To think that proposed charge for fast track through passport control is a bloody cheek

[eternalopt]

Story here

Travellers face £5 charge to get through passport control faster - the guardian
apple.news/AcllRgdcvRPmsiKgTktYtHA

So charges at every airport to get through passport control quickly - surely this means longer queues for everyone else who can't stump up the cash as the staff are elsewhere serving those rich enough to queue jump? Given that it's a public service that we already pay for through taxes etc, this feels really cheeky to me.

[SillySongsWithLarry]

If your budget is so tight that you can't afford £5 there are cheaper holiday options.

[DeathStare]

I see your point but I've paid the charge to fast track through security at the airport before (at departures). It was worth every penny to Mr to know I wouldn't be queueing for hours alone with small DC and to guarantee I'd have time to feed them in the departure lounge before getting the flight.

[DeathStare]

Typo: to me. There was no Mr!

[wasonthelist]

If your budget is so tight that you can't afford £5 there are cheaper holiday options.

Which is why it's a stupid idea - if everyone pays the £5 we're back to square one as one of the Union guys in the article points out.

My local Airport is scandalously understaffed in security and passport control - the airport I fly to regularly is a large international one that appears to have taken the radical step of employing enough staff for the demand and so waiting times are minimal.

[wasonthelist]

YANBU OP it's beyond a cheek and right back around the other side - Passport checks at UK airports are a scandal - as far as the claim managers are under pressure to cut queues - flip knows what they'd be like otherwise as they are awful now.

[eternalopt]

Yeah, £5 I could swallow, but £17.50 at gay wick and a family of four (I assume the charge will be per person?) - starts to sting then. I could afford it but others can't, I hate the idea of a rich queue and the hoi polloi being left to suck it up.

[eternalopt]

*gatwick, not gay wick!

[WreckTangled]

I like gay wick better

I can't say I've ever spent very long queuing at departures in either gatwick or Heathrow, I always find its arrivals which is a nightmare. I would happily pay it then after a nightmare flight with my dc!

[MatildaTheCat]

YANBU,the queues at British airport passport control are a bloody disgrace. Land at 5am after a 14 hour flight then queue for an hour? What a great welcome. Go to most developed countries and it's pretty much straight through.

One tiny advantage of being disabled is that you get to skip the line.

[BIWI]

It's considerably worse entering the USA or Russia!

[eternalopt]

Just annoys me that they know there's an issue...so they fix it for some. Throw some money at the problem and get more staff where they're needed.

[wasonthelist]

BIWI Not been to Russia but I go to the US once or twice a year and find on the whole they are no worse than UK, and often better. It's a big place though so we may be going to different airports of course.

[WreckTangled]

I went through a kiosk in t5 Heathrow but they only had a couple of them.

[IonaNE]

It's another way of airlines/airports trying to wrangle money out of travellers. I'd never pay for something like this (just as I don't pay for checked-in luggage either, I haven't checked in anything for at least 8 years, I think). I'll just join the passport queue, take out my Kindle and read until I get there. I don't travel with children though, so I understand someone with dc may be in a more difficult situation.

[Kenduskeag]

Take it up with the Leave voters. They clearly had a problem with the EU travel arrangements as they were.

[wasonthelist]

My local airport has a new and special circle of hell for those of us with DCs. Everyone else now has to use the automatic gates with the facial recognition - but as kids can't use those, families have to queue for ages to see the very few humans.

[wasonthelist]

Kenduskeag I've seen some pretty tenuous brexcuses but that one takes the

The service is poor, has been for ages. Doubt Leave or Remain is going to make much difference to that - and we haven't left yet.

As for the "arrangements" I've never seen an "EU passports" queue at a UK airport that was any shorter than an "all others" - in fact the non-EU queues are often shorter, so maybe things will improve after we leave :)

[TrojanWhore]

Take it up with the leave voters

It's got sod all to do with Brexit, as UK is non-Schengen and all arrivals (except certain routes from ROI) have had to go through immigration.

The article also mentions fast-tracking security on departure, which again is sod all to do with Brexit.

Also, the work on the proposal pre-dates the referendum. But hey, don't let that get in the way of a bandwagon.

[Warl]

Personally I'm against any of these fast track lines, theme parks, airports any of them. I have absolutely no problem with waiting my turn in a queue if everyone is in the same boat! As long as companies can make more money by getting people to pay for them it's going to grow & grow!

[AlpacaPicnic]

Well, for some people time is worth more than money. But that's true of everything... For example :-

I can get a cab home which would cost me £10 or I can get the bus which is £1.20 but takes longer and I have to wait for it.
I ordered a new top from a shop recently. I can pay for next day delivery which is £6 or I can have it delivered to the shop for free but it takes 10 days.
I can pay to park in the mall carpark which is £8 but I can walk in and out of the shops and stay undercover. I can pay £2 to park at the other end of town but it's further away from all the shops and I'll get wet if it rains.

There are lots of choices everyday where money = convenience and speed. Why should this be any different?

[LellyMcKelly]

My airport has been charging people to get into departures more quickly, and to get a parking space closer to the terminal. I don't have much of a problem with that. It thins out the queue for the rest of us. A few month ago it started charging a pound to drop off or collect passengers - with a 10 minute window. This is a complete rip off as it's the only way many can get to or from the airport.

[HandbagCrab]

Manchester airport arrivals is the seventh circle of hell. Huge queues for families, staff trying to catch you out with questions about where you've flown from etc

I've been sniffed by sniffer dogs in New Zealand looking for fruit and veg and been asked 20 questions and fingerprinted in the U.S. and I accept that's how it is as I'm a visitor there.

Coming back to the UK with a UK passport from a package holiday during the school hols should be a breeze as it's all known quantities. This is my home and we shouldn't have to queue for hours to get back into it or have to pay £15+ to not have to queue for so long just because under 18s are not allowed to use the scanners. It's disgraceful.

[wasonthelist]

HandbagCrab I 100% agree

[wasonthelist]

Why should this be any different? We are already paying plenty in taxes and the cost of passports. In most of the examples you gave there was a choice of decent services - in this case the choice is pay extra just to get a reasonable service.