Ridiculous immigration lines at BNE

[Denali]

The thing Ive been wondering about Brissy for years is for such a so called tourist mecca, why does its airport staff generally treat its customers like poop and the staff Ive dealt with, are under educated in regards to why tourists are visiting them. Ive had one security guy question me extensively what a scuba regulator was and why I was bringing it to Qld and then try to convince me it could be used in David & Goliath style attacks on staff... inside a cabin. I walk away wondering do they even look at the tourist posters on the wall.

As far as smartgate in Australia goes, its seems to hate both me and my hubby - or maybe its our less than anglo dna that makes it tell us to go to a counter each time we've tried it. NZ smartgate doesn't seem to have a problem.

 

[acoolbreeze]

Never tried it in BNE but in MEL the "Smartgate failed" queue is usually a lot shorter than the "Never tried Smartgate at all" queue, so even if it doesn't work it can still speed things up.

Yes, for whatever reason my passport fails smartgate every time. Now I don't bother even trying and just go straight into the smartgate assistance queue to be processed (providing its shorter than the regular queue which invariably it is).

 

[PLANT]

I'm 50/50 at bris from LA on VA. First flight on time, quickest I have been through an international return. Second time late flight arrival... Which meant other flights in at same time... Long que and wait for smart gate.... But bags ready and quick wave check after bags collected.

 

[Pushka]

All very well but Smartgate is not infallible.Arrived back at BNE ~ 2 weeks ago and Smartgate wouldn't recognise my photo - I put it down to the halo from all the good karma I collected in Burma.
Fortunately we were the only plane arriving ~ 1030.
I have always thought that before Smartgate BNE was worse than LAX.

MrP has issues with smartgate too. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Mine always clears immediately. Much to his annoyance.

 

[JohnPhelan]

I agree, BNE smart gate is haphazard and unreliable at best

And SYD is even worse now !!!

 

[trentusjuventus]

Never tried it in BNE but in MEL the "Smartgate failed" queue is usually a lot shorter than the "Never tried Smartgate at all" queue, so even if it doesn't work it can still speed things up.

On my last arrival at MEL there was barely a line at all for Smartgate, although it was coming off CX163 late at night so that might have had something to do with it. The outgoing passport control line a week later on the other hand was the opposite. With quite a few flights leaving MEL in the 2200-0100 window the line was almost back and out the doors into departures. Is it possible that the majority of the staff headcount is being used for outgoing passport control, as it's all manual?

 

[Sprucegoose]

Totally unacceptable these delays. It's an embarrassment against what we do achieve in this country and provides a totally wrong distraction

 

[drross]

Absolutely no waiting on leaving briz this morning. Love the Emirates lounge. Verve and omelette ( not in the same glass) for breakfast. Have found the smart gates work well for us usually..will see what happens in a couple of weeks on the way back in

 

[kingzac]

I usually have trouble leaving Brisbane, everything else a breeze and then sitting at customs for upwards of an hour. I've complained to them numerous times including times on twitter where I've received an almost instant apology but no extra staff have appeared.

It seems to be a little better with the singular smart gate that was there on my last flight and during the G20 it was a breeze, staff everywhere!
Hopefully it's like that again on Sunday.

 

[FlyboyAl]

I flew into Brisbane on the 26th and the queues were just as bad.
Smartgate took me 65 mins to get to.
Bagggage was not an issue, but the bloody bus to domestic was another matter with very long lines.
Then when we got to QF domastic, another long line of people waiting to catch the bus.
Not impressed with Brisbane at all!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

We flew in to BNE Intl this morning and the walk from the standoff bay at gate 74 ex JQ58 from DPS to Customs took longer (10 mins) than it did to exit the baggage claim area after processing (5 mins).

There was no queue for the smartgate machines and had HLO so nil bags to wait for but thank heavens we had a couple of unused express inwards cards from last time as there was a big queue lining up to hand in their orange arrival cards so getting through Smargate is only half the battle but we were out within 5 minutes going through the Smartgate barrier.

We ended up exiting the customs hall with some of the baggage laden EK pax who had landed 46 minutes before us but the end result is we were landside within 15 minutes of arrival. The flights below are any flights that landed after 0600 but before our flight at 0709.

QF098 HKG 0602 (333)
KE123 SEL 0612 (333)
EK434 DXB 0623 (388)
QF052 SIN 0632 (333)
VA008 LAX 0645 (77W)
SQ235 SIN 0703 (333)
JQ058 DPS 0709 (788)

 

[UP4014]

I'm surprised about doesn't everyone use the smart gate comments.

My passport isn't a smart passport so there are some or many who still have to do it the old fashion way which if there is only a short queue is fine. (yes, it does expire this year)

 

[Captain Halliday]

If travelling with children under 16 you can't use OccasionallySmartGate either.

 

[Denali]

Can you use Sydney express pass at Brisbane? I ask because I have a lot of incoming passes but I read that as at December, Sydney no longer has a express line for Customs/bio security.

 

[jsoprano]

I'm surprised about doesn't everyone use the smart gate comments.

My passport isn't a smart passport so there are some or many who still have to do it the old fashion way which if there is only a short queue is fine. (yes, it does expire this year)

And not everyone on here necessarily has an Aussie, Kiwi or [insert other SmartGate-compatible nationality here] passport. Mine works for similar automated entry systems across Europe (such as LHR), but unfortunately not in Australia (yet).

 

[mikenz]

I had a similar experience in Queenstown NZ once and have never gone back

I'm happy to report that I've been to QT about 5 times in the last 2 years and the queues have always been less than 30 minutes

 

[mikenz]

I wonder if they'd be able to put a smartgage machine on a plane. Then passengers could do the first bit during the flight

 

[Grimace1]

I wonder if they'd be able to put a smartgage machine on a plane. Then passengers could do the first bit during the flight

And how much would that end up costing? I'm sure airfares would increase slightly too...

 

[Altair]

I wonder if they'd be able to put a smartgage machine on a plane. Then passengers could do the first bit during the flight

IIRC AKL had Australian Smartgate machine airside so you could at least get the ticket before arriving at an Australian port. I wonder how the US Corss Border system works in Canada. Are passengers forced to go through the system and the isolated before boarding so that no mixing airside can occur?

 

[serfty]

If travelling with children under 16 you can't use OccasionallySmartGate either.

Going by a very recent thread it seems that would not always be correct:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....artgate-children-something-i-didnt-65557.html