Ah the lemmings coming back from Easter hols obviously arrived later! ;)

I think it's so far from Border Control that it would be OK. At the time of taking the photographs they probably weren't able to get close enough to the Border Control to see the sign yet.

No one has ever suggested that there was. :confused:

Neither e-passport machines, nor the now moribund IRIS, are exclusively reserved for a self-proclaimed travelling elite.

T5 wasn't too bad tonight at about 6pm; thankfully I was first off the completely full A340-600 as I suspect the people last off might not have fared so well. In all it took about 15 minutes from joining the back of the queue to handing over my passport, which is about the same as at Gatwick last Sunday.

Things seemed fairly well organised and the good thing was that even though the queuing system was very long, it kept moving which at least makes you feel like you're getting somewhere.

The annoying thing was that, despite there being many tens of brightly coloured BAA 'information' staff, they didn't seem at all clued up. They were trying to run some kind of staged entry into the queuing system, despite the fact that to get to the FCC you had to walk through the queue. When I asked where I should stand to get through to immigration I was met with a completely blank stare! Fortunately the queue started moving and someone else barked a slightly more comprehensible instruction, so I just joined the back of the queue.

Edit: Even though I am entitled to use neither, Iris was working fine with no queue, but the eBorder gates were totally broken and that queue was just being directed into the main snaking line.

Assuming they managed to get out of the stack sometime before midday:eek:

Not even a prolonged hold for us. One loop near Dorking then back out to the West of the airport before landing and getting straight onto a gate.

They say that we eventually import everything from America and now it seems we have imported tedious slow immigration queues. The agents don't quite seem to have the Soviet/SS-style attitudes, but they now have uniforms so this is perhaps only a matter of time. I arrived T1 on Friday night to the same chaos as mentioned earlier re T5. No IRIS and 1 of the 3 ePassport readers not working. And as a side note to the young lass (who I think was a BAA employee) trying to shepherd the queue, the "e" in ePassport is not short for "electronic"....

Probably took about 20 mins to get which I think is inexcusable. I dread to think what will happen during the Olympics.

T5 at 06:25 this morning, it took 5 minutes. However they were clearly gearing up for a big one, with only single escalators working from the monorail thingy and tensa barriers up everywhere.

Thankfully the checked bags were on the carousel as we got there.

H

.......or like the US Government or the British Government or any other Government for that matter. Using a camera at Border Control or at a Customs Post is a criminal offence in most countries of the world.

Indeed, doing so in some parts would ensure you simply disappeared!

The trouble is, I think as the undisciplined rabble that British society has become starts to educate our children in the same abandonment of rules, it is easy to forget that many other other places in the world have zero tolerance for law breakers.

I've never been rejected at IRIS. When I've tried to use ePassport, I've always been rejected and had to go to the border official. I don't think it's a passport problem, I regularly transfer at Helsinki where I use similar technology to enter Schengen and it takes a few seconds and I've never been rejected. I've tried the UK ePassport gates maybe 3 or 4 times now and it either hasn't recognised my passport or doesn't like the look of my face. But when Iris gazes into my eyes, there's never a problem...

Thats at least 5 times as long as my longest ever wait I think!

Apparently according to the BBC it was chaos again today. I've found an e-petition for IRIS. Only seven or so signatories at the moment.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29857

I just made it 17!

rb211.

I was clarifying the bolded statement. Even those who are invited cannot by-pass the tortuous immigration queues at international to domestic connections at T5.