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 is nuts. I have been travelling alone with kids and honestly it's totally fine. I barely noticed a difference. The kids even found it fun.

I’m here in Spain at the moment, family of 7, 5 of them children. No issues at all on the way here. Flew with Ryanair, checked in bags 2 hours 30 minutes before our flight. Bags were there when we arrived.
No issues in Porto at Easter snd Amsterdam at the beginning of May.
if you’re so worried take just cabin luggage, plenty enough room for one person.

I flew in and out of Milan last week, virtually no queues when entering or exiting, all very smooth. I have a UK passport. HTH.

That's not true OP. You're getting it out of proportion. The advice is to arrive at the airport 3 hrs before the flight. Yes there will be a queue but it'll be OK. Take a book. Distract yourself.

Don't give up on a holiday for no reason.

And anyway, they will be well practised by the time you go. May have resolved some of the issues or added extra staff.

It's incorrect to say that this has nothing to do with Brexit; if the UK were still in the EU then UK passport holders would be in an identical situation to Irish passport holders, where Ireland itself is not part of the scheme but Irish passport holders are exempt because of EU citizens' rights. There would be bottlenecks anyway because of this system being rolled out for others and slowing things down overall (as people may remember there were for still-EU UKers when exit checks for Schengen first started).

However, even if the new requirement for fingerprinting (and perhaps human contact, depending on the airport) for non-EU citizens only adds five minutes per passenger that's substantial on a flight to/from the UK where once upon a time ~ 95% of the passengers would have had EU citizenship and now it will be more like 45%. It's not unreasonable to say that the OP MAY take significantly longer to clear immigration both entering and leaving Italy than would have been the case without Brexit depending on how well her airport (RyanAir use both Malpensa and Bergamo) is equipped to deal with the issue.

This isn't the fault of the current UK government, though. They have literally no say in any of this, but that itself is the fault of Cameron, May, and Johnson, not Starmer who literally does not have the power to simply rejoin the EU or even to join EFTA or Schengen.

In any case, OP: they'll take your bags off the plane if you fail to board, and if they do somehow get misrouted they'll reroute them to you; you're not expected to fly to where your bags are at your own expense! I'd contact your AirBNB and see if they can extend check in or leave a key for you in a lockbox and if not ask how early can you check in the morning and either stay overnight at the airport or have a cheap hotel in mind for a backup plan (but make sure you can check in late). For the return, use the RyanAir app to pre-check your bag and grab your paperwork from one of the kiosks at the airport ASAP - you may be able to drop your bag early if the conveyor's running for another flight. And if you do miss the return flight, remember that EU citizens rights still apply as RyanAir is domiciled in Ireland - ask for the paperwork to claim compensation if you're not offered it up front.

errghhhh ….. We obviously wouldn’t have this problem if we were still in the EU. But yes you can argue that it is the EU implementing it badly etc (quite possibly true).

When are you going?
The reports are currently worse because of it being half term and many people going abroad for the first time since the system has been implemented.
If you have already travelled abroad this year and had your fingerprints taken etc you will breeze through, especially as a single adult.
If you look deeper it's families who are most affected as they are having to queue twice, once for biometrics for themselves and then with children.
The media will always pick out the worse case examples.
Also from lots of discussion I have read some of the issues are people getting distracted by duty free once past security and not remembering they need to go though passport control.

I have been on 2 trips abroad since the new system was implemented.

Switzerland - chaos. Arrived 5 minutes after a flight from the USA. Queued up for an hour behind 500 Americans. That was despite there being some extra (temporary) passport control desks.

Spain - only non EU flight arrival (and the plane was only 2/3 full). It took an extra 5 minutes (if that) to get through.

YABU, OP. It is worrying and incredibly annoying but please go on your holiday. When you arrive in Milan, get advice from the officials for your journey home.

You may be able to go through an e-gate on arrival and departure. I found in Switzerland I had to go to a manual gate but in Spain, the only option was actually an e gate.

You are sounding very unreasonable to me. I flew back from Italy last week and there are delays compared to before but everyone got on their flight.it sounds like you are looking for an excuse not to go.

You’re heartbroken you’re going to have to cancel? That’s a you problem, no one’s forcing you to cancel. Get a grip.

You're over reacting if you cancel your holiday based on this op, plenty of people on here telling you they've travelled in and out of Europe and it was fine - maybe get some help with your anxiety

Just don't go then. Plenty of people have shared their experience assured you it'll be fine, but if you would prefer to extrapolate from some Google bot, go right ahead.

Well we were never in Schengen. Does Ireland need to do it?

You can go. You’re just deciding not to. Fine, but own that decision and stop blaming brexit and everyone else.

We queued for 30 mins…

Are you a Spurs fan?

Hmmmm...thread at 11 pm, after football, starts about EES, OP posting hysterically, doesn't listen to reason at all....desends in Arsenal/Stamer rant.

As much as I would like to have sympathy. I think someone had a few drinkies, likes neither a certainly football team nor Labour and somehow links both to their holiday being threatened.

How's the head this morning?

This alone makes me think you aren’t posting in good faith. Weird thread.

You’ve had lots of sensible advice from other posters. Go. Don’t go. 🤷‍♀️ Your travel insurance won’t pay out if you choose not to travel for your own reasons.

So many people giving you examples of them having minimal difficulty travelling yet you seem determined to ignore them all.

Yes me too.

It’s Nigel’s gang crow-barring in an anti-Starmer post again. Given that he’s the least responsible for this out of the Tories and fucking Reform and Nige in particular most of all, it’s a bit rich really.

Thinking you can just overnight negotiate a deal just for the UK and pretending this is the most important thing his Government has to deal with atm is just farcical.

And if it really isn’t just an anti-Starmer post dressed up as a real world situation then spend your time getting to the GP for some anxiety meds rather than posting on MN.

Stop being dramatic and go to the airport early..

It will be fine.... Thousands a d thousands of people are getting through just fine.

You’re being silly. I went to Spain two weeks ago, through Malaga airport. We were through the security section in approx 10 mins. This was following a full EasyJet flight so it was pretty busy.

Don't let facts get in the way of an unhinged rant..

Last few times I flew I booked special assistance with the airline and was taken past queues and security lines - sometimes in a buggy with others from same flight. If you are alone without assistance and have mobility of MH problems this is your best option as you will bypass the queue.

Airlines do not want you to miss your flight as its expensive for them to have to offer you another. You should go to the front of the line if you are in danger of missing your flight and alert staff to let you through. There are often staff going along the queues shunting people to the front. You will get some dirty looks doing this but airport queues are not like normal queues. You just have to be a bit pushy.