llunow

Hi all

I have had my DK passport for almost a year now, and since it is a biometric passport I should be able to use th ePassport gates at LHR. But I am yet to succeed passing through them - number of failed attempts can be counted in two digit figures. I was told my one of the immigration officers that this is a known problem with regards to the newest Danish passports. A colleague with a passport few years older than mine passes through the gates with a success rate of 100%, similar for another colleague with a brand new (3 months) SE passport. Anyone else having similar problems? Or is it just me who is unrecognizable on my "mugshot"?

Sorry for this not being directly related to Eurobonus, but this is more a Scandinavian issue than something related to UK/BA

Brgds
llunow

Svantevit

I haven´t been to the UK recently but was there 3-4 times last year (GLA, EDI and LHR). My success rate is zero when using the ePassport gates. I was told by one of the officers at one time, that this is due to the DK government not providing all/the correct info. I have no idea if this is correct or not.

I actually like the ePassport gates even if they don´t work because you can use this as a shortcut to bypass the lines for the manual immigration.

Svantevit

GreatDane

FWIW: I just got my new danish e-passport biometric and all last week, and passed through the e-channel at UK immigration without any issue - took 15 seconds and then I was cleared. So in my case the new passport worked beautifully.

CPH-Flyer

My experience with the epassport gates is about 50/50. Looking at the lines in general, it does seem that the system has its limitations, a lot of people are sent through to the manual check. Not just Danes, also UK citizens. Blaming the passports rather than the machines is probably a bit of being in denial.

WilcoRoger

In my experience EU-lines hardly form and when they do are processed quickly

llunow

This is actually also my strategy, since from my experience the ePassport line is often significantly shorter than the EU line.

I gave it another try in T3 yesterday, and yet again: no luck. Asking one of the immigration agents once I was forwrded to manual check, he told that it is a known issue with Danish passports which only have a success rate of 50%. He couldn't say anything about the cause though, since no clear pattern could be seen.

oliver2002

Sadly the EB forum is meant to talk things EB and SAS, so I'll move this to TS/S.

Regards Oliver2002
Senior Mods

cph_flyer

Recently I arrived at LHR one late afternoon on an ANA flight from NRT.The immigration hall was completely packed with ever more people lining up in the hallways.
But since I had been given a pass for the priority line at immigration I considered myself lucky and expected to be through in minutes. In fact it took over an hour !!

Next time I will definitely give the e-pass a try, whether it works or not !

WilcoRoger

Isn't that for non-EU passport holders? That would also explain the slowness, as usually more questions are asked there, than the nod or "welcome" in the EU line.

Koby

I had about the same success rate with my (other, non-Danish) EU passport (back when I still traveled to the UK by air). So maybe it's more a machine than a passport problem...

DanishFlyer

My success rate with e-booths at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead are 0 out of 10 (since april).

But the by-pass officer reads the chip no problem, so I keep thinking I'm not holding the passport right on the reader. If this is the case, think how much time they could save in the long run by helping us get it right...

The e-booths lines at Stanstead can still take over 30 min.

DanishFlyer

paulwuk

Neither of my passports work in the e passport machines. The chip is fine, no satisfactory answer given, no idea how to fix it. Both filling up so hopefully the replacement ones will work.

Since iris shut it's a right pain.

The e passports are a con, they still require 2 immigration officials, are slower than a manual check, and need a baa person to man them too.