Passport control and queue jumping

[KatharinaRosalie]

Just curious, as passport control lines have been in the news recently - what is the general consensus for the correct thing to do in the following situation:

Airport has both automated e-gates and manned passport control counters. Both have lines, but e-gate line is quite a bit shorter. A person stands there, however, the e-gate does not work for them for some reason, and they get a message to go to manned counter.
(While some airports have dedicated counters for exactly this situation, this airport does not). Person asks the first in line for the manned counter if they can go in front. Other people in the queue are not happy with this and feel they cut the line.

What should this person have done?
Voting:
YABU - they took the risk that e-gates won't work, they should go to the end of line for manned counters.

YANBU - they already waited in line, not their fault the gates didn't work, they should not queue twice.

Queue twice unless there’s a lane open for people having issues with the e-gates, or whoever is at the front of the normal line offers. Don’t ask.

It’s not their fault that the e-gate didn’t work, most of the time, but it’s also not anyone else’s fault in the queue. They made their choice.

They should queue twice. Although if they asked me I would let them go in front of me because I don't care that much.

You say the person asked and then people were unhappy but you don't say what the response was. If someone said no and they pushed in then obviously unreasonable. If they said yes then that's fine and anyone further back needs to stop noticing such inconsequential things.

I always try and go to the desk but the officers always funnel me to the e-gates. My passport NEVER works in the e-gates and I try to tell them this but they don’t listen. So I don’t feel like I should have to queue up again when I told them I should have been in the desk queue to begin with.

They usually get sent to the next available person. Ive seen it happen most to teenagers and the elderly.

I don’t think they should queue twice. The whole point of e-gates is to speed things up, penalising the users is like making supermarket self scan users queue in the manned checkout queue if they have an issue. If people end up queuing twice nobody will use the e-gates and everyone will end up waiting longer.

By cutting in line you’re almost certainly going to cut in front of other people who’ve been referred from the gates. Just queue.

If you queue twice you're a mug

person who was first said yes, but the one behind them was unhappy

Take Heathrow as an example. My partners passport never works at the egates. He tells the people who are shuffling travellers towards them this but they still insist he tries first.

Why then should he have to queue again at a manned booth ? It wasn't his choice to go to the egates

If you allow queue jumping from the e-gates, people who don’t qualify to use e-gates will ‘pretend’ to try to use them, then jump the manned queue.

Take your chance and queue properly.

penalising the users is like making supermarket self scan users queue in the manned checkout queue if they have an issue

I agree with this. It's like telling the people at self check outs that they need to put all their stuff back in the basket and go to normal cashier. There absolutely should be a special manned counter that deals specifically with people who tried, but couldn't use e-gates. But in this instance, there was not.

In any queue, I always feel the person at the front gets to make the decision - I don't know why, I just feel like that's the rule. So if the person in front says yes, just accept it regardless of your views; equally, if they say no and you think they are being unreasonable, accept it and don't start a debate or try to shame them. As the "askee", if the first person says yes or no, that's the decision; don't involve other people or override their choice.

Specifically in this case at airports, often the people manning the e-gates ask you to go to the front of the queue. Especially if people are piling in behind you, trying to push back out of the e-gates queue to get to the front of the manned counters, can create chaos.

Exactly. There was not.

Using your analogy, if you use the self checkout at the supermarket and encounter an issue and there’s no member of staff to help, you should join the queue for a manned checkout, not just barge to the front.

I think they should be allowed to cut in but other people are allowed to be annoyed. I’ve been both and all passport security is basically a level of hell that makes me not feel so bad about the fact that I can’t afford holidays.

In fairness @Screamingabdabz has it right - airports in general but specifically immigration queues are hell (I travel very regularly and despite that can still be shocked at new levels of poor behaviour in airports and on planes!)

I think the trick is to just assume everyone is also in their own private version of hell and trying to escape as quickly as they can, so best to just take a deep breath and not get wound up by shitty behaviour.

often the people manning the e-gates ask you to go to the front of the queue.

Of course one should follow the directions of the staff in such case. There was nobody manning the gates or giving directions though in this instance.