Young people showing the way through the airport?

This is in the minutes of a meeting between the Immigration Service and the BAA...

"Border Control would like to make greater use of presenters to show people to the right queue and give them the help they needed. Some young people had been brought in to do this over the summer bank holiday period and Border Control would like to find ways of extending the arrangements. Possibly, carriers might put money into this initiative as they were required to present passengers to border control staff. "

When did this happen?   

Has anybody here been directed to the right queue by a "young person"?   Does anybody *know* of anybody who was directed to the right queue by a "young peson"?

No.  I am also not sure I would trust a "young person" to know which line I should go to given the whole visa thing.

everytime i've gone through LHR- i've been directed to the proper queue by an eldery person.  seriously.

in the US- i seem to remember most of the time- the relevant airline's ground staff directly people to the proper line.

My experience has been the same as meggles' at LHR, LGW and BHX, except I wouldn't say it was an elderly person - more like a middle-aged person, like me!   

This is in the minutes of a meeting between the Immigration Service and the BAA...

"Border Control would like to make greater use of presenters to show people to the right queue and give them the help they needed. Some young people had been brought in to do this over the summer bank holiday period and Border Control would like to find ways of extending the arrangements. Possibly, carriers might put money into this initiative as they were required to present passengers to border control staff. "

When did this happen?   

Has anybody here been directed to the right queue by a "young person"?   Does anybody *know* of anybody who was directed to the right queue by a "young peson"?

Yeah at Gatwick yesterday, actually. They were very helpful cause the line at security was a bit confusing. I like this idea.

And they were young -- at least young enough for me to notice since it's unusual to see twenty-year-olds working at an airport.

Yep, I've seen them at Gatwick just a few weeks ago when I was there.

They were helpful to some people who didn't know how things went, annoying to others.

Annoying to me, in fact! This young girl, probably younger than me (and I'm 22) told me rather bitchily "ma'am, you have to put put your purse in your carry on. You can only carry ONE bag!" Now, keep in mind, my carry on was the size of a small backpack. So, I stuffed my purse in there, couldnt even zip the darn thing. Meanwhile, all the people around me had rather large pushing the limits suitcases, and a personal item such as a purse, or laptop case. I'm not sure why she decided to tell me to put my tiny purse in my tiny carry on while others got to carry 2 fairly large things through the line.

I think if they keep were to help direct people more instead of letting the "power" get to their heads, it'd be much better, for everyone.

Yep, I've seen them at Gatwick just a few weeks ago when I was there.

They were helpful to some people who didn't know how things went, annoying to others.

Annoying to me, in fact! This young girl, probably younger than me (and I'm 22) told me rather bitchily "ma'am, you have to put put your purse in your carry on. You can only carry ONE bag!" Now, keep in mind, my carry on was the size of a small backpack. So, I stuffed my purse in there, couldnt even zip the darn thing. Meanwhile, all the people around me had rather large pushing the limits suitcases, and a personal item such as a purse, or laptop case. I'm not sure why she decided to tell me to put my tiny purse in my tiny carry on while others got to carry 2 fairly large things through the line.

I think if they keep were to help direct people more instead of letting the "power" get to their heads, it'd be much better, for everyone.

But you can take 1 bag and 1 personal item through Gatwick now so that's a bit bizzare.  I hate it when BAA doesn't know their ars* from their elbow... 

The only time I've seen young people is to hand out the bags for liquids.  But I fly a ton so I already know to put my small liquids in a bag, and they look at you like you've got three heads when you go "I already have my liquids in a bag" - like they were amazed that I knew that I should have done that. 

Thanks for the replies peeps.  I guess it's harmless enough, and since they are proposing to pass along the costs for these young people along to the airlines, then I suppose it's appropriate.

I didn't know there was that much confusion out there.

Costs passed to airlines means increased ticket prices.  Not good if they are pointless.

Vicky

Yeah, I know you're allowed a carry on and a personal item, but the girl just didn't know her job, or was in a mood and felt like throwing some authority around, much like tsa like to do.

Airport employees aren't the brightest bunch(though I know there are exceptions)

I was connecting through CVG and got done through immigration way early. So I had a 6 hour wait. I went to the desk, as there was a flight leaving 2 and a half hours from then. I asked if I could go standby on the earlier flight, and the delta employee told me "oh no, ever since 9/11 you can't go standby on earlier flights" and I said umm...I do this itinerary every 2 months, and I've done this a lot, since september 11th." And she said it was against policy, blah blah. So she called another worker over to confirm her story.  I just was too tired to deal with them, so I just said okay, and left. I was talking to my dad, who said they were wrong (he is a pilot) and my fiance who is a pilot in the UK, who also said it was wrong. So my fiance sent me a link to deltas website confirming I was right, saying that changing flights with priority and going standby for earlier or late flights is a perk for frequent flier. By this time the flight had gone, but I took it up to the desk just to prove my point. They apologized and said they were unaware.

I personally think these "young" people are a waste of money. Place the plastic bags at a table as you enter the security line, with a big sign (which already exists) that says they all must be in one of those bags. The line can get confusing because people don't stand in a line. They just spread out so its hard for inexperienced travelers to know exactly where it starts. The young people don't even usually answer people if they hear people talking about being confused about the line. I end up helping people to the right line more than the airport employees!

Costs passed to airlines means increased ticket prices.  Not good if they are pointless.

I'm in total agreement that somebody has to pay for this.  The two choices are 1) the airlines and 2) the UK taxpayers

Given that choice, I like the airlines because they are more motivated towards doing things economically.  At least they operate on a P&L model which needs to pay dividends to shareholders.

Since there was absolutely no public consultation about this new programme, and absolutely no media on it and absolutely no need expressed by the British public, I suspect there's wee bit of nepotism in it mingled with a wee bit of boondoggle mingled with some enviable fringe benefits for the young people. 

There is nothing, nowhere, no place, no how, no way that arouses an American's ire than a publically funded boondoggle.  But I suppose in this case it's harmless enough...