Baggage at Barcelona-El Prat Airport: cabin and hold rules, left luggage, reclaim in T1 and T2 and missing bags

What do you need to sort out?

Airline, handling agent or Aena: who is responsible for your bags

Your airline sets the cabin and hold allowances, the fees for extra, heavy and sports bags, and the check-in rules. Its ground handling agent checks the bags in, loads them and deals with every claim about a bag that is late, damaged or missing; at Barcelona the agents include Groundforce, Iberia, Swissport, Menzies, Aviapartner and South Europe Ground Services, depending on the airline. Aena runs the terminals and the security checkpoints and hosts services such as left luggage. It pays no compensation for lost bags.

The 100 ml liquids limit is a security rule and applies whatever your ticket includes. Special baggage, anything over 1.2 m or 50 kg, is a handling category of the airport, so a golf bag can be special baggage for the airport and carry a sports-equipment fee from your airline at the same time.

Checking in bags at T1 and T2

Your terminal is on your boarding pass. Aena assigns airlines to terminals and changes the allocation from time to time, so check it for every trip. As a rule, Terminal 1 (T1) handles Vueling, Iberia, LEVEL and most long-haul and full-service airlines. Terminal 2 (T2) is one terminal in three sections: T2B is used mainly by Ryanair and Transavia, T2C mainly by easyJet, and T2A has no departures.

Self check-in machines stand on the T1 check-in floor, and some airlines there, among them Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss and Vueling, also have self bag-drop machines. Whether you can drop your bag yourself is up to your airline.

Aena's own minimum is to be at the airport 45 minutes before departure, plus time for traffic, queues, passport control, security and the walk to the gate. With bags to check in, two hours before a Schengen or domestic flight and three hours before a non-Schengen one is a sensible margin, all the more from T1, where most long-haul flights leave.

Cabin bags: your airline's limits, then the security rules

How many cabin bags you may take, how big and how heavy, is set by your airline; the airport has no limit of its own. Keep valuables, documents, money and medicines in the bag that stays with you.

At security, liquids, gels, creams and aerosols travel in containers of up to 100 ml, all in one clear resealable bag of up to 1 litre, one bag per passenger, children included. At the standard lanes several things leave your bag and go through the scanner on their own: laptops, tablets, cameras and other electronics, the liquids bag, crutches and walking sticks, pushchairs, baby seats and cremation urns.

The one place where Aena says electronics and liquids may stay in the bag is the T1 Fast Track lane on Floor 3, and the 100 ml limit still applies there. In the T2 Fast Lane and in every standard lane, take them out unless staff or signs say otherwise. Medicines, baby food and duty-free bags are covered on security and passport control.

Power banks, lithium batteries, vapes and smart suitcases

Power banks and spare lithium batteries travel in your cabin bag and never in the hold, each one protected against short circuit; the table gives the watt-hour limits. Using a power bank to charge a device during the flight is not allowed.

Bikes, golf bags, surfboards, skis and instruments: special baggage

Anything longer than 1.2 m, heavier than 50 kg or of an unusual shape is special baggage: bicycles, golf bags, surfboards, skis and large musical instruments are the usual cases. It cannot go through the automated baggage system, so you hand it in at the special-baggage desk your airline indicates, and at your destination it comes out at a separate carousel. For a very large item the airline may offer to send it as cargo.

It has to be packed properly: a bicycle goes in a purpose-made box with the handlebars turned, the pedals off and the tyres let down, and airlines can refuse sports gear that is badly packed. At BCN your airline or its handling agent points you to the desk. Tell the airline as early as you can, so the price and conditions are settled before you get there.

Pushchairs, baby seats, wheelchairs and mobility aids

Prams, pushchairs, cots and baby seats are allowed and are X-rayed separately at security. Whether you keep the pushchair until the aircraft door and get it back there on arrival is your airline's policy, so ask when you book. If you check yours in, the airport lends free pushchairs in the Schengen boarding areas; airport services lists the loan points.

Crutches and walking sticks you need are allowed and screened on their own. Wheelchairs and other mobility aids with lithium batteries may travel in the cabin or the hold if you tell your airline in advance. If the aid does not protect its battery, the battery comes out (up to 300 Wh), is protected against damage and short circuit and goes in the cabin; you may also carry one spare of up to 300 Wh or two of up to 160 Wh.

If you need help to get through the airport and collect your bags, Aena's free Barrier Free assistance is booked ahead: see special assistance.

Firearms and valuable items

Firearms need an authorisation and are checked in under their own procedure. At BCN the formalities are done at the Guardia Civil firearms office (Intervención de Armas) in T1, module P30: Monday to Friday from 07:30 to 20:30, and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 07:00 to 15:00. Outside those hours the Guardia Civil public desk next door deals with it, and you can also start the process online on the Guardia Civil's electronic office.

Travelling abroad and back with an expensive camera, laptop or watch? A customs value declaration before you leave records that you already owned it, which avoids questions about import duty when you come home. Allowances and the red and green channels are on customs.

Left luggage at T1 and T2 (Excess Baggage)

Excess Baggage runs one left-luggage office in each terminal, both on Floor 0.

The desk gives current prices. In T1, Floor 0 is also where the Metro station, Aeroport T1, is. If you will be back after 22:00, use the T1 office, the only one open through the night; from T2 it is a ride on the free shuttle.

Trolleys stand throughout both terminals and the airport grounds. For heavy luggage, Transeaba collects cases at the carousel or from a parked car and moves them for you (+34 662 165 738, [email protected]). For plastic wrapping or a public scale, ask at an Aena information desk in your terminal.

Baggage reclaim at T1 and T2

Arriving from outside the Schengen area, you go through passport control first, then collect your bags, then pass customs; from a Schengen airport you walk straight to reclaim. Each hall shows the carousel for your flight on its screens.

Customs, with its green and red channels, is in the arrivals area of T1, T2A, T2B and T2C.

Connecting flights: bags checked through, or collect and check in again

On a single ticket your bags are normally checked through to your final destination, and you follow the Connecting Flights signs. Arriving from outside Schengen, you may first pass a connections security checkpoint, on T1 Floor 2 or T2 Floor 1. In T2, connections to and from the separate non-Schengen gate area M are escorted by an agent.

On separate tickets, a self-transfer, you collect your bags in the reclaim hall, clear passport control if you come from outside Schengen, leave the arrivals area and check in again at your next airline's desk. That route is far more likely to send you to the other terminal. Before you fly, confirm with your airline whether your bags will be checked through, and carry the documents you need to enter Spain. Minimum connecting times are set by the airlines.

The shuttle is free, runs 24 hours every 5 to 10 minutes and stops at T1 Floor 0 (arrivals), T1 Floor 3 (departures), T2B and T2C; its hour-by-hour timetable is on terminals T1 and T2. The airline and handling-agent desks in T1 that help connecting passengers, with their phone numbers, are listed on airport services.

Delayed, damaged or missing bag: file a PIR before you leave

If your bag does not come out, arrives damaged or has been opened, go to your airline's handling-agent desk in the reclaim hall before you leave and file a Property Irregularity Report (PIR). Have the bag tag and your boarding pass with you, as the report needs them, and keep them until the matter is closed. The airline traces the bag in its own system, WorldTracer for example.

Written claims to the airline have deadlines under the Montreal Convention: 7 days from receiving the bag for damage, and 21 days from the date it reaches you for a delay. Aena does not handle baggage claims. Something left on the plane is also a matter for the airline; for anything lost in the terminal, see lost and found.