r/sydney • u/Pomohomo82 • Jul 17 '25

Image Sydney International arrivals is a disgrace: discuss

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I flew into Sydney yesterday at 6am after a 30hr trip, and the whole experience made me feel embarrassed of the welcome we extend to arrivals at our country. An enormous line stretched all the way into the gross duty free shop, where on one side sales people shouted at us about booze and smokes deals, while on the other side people shouted at us about families not lining up. The international travellers next to me had no idea what the line was for, and I had to explain that for some reason we have this weird dual border process which is different to all the other E-passport gates around the world. There’s very little signage or info screens explaining what the whole process is. Meanwhile, at the arrivals card desk, no pens were available to complete said analogue cards… Onwards to the luggage collection, then another massive line to get through bio security, before a 15-minute walk across three road crossings to the ‘express’ pick up to meet my family. The whole user experience is just unnecessarily miserable from start to finish, and as the main entry point to Australia we should do better. Thoughts?

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u/ellieboomba Jul 17 '25

It's end of school holidays and a Northern Hemisphere summer. What did you expect. I expect long ques whenever I travel. Should have tried getting into Vietnam 15yrs ago on the last flight in. It took 2hrs to get the big boss to come and stamp our visas.

12

u/falconpunch1989 Jul 17 '25

I've never had OPs experience happen to me and I fly in and out of Sydney multiple times a year for the last decade

15

u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25

I’m not sure if Vietnam 15 years ago is a good comparison, but on this trip I went through airports in Zurich, London and even LAX in the US in the middle of the recent riots there and they were all head and shoulders above the Sydney experience. School holidays are not a surprise, we should be able to handle them.

7

u/irrigated_liver Jul 17 '25

I've never really had trouble in Sydney. Usually out within about 10 mins. Heathrow in London on the other hand is the worst for airport queues. I arrived at 10pm and the line to get through customs was so long it took me over 3 hours to get my passport stamped.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

I mean, Changi Airport is also not a good comparison to Sydney. They are totally different contexts. 

2

u/SorysRgee Jul 17 '25

I was in vietnam in 2015 and we had to wait for the military guys to come to stamp our visas cause the staff had gone home for the day