in this, I always pray to take-off, fly, and land safely no matter what plane I use.)

mom posed in front of the infamous Ryanair once we arrived safely at Rome

Long story short, my mom prefer EasyJet to Ryanair. But in one trip from Barcelona to Rome we must take Ryanair because EasyJet doesn’t serve that route.

As usual, we arrived at the airport 3 hours before departure. We queued for half an hour. Once we got in front of the check-in counter, the lady said we must stamp our passport first in this small counter nearby.

THERE WERE ONLY TWO COUNTERS TO SERVE ALL FLIGHTS! To make matter worse, there were two American tourists that complained about the amount of money they need to pay extra yada yada yada and they also created some drama by yelling to the rest of the people that queued “don’t use Ryanair, they suck! They gives cheap tickets but we have to pay a lot extra money!!” (pffftt, classic huh!)

Those American cost the rest of the passenger a hour of our time, and by the time I got my passport stamped (one-and-a-half hour later) the check-in counter closed. The lady said, just bring your luggage upstairs and you need to pay 50 Euro for each bag, and your flight is boarding now!

Here are the things that made me furious:

1. All liquids that are prohibited to enter the plane cabin were stored inside the big luggage since we intended them all not to be our 'carry on'—which we had to bring upstairs.
2. We paid for the luggage a long time ago, and we had to pay again because those stupid American tourists wasting people’s time.
3. The luggage was heavy, and we had to take it upstairs by STAIRS!
4. In the x-ray, obviously all liquid had to be thrown out, despite all our effort to pack in safely.
5. We literally dragged our luggage to the plane and yes, we’re the lucky last passenger to arrived and still be able to board the plane.
6. I also knew there were several other people downstairs that have to take the same plane as we were but still stuck in the queue.
7. Ryanair served the Barcelona-Rome route only once a day. Can you imagine how suck it was for the people that were left behind?! They had to book a new flight, wait until the next day, pay more, lose precious time.

My only advice for any tourist flying out from Barcelona is: make sure you stamp your passport before checking you bag in. The stamp booth located neat the entry of BCN T2 and it has English writing so people globally should understand. If you’re not sure, then arrive at the airport 3 or 4 hours prior your BOARDING time, not departure time. Because the “passport stamping” also applied to EasyJet and other flights.