To consider cancelling my holiday because of the EES?

[idontwanttogoanymore]

I just can’t cope with this stress. I will be travelling alone and I can’t afford (literally or mentally) to miss a flight because of this system.

I just don’t want to go. It’s looming over me. I did it in February going into Norway, but that makes no difference. You’re still in the queue for hours. I’m flying with Ryanair and they only open their bag drop 2 hours before, they’re now saying three hours to get through. So it’ll be literally impossible.

This doesn't happen. The flight will not knowingly take off with someone's checked bag in the hold if that person is no longer flying. It's a security measure to stop people checking in a bag with a bomb in it and then leaving the airport.

Would you feel better going hand luggage only? Seems a shame to cancel your whole holiday.

To be fair, I understand he’s going to solve global warming and instigate world peace after tea and biscuits on Thursday morning. Before his afternoon nap.

Yes, they did offload. It was only one suitcase between the group.

Luckily, there were lots of flights coming back to London so we just jumped on another flight that was cheaper than €100 that ryainair wanted to charge us.

Actually, thinking of it Milan would be one of the better places for this to happen as there are so many flights coming back to the UK on the daily basis and they are normally pretty cheap.

OP the most you will be charged by Ryainair is €100 if you do miss your flight, but it is likely that you could pick up another flight cheaper than that from one of the three airports

This is weird.

EES has no effect on leaving the UK by air.

It only effects ferry and train travel because we have an agreement to do Schengen processing on UK soil in those instances.

The delays may happen on arrival at the Schengen airport if a lot of people need to register for EES. Some airports are very organised, have plenty of machines and staff to help, some less so which leads to delays if passengers are struggling. But you are at your destination by then, so no flight to miss, just a delay to getting through to pick up any checked luggage. It took us 15 minutes in Italy in May, but not on a peak travel date.

In theory, once you are registered, every time you enter or leave via a Schengen airport you simply place your passport on the reader and look at the camera to get through the gates, just the same as EU passport holders. This has been our experience. Some airports have separate gates for EU/ Schengen and non-Schengen passports and some of these change the gate category if queues develop. Other airports use the same gates for all passport holders, which, again, has been our experience. Same entering UK at Gatwick.

There may be delays if you are travelling with children as they are generally checked by a human. If there are a lot of families this could slow things down. But again, this is in your destination airport (but leaving as well as arriving, so leave plenty of time when going home).

Border delays at UK airports (in or out) are down to UK border checks, nothing to do with the EU/Schengen..

Why would they care? They get the money for the fares and then fly an emptier plane. And this is Ryanair - they really don't give a stuff about passengers.

I'm with you OP - I think putting up with it on the outward journey is one thing, as you've arrived and it's just an annoying wait and you then have the holiday.

But it's the return that would bother me - I'd be fretting the whole time.

I've just been away but used Eurostar, which was no bother in either direction.

I was thinking about a Schengen country for later in the year but might go to Ireland instead.

Could you change your plans to go to Ireland instead?

You are being completely pathetic. I suggest you cancel your holiday so that your tantrum at the airport doesn’t hold up the other passengers

I think the system could be very easily changed to speed it up.

First of all, once you are registered that should be it. Why are people having to register over and over again? And why every 3 years? Just change it so you only have to register once per passport. And extend the app to the whole of the Schengen area so people can do it at home. Once people are also having to sign up for ETIAS you should be able to combine the two.

Forget the fingerprinting bit.

That will make it all much faster.

The EU has been doing a lot of reviewing of regulations recently, it could easily make some changes to make the process more efficient.

It's hardly pathetic to worry about missing a flight home and having to pay through the nose for another one.

And if you spend hours in arrivals you may end up missing transfers to hotels or not being able to check in on time and losing your reservation altogether (though I'd hope hotels are taking into account that people may be hours late due to the entry processes).

You do only have to register once per passport. Then you go straight to the egates on your next trip.

So all the people saying they've missed flights are lying then?

And all the people reporting long queues at airports and ports also lying?

OK I'm prepared to accept that media reports can be exaggerated but they were also reporting long queues at the Channel ports last weekend - I know it was the bank holiday and start of May half term in England and Wales, but the system should be able to cope.

I have read the whole thread and I don't think there has been anybody who has spent hours in arrivals and then losing a hotel reservation!
Quite the opposite in fact. 99% of people have said there has not been a problem.

Just come back from Venice 3 days ago, flying with the ever delightful Ryanair.
it toon 1 hour 20 from starting the queue for bag drop to sitting my bum down at the gate. The majority of the wait was getting through the x ray screening as, for some inexplicable reason, Venice had only 1 x ray lane open out of 13. The actual EES thing took very little time and was very smooth.

ryanair bag drop opens 3 hours before your flight

Recently returned from an almost 3 week holiday in the Canaries. Both going and coming home was really quick. If you are determined to blame Brexit for a non issue, there's nothing anyone can say that will change your mind. Sad....

Genuinely you are making a mountain out of a molehill. I flew from Krakow at Easter with a child. Krakow is most definitely one of the worst affected airports by this, so we arrived early. Bag drop was open early. Then we went upstairs and started to queue. We did queue for an hour but all the staff were calling people out of the queue so that they didn’t miss their flights. I am the biggest stress head in the world at airports but I promise you it will be ok.

I think its an understandable worry. The queues were long when we came back from Italy this week and you need to drop your bags as soon as you can. The airport had given up on the new system and were just pushing us through. It was half term though so a busy period. I wouldn't not go on holiday though. The airports are trying to manage the problem.

But you still have to do the EES on eurostar

I googled it and the answer provided was:

No, UK citizens would not have had to do these new border checks if the UK had remained in the EU.
The new digital border procedures—such as the Entry/Exit System (EES) which requires biometric fingerprints and facial scans—are exclusively designed for "third-country" (non-EU) nationals.
Because EU citizens are exempt from these third-country requirements, remaining in the EU or its open-border Schengen Area would have preserved free movement, meaning UK citizens would continue to use standard passport control or e-gates.
The new checks only apply to British passport holders because the UK is no longer an EU member state.

this is what i get

That is ridiculous.

@ChiliFiend

i guess we don’t know what would have been negotiated, but i’m spanish and whenever i travel between EU countries, you just get off the plane and there are no border checks.

whenever i travelled from the UK,
even before Brexit, there were border checks, so it’s always been worse for UK citizens/UK originating flights.

Is it?

It’s been how long and still nothing has been negotiated? Queues of tourists at the border, people missing connections, and flights. Bad enough to make national news. But all he cares about is Arsenal.

Far fewer people flew!

The first time I flew anywhere (early 70s), you only had to be there about 45 minutes before departure time. Airports weren't heaving like they are now.

Part of me is convinced that all this getting there early is a ruse to make you spend loads of money in airport shops and bars. They're actually shopping centres where you can get a flight.

For fucks sake grow up.

What’s the point of him if he’s not going to help his citizens

You really are still being so ridiculously dramatic about this. Either go on your holiday or don’t. Just get there early and you’ll be fine. I can not see any reason at all why you are involving Keir Starmer or football in this. Do you think he’s causing the queue somehow?