I just had my first experience with CDG's "fast track" passport control and security for a departing flight. In a nutshell: it's pointless.

We departed from T1, and we given "Acces No 1" cards to give us fast track access to, first, the border police checkpoint and then to pre-board security. The cards each had a QR code that needed to be scanned to access the express lanes.

For the lines to passport control/border police (on departing ... different lines than when arriving), there are separate queues for people with fast track access.

After we entered the fast track lane, we walked forward until we reached the fairly short line of people ahead of us. Perhaps 15 or so people in front of us. Not a long line compared to the 'regular' lines, but it was slooooow. Much slower than the neighboring regular lines. (We were 'lapped' numerous times.)

When we finally reached the front of our 'fast' line, we found out why. We stood at the front of our line, with our toes obediently placed on the yellow 'wait here' line on the floor, for a whopping 15 minutes. The reason: others were regularly being escorted directly to the front of the fast track line.

First, it was a group of about a dozen women with Y boarding passes for Singapore Airlines, all accompanied by sharply-dressed airport (or airline, or Blacklane, or who knows who) employees who were carrying their Hermes and Gucci shopping bags for them. We had to wait, as they took priority of us. (Yet the regular lines weren't affected. They were all escorted directly in front of us - and lined up for our single border police window - rather than going to the front of the regular lines with their multiple police windows.) Put in front of us, these folks all went through the one fasttrack officer -- one at a time. Then, once they were almost through their processing, another black-suited airport escort brought another passenger (a woman flying on Kuwait Airlines) and plunked her directly in front of us. We didn't move. And then, a group of three children - I assume unaccompanied minors - were plunked in front of us.

The one airport employee stationed there - a guy in a red uniform whose job it was to manage the lines, and who didn't appear all that competent - told us that we just had to wait there.

Throughout our long wait in Acces No1, the regular lines all kept moving quickly. Yet fast track was at a dead standstill, as so many 'special' people were escorted directly in front of us. Apparently not all fast track passengers are created equal. (I'm OK with that, as long as it's managed intelligently. Don't constantly and continuously escort special pax to the front of a single line that has only a single service counter.)

Then, as we waited, a new line was opened up directly beside us for some reason -- although no additional border police counters were opened. The people who had literally just walked up to the front of that line proceeded to walk up to the counter as soon as they saw it was becoming available. I asserted (nice but forcefully!) to them that it was their turn to wait, and we (equally assertively) proceeded to that next available window. Had we waited for the airport staffer to actually keep "Acces No 1" moving forward and tell us when it was our turn, we'd still be standing there, with the rest of our line standing behind us.

It's a bad system, and quite unreliable. I assume it's not this bad all the time, but - if you receive an invitation to Acces No1 - please be careful. Do not assume you'll be getting through quickly. Allow lots and lots of time. And eyeball the regular line before going in to fast track. Unless regular is a lot longer, consider using those lanes instead.

(At our second stop - pre-board security - it was pointless. There was absolutely no wait for regular or fast track, and we were screened and through to our gate in seconds.)