That was my point - you don't need to be flying on a ten grand F ticket for this to make sense.

Put it another way, the difference between WT and WT+ is usually about £300-600 on a JFK-LHR flight. I reckon I'd rather spend that money on this service than upgrading the cabin.

Of course this opens the interesting possibility that BA should (or could) offer this service free of charge for full fare F passengers.

Valid point. Does anyone pay full fare in F? A few Celebs, perhaps. Is there any trickle-down? Probably not ... Simply to many GCH to cope with.

However, I'm sure that the GCH community could lobby Theresa (be quick) for suitable recognition.

Meanwhile, in other news, non-GCH can poke off at the UK Border? I'm not really getting this one, as it's getting a bit foggy. The UK Border is for everyone ... Yes? BAEC status is just a FFP ... Yes? Good, I hope we're agreed on that one :)

I think there was a hint that less checks will be carried out on "trusted travellers" and mentioned members of a frequent flyer programme may fall into that group. Think this was mentioned in a Torygraph article.

How that will actually work in reality, I do not know. :confused:

Long queues at T5 border control
 

It's not just T5, there were 20+ min waits at T3 this evening. Not helped, though, by someone dying/having extremely serious medical emergency about 5m in front of the e-passport gates.

I could see something like the US Global Entry programme working - a fee paying system where you have background checks, interviews etc. For frequent travellers it would be work the fee (£50 maybe?) and the advantage would be that we could probably get a reciprocal relationship with Global Entry to allow easier access to the US. I'd be near the front of the queue to sign up if it was to come to pass.

How frequent is frequent?

Seriously, that's flyerist. I'll pay the money just to stop being pi$$ed about.

Do BRU-LHR pax need to go through immigration @ LHR (US Passports).

LHR is closer than St. Pancras to my destination - but I'm really not interested in a 60 minute delay at T5 around 2200 after arrival.

Yes. Why wouldn't they? Only passengers originating from the UK, Ireland, and Channel Islands are excepted from immigration control. Aside: technically speaking, if you are coming from Ireland and the Channel Islands and are not visa-exempt, you are supposed to find a UKBA officer somehow.

Interesting ... I'm British, with a British passport and arriving from a British Crown Dependency ... Do you have a reference?

I don't know. I think it'll be about my 45th flight of the year tomorrow and I'm feeling very narky about the potential queue upon arrival. I hope 100 flights a year will be deemed frequent enough that they give you fast track access if they decide to work on the flying frequency, even if it's purely out of mercy.

I meant it purely on the basis of "cost per flight". With a sizeable fee, some less frequent travellers may decide that it isn't worth it. And again, the sizeable fee would only be to cover the costs of administering the system, rather than being designed to deter registrations.

Came through London City yesterday, the usual 2 minutes for us all to get through immigration.

Now regarding the stories about just three officers being on duty at Heathrow T5 and similar - there were also three officers on duty here at LCY, for handling just the periodic arrivals here. One officer got hung up on a difficult case from our flight, and the common queue (which LCY seems to manage fine, unlike T5 with all its space available) was thus processed by the other two.

You do have to therefore wonder what the respective establishments of officers at T5 and LCY are, compared to the passenger numbers, and wonder why the discrepancy, and why one seems to be organised so much more sensibly than the other.

I've been thinking about this too. Both MAN T1 and 2 (3 can be ropey) always have plenty of staff on. I've seen both having more than 3 staff on multiple times, plus IRIS and the e-passport gates.


T

Not sure I understand your question. I said if you arrive from the Channel Islands you don't need to go through passport control. Are you saying you do? Or did you miss the "Channel Islands" bit?