> efficent immigration

A couple of years ago I had to take a connected flight where one of the stops was in USA. I was never going to leave the airport, yet I had to form in a line while immigration was doing the routine bottleneck check on dozens of travelers, while my flight time was getting dangerously close. We just had to suck it up, any complaining just brought additional delays. The check was fairly automated, I guess they just needed more agents, or less gratuitous revisions.

> A couple of years ago I had to take a connected flight where one of the stops was in USA. I was never going to leave the airport, yet I had to form in a line while immigration was doing the routine bottleneck check on dozens of travelers, while my flight time was getting dangerously close. We just had to suck it up, any complaining just brought additional delays. The check was fairly automated, I guess they just needed more agents, or less gratuitous revisions.

I had this exact same experience with LHR (London Heathrow). I was never even trying to leave the airport, just make a connecting flight.

Not only did they decide that having a single security lane open was sufficient, but they also (effectively) only let one person unload their bag into the trays at a time, for a max bus throughput of 1 person at a time. If you left anything in it - and I mean anything[0] - they pulled your bag and tray to the side, and you had to wait for one of two agents to inspect it. The wait time for that was about 10-15 minutes. At no point did anybody have any sense of urgency whatsoever with their work, despite all of us being there to make connecting flights. They shuffled back and forth between the body scanner, X-ray machine, and the break area, chatting with each other. I was seventh in line, and in all, the entire process took literally 30 minutes (I timed it).

I was floored, because I've traveled around the world and never seen anything this bad. Even Heathrow security has never been that bad for me when taking off from London. There was an agent from our departing flight there to escort us, because we were holding the whole flight up. I asked her if this was typical or not, and she just rolled her eyes and laughed, "yeah, this is how it usually is".

[0] One guy next to me had his back selected because he had left his eyeglasses inside his bag, in a plastic (not metal) case.

I had to do this in Abu Dhabi. The whole story is organized in an amerturish fashion. They were parading us around through various queques in the airport in groups of ppl landing on same plane. The whole thing was really bizzare and humiliating.

And the variety of available food choices. Or the fact that the is a nice gym with a shower.

It is one of the best airports I have ever seen.

I didn't like the carpeted walkways there to be honest since it just made it more difficult to pull my hand luggage.

Heavy stuff and soft surfaces don’t mix. A hospital nearby has carpets in places. The staff pushing the half ton x-ray machine leave furrows like they are plowing a paddock.

Maybe part of the plan, it's difficult to enforce hand luggage limitations at airports without adding extra checks, but if you exceed 10kg that overweight suitcase is going to make some drag on carpet. Small nudges, similarly how BA cabin crew are instructed to never help anyone put their luggage in the overhead bin unless they have a suitable reason.

> BA cabin crew are instructed to never help anyone put their luggage in the overhead bin unless they have a suitable reason.

Is this for real? Sucks, but I can imagine most fellow passengers pick up the slack... at least I've always helped others (and vice-versa) in the US.

It is, Ive witnessed cabin crew refuse or ignore multiple times, and clearly says so on their website too that passengers must be able to put luggage in the bins themselves. Makes sense to me, if you can't lift it then it's probably overweight and should of been checked in. Obviously I'm sure they'd make exceptions for unaccompanied children, height challenged people, injured, the very elderly, those with noted back issues, 1st class passengers maybe. Seems a reasonable policy, faster boarding, reduction in abuse, space for others, etc.. https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/baggage-ess... It all about small nudges, disincentives to affect future behavior, back to the Singapore airside carpets. Others do pick up the slack indeed, and usually both ended up with a quick moan, whilst I really wanna comment you selfish .#*@ that suitcase is taking up half the bin, where do I put my bag, or good forbid you try put that 20kg on top of my small rugsack

It's for the safety of the cabin crew. If they had to help put people's heavy bags in the overheads on every flight, they would quickly get back injuries. It's fine for the passengers because they are not doing it often.

I mostly fly budget airlines so my hand luggage has to be lightweight, but the carpet at Changi is a minor inconvenience (especially when one is tired after a +13h flight) because my luggage practically rolls itself when you give it a nudge on an even surface!