As a seasoned traveller with all my marbles intact and good eyesight, airport navigation presents no basic problems for me despite occasional mobility difficulties.
My recent return experience at this airport is indelibly memorable – for all the wrong reasons:
There are no electric buggies for passengers so I approached the Wheelchair Assistance desk via which I had an unprecedentedly appalling encounter in all the nineteen countries I’ve visited. Placing my raincoat over the ledge in front of the desk, in a corner and causing no obstruction to anyone or anything, the guy behind the counter moves it swiftly and for no reason I can detect whatsoever sans the slightest explanation; when I protested about handling my property in this manner he was terse and agressive. I verbally exploded and left, hobbling towards the departure gate, shocked at his ‘Attitude. He had all the customer service ‘skills’ of a rottweiler on speed. I then encountered a second problem. My gate was B29 but the signage merely indicated gates B36-B21. Few officials to ask for clarification, none of them speaking English and, again, terse ‘responses’ on enquiring if they DID speak English. Limping by now, I eventually found my gate and with about two minutes to spare – no thanks to airport personnel.
When I complained (back home), after acknowledging my protest I was informed that no record of my transit in the terminal had been found. Thus they ‘conveniently’ abrogated their responsibilities entirely by this ruse. So much for security cameras. Had I been a terrorist I could have planted my bomb and escaped untraceable. VERY comforting.
Neither the airport or the wider Spanish economy will benefit from the contents of my wallet in future because Spaniards don’t deserve my custom. I wasn’t in the learning surprised to observe that general customer feedback rated that outfit 4 out of ten.
