Fed up waiting? Join the queue!

Agree about airport queues, online checkin has not change anything takes just as long to drop luggage off. However I have noticed queues being managed a couple of time to speed things up but have also noticed on a couple of occasions that the airport checkin queue was shorter than the luggage drop off queue.

Also agree that snaking queues, while looking daunting, are fairer.

Of course up here in the North a queue is a chance to have a chat with whoever is nearby.

I cannot think of anything more annoying than queuing. It always seems such an unnecessary waste of time.

Some years ago, Tesco advertised that they would open more tills if two or more people were waiting in front of you. They rarely did this at the local store and if I had been able to reach the signs advertising this service I would have torn them down.

Clicked on the link about Greek holidays. Which is well respected – even by me a born skeptic – but that article was a load of tosh.

It highlights a very low risk of abnormal disruption, based upon a few demonstrations in Athens and some short term banking issues in Cyprus? Sure the countries have problems, which one doesn’t? Strikes there are at times just like there have been virtually every year by French Air Traffic Controllers, farmers etc.

Although the words tend to play it down, the headline sets the image. I guess “Which for international visitors to the UK” (if there was one) would not recommend a visit to the UK given all the riots and demonstrations over the years in specific locations, floods, droughts, high winds,Lions Mane jelly fish of the west coast, racial hatred and europhobic nature of a few, risk of catching mad cow disease, failing NHS……………however not been near or seen one of those with any abnormal adverse effect for years and that will apply to the vast majority. Some still however will suffer and undoubtedly there are problems and that must make a visitor to the UK wary, like some Americans were a few years ago. It’s just the same in Greece where news gets coloured by a few incidents and scaremongering headlines. Nearly all the demos and rioting are around Syntagma square in Athens, and there are problems elsewhere but generally only those in tourist areas of made by the tourists !!

Different standards abound and culture is different, heat waves do occur etc.; but that part of life.

Even the financial advice in the article was wrong, IMHO, a small amount of cash is the wrong method. Whilst ATMs are widespread they are not as reliable as in the UK and IF there is a serious banking crisis (never in the UK eh? we don’t ever see queues at banks – sorry short memory) then they would no doubt close for time as happened in Cyprus. Cash then would be king for a time so at least a reserve of cash would be very useful, just as it would if you lost your cards!!

We are long-term customers of easyJet, so, having embraced online check-in long ago, as recommended by the airline, we were keen for the latest easyJet Luton airport Bag Drop system to work as promised. However, on two flights this year, we have found ourselves in the longest queues we have ever experienced! Are we the stupid ones for tolerating this, especially as there were openable desks not in use at the time? We already arrive at the airport earlier than the recommended time, so this is simply an abuse of customer relations.
If easyJet cannot resolve this major issue, we, and probably many others, will surely have to look at alternative operators when making our holiday and family visiting plans.

I like waiting in line. I was brought up on it. Nothing compares to waiting in the airport terminal building for various stages of the embarkation process. In my mind, the queueing all merges into one long waiting game and the line-up for check-in/bag drop is no worse than the bit where you take your shoes off or sit around waiting for the boarding gate to be announced or to open. There is always something interesting to look at or to occupy your mind. We always arrive in good time to make sure we miss none of the excitement.

On queueing preferences, the snaking queues are best for all-round interest and exercise as you manhandle your luggage round the left- and right-hand turns with different views at each turning point. With the straight queues, we always pick the slow channel so that we end up behind people with all sorts of ticket/passport/excess baggage issues, with added language difficulties as a bonus usually.

The best lesson in patience, tolerance and self-control is the satisfyingly long queue on the return journey to go through UK Border Control. I always enjoy the friendly “Welcome to the UK” from the turbanned gentleman with the big smile – gives you that warm, glad-to-be-home feeling.

I don’t understand why we have to pay a fee for online check in when we the customers are doing all the work. Before this started the airlines had to supply sufficient staff at the airport to get us all checked in thirty or so minutes before the flight. We are saving the airlines a fortune and are paying for the privilege. Bonkers.

At John Lewis, for example, you join one queue (at any of a number of pay points throughout the store) each feeding several tills and quickly get to the front of the queue for your turn. Much better than gambling on which queue to commit yourself to in the supermarket. I don’t like queuing, particularly when I make the wrong decision – same as on the motorway, when the other lane always moves quicker than yours.
Supermarkets could adopt this system, larger ones by having queues for several groups of tills. For smaller baskets I’ve conquered the self-pay tills – Tescos and B&Q have helpful assistants for when things go amiss.

Carrefour in Mallorca has an enormous store near the airport. There they use a common queue with electronic directions to an appropriate till. The system works extremely well and efficiently.

I recently flew out of Dublin(Aer Lingus) where there was a huge snake queue that ended close to one end of about a dozen check-ins. Meaning that there was a 10 second walk to the furthest check-in and the supervisor was always behind the curve in only bringing forward passengers when the check-in was free. Thus, anywhere between 5-15 seconds was wasted for each check-in. Multiply that by 1000 and its huge.

We’ve all spent hours at airports being delayed unnecessarily. It’s not rocket science. I suggest the best solution is a snake queue initially which ends up maintaining a POOL OF 2 LOTS of passengers at each and every check-in.

Nick

Good to see a discussion on queue theory!

It is well known, unlike your article example that when the queue wait is significantly longer than the action time (such as we experience at airports rather than at supermarket tills where they can be similar) then first in first served gives the overall shortest waits.

Anyone who jumps the queue or is given priority makes other just wait longer. Some passengers really do deserve priority such as the sick etc. s some small extra wait is inevitable. So the trend of having paid for priority desks have a significant affect, not only for that reason, but also when that priority desk is not fully employed. So those desks really do not help, unless you count moneymaking exercises worthwhile!

The point on small queue delays mentioned previously is also significant as they are cumulative (provided the desk is not actually doing something useful for those few seconds) but I suspect it is a security measure.

The biggest things that would make a difference is to smooth out the demand ( where there are lots of peaks in the hour or two before a flight) and just having more desks open!

Re ‘The formula for queue busting’ Surely you would get the best of both systems by having in front of each desk, behind the traveller checking-in, a single waiting position fed by a ‘snake’ queue.

All bag drop is is a means for the airline to employ fewer staff at check in. Everyone boarding the plane with luggage has to been seen, those who don’t need seats allocated and so one are processed faster so fewer staff are needed to get through the same number of people in the same time. It is naive to think that it exists to benefit the traveller, however much they try to sell it as such.

The point about snake queues rather than queue per desk? Get behind a party of six with dozens of huge cases who then insist on a long debate with the check-in person because they want to sit together and go on to make a fuss about having to pay excess baggage charges and you’ll know why snake queues are better.

Hi Try and beat this one . My wife and I flew on Aug 16th to Istanbul via the early B A Flight. Arrived at the visa Counter in Istanbul to find very long queue. After nearly 1 hour we could now see there there where only 2 Visa staff on duty with half the world waiting for visas. All of sudden 1 of the staff got up from there desk got food and water out and sat in another chair to watch the T V in their office area. In the mean time those in the know where getting certain airport staff to jump the queue for them to get their visas from the only person left on duty and this must happend at least 25 to 30 times. With visas now obtained we then joined the passport checking queue for another 30+ minutes. (not yet finished). !5 minutes to find luggage which had been put in pile so they could use the belt for another flight arrival. Thats what I queueing

One frustration I have with snaking queues is when retailers etc only open up the tills/counters etc furthest away from the front of the queue – so between customers there’s an unnecessary delay as people have to walk past empty counters just to be served. Businesses should also be aware that it makes more sense to have the end of the snaking queue in the middle of the row of tills/counters, not at one end!