I can't speak to what is normal as this was my 1st time at BCN. Our flight departed from gate 85 so I had to walk back to gate 70. I saw a group of employees standing in a cluster and asked them where the AA travel office was and someone escorted me in.
Everything was scanned for explosive residue, had to empty every pocket of my luggage and purse. Would estimate the entire process took about 15 minutes