The new EU passport control system for non-EU is totally idiotic and crap and will permanently make holidaying in Europe worse

[Czerwonitz]

Sure, still probably better than the US (and no need to say anything about the UAE etc for now) but still shit.

1. Why are there stupid kiosks dotted randomly about, just put them in the line everyone waits in so the queue can be orderly and everyone literally knows where they stand.

2.Clearly mark the line so people don't wait in the wrong one for an hour before being told they have to go to the back of another.

3.The fingerprints machine cannot properly take fingerprints (anyone who has worked in a fingerprinty job knows this, it's all for show) so maybe just park that or if not then at least get some alcohol wipes for between users.

None of this will happen ofc it's random shitty kiosks til we die. Or rejoin the EU. So the first one.

Totally NU OP. I had a ludicrous experience flying to Italy last month, no kiosks working, at the end of the arduous process of watching an egg timer on the screen until it went blank, you were either given a sticker or not. A sticker meant you could be let through the e-gate manually, no sticker meant join the rest-of-the-world queue which was eleventy billion miles long. Grr.

My DS did this in Madrid recently. Found it super easy. Staff helped with the kiosk. He did the system, went to border guard, got a stamp without the border guard asking a single question.

Ah I had the sticker! So they ordered me to the egates. The egates wouldn't recognise me. They kept insisting and seemed to think I was somehow to blame for everything. Then eventually ordered me out and into the rest of world queue (although they did command me to cut in front of a bunch of other people which I did cos a girl has to get home but they understandably loathed me).

What is wrong with the fucking handheld stamps.

Anyway it's just a queue at an airport. Ultimately it will pass and you can go on your holiday. Honestly EU incompetence I get for failing to get this out smoothly

It is easy when it works but often it doesn't work as and above why isn't there a proper orderly line why is it Occasional Machines.

I assume each airport is different

It's not a queue it's a rammy. It has totally killed off the appeal of the long weekend for me.

I think some are worse than others but the system seems fundamentally flawed.

Fair enough. Just depends on the airport I guess

I have not heard of an airport yet that uses a queue system. All treature hunt for the kiosk systems.

Well many countries are trying to discourage tourists. I assume that's why they are making it as annoying as possible. I did read there is also a deliberate go-slow for UK passengers to make a point about Brexit; whether that is true or not I have no clue.

Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving.

And hurt tourism from USA, AUS ,NZ and many other countries who have visa free tourism to the EU?

In the UK, EU passports + others can use e-gates.

Almost has if it affects other non EU countries as well

And the UK can design a system for speedy border for UK and EU passport holders.

I think the Spanish for example aren't keen on tourists at the moment.

Yes agreed...getting into the UK is perfectly fine and we don't have a go slow on EU entrants on the basis we aren't making a Brexit point. If thats whats happening in EU airports.

We queued for so long at Kos airport on arrival that our suitcases had been removed from the carousel and left for anyone to steal.

I didn't vote for this shitshow and am still angry at those who did.

Yep, Faro airport was the worst I've ever been in.

EU queue was relatively long, but non EU queue comprising mostly Brit passports insane, queueing up stairs (where there is not meant to be a queue), took 3 hours after security to get to the gate.

Unless you have no option but to go to a country with shit facilities and organisation, choose those EU countries that are quick and efficient. Now anyone want to give their vote as to which are?

I have an EU passport, but I laughed when I landed in Malaga over Christmas to find the EU queue out the door and up the stairs, so I joined the "all passports" Q and was out in five minutes. I didn't have to use the machines, but that Q was so much quicker. Maybe Brits and other on EUs are voting with their feet and staying away from disorganised destinations!

Where is reliable? Nowhere atm

There must be somewhere in EU that works ok.

Name it and im there!

Over 700 million people visit Europe every year, 10 times more than visit the US, and that's just the figures for tourists.

So a database has to store maybe ten bits of data for each of those people, billions of pieces of data, and be able to retrieve them instantly every time they arrive and leave, whoever thought that this system would work in the first place other than the most deluded optimist. The European travel industry has been lobbying against this since the scheme was first proposed.

Thats not to say it won't ever work, but the teething problems were always going to be immense.

The criminals and terrorists will still find away around the system, and the rest of us will still have to face the difficulties.

I renewed my EU passport last month and they take fingerprints at the time of renewal so they are stored on your passport.

Cyprus doesn’t use it.

Toulouse was brilliant in october. Marked queues. Took 5 mins.

All my family have Irish passports. Sadly you don't get one through marriage. So I have been known stand up and run to the front of the plane to get to the front of the queue while DH and DD saunter through the EU queue.