What happens to your luggage while you are going through the EES process in Europe? We understand it can take up to 90 minutes. This will be our first time registering.

We are trying to decide if to take carry on luggage instead of the larger ones to check in. Some people have said that it has taken them 2 hrs to get through the EES process. If they remove the luggage from the belt, where does it end up? That is my question.

Thank you.

It will be pulled from the belt and taken to the baggage office in the baggage claim area where you can get it. IIRC, AA uses Menzies.

our family of 6, with 2 kids, will not be checking luggage for our first trip to the EU with EES. nope.....

Even without EES, I would do carry-ons for sure, if possible.

I once had lost bags in BCN and it took 5 days to get them. Have a great trip!

We have decided to carry on our luggage and a personal bag. This will be a first for us.

The least we want after whatever time it will take to get the EES done, is to have to go look for our bags in another line and be told they cannot find it. We are not staying in Barcelona, we are driving to our first town 2.5 hrs away, so we cannot afford to have this happen. We return to Spain in October, landing at MAD. It's good to know we will not have to go through this again, or so we hope.

Thank you for all your replies!

You should check out the thread on the BA forum for the latest with BCN (here).

We arrived at BCN this morning. When we got to the area where the line was to register in the EES system, there were two very long lines. As we were going to join one of them, one of the workers started screaming “US citizens come through here”, pointing us to another line that was open. We walked right in to where the machines were, some were off, but most were working.

I kept getting an error and it would ask me to see the officer. I tried it 3 times and nothing. One of the ladies that was walking around the area passed by, so I asked her what could be the problem. It turns out that when they are going to take your photo, you are not supposed to look straight forward, you need to look at wherever the green X was. So I did that and everything worked fine.

We were there less than 30 minutes. The other lines were very long and we heard a lady complaining that she had been there 2 hours.

Thank you for your responses, I wanted to come back and share our experience to help others.