Crew Lines in Australian Airports

[jetjockey7]

I may be wrong in this, but Australain airports seem to be the only airports in the world that dont have dedicated crew lines inbound.
Arrived into Sydney off a Direct LAX on schedule...emerged from the airport 2 hours later.
Arrived into MEL on schedule.....emerged 1.5 hours later.
Australia is at the end of the line.Tours of duty routinely exceed 10 hours into Sydney and Melbourne.
The Singapore Girl behind me in the Q in Melbourne summed it up beautifully..."this is farking stupid"
So called third world countries not only have far superior airports but all have dedicated crew lines.
I dont want special treatment...I just want someone to recognise how tired we are when we arrive.
It is very diificult when fatigued not to sound off at the Quarantine and Customs people.
This off course can only lead to things being made worse.
What can be done?

[The Messiah]

Sydney has a crew channel which is to the far left hand side, and it is always manned. LAX has a crew channel which is never manned (or womanned for that matter) and you only get thru after all the wheelchairs and special needs pax have gone thru, now that is "farking stupid".

[Gear Down & Welded]

Immigration lines at MEL and SYD have crew lanes (MEL definately both ways)

As for the Quarantine/Customs part... good luck, I've had many an over time when I used to work ground crew in baggage services trying to get rush bags and unclaimed bags through. They don't seem to care about airline staff... no matter which airline you work for (I worked for a contractor so I wore quite a few uniforms) nor if your air or ground crew! :ugh::ugh:

It was bad enough for me after an 8-9hr shift, I can hardly imagine it after a sector from LAX!

[mates rates]

This is typical of the treatment of crew in Australia post 89.Welcome to the cleanest 3rd world country.One of the reasons why I quit flying for a day job and I suspect many others feel the same.

[DutchRoll]

I beg to differ about Sydney's crew channel (immigration only) being always manned. The other day I stood there in my crumpled flying-for-nine-hours uniform while Customs staff on the other channels and some even standing milling around doing apparently nothing glanced at me then looked away. It was a quite a few minutes wait until someone finally took pity on me (and those lined up behind). Not the first time it has happened either.

Then there was the Customs wan*er in Perth who decided to go on a power trip and strip everything out of my suitcase. I hadn't declared anything, and lo-and-behold, shock-horror, there wasn't anything to declare! The funniest thing was him arrogantly asking what was in the suspicious looking white cloth bag, so I suggested he empty it out and check. A week's worth of dirty jocks and socks! The look and upturned nose was priceless! :D

I know not all staff are like this and to be fair I've also had the odd very easy and pleasant completion of the formalities, but crew are often treated with a fair degree of contempt at Australian airports, from Security Screening on departure to Quarantine on arrival. I don't think it'll change in the forseeable future.

[yowie]

Bisneyland has to be the worst:mad: Apparently nothing to do with Customs but an airport operators directive:mad::mad: Maybe a constant flow of sign off's when you actually get out of the queue might prompt your flight ops to kick up a big enough stink to get it sorted:hmm: I wont hold my breath:ugh:
BTW Always get through Perth OK:D

[ozangel]

It was always the Quarantine line that had no dedicated crew channel... And Brisbane was always the worst. It was particularly bad for us, as one of the Quarantine girls had applied to us as cabin crew, and not got in... To top it off, I had been on the panel that day. Going through that Quarantine line up to 3 times per week (often after a 14+hour 4 sector daytrip), and more often than not finding her working - was a nightmare. She would drop whatever she was doing, get a colleague to handle whatever it was she was searching, and storm over to us, searching us one by one. Even gave a $200 fine to a girl who had half a sandwich crust in her lunch box at 8:30pm christmas day, despite having only left Brisbane at 0600 that very morning with the offending lunchbox.

Sydney always seemed reasonably friendly, they did have their moments though. Perth and Cairns seemed a little more relaxed (Cairns had a crew channel) but thats probably because their staff are over at domestic stealing pinapples and cinnamon sticks from domestic pax.

Wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so rude?

All that said, have been through OOL a number of times, and cant fault them. Who needs a crew line, from doors open to beach was less than 1hr, and the bags took 40mins of that!

[Capt Chambo]

Brisbane International terminal has a dedicated Crew channel, over on the far left as you approach the immigration desks. So far have found them all very pleasant. You can get held up through the quarantine section, but have often been "waved" through quickly.
The whole process has been soured for me though by the officious b!tch at security on an outbound who confiscated my half empty tube of toothpaste, "because it was capable of holding 125ml when full". Unfortunately she was right but where is the common sense?

[Shazz-zaam]

Totally agree with you Capt Chambo.

Things have improved lately in BrisVegas, there's an Express Quarantine channel , to the right hand side, marked as lane C, crew can use it if they have nothing to declare.

It's taken years, but finally it's a little more civilised.:)

[yowie]

Yeah I meant the Quarantine line. Great to hear that have caught up with the rest of the world:}
(who said Brisbekistan?):p

[Mr. Hat]

jetjockey7 welcome to australia, airports here are designed to repel people. Enjoy your stay.

[kalavo]

Time to spare, go by air.