Fiumicino

Dear all

How is the set up at BCN for the car rental, can you already process the car rental transaction while waiting for the luggage to come out (similarly to AGP) or do you need to get out of the arrival area without your luggage in order to access the car rental desks?

I have a flight arriving at 23h15 and the Enterprise desk closes at midnight. It might be a little bit tight if the flight is delayed. I have added my flight number to the reservation in any case.

Thanks

F

Koby

Rental desks are after customs only, so you will have to wait for your luggage first.
If Enterprise is a serious company they will wait for you (but I have no personal experience with them).

Fiumicino

Thanks. I'm flying from within Schengen so will not have to go through customs, but good to know that the desks are after the exit doors. Hopefully they wait indeed.

WorldLux

You mean immigration. You still have to go thru customs. While intra-Schengen is much more liberal regarding customs, there are still limits on what and how much you can bring into a country.

Moreover, you still walk thru the green/red corridor system as it is impossible to separate Non-Schengen from Schengen passengers (If you fly JFK-AMS-MAD, you are a Schengen passenger on the last leg, but still need to clear customs with your checked bags. The carry-ons are supposed to be cleared at the point of entry while in transit).

That said, I've never been stoped by customs officer while arriving from a Schengen origin (in which case the bag tag has two green stripes on it). I did however already see people getting pulled over and checked. Usually it's the type of passenger returning for a holiday destination, still boozed-up, wearing lots of counterfeit items (i.e. the fake Louis Vuitton bag and ray-ban) and that usually buy too much cigarettes.

The high thresholds (i.e. 110 litres of beer, 800 cigarettes) mean that most travel within the limit and custom officers don't bother stopping most Schengen passengers.