Originally Posted by
LondonAussie
Many EU countries airports now allow us to use their eGates, and they all work flawlessly with my passport, unlike the UK’s consistent “seek assistance”. Although it does seem somewhat pointless as we then have to go to a desk to get a stamp.
Which ones? And as you say if you have to queue to get a stamp then why bother in the first place?
The only places I’ve managed to go through eGates is Mexico City (only a few gates - 3 or 4), Sydney (slightly more gates but a rather convoluted system though it worked well enough) and Singapore (big queues for about four gates). Places like Tokyo involved a 90 minute queue (and we were first off) and most EU places I’ve been to recently involve around a 15-30 minute queue.
I’m not saying the U.K. system is perfect however nowhere else in the world (that I’ve seen - I’m sure most people on here are far more travelled than me) has as many eGates AND accepts quite so many nationalities through them. For free!
For all the complaints by a tiny few who struggle to get through them, I’d say it’s up there as being one of the easiest and quickest immigration systems to get through for the largest number of people (a potential pool of around a billion people). Nowhere else in the world has this.
Of course if you’re S African or Thai or one of the other non eGate nationals then the picture is slightly less rosy. But no worse than going into South Africa for a U.K. citizen or BKK etc.