The Red channel
 

During my working life I had to go through the Red channel because I had goods on carnet.

Since I've retired, and Brexit, I still go through the Red channel. There are fewer people passing through and more staff, and although I know my Class C drug (Zolpidem, on prescription) can go through the Green channel, I also know that the people staffing the Red channel are more knowledgeable and will process me quicker. I keep the tablets in my pocket and show them, they look them up on the database and nod nod through you go, It's a lot slower when you go through the Green channel, there are crowds and the staff aren't as knowledgeable. If you get stopped for a random check you can be there ages.

Agreed - if you have anything you think might cause a problem head for Red. We always do that in Australia & New Zealand with anything that has a hint of biosecurity issues. As you say - its faster than trying to explain yourself in Green.

Yep - I usually have a bar of chocolate to declare ...

Yes we declared chocolate 3 weeks ago entering Australia.

Having once been caught NOT declaring it we now declare it even if we don't have any. Its easier

When returning from an overseas contract with more suitcases than I went out with: I had kept all the receipts, put them in a spreadsheet and handed the whole thing to the folks in the Red Channel. They were lenient on the list and did not search the bags - in which I was not hiding anything. I paid by a credit card that scored airmiles. Honesty worked.

In the late 80s, returning from a long weekend in Geneva with my then girl friend, we went through the Green with no suitcases. We were stopped and, on looking at my passport saw that it was my birthday. "What did you buy in Geneva?" We replied nothing as it was too expensive. They asked to look at my wristwatch and saw it was old - about 17 years at the time. Seeing the old watch, "What watch did you get for your birthday?" I said, None, this works fine and Geneva was the birthday present.They started to search our bags watching us carefully.

They were sad that we had nothing to hide. Perhaps others had slid through whilst they searched us!

I spent the 90s flying in and out of Linate 4 times a year. I always flew in a suit and had a brief case and a large black hard side suitcase. I loved watching the customs guys do their thing. Every good looking woman always got checked. 😊 I only got checked once and that was because I had a brown box. They cut the string I was using as a handle. All they saw was new underwear in original packaging.

Came into Sydney one very busy Sunday morning and declared a wooden product on my card. A customs officer came along the line asking what we had to declare. I explained that the wooden object was something I'd taken to the UK as a gift but which had been damaged on the way over and was being brought back for repair. I was sent straight through, as were people who were declaring sweets etc. Honesty pays off.

Year ago I popped into Australia and I intended to go MTB riding with my nephew. So I had my bike shoes with me. Now I usually ride across fields etc when in England and while I had cleaned them, I thought "better safe than sorry". I declared them. The AQIS officer took them from me (I had them in my carry on so easy to access), dunked them in some goo, cheerfully brought them back, thanked me for my honesty and waved me on with a smile. :)

Good tip about the red channel.

Always carry my keys visibly in-hand, so customs can quickly open the suitcases if necessary. I assume that they spot this. Never (yet) been taken up on the offer.

Every time I go through the green channel in the UK, there is no one to be seen. Never been held up once.

Agred. Some might be behind the mirrors, otherwise it's just the CC TV.

UK Border Force seem to be very free and easy, they just take a glance at my controlled medication, and say 'you're OK, off you go'. In most other countries they have to go and look it up on a database to be sure I'm not trafficking a dangerous drug across the border. Sniffer dogs always detect it.

My ex-wife (Maiden name: Escobar. Place of Birth: Medellin, Colombia) always used to get the full treatment wherever she went. What was ironic is that she works for the CSIS, specifically tasked to keep cocaine out of Canada. The smell of cocaine sticks to your clothes for ages, so if she'd been involved in a seizure of say kilogrammes of the stuff, she'd get picked up by the sniffer dogs for up to a month afterwards.

They get almost all their info on "trafficking dangerous drugs" from Intelligence - TBH you carrying in a kilo of cocaine in your briefcase thru T5 and it wouldn't even make the needle flicker on UK drug imports - most of it apparently comes in in containers - in tons.

Occasionaly they'll bust an obvious case but it's mainly to generate headlines to put people off.

In years of traveliing I've seen 3 definite busts and one who looked dogy as hell but got through . Three of the cases were intelligence led - they knew in two cases EXACTLY who they wanted, ID'd them on deplaning and fell on them in Customs. The third case they just shunted all the male pax into the red channel until they found the guilty man. I've spent some time over the years in US "follow the red line " corrals - but most of my fellow visitors looked like Immigration cases

Long time ago, I got stopped in the green channel at Heathrow and politely informed that I fitted the description of a known drug smuggler. All perfectly amicable and quickly resolved when I showed my airline ID.

Funnily enough it was the same trip where my mate and I had been hauled off the plane on arrival at TLV by a couple of swarthy guys with Uzis, in front of all the other bemused passengers.

Back in the 1970s I was living and working in Jersey. I returned to the UK for the weekend when my parents were celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary. As a present I had bought them a decorative wall barometer,which to make carriage easier I had strapped to my briefcase. Upon landing in Southampton I made my way to the red channel and told them my story, anticipating some duty would be payable. "Well", said the man in the uniform, "let's call it a scientific instrument. No duty payable".

A US colleague resident in the UK spent a number of years being stopped at just about every airport he went through. Eventually he found a considerate Immigration Officer who informed him he shared a name with a senior member of a well known Italian American family out of Boston

I travelled a lot to Dhaka, Bangladesh in the 90s, spent almost a year there in total, working on EU funded projects. Anyways, getting computers and equipment was very difficult. So we'd always bring one, not laptops, but proper stationary ones. We had all the required paperwork designating the goods as temporary items, to be re-exported. When leaving again, typically after a couple of months one would always carry a dead motherboard, or some other remains, and everything was stamped and good.

You could have done that on carnet. As long as the serial numbers match, you're good to go. A carnet is good for six months.

Zimbabwe wasn't a carnet country, I had to air-freight goods ahead, pay duty on them, and then have the duty refunded on them when I left the country. That's the only non-carnet country I've been to.

I don't know about Bangladesh, but India is a pain. Not only do you have to declare everything, you have to enter through the port on your carnet. Everywhere else, you enter the country at any international border aeroport.

The quickest I've ever been through customs was in West Berlin, the British Zone. I was on the last flight in, which was late. The staff were on overtime, and wanted to get home to their homes and families.

'I have goods on carnet'.

Ah! Three men stood up with five stamps, and stamped my carnet without inspecting the goods at all. Five stamps were enough. I was through in seconds.

Back in the mid '80s , redeployed as cabin crew for 2 years .. Into LHR from Bermuda , into crew customs in the Queens building ... waited as a crew , other crews came past . We were held back , no explanation forthcoming . Then slowly processed with a fine tooth comb , held in a side office . We're all getting fractious . Then it clicked , the a/c had come up from Kingston Jamaica ; with a quick fuel and crew change in Bermuda .
UK customs had held all of us until the B747 had been thoroughly searched ... nearly 2 hrs down the line .
No idea if pax were held as well .

rgds condor .