V-Flyer

Just out of interest, how does one get hold of the vouchers necessary to use the fast-track path at Heathrow immigration? Do they just get handed out to all UC passengers in the plane?

[I do mean the fast-track path, not the biometric-passport path or the iris-checking-based-path (if it's still working).]

Mark

Yes, they are handed out by the crew on-board flights. The vouchers are no use to you if you have a UK passport though. You will get a surly BAA member of staff shooing you away from the Fast track lanes at LHR if you have a UK passport.

mitchja wrote:Yes, they are handed out by the crew on-board flights. The vouchers are no use to you if you have a UK passport though. You will get a surly BAA member of staff shooing you away from the Fast track lanes at LHR if you have a UK passport.

Oh, really? Even in the current context of massive delays at LHR T3 immigration (apparently sometimes as bad as >45 minutes for EU, >3 hours for non-EU)?

Mark

mrison wrote:Oh, really? Even in the current context of massive delays at LHR T3 immigration (apparently sometimes as bad as >45 minutes for EU, >3 hours for non-EU)?

Mark

Yes.

And whilst there have been delays most of them have been nowhere near that long and have mainly been restricted to T5 and have sometimes been exagerated by the media.

mitchja wrote:Yes, they are handed out by the crew on-board flights. The vouchers are no use to you if you have a UK passport though. You will get a surly BAA member of staff shooing you away from the Fast track lanes at LHR if you have a UK passport.

They didn't when we came through just before Christmas but it was gently pointed out that it would have been far faster to have used the UK lanes on that day...even at 45 minutes or so..

BTW abusing 'Fast Track' could easily lead to it being withdrawn.

I'm sure UKBA would rather they could allocate their staff to the normal desks than to staff fast track even if they are getting paid to provide the service.

Do you have a biometric passport?

tontybear wrote:BTW abusing 'Fast Track' could easily lead to it being withdrawn.

Abusing ? Moi? We were given the vouchers, we used the vouchers, no-one at VS, BAA or Border Control ventured an opinion that we shouldn't have done so, save for the pragmatic reason that we'd have been through in half the time had we gone via the UK passport holders route.

People/Airlines in general not you in particular !

tontybear wrote:BTW abusing 'Fast Track' could easily lead to it being withdrawn.

In what way is using Fast Track vouchers legitimately given to you abusing the system? (Not that I have any personal experience -- but it has been indicated they're handed out to UC passengers during the flight.)

tontybear wrote:I'm sure UKBA would rather they could allocate their staff to the normal desks than to staff fast track even if they are getting paid to provide the service.

I'm not sure. In general, every government service which has been made semi-autonomous like UKBA seems to be very keen to get money. (I presume the airlines pay for each FT voucher they give out?)

Mark

The last time I used Fast Track the people in economy on my flight were whizzing past in the EU lanes. On another occasion, Aer John used the Fast Track and I the EU lane next to it. He went sailing past me with a wide grin on his face and then just before his turn was stopped by a large family at the desk ahead of him - one of those that required a supervisor to be called. I had collected the bags before he was through )

tontybear wrote:

I'm sure UKBA would rather they could allocate their staff to the normal desks than to staff fast track even if they are getting paid to provide the service.

I believe that they've already started doing so. My last few flights into LHR when I had the fast track card, we were more or less at par with the all other passport queue and when we got up front, I saw that rather than the usual 4 or more, we had only 2 border force officials attending to fast track pax.

Tinuks wrote:I believe that they've already started doing so. My last few flights into LHR when I had the fast track card, we were more or less at par with the all other passport queue and when we got up front, I saw that rather than the usual 4 or more, we had only 2 border force officials attending to fast track pax.

I've only ever seen 2 fast track desks open in T3

honey lamb wrote:

Tinuks wrote:I believe that they've already started doing so. My last few flights into LHR when I had the fast track card, we were more or less at par with the all other passport queue and when we got up front, I saw that rather than the usual 4 or more, we had only 2 border force officials attending to fast track pax.

I've only ever seen 2 fast track desks open in T3

Used to be 4. 2 at the front and 2 at the back, but that was a few years ago. So I had forgotten that they used to be 4 until I was standing in the queue 2 weeks ago and was wondering why it was taking so long as we were the only flight there at the time.