I need help determining whether I can comfortably make my flight home from BCN airport if I arrive by train at the Barcelona-Sants station earlier the same day...
My train is scheduled to arrive at Barcelona-Sants station at 14:09, and my flight is scheduled to depart BCN for the US at 15:40. This seems too tight to me. An alternative arrival time by train would be 13:40 or 11:41.
Also, what is your recommended way for me to get from the train station to the airport?
Thanks for your help!
You have to be at the airport 2-3 hrs before your scheduled departure to clear security & immigration.
Seems too tight in any case. Assuming you're on time at say 13:40, you need to go up to the main hall, purchase a ticket (in the ATMs! the booths are far slower), and then find the right track to the airport (there are 16+ tracks). There's a train every 30', say you have to wait 15' (50%) of those minutes for the next train, then the ride to the airport is around 30' more.... it's reasonable to say you'd be at the door of the terminal at 2:30ish... but that's to me a very (very!) optimistic assumption... everything would have to be very smooth.
Then you need to find your checking desk, line up to check in... and checking in closes 40' before departure (more for some international flights)..., then go thru the custom and immigration area... and finally you have to walk to your finger gate (if in Terminal 1 pray your gate is not a high number or else you'll be walking forever to find it!).
In short, I find it a "thrilling" challenge :))
Taxi from Sants to the airport can buy you say 15' (plus those 15' that I estimated as average wait for the airport train), but it's not that much either... still "frenzy heart-pumping", lol!
I would plan to be at BCN 3 hours before the flight. I spent almost one hour in the airline check-in line at that airport last August. If I had not arrived 3 hours ahead of time I might well have missed my flight. If all goes well, the train arriving at 11:41 should be OK. However, with a (presumed) transatlantic flight in the mix, I never assume that all will go well. Unless you're just coming in from somewhere like Girona or Sitges, I would spend my last night in Barcelona. My rule of thumb: Always be within an affordable taxi ride of the departure airport in case of a catastrophic transportation issue (like a rail strike).
"My train is scheduled to arrive at Barcelona-Sants station at 14:09, and my flight is scheduled to depart BCN for the US at 15:40. This seems too tight to me. An alternative arrival time by train would be 13:40 or 11:41."
You are right. Too tight. Missed flight.
Even the 13:40 arrival would be insufficient time for me, so go for the 11:41. Take the Renfe airport train from Sants as Enric suggests.
