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Post by Humph on Jul 1, 2022 9:47:44 GMT
Well my day trip to Italy was sort of ok. Getting through security at both sides was remarkably straightforward, flights were full, both a bit delayed, but nothing too tragic. Passport control however, both ways, was the stuff of nightmares. Just chaos.
However, got the work bit done.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 1, 2022 10:38:31 GMT
What was the problem at the UK end? Nothing practical should have changed for returning UK passport holders, should it?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 10:44:15 GMT
Apart from lack of staff in airports and the Border Farce, you mean?
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Post by Humph on Jul 1, 2022 10:51:16 GMT
Pretty much that. No one available to help those struggling to use E gates. Football crowd levels of volume and demeanour.
Horrible.
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Post by Humph on Jul 1, 2022 10:53:51 GMT
Oh and in Milan, a guy running to catch a flight collided fully with my bad arm. Sorer than a sore thing in sore town on national sore day today…
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 11:02:30 GMT
Pretty much that. No one available to help those struggling to use E gates. Football crowd levels of volume and demeanour. Horrible. Sigh. I have a new passport (crap, depressing colour), the first time I used it to re-enter the UK was this February, and it didn't work on the e-gate. I expect it never will. I now have 9 more years of being told I must swipe it on the e-gate, getting an error, being told to do it 3 more times again, still not working, re-direct to a manned booth if there is one. What joy. Happy to be using the car + tunnel this summer. |
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jul 1, 2022 11:15:37 GMT
I've had that since 2016 Al, my passport arrived looking like the dog had missed his dinner and found my passport (we didn't have a dog then). It looked like it had been taken straight off the printer or whatever machine and dropped into the envelope to curl up in transit.
It has never worked at an e-Gate. Probably another Government donor, philanthropic wheeze.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 11:24:33 GMT
As I said the other day, my Maltese passport has arrived. The physical quality of it is infinitely superior to the black British one I now have. The latter is of such lightweight and poor quality material in comparison, it's not funny. Particularly the fornt and back, which as you say are taking on a distinct "curl" from the middle. Very cheap, very poor. Also the Maltese one is a proper size. It has twice as many internal pages - you'd think UK ones would have more pages be default now, given the amount of pointless stamps and visas we're now going to have to collect.
Still, Margaret and Ron from Southend are happy that they can now read fake news in the Daily Mail that the browns and other forrins are being kept out.
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Post by Humph on Jul 1, 2022 11:37:17 GMT
Mine works fine. But subjectively, it seemed like a fair number didn’t and there was no one there to help those with problems.
Was on a pretty tight schedule, and was running late-ish all day. Had to take a taxi from MXP into Milan and back.
North of €100 each way! Eek!
Return journey was in a Prius. Really horrible car to sit in, especially at that price!
Went with Wizzair, no I’d never heard of them either, but have to say, very pleasant for a budget airline. Modern super clean aircraft, polite attentive crew. Hungarian company I think.
Made the mistake of ordering a cup of tea on the return flight. It turned out to be a cup of hot water, an unknown brand tea bag and a sachet of UHT weird tasting coffee creamer. The most un-tea like tea I’ve ever had I think, but beggars and choosers I suppose. €3.00, so not the worst thing that happened I guess.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 11:52:30 GMT
Flown a few times on Wizzair, they are the only airline apart from Air Serbia with a UK-Serbia service of any sort. Luton-Belgrade. Due to the limited competition though it's not much cheaper than using the national carrier out of Heathrow. Actually it's so expensive, that's one of the reasons we're driving there this summer. Even on Wizzair it would have been nearing £2k for 4 of us to fly return. They do always provide a decent service. Yes, it's a(n) Hungarian, company - not feeling too keen on handing money to the Hungarian economy at the moment though. Lovely people and country, but appalling, viscious, nasty, wrong-headed Putin friendly government, which only got itself re-elected by fiddling. They should be thrown out of the EU to be honest.
We had a Prius (latest shape) taxi to Gatport Airwick a couple of years ago, and yes, it was horrible. Might be mostly due to the suicidal driver and the monsoon conditions he was hell bent on ignoring though. It was so bad, we cancelled our return pick up with that company and got the train home when we arrived back.
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Post by EspadaIII on Jul 1, 2022 12:38:13 GMT
I despair at the UK E-gates. You can use E-gates for entering Israel as a tourist once you have had your passport checked over thoroughly once by a human border officer. Why the UK E-gates do not work on at least 95% of UK passports is beyond me; and of course it is always the users fault, not the fault of the system - same excuse at airport security; the passengers have too many failing bags.... In this day and age with international co-operation, swiping a passport to enter a country should be a doddle. All passports on a database, etc etc. If credit card companies can make it work, why can't governments. Humph - your tea is obviously produced by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, who manage to produce a beverage that is almost entirely unlike tea... Please tell me you understand the reference  |
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Post by Humph on Jul 1, 2022 12:50:05 GMT
Well, perhaps it was no coincidence that my flight departed from gate 42…
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 12:59:14 GMT
We are the weird ones around tea. Nobody else puts milk in tea. Russians put jam in it.
The weirdest thing Hungarians do is have a cold fruit soup as a starter course. Freaks.
Try feeding that to a bowl of petunias and see what sort of reception you get...
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 1, 2022 13:00:58 GMT
Tea on planes seldom works well, even if made by properly buttoned-up Brits who know how to use a teapot and give you fresh milk. Something to do with the lower pressure even in a pressurised cabin, apparently, causing water to boil at only 93°C — although it seems just as likely that the airlines use cooler water to save energy and money.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2022 13:15:47 GMT
What you want on a plane is vodka, and tomato juice. Nothing else will do.
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