European Entry System (EES)

[korolev]

Thought I'd share my experience of the new EES system that's gone live.

Went to Naples last week, after the aircraft landed we were some of the first off the transfer bus and into the tent with the machines.
Machines didn't work for either of us so we were sent to see a man in a booth. He did our fingerprints, photos and stamped our passports. Took about 2 minutes. There was a queue of maybe 60/70 people behind us so with two booths open the people at the back could have waited an hour.
Coming home we were advised to get to the airport 3 hours early, which we did, to be told we couldn't use the bag drop until 2.5 hours before (so we went for a sit in the sun for half an hour).
Bag drop was 2 mins max, security about 10-15 mins.
Then the queue for the EES exit machines.....
We joined a queue that was indicated as "Non-EU Passports" with a graphic featuring several flags, including UK.
Got to the front of that and were told we were in the wrong queue, this one was for people who had tried to scan out and failed.
So we joined another (long) queue.
After about 30 minutes in that queue, which was moving slowly because one of the two machines was broken, an official was asking people "Easyjet to Gatwick ?"
We said yes and were sent to a third queue to see another man in a booth who stamped our passports and let us through.

Conclusion: It's adding delays but adding no value to the process.

Advice: Try and get to the machines as quickly as possible.

I know Greece have already binned it off for Britons, I can see other countries following suit when bookings are down.

[GeeGee]

Oh my tenerife trip was a beauty in march literally rolled them out a couple of weeks before hand
I didnt fare too bad really
1.5 hours wait coming in friend of mine landed 2 days earlier took 4 hours and transfer had left ..
Going back we left 140 people behind and they're responsible for their own payments going back .hotels and flights as they're classed as no show passengers ( even though they were in queues for 3 hours plus ) takes a hour and half to unload their suitcases even though by then they're through but the gate is closed ! Madness
All the nightmare stuff you read about
Its pot luck how many planes land at the same time sometimes you fall lucky but they weren't allowing people to go get stamped had to stand there till it worked !
Once you've registered youre supposed to be able to skip the first one go straight to the 2nd on next visit as its meant to last 3 years but that didn't seem to be working for people who had been elsewhere in between .
My passport didn't like it took about 7 attempts to scan
Will see next time ... hopefully things settle down its stressful especially on the way back .
Never heard as many .."never agains"
People with young kids got separated and got stamped but I won't be borrowing toddlers to go

[GeeGee]

Just to add the people left behind were the total of all the planes ...as they have areas now so all the planes leaving from that area have all the passengers queuing ..which is a lot ...can be 7 or 8 planes coming to land so all of those passengers in one place
In tenerife now you have to watch a board for A or C
That's where the plane will land
A and C opposite ends of airport
Theeres a app you can download apparently which tells you
Once you find out landing area go straight there forget duty free ...
The queues will be non existent or massive depending on whats working whats landed etc
Once you manoeuvre all this ( and this is going home ) when you get into the area watch the board for the plane arrival number and go to it then keep watching the board in case it changes from A to C which it can ...in that case get your passport de stamped and run to the opposite end of airport and start again
Son and wife taking toddlers to mainland Spain next week
See how that fares ...
Hopefully things will settle down I had a week at the local seaside last week spent more there trying to win a keyring than abroad !

[korolev]

Going back we left 140 people behind and they're responsible for their own payments going back .hotels and flights as they're classed as no show passengers ( even though they were in queues for 3 hours plus ) takes a hour and half to unload their suitcases even though by then they're through but the gate is closed ! Madness

I was thinking about this; If the airline doesn't make provision for the delays then they could be held liable.
If I was delayed through no fault of my own and the flight left without me I would be speaking to a solicitor.

[GeeGee]

Going back we left 140 people behind and they're responsible for their own payments going back .hotels and flights as they're classed as no show passengers ( even though they were in queues for 3 hours plus ) takes a hour and half to unload their suitcases even though by then they're through but the gate is closed ! Madness

I was thinking about this; If the airline doesn't make provision for the delays then they could be held liable.
If I was delayed through no fault of my own and the flight left without me I would be speaking to a solicitor.

Have a look around Google there's no help Insurance doesn't pay the airlines don't there's so many people hundreds of pounds out of pocket ...
It does need sorting out for those who are affected ..

[korolev]

Going back we left 140 people behind and they're responsible for their own payments going back .hotels and flights as they're classed as no show passengers ( even though they were in queues for 3 hours plus ) takes a hour and half to unload their suitcases even though by then they're through but the gate is closed ! Madness

I was thinking about this; If the airline doesn't make provision for the delays then they could be held liable.
If I was delayed through no fault of my own and the flight left without me I would be speaking to a solicitor.

Have a look around Google there's no help Insurance doesn't pay the airlines don't there's so many people hundreds of pounds out of pocket ...
It does need sorting out for those who are affected ..

Airlines (and insurance) won't pay if they can possibly avoid it so legal action may be the only recourse to force them to.

[Kiwififer]

I got £500 back from Qatar for the cancellation of my flight back from Oz but that wasn’t even half of it and I had to pay a lot more.

Off to Corfu on Friday, I believe they have done away with the checks other than the usual ones at the airport. I will let folk know when I go through!

[GeeGee]

I got £500 back from Qatar for the cancellation of my flight back from Oz but that wasn’t even half of it and I had to pay a lot more.

Off to Corfu on Friday, I believe they have done away with the checks other than the usual ones at the airport. I will let folk know when I go through!

Have a good one ! Hopefully they have shut them down for these busy periods ..permanently would do
Dover had to do it the other day didn't they ..

[Kiwififer]

Have a good one ! Hopefully they have shut them down for these busy periods ..permanently would do
Dover had to do it the other day didn't they ..

Well it was busy going through but pretty seamless, no fingerprints or photographs like you have even transiting through the States. I think it took around half an hour and that was it.
A few were moaning that it wasn’t going quicker (they had seven border police on stamping passports) and that it ‘wasn’t like Spain’ which annoyed me a wee bit, it’s Greece, the most un-European country in Europe, things move slower, the pavements are occasionally dodgy and you won’t get a Starbucks in the entire country, if you want that, bugger off to the Costa Del Sol!

Anyhow, off to get a Mythos in a bit.

[korolev]

Have a good one ! Hopefully they have shut them down for these busy periods ..permanently would do
Dover had to do it the other day didn't they ..

Well it was busy going through but pretty seamless, no fingerprints or photographs like you have even transiting through the States. I think it took around half an hour and that was it.
A few were moaning that it wasn’t going quicker (they had seven border police on stamping passports) and that it ‘wasn’t like Spain’ which annoyed me a wee bit, it’s Greece, the most un-European country in Europe, things move slower, the pavements are occasionally dodgy and you won’t get a Starbucks in the entire country, if you want that, bugger off to the Costa Del Sol!

Anyhow, off to get a Mythos in a bit.

The first time I went to Greece (Crete) we got off the plane, got our passports stamped and waited for our luggage to appear on a conveyor belt that just dumped it all off the end.
While we were waiting, two fellers came out of a door carrying a table, put it down, went back in and came out with two chairs. They went back in and came out with a sign saying "customs" and an ashtray then sat down and had a smoke while everyone went past them.
My first thought was "I like this place"