Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 20:49:19 on Sat, 21 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)? So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 20:49:18 on Sat, 21 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

If it takes me 2 minutes to walk over that bridge (say), unless I'm
injured I know it will always take that.

It's much more than 2 minutes.

It's about 200m long, and has travelators, so two minutes is about right.

What about the escalators up and down?

OK, so add another minute. It's still much quicker, and more interesting,
than getting to many other Gatwick gates, particularly if you're coming
from one of the business lounges.

Anyway, with BA moving south, and all easyJet operations now being based in
the North terminal, I don't expect to be using it much in the future. It
used to be a nice terminal before easyJet moved in, but is now too crowded,
and will only get worse.

I just hope that BA hasn't degraded Virgin's excellent Flying Club lounge
in the South terminal too much during the conversion.

On 2017-01-22 09:27:36 +0000, Recliner said:

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)? So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

Correct, it was replaced by the e-gates.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 09:27:36 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

If it takes me 2 minutes to walk over that bridge (say), unless I'm
injured I know it will always take that.

It's much more than 2 minutes.

It's about 200m long, and has travelators, so two minutes is about right.

What about the escalators up and down?

OK, so add another minute.

They are extremely long escalators.
--
Roland Perry

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 09:27:36 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)?

Not much, and not from Gatwick North. But I felt significantly
inconvenienced when I did.

So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 09:27:36 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)?

Not much, and not from Gatwick North. But I felt significantly
inconvenienced when I did.

The ePassport queues have got worse and worse, as more people have got
chipped passports and have learned how to use the gates. At one time, the
majority preferred the manual queue, but as fewer desks are now manned,
most EU citizens now use the gates.

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-septe
mber.org, at 09:27:36 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

If it takes me 2 minutes to walk over that bridge (say), unless I'm
injured I know it will always take that.

It's much more than 2 minutes.

It's about 200m long, and has travelators, so two minutes is about right.

What about the escalators up and down?

OK, so add another minute.

They are extremely long escalators.

Not compared to the ones down to the Heathrow T5 transit or the T2
walkways:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/28105847650/in/album-72157671130714396

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 11:00:04 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

The ePassport queues have got worse and worse, as more people have got
chipped passports and have learned how to use the gates. At one time, the
majority preferred the manual queue, but as fewer desks are now manned,
most EU citizens now use the gates.

Only two more years to go.
--
Roland Perry

In message 563270497.506775297.963474.recliner.ng-
, at 11:01:33 on Sun, 22 Jan
2017, Recliner remarked:
If it takes me 2 minutes to walk over that bridge (say), unless I'm
injured I know it will always take that.

It's much more than 2 minutes.

It's about 200m long, and has travelators, so two minutes is about right.

What about the escalators up and down?

OK, so add another minute.

They are extremely long escalators.

Not compared to the ones down to the Heathrow T5 transit or the T2
walkways:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/recliner/28105847650/in/album-72157671130714396

Looks about the same to me.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ck_North_Termi
nal_escalator_up_to_Pier_6_passenger_bridge.JPG
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-septe
mber.org, at 11:00:04 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

The ePassport queues have got worse and worse, as more people have got
chipped passports and have learned how to use the gates. At one time, the
majority preferred the manual queue, but as fewer desks are now manned,
most EU citizens now use the gates.

Only two more years to go.

Really? EU citizens are very likely to continue using the ePassport gates
post-Brexit. After all, visa-free movement is likely to continue; what's
likely to be restricted is employment (ie, getting an NI number) and access
to benefits.

Even now, many non-EU citizens can use them:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPas...es#Eligibility

At present, British citizens, European Economic Area citizens and citizens
of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South
Korea, Taiwan and the United States who are enrolled in the Registered
Traveller Service,[1] can use ePassport gates, provided that they are aged
either 18 and over or 12 and over travelling with an adult and holding
valid biometric passports.

----

Similarly, I was surprised to see that I could use the equivalent gates in
New Zealand.