(subtitle: Dear Max...)
I really have had enough of SYD T1 arrivals. This morning I arrived on BA15 which touched down at approx 5:05am, 5 minutes behind QF6.
At immigration, there were two staff working the counter on the Australian residents side, and 4 on the "others" side. There were about another 8 staff happily chatting to one another behind those who were working, watching as the queues grew longer.
(BTW, while waiting in line I watched another staffer trying to help a woman with an e-Passport get through the auto-gate thingie. Hilarious
).
After going through immigration, I stood by the designated carousel (#10) and waited. The time was now approx 5:20am. After about 7 minutes it sparks to life and some bags begin appearing. About a dozen pieces come up the belt, then no more. Crowds are gathering right the way around the carousel. A few minutes later the BA crew come through immigration and collect their bags from the carousel.
We then stood there for another 35 minutes before bags began to come up the belt and crash into the carousel (why are these things so badly designed?) Anyway, only a few of the bags that came through first were tagged "priority". Most were not.
At least the bags were coming up in a continuous stream now, and about 10 minutes later mine finally arrived - over 50 minutes since I first stood at the carousel and almost an hour and 10 minutes since the flight arrived.
By the time my bags appeared QF2 had also arrived, so the arrivals hall was a sea of people, and the queues to go through customs were long. When I finally got to the screening point, I had to open my computer bag for inspection - the same bag that had been x-rayed in Singapore 8 hours prior. :roll:
SYD T1's arrival hall is in poor shape. On carousel 10, the two flat screen monitors at the exit end of the hall have been removed but the casings are still hanging there, there is a badly faded poster on a column nearby that looks like it was put there in the 1970's, the carousel as mentioned is antiquated and looking ragged, and there are staff circulating looking and behaving in a rude and menacing manner.
Contrast this with arrivals at SIN and KUL which are fast and efficient. I am generally out on the footpath in SIN within 15 minutes of arrival. At KUL it is about the same and this even with having to catch the monorail from the international terminal to the domestic side.
Max - your international terminal arrivals hall SUCKS! BIG TIME! It looks bad and it operates poorly. It's about time you did something about it instead of increasing your charges with no benefit to the travelling public. :x
Footnote - as I walked through the doors to the footpath to get myself a taxi, I was approached by a guy who wanted to know if I needed a taxi. :roll: Sure, I said. I'm going to Caringbah, in the south. "Oh..." he says, "I only want to go to the city." "Well then," I responded, "you are pretty stupid for asking me if I want a taxi if you won't go where I need to go. Are you going to take me or not?" "No", he said, so I responded "then you should stop soliciting". As I walked off, I was wishing that two policemen would come and arrest him for touting.
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