I don't know about "registered visitors" but eGates are certainly in use for exiting Singapore for essentially everyone now.

It changed maybe about six months ago. All down to taking fingerprints (fingerprint taken on arrival is matched to the fingerprint you give on exit).

Exiting yes, T4 was the first to use full automation there I believe.

You still need to stand in line to get into the country.

Oslo B2B

Hello,

I have done three B2B's in OSL over the last six months. All completed without any issues. The staff are getting well versed in the requirement.

There are two options to getting through passport control. But I would suggest to all that you do not follow the guidance of the yellow shirted helpers to use the 'EU Passports' booths if on a UK / EU passport. Go straight to the booths at the back left. One or two maybe open, normally very little if anything in terms of a queue.

This is were we have the two options...

1) Hand your passport over and say you are connecting back to London on the BA767, and ask for the immigration officer to contact the security staff to come to the 'special door' on the left hand side. If he / she agrees, they will call the security folks from downstairs to come to the door and escort you through the door and down a short corridor to a scanner and xray machine where you have a standard security check. Then down the stairs, back on yourself to the gate for a short 10 - 15 min wait for boarding.
All very easy, but can lead to a nervous wait at the door if the security folks take their time.

2) Standard passport check and then continue through the booth. Turn right then left down the long corridor to a set of stairs heading down, turn back on yourself and go through the passport and security check. for the lif of me at the moment I cant remember which comes first, but there are 5 e gates which can be used. At the security check the staff may remark as to why they didn't get called by passport control upstairs to come up. When I did this route it was because the Immigration officer was convinced that this is the quickest route. To be fair, it probably was. No queues anywhere and back to the gate for a ten minute wait.

Either way, it is a breeze and the only reason you may have a problem is if you are last to disembark the plane. But that is never a wise idea on a back to back.

Any questions, PM me. I'm doing another at the end of November and then again in Dec. Moving to Melbourne has meant my knowledge of the approach to OSL is growing :-)

Regards,

Kernow

Thanks for this, very helpful! We have an OSL B2B planned for late December and so we already have weather related worries! We are booked on the BA768 in ET and BA769 and CE - is it worth upgrading to Club on the outbound to ensure we are off the plane as quick as possible? Currently we are in the exit row (row 10).

and
There's a lot of guidance for how to manage SIN here, but not so much on the OSL part. This, for me, is the crucial bit.

If your first sector from OSL is delayed/cancelled or whatever, then those additional flights on Saturday will help you get back on the timeline for the LH sectors, and will be looked after by the carrier.

But if YOU miss that BA769 from OSL you could lose the whole thing*. If your BA766 is cancelled, you have very few later alternatives (depending on how soon you know its cancelled and assuming there is availability) to still achieve your first sector. The gap you describe on Saturday is less relevant, I think, than the 'gap' you need to create on Friday.

* Is my understanding - maybe I have got that wrong. I might be missing something - or perhaps I am just a pathological worrier.

Assume you mean 'I’d be tempted to book the LHR-OSL on SAS ..... ?

I've just arrived at Oslo on BA766 to connect to BA769 5 hours later. Rather than go through the non-Schengen transfer route (there was no point as I was going to the lounge) I went through the ePassport gate and turned left and went through the transfer security which takes you to the Schengen side. It took 15 minutes from the gate to the OSL lounge. After coming into the Schengen side I turned back to look at the queue through passport control to the non-Schengen side and it didn't look too bad (I could have easily made BA767 which is what I will be connecting to on a B2B at the end of my trip). So even if the non-Schengen transfer is unavailable I think it is still doable between BA766 and BA767. Whether the queues are any different between BA762/763 (late morning) and BA768/769 (late evening) I don't know. I didn't want to risk taking BA768 on the outbound leg but am happy to take a chance on BA766/767 on the way back.

Gosh, I hadn't thought of this (risk of missing first booked leg of ex-EU being more important than a missed connection within it). Makes sense.

Not sure what's best - I'm open to changing the bookings to a Sat ex-OSL start, but I guess it still leaves me having to leave enough of a gap (before last flight) on the preceding Friday?

Or is an early SAS LHR-OSL on the Friday a sufficient guarantee?

If you're cautious and are able to afford the time and money, go to OSL on Thursday evening. BA have a flight at 19.25, so you could have a relaxed day in OSL ahead of your next flight, or nearly 24 hours to sort out the problem if there is one. I'd stick with BA, on the basis that they're (maybe, slightly) more likely to accommodate you if they're the cause of you missing the flight back.

I'm pretty sure that you can simply change the OSL-LHR to Saturday morning and keep the existing reservations for the remainder of the trip. But there will then be a re-price at today's fares and a re-issue (which may result in a TFC increase as well), plus the change fee.In that context, added to your nervousness about this, I would be doing one or more of a number of things.

First, you could do a LHR-OSL-LHR back-to-back test run soon. That may give you some better personal experience and feel for whether you'd be happy to do a back-to-back on the real trip.

Second, you could change the ticket so that you do the LHR-OSL-LHR part much earlier than the LHR-SYD part of the trip. It then doesn't really matter if that goes wrong, because you've got plenty of time to do it again. As my own personal experience, I once booked an ex-AMS with the first sector five months before the second sector. On the day that I did the LCY-AMS-LCY turn to start the ticket, the aircraft went tech after boarding and the rotation was cancelled. No hassle: I disembarked, phoned BA, and within minutes rebooked both the LCY-AMS and AMS-LCY flights to a few days later, and did it successfully then. The main disadvantage was having to pay for another round of Truman's beer the second time.

Third, if you are still nervous and worrying about this, then maybe doing an ex-EU for a must-travel trip is not a good idea for you. These aren't for everyone, and they aren't right for every occasion. Reading FT, you might be tempted to think that The Only Way is Ex-EU, punctuated by the occasional The Only Way is Ex-INV. Neither is true. There is always an additional level of risk, however you do it. Maybe flying to speak at a conference just isn't the right time for you to do an ex-EU trip.