Preferred Boarding

[JohnK]

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.

Arrogant is another word I would have used. I know most people have different experiences but I feel like I am treated like a second class citizen everytime I go through immigration and customs.

Simple requests like stamps in passport are followed by rude glares.

Walking through customs I am rudely stopped by 3 or 4 officers most times each wanting to see passport and customs declaration after I was already told to go and stand in a particular queue. They don't ask me to go and join a queue they rudely point and say go over there.

 

[NM]

You must use different airports to me.

Arrogant is another word I would have used. I know most people have different experiences but I feel like I am treated like a second class citizen everytime I go through immigration and customs.

Simple requests like stamps in passport are followed by rude glares.

I have never received such a response when asking for a stamp (and I always do ask). I normally say something like "Can I ask you to put a stamp in my passport please?" and the standard response is normally "sure".
[/quote]
Walking through customs I am rudely stopped by 3 or 4 officers most times each wanting to see passport and customs declaration after I was already told to go and stand in a particular queue. They don't ask me to go and join a queue they rudely point and say go over there.[/quote]
I have never been asked for my passport when going through customs/quarantine processing. They have only ever been interested in my declaration form. Mostly the response after looking at my declaration form is something line "line 2", which is informative but may be seen as a little cold. But I understand that after seeing perhaps a thousand passengers and their declaration cards in a short period of time that a friendly chat is not going to be part of the service. They do their job and in my experience they do it professionally. I have never been treated rudely by immigration, customs or quarantine staff when returning to Australia. I have no problem with someone in that capacity not being outwardly friendly or not smiling and joking with me, but I have not found any that have been rude to me or any others around me.

So I find it hard to believe your comment that you are treated poorly "everytime I go through immigration and customs". Even in SYD, where I assume you have most of your inbound experiences, I have not experienced any problems.

 

[serfty]

... Walking through customs I am rudely stopped by 3 or 4 officers most times each wanting to see passport and customs declaration after I was already told to go and stand in a particular queue. They don't ask me to go and join a queue they rudely point and say go over there.

... So I find it hard to believe your comment that you are treated poorly "everytime I go through immigration and customs". Even in SYD, where I assume you have most of your inbound experiences, I have not experienced any problems.

Actually, having met JohnK, I do not find this 'hard to believe'. Customs/Immigration officers often act upon assumptions that are based variables like a person's visual aspect. Indeed, they are are trained to do so. John has, what I would call, a particularly Mediterranean countenance; he would not be out of place as an extra on a show like "the Sopranos" (No offence meant John ).

I can easily envisage him being approached while in the queue for Aussies to check if he should be there. :-|

 

[FlyFirst]

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.

Agree on all points about the service / pre-boarding at HNL. We did the flight in April - packed flight but pre-boarding was well organised as you describe. Bags were tagged business and were the third and fourth on the belt in SYD.

Thumbs up to QF in HNL!

Regards

FlyFirst

 

[flyer4703]

I have always found immigration, quarantine and customs very courteous. I always have goods to declare when I come back into the country.
Customs usually want to have a look at what I have declared but I always find them good natured, I have never been treated rudely. I come back through both Brisbane and Sydney and find the same true for both airports.

 

[JohnK]

So I find it hard to believe your comment that you are treated poorly "everytime I go through immigration and customs". Even in SYD, where I assume you have most of your inbound experiences, I have not experienced any problems.

As serfty mentioned I do have a very distinct Mediterranean appearance due to my olive coloured skin. When I had the moustache it was even worse. I was not born here but have grown up and educated in Australia and there is no hint of an accent in my speech. In fact when I am overseas people notice my aussie accent.

Whether you find it hard to believe or not is up to you. I am just relaying my experience.