Glory hunters.

Who did you support from birth to 11 then ?

This might be a US thing... cyclist that have their front and rear lights on in strobe mode in the middle of a bright blue sunny day.

Yes I can see them coming from half a mile away, but the important bit is the last 50 yards, and I can see you just fine thank you.

IW_Eagle's thread about his stop over in LAX reminded me of a real annoyance:
US Immigration.
It is without fail the most laborious drudge of all the immigration entries I have to go through and that includes some pretty decent competition e.g. China.

Since I got my latest passport in Sept 2012 I've re-entered the US 34 times (I counted all the stamps last week whilst waiting over 45 mins to be processed). Over 20 of those have been on a Green Card. Every time they photograph me and fingerprint me. At what point does their system say, hang on a minute, this guy is a frequent traveller, maybe we have his mugshot enough times?

US Immigration is barking mad. Have had problems where my wife was accused of never leaving the country thus committing an offence - even though we had just landed at international arrivals! Really intimidating to be taken out of line and led to an office for further "processing".

9/11 totally fecked them up and they still haven't recovered.

US immigration has been rotten for the whole of the 25 years I've been going back and forth there. Canada is also a trial.

The queues in the UK can be pretty horrendous at times as well though.

Boy - I didn't realize they did that with Green Card holders.

I'm beginning to think they should just implant a chip in our necks like they do dogs. I seriously would be OK with that if it cut down on this meaningless waiting in lines.

I do have to say the set up at Miami was not bad though, where a machine scans your face and compares you to the info on the biometric passport.

Now if they could only figure out something for the customs line.

Trying to get to the bar to order a drink and some dopey twat is blocking my way having a quiet pint :)

Where they are in place I am forced to use those machine readers. Not once has one worked, always to the back of the queue (having wasted 10 mins getting a stupid print out telling me to see an immigration officer - I could have told you I was going to end up in that line 10 mins ago :grrr: ). Thankfully BA terminal 7 at JFK hasn't got them yet so I can usually (being at the front of the plane most times) get into line early. Still mugged and printed though, every time!

US air travel is shit. They let me through with a lighter, a pack of matches and an expired license, yet they confiscated my wife's expensive hair care products.

Guess they don't care if the plane blows up as long as their hair looks smashing.

I love going to The U.S. but as has been said, passport control is awful.

It's almost like they don't want you to visit their country.

As others have said Heathrow is is not exactly the standard to judge other countries by either... why is it about a mile walk from the plane... great when you've been sat on a plane for 10 hours - not sure how old folk do it (I guess I find out next time!).

Huge lines for non-UK/Euro citizens also.

football-free summers

So true :(

Staplers.

Why don't the last half dozen staples ever work?

It's a shitty design that we've all put up with for decades. Sort it out Rexel you bastards.

They all sound quite cromulent to me.

:p

Its this that really ****s me off...all the shit EU and Swiss (WHY the Swiss) get to walk through like us but the Commonwealth buds have to line up with the rest.......:veryangry

I'm not aiming this at anybody in particular.

The increasing habit.... of people who post in forums.... who post things... with lots of full stops.... rather than using punctuation...properly....w....t....f....... ?

What are people taught in English Language lessons these days?

Ellipsis is punctuation ......doh! :)