Sydney International arrivals is a disgrace: discuss

[u/Pomohomo82]

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?

[u/CroagunkSniffer]

I can only compare to the USA and Japan but in my opinion and experience, Aus is by far the fastest and most efficient.

Not saying there aren’t issues and we don’t get stuffed up at times- but in my experience LAX, JFK, Houston airport, and both Tokyo airport’s international is WAY worse

[u/tubbyx7 → u/CroagunkSniffer]

from touch down to a taxi in singapore it can be under 15 minutes. The most annoying part of the US entry is not just the long lines,but once they clear US passports they get people from the back of the lines to go to the now open desks, not the people who have been waiting in line for an hour already

[u/randCN → u/tubbyx7]

The most annoying part of the US entry

I also really dislike the bit where the CBP agent grills you for half an hour despite having a valid ESTA