I’m wondering how this works, for example I’ve read recently about extremely long delays entering Portugal from the Lisbon airport due to issues rolling out ETIAS. (3 hours or more of traveler wait time)
In this case what happens to the checked luggage of those passengers who are waiting in line? Does it sit out there in the carousel for hours until collection or is it held back until the passengers start arriving?
Do you mean the EES Entry/Exit System?
Passengers with an EU passport don’t have to go thru the EES-registration. Nor do those who’ve already registered. It’s impossible to know to which category a suitcase belongs, so all luggage will be on the belt at the same time.
Does it sit out there in the carousel for hours until collection or is it held back until the passengers start arriving?
The luggage would either be on the carousel or pulled off and set near the carousel. It would still be within the secure area as you still need to go through customs.
It gets put on the carousel as usual and then taken off and put into the left luggage area. They’ll need the carousel for the next flights.
To be fair, Lisbon airport has been a mess for years, with or without the EES rollout, just a case of heavily increased traffic volumes in a dated airport. As another poster said, the bag goes to the carousel, it goes around until that carousel is needed for another flight, they offload the luggage, either lining it up near the carousel, or over to unclaimed bags, likely just lining it up along the carousel it came out on.
Look at the bright side, if you were to get through quickly, you might have to wait an hour for your bag, if things are backed up at immigration, then it is just grab your bag and go. Of course, everything may go smoothly as well, you never know.
Thanks for the replies. Seems like if your luggage is sitting around unattended for hours then someone could just walk off with it. Maybe the airline employees are watching over it? It brings up the question, what’s to stop someone from doing that under normal circumstances? If you’re checking a bag, it’s you watching them emerge from wherever and making sure someone else doesn’t take it. Reminds me of the time someone mistakenly took one of our carry on bags after it went through the TSA X-ray machine. Luckily we noticed it and got the bag from the person immediately since it also contained our passports.
The baggage claim area is in the secure zone, so random people looking to steal bags can't access them. That said, they do not verify that you have your bag, so on the off chance another traveler decides to pick up a bag, either intentionally or by accident, I suppose that can happen.
They do have staff and security in the baggage claim area, as well as customs agents, but I doubt they would know who has who's bag. I think your risk is low, not heard of any widespread problem. I think it would be an issue of diminishing return for a crook to book a ticket in hopes of grabbing a bag that had something more than my used underwear.
As always, make sure critical things like your documents, jewelry, medication, money, is all in your carry-on, not checked luggage.
It does still happen--my dad grabbed the wrong bag not long ago and as we were getting into the car, we realised it. We just called the number on the tag, and went back into the airport and met the owner just outside the secure area. Otherwise we would have delivered it to the lost bag area. It's why we never put valuables in the checked luggage.
I remember when there were guards checking tickets numbers. I am still not convinced that 96% of thr time things will go smoothly and 5% will make great internet "new" stories.
It is because of bags left unattended in baggage claim for whatever reason and that possibility of their being mistakenly picked up that you do not stash your passport in them. Good that you recognised your bags so quickly (with the passports inside) as they were being carried off . I never put my passport in any piece of luggage, the personal bag and carry-on included.
it's worth mentioning that the delays publicised due to EES are for clearing passport control on the way out, not on arrival. This shouldn't affect baggage reclaim.
Lin C - are you sure about the delays being out the way out (which I interpret as
return to home base) as opposed to arrival into destination EU country (or first
country in Schengen entry)?
My experience is that upon arrival from a non-EU country, the large delays are
due to crowds + people being unfamilar with how to use the machines for the
initial biometric scan and passport collection process. People that chose to
bypass that situation have to still go through the manual line with a border
control police person and when the crowds are large the wait there is huge
also. I suspect that the border patrol staff was originally reduced but probably
has had to be restored.
As for luggage, I don't think anything has changed there, as I am sure the airport
staff have been told this is a temporary situation (which will probably last months).
RIght now, just about everyone from every flight is being delayed so there is not
a group of people clearing hours ahead of others.
Sorry, I had complete brain failure. Ignore what I wrote.
We all have brain-farts from time to time.
Some US TSA body scanners instruct you to empty your pockets and carry nothing. How do you avoid putting your passport in your carry-on for their x-ray?
Tim, I slip my passport into the same pocket of my personal item every time just before placing the tray on the conveyor belt. I don't enter the scanner/metal detector until I see my items are entering the X-ray scanner. I'm through the people scanner before my carry-on/personal item is out the other side. Grab my items, step away and put my passport back on my person.
That said, I have seen some passengers at some airports carry their passports in hand through the metal detectors, not the body scanners.
Every time flying out of SFO to Europe, I am told by TSA to empty out my pockets, ie, no tissue, coins, the close-up reading glasses, and of, course, the paper boarding pass from check-in, ie, nothing at all, before stepping into the body scanner, that "peek-a-boo" machine.
In defense (or possibly Defence) of @LinC there have also been issues with security times at the Lisbon airport and long queues at exit immigration, on and off, for years. Again, more an issue of heavy passenger loads in a too small airport
