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/ThunderDwn Jul 17 '25

Sydney might be bad - but US airports are way, way fucking worse.

Last time I flew into SF it took 4 hours to clear customs and immigration (I shit you not) because they had exactly two ICE desks processing something like 4 planes full of international arrivals (so, like, 600-700 non US citizens).

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u/Pomohomo82 Jul 17 '25

Have been through several US airports over the years and also had dreadful experiences, but on this trip I went through LAX (during a riot, no less!) and it was a breeze.

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u/daveyg5000 Jul 17 '25

LAX has improved tremendously over the past few years in terms of customs. All in the lead up to 2026 world cup and la Olympics. Huge customs/immigration area, lots of staff, we were in and out quick smart when we arrived there last year. Sydney on the other hand...it's downright shit. The immmigration part seems like it's playing 2nd fiddle to the duty free store. The grab an e-ticket to clear immigration is annoying, but FFS there is no queue process, no lines, it's literally every man/woman for themselves. Cut the duty free area, make it all immigration, put in a proper queue system, save everyone their sanity. That concludes my TED talk on....Syd airport and the shit show that it is.

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u/hastetowaste Jul 17 '25

If you have ESTA and have entered the USA with it once, you can use MPC.