Despite departing Vancouver twenty-five minutes late we landed in Sydney about twenty minutes ahead of the scheduled time. Presumably the traditional head winds had a lesser effect on our flight. The early landing was completely undone by two delays once at the gate.
First we had to wait for the plane to be sprayed internally to eradicate those nasty bugs trying to infiltrate Australia.
Then having disembarked I made the mistake of trying to use the 'Smart Gate' Immigration clearance for the holders of those high tech microchip enhanced passports.
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| Perth's Smart Gates |
The benignly named 'Assistance Desk' was just one lane amongst many overcrowded lanes at the Immigration Clearance line. Being Saturday morning there were huge lines of passengers queued for clearance.
Our 'Assistance Desk' lane had its own ever growing queue of very disgruntled passengers each rueing that they had tried the 'smart' gates. I was queued for over thirty minutes before 'Assistance Desk' cleared me for entry. Hn, in the meantime was waiting with both our bags.
By the way, a young girl in one of the presumably 'non smart' queues for passengers unfortunate enough not to be in possession of a high tech passport fainted in the crush of the queues of which she was a member.
Welcome to Australia!
Last year I grumbled about slow Immigration clearance at Los Angeles and London Heathrow Airports. Sadly, my home city's performance this morning was just as unwelcoming.
Arriving at Melbourne at 10pm, we were fine and it wasn't too busy. The 'smart' gates worked ok for us. But we have had some shocking experiences at Melbourne Airport when arriving home in the past. Other countries seem to do it better than we do, even the US. Never mind. Safely home.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Andrew but considering my former occupation it was a galling experience nonetheless.
DeleteGrowing up in Canberra, I used to travel overseas via Sydney. It wasn't until I moved to Melbourne that I realised that the long, slow queues of Sydney International are not always inevitable. Sure, I've been stuck in queues at Melbourne but they are no where near as bad – or as frequent – as my experiences in Sydney.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to shut my mouth about overseas airports, AdRad.
DeleteI would almost expect some level of queues if you have a foreign passport. But surely it should be more efficient (less checks presumably) for Australian passport holders entering Australia?
ReplyDeleteThat's the theory Craig but modern technology sometimes has its own mind!
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