Preferred Boarding

[Alan in CBR]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

 

[markis10]

I always board as soon as it opens as I like to have my carry on above me so it is easy to get when deplaning rather than having to swim against the tide to get it because it is behind you so to speak. I do not wait for them to invite the OW elite to board as I know that this is not needed, as soon as general boarding is open then I canboard!

As for fines for not declaring food, I agree that there should be no lattitude as it is too hard to determine an accident versus deliberate in some cases, although border security does feature some PAX that clearly have not had an oversight when it comes to declaring their 20kg of food. Perhaps the fine system should scale with the volume of contraband.

I always get Xrayed through the red channel but then again I have a warning on file from a few years back when I forgot about the 2L of liquor in my bags, I am pleased to say that since then my memory has improved dramatically.

 

[Skyring]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

Yup, that's me. Lollies for the kids, I tell them, and they look at me and reckon I'm a safe bet and wave me through.

I've only had two encounters with customs. Auckland in 2003, when they made me open up my bag so they could inspect my freshly cleaned and dubbined boots. Dallas/Fort Worth in 2005 when I listed my occupation as bookseller (which I am, albeit second hand books and not too bloody many sales recently) and then they discovered I had a bag full of books and wondered whether they might be commercial samples. Especially when I said I was giving them away, being a BookCrosser. I was contemplating just how much these freebies were going to cost me when one of them said "...but there's no duty on books anyway."

I play it safe to the best of my ability. I've seen the poor coots on Borderline Security, paying fines, copping delays, throwing up into wastepaper bins...

I much prefer to be aboard my next flight or relaxing in an airline lounge rather than having some suspicious little turd ask me dam' fool questions in a back office.

 

[Soundguy]

I much prefer to be aboard my next flight or relaxing in an airline lounge rather than having some suspicious little turd ask me dam' fool questions in a back office.

Ha ha, and that is what we had when they discoved the dreaded choccy bar. An hour and a half pulling bags to bits & making such a mess to the point they couldn't re-pack them & handed us a bunch of plastic bags to put the excess bits in. A stream of questions like: where do you live - do you own your own house - where did you go when you were away - did you take these photos - are these people in the photos your friends - will you be visiting again? On and on whilst thumbing through all our photos and books etc.

All really relevant stuff. Not. Unless you have just exited the Gaza strip or something.... as I say they are unhinged, don't come here on international.

 

[Skyring]

All really relevant stuff. Not. Unless you have just exited the Gaza strip or something.... as I say they are unhinged, don't come here on international.

Yikes. I just realised that there's a possibility that I'll be flying into Adelaide internationally. There's an October wedding in Chicago I'd really like to attend, followed a week later by the Australian BookCrossing Convention in Adelaide. Not sure of my flights yet (and the Chicago thing is very iffy - they'll get married, I'm sure, but I might not be able to swing a third RTW trip in a year!) but well, there's a chance.

I'll take your warning on board. Maybe I'll eat all my chocolate on the flight so I'll come in clean...

 

[Yada Yada]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

I used to do that at LAX TBIT upon arrival and avoid the queues. On my last visit however there was a customs official on the red line looking at cards and asking what people had to declare. When I said "chocolate" he opened the rope and directed me to the back of the green queue.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

I do that for Oz/NZ too - either food or say I have some boots they might want to check out. Only thing is sometimes the red line really does have a big queue (and not green) - so I sometimes leave the box unticked when I fill in the form and see for myself in arrivals hall. Once I forgot to then tick a box

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I agree on the main point, but fining somebody $110 for bringing in a sealed block of Cadburys and failing to declare it as food?

We're scraping the very bottom of the relevance bin here!

Lucky it wasn't NZ where it could have been NZ$200 instant fine. They catch so many that at AKL now there is a bank counter inside the customs area to save them having to escort folk into the main terminal area and back.

I agree it is a bit silly, but it is an effective deterrent to people bringing food in and not declaring it.

 

[Soundguy]

Yikes. I just realised that there's a possibility that I'll be flying into Adelaide internationally.

You will get through - I mean they are not going to leave you there in the big white box. It just takes ages, so allow extra time and make sure you tick about every item on the list. Be aware also that everyone else will get to look through your bags as Customs spread the contents about. Perhaps bring along an MP3 player or something, some music might help as you shuffle along for an hour or so. Or shut your eyes and sleepwalk like a zombie, bopping your head to the music, that might get some attention too!

 

[Mal]

Careful bringing tim-tams into Adelaide.

Think I'm joking dontcha? I got fined $110 for bringing in a (fully wrapped) Cadbury chocolate bar.

Compare with a situation I saw in SYD. The person in front of me (Green line) was having their bag put through the X-Ray. AQIS offer behind X-Ray says "You should have declared your chocolate bar" but lets them go without any further comment.

It is amazing what they can see and pick from the X-Ray.

 

[Yada Yada]

In my opinion, inbound immigration and customs in Australia is the pits. The people who work for these departments are often extremely rude and sometimes even antagonistic. They treat many people like second-class citizens.

 

[Dave Noble]

In my opinion, inbound immigration and customs in Australia is the pits. The people who work for these departments are often extremely rude and sometimes even antagonistic. They treat many people like second-class citizens.

My experience is completely the opposite; I have always found them polite and professional

Dave

 

[Soundguy]

Compare with a situation I saw in SYD. The person in front of me (Green line) was having their bag put through the X-Ray. AQIS offer behind X-Ray says "You should have declared your chocolate bar" but lets them go without any further comment.

:evil: Grrr.... thanks for telling me that! The difference is marked in other states that recieve more international flights. I mean in SYD or MEL they wouldn't have the physical time to completely pull apart about every bag as the zealots do here. Anyway, now whenever possible I fly via SYD, MEL or BNE - a little more cost, a lot less hassle. Oh, more SC's too!

 

[cabbage74]

Do I board early? Very rarely.

On the immigration/customs forms. I actually quite like the Australian and NZ forms. Very clear. What I don't like are some of the South American forms where double, triple and quadruple negatives get used. Might read something like, Are you not carrying nothing which does not have no duty, Yes/No?

Anyway nice to hear about overstaffing instead of understaffing for a change. Not good to hear that they trash your luggage.

Mal.

 

[NM]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

That theory did not work for me in MEL last week. I had a small jar of Vegemite and a pack of M&Ms. I ticked the Yes box to the food questions as I am required to do. But at the start of the customs queues the agent just looked at my card and said "go down lane 3", which I did. That lane ended up taking me about 45 mins to get to the head of the queue while the other lanes were moving much quicker.

When I finally got to the head of the queue and the customs officer asked what I had to declare, she said I should have written the items on the card next to the question so the officer directing traffic would have picked it up and sent me to the "green" queue.

Every time I have arrived into BNE International, the officer directing traffic has asked me what I have and sent me to the shortest queue. But not in MEL where it is apparently normal for this traffic director not to ask but just send you to the relevant queue.

So next time I will be writing my Vegemite and M&Ms onto he card.

 

[Alan in CBR]

When I finally got to the head of the queue and the customs officer asked what I had to declare, she said I should have written the items on the card next to the question so the officer directing traffic would have picked it up and sent me to the "green" queue.

All very well for the officer to say that you "should have" written on the card, but there is nothing on the card to indicate that this is even an option, let alone the right thing to do.

Good to know for the future, though. If green channel looks like its moving faster, write on the card. If red looks better, don't write on the card. Excellent!

 

[simongr]

Declaring food has a great benefit (in fact I picked up some chocolate at LAX last week just so I could declare it). You get to go through the red channel (usually less busy than the green), and when you tell them what you have they generally wave you through. No x-raying your bags, no nothing.

I used to try this but found that if you declared something that wasnt too bad (like in the old days when you could declare 2L of spirits but no cigarettes and you were technically over but they let it slide) they used to flick you to the green channel

 

[serfty]

OT: Duty Changes

... (like in the old days when you could declare 2L of spirits but no cigarettes and you were technically over but they let it slide) ...

Actually, if the total additional duty was < $50 none needed to be paid, so really nothing was let slide in that respect.

This all changed in February last year, as per this thread: Changes to Duty Free allowances :evil:

 

[coco50]

Originally posted by Mal

It's a nice perk, but when you think about it, the plane is not going to leave while you're still queued up is it

At HNL last Thursday the pre - boarding on QF4 was organised into people with physical disabilities, people travelling with children, WP, SG and OW equivalents. It was nice to board early and find an overhead locker with enough room for our small amount of carry on baggage. What even impressed me more was the fact that we were one of the first through immigration, not part of a long queue. When we went to baggage collection in SYD our bags were the first out despite only having orange Priority tags on them (our pink? purple? Business tags didn't help much on arrival into HNL a fortnight before as my wife's bag was one of the last unloaded). With nothing to declare we went through customs quickly. The whole process from disembarkation to leaving the terminal took 10 minutes.

Yes, it is a nice perk.

 

[vt01]

In my opinion, inbound immigration and customs in Australia is the pits. The people who work for these departments are often extremely rude and sometimes even antagonistic. They treat many people like second-class citizens.

My experience is completely the opposite; I have always found them polite and professional
Dave

I'm with Dave on this one. I've only used immigration in Sydney (99%) and Darwin(1%). I've always found them great and always in my favour.. I used to bring in 2.5 - 2.75 bottles, no cigies and declare it every time.. They always let me through. I've always declared every bit of food I have including wrapped lollies, tea, coffee, chocolate,etc etc... Use the red channel and straight through..Had my bags gone through a few times without any problems..

Most recently I declared food once again but not seeds. When asked about my food I told them everything i had including some microwave popcorn I found in my backpack on the plane. The Immigration officer said something about she wouldn't record something about the popcorn against my passport because I had told her about it. I'm assuming I should have ticked the seeds box.. But anyhow, no fine, very polite, no problems as has always been my experience.

I also believe enforcing any law in society whether it's quaratine or other is difficult enough so I try and make their job as easy as possible.