Back to BA though, any recent experience passing through Brussels? I'm connecting onto a TK flight in the early evening and taking a flight on BA at 8ish on Saturday next. I'm wondering whether to try and do a direct transfer and travel HBO.

Also back to BA:

Agree with CWS, AMS is a total gamble and when you lose, you�re stuck badly.

DUS is not a gamble - non-EU passport coming off a BA flight and you�re sure to have a very bad time!

CGN however always seems ok, such a shame BA is stopping that route next month.

BRU can be problematic, due to the funnel effect of the corridor which was never designed for this or the amount of traffic. It's a regular spot for 1-2 hour hold-ups. But if you are connecting, there is a corridor out, on the right side, clearly signed, which bypasses passport control, but not security control. Saturdays are quiet though.

Landed in Turin last night. Me and my other half were the first ones off the plane. Arrived into the empty immigration hall and the staff were at the ready, directing non-EU citizens to (re-)register (delete as appropriate) at kiosk. very efficient. As we have registered before the kiosk sent us to the e-gates. Which is where the fun started. The e-gates showed an error and sent us both to the officer.

Thankfully, we were the first to present ourselves there. I dealt with a very polite and friendly Swedish immigration officer who was seconded to Turin. My partner dealt with her Italian colleague who was overwhelmed at first attempt to use the system while also shouting advice to the Swedish officer (in Italian, naturally). I understand that these secondments are normal in Italy but sure not efficient at a time where the whole system is barely working.

After 5 minutes of deliberations it transpired that neither mine exit from FCO two weeks prior, no r my partner�s exit from BLQ in Nov were in the EES. It was explained to us that they can�t let us in without correcting that first which was followed by frantic examination of every stamp in our already pretty filled up passports� after another 5 minutes they agreed to accept old digital boarding passports as evidence of exit and we were on our way.

Two observations:

1. How is it that the EES seemingly can�t keep track of the second �E� (exit) in its name, especially when the exit and the subsequent entry is in the same country (Italy)�

2. Needless to say, that our 10 min bureaucratic trouble clogged up the whole of the arrivals hall with a massive queue forming quickly because the e-gates kept sending more people for manual check

But I�m sure that someone in Brussels had �EES roll-out� marked as �success� for the 2025 year-end evaluation�

P.S.: My bet on what ultimately scraps this EES system is multiple public sector unions representing police/immigration officers going on strike and refusing to use it. Maybe I�m wrong

Flew to BER few weeks ago. Off the plane first and saw the booths, registered with my passport/pic. Queued up (30min wait) for immigration behind a TK flight pax. Immigration guy took my finger prints.

How about BRU arrival at about 8:00am on a Monday (not connecting)?

Bring sandwiches.

I've been to CMF (Chambery) recently, on a day when flights were badly disrupted due to the weather. When we finally got there the arrivals experience wasn't too bad. There was a longish queue (mainly people from a previous flight) but it moved reasonably fast, there were no EES terminals to delay things and all 5 passport desks were open. I was out of the airport about half an hour after landing. There's no public transport to the airport, so I walked to Aix-les-Bains, stopping for a croissant at a bakery en route...

I went through BRU in June last year and it was hellish before even the EES stuff kicked in, so can only imagine how bad it must be now.
I wish I'd known to bring a packed lunch with me.

Can't see anything posted.
Any recent experiences with arrivals into NCE.
Heading back down there mid March, first EU trip since the new entry exit system started.
Thanks.

NCE a couple of weeks ago they had all the kiosk switched off, all the Egates switched off, and common queues for EU and non-EU. Cue remonstrations from frustrated Frenchies and the EU friends, to be answered by a Gallic shrug "C'est cass�". 40 mins tkt get through.

Very similar situation in TLS in last few days, no kiosks, no Egates in sight. Although there was one booth just for EU, the queue management was so poor it was impossible to tell which queue you needed to be in so it was more messy than it needed to be. 35mins.​

Met a lady on the train today who said that she and 15 passengers missed their flight out of Vienna because of horrendous queues for multiple departures at the scanning booth � apparently this is after the old-fashioned passport control.

Perhaps be wary although she said she had got to the airport three hours early but hadn�t realised quite so much time was needed after she went through passport control because it didn�t used to be.

Departure from GVA
Fairly lengthy queue for passport control, but it moved quickly, probably took about 20-25 mins to get through in all. No evidence of EES being used.

Arrival into AGP
Passengers directed to use EES machines, with passport scan, fingerprint and arrival questions being answered.
The machine then directed me to manual passport control. No scan of passport, simply a quick look at it and a stamp.

Leaving Spain into Gib
Quick check and stamp of passport, no scanning or EES utilised.

I must have been lucky when I flew into BRU recently, either that or a mid afternoon Saturday arrival is when it's at its quietest. Going back home on the Sunday, the security queues were pretty long, but there was again virtually no line for passport control.

I will be arrving in Amsterdam on QR early afternoon on 24th March. The original plan was to stop overnight in Amsterdam to break up the long journey from PER before catching a flight mid morning the next day to LCY. Having seen some of the reports about just how bad AMS can be as regards immigration I am considering catching a flight back to LCY 3 hours after my QR flight lands on 24th (on separate tickets), whilst keeping my BA res for the 25th in case the QR flight is really late.
I believe that QR would through book bags even on separate tickets.
Anyone have an opinion as to what they would do in my situation. Still overnight in AMS as per the original plan to break up the journey and avoiding a 3 hour transfer, or transfer the same day and avoid a potential 2-3 hour wait to enter the country. And if it's transfer the same day are there any issues / pitfalls I should be aware of.
TIA