Airport Madness

I am at the airport. My girlfriend arrives at 11am from Chicago and im there 10 mins before the plane touches down. She will be staying for 3 months, she brought her phone, but due to her tariff it will not working in the UK, planned to pick her up a pay as you go one, when shes here.

so...

I am waiting at the arrivals lounge, eagerly awaiting for the doors to open and for her to stroll out.

Gets to 12 pm, I'm thinking the flight or baggage or something has made her delayed, no big deal happens all the time.

Now 1pm, okay so 'they' say plan for a few hours after to clear security, overcome delays and such. no big deal.

Now 2pm, starting to worry, did she even get on the plane? No calls on my phone, must be tied up with some security or customs stuff, shes not bringing anything but her clothes, shoes and some basic bathroom supplies, no tobacco alcohol and definitely nothing illegal.

3pm, very worried, the Airport cant tell me if the she got on because shes not my wife or family. I call customs, they are not detaining her. Asked an airport police man (with a rather large automatic machine gun) if the flight would have been diverted to another terminal, or airport, he reassures me that information would be on the boards, he check to see if there's anything with her name on the police side of things, nothing.

4pm, losing my grip, no information on the flight ticket, nothing from police, customs airport staff - nothing - at this point i suspect shes been put on a flight home or is involved in some crazy criminal stuff, really very worried pacing around the whole terminal.

4:20pm, ring customs again give her name again, this time, they say they have her!!! PHEW i know where she is, fine whats the problem? "She is being held under suspicion that she may be here for some illegal work or other activity, due to now having enough money *in customs eyes* in her bank to stay and live" I explain that she is staying with me and actually doesnt even need any at all, but she obviously has plenty anyway.

After another hour of waiting and them deciding if "our stories are acceptable" not knowing if the phone will ring to say yes or no, it rings, shes allowed to stay and is released to me 10 minutes later.

Now, since ive been there since 11am when she landed, waiting with absolutely no information aviolable to me, she is detained without my knowledge despite her telling them everything i told them AND having my mobile number WHILE i was literally 10 minutes walk away for 5+ hours.

It all seems ABSOLUTELY unacceptable.

This is her first time abroad from the states and is welcomed with this complete idiocy at the expense of a loyal tax payer losing an entire day waiting in the dark. How long would i have been waiting had i not tried so hard (including calling the correct place TWICE)? Lucky i took the whole day off work......

All they had to do was ring me or come out and talk to me.

Im extremely angry over this total mess. Should i be? or does this all seem perfectly acceptable behavior to make sure our country is safe.

Just remember the thousands of immigrants that sneak in over boarders every week looking for work, or illegal activity's like drug trafficking and terrorism.

rant over, what do you think?
Oh and yes all of the staff at the airport were workers from other country's with accents so thick it was hard for us to understand what they were saying..... yey, go Britain!

your being perfectly reasonable, this is ridiculous. its sad that humans distrust each other so much that we cant let people go from A to B without this type of crap. And on such a stupid reason to hold someone!

this is why borders are the most idiotic things in the world, we should just be one flowing society. some may call me a communist for that but really if we tweaked communism a bit it would be the best solution to everything.

sounds like ireland ... had that happen to me back in 98 when was going to holiday there for 3 months - had £ 15,000 cash .. house and car rental paid already and access to additional funds if needed when was there ... bugger at customs said I didnt have enough money to stay and next day they put me on flight with escort back to japan .. they also ransacked my bags and stole several items of value ... theiving bastards ... lucky you got them to clear your gf to enter the country ... most times the bastards just send ppl back .. maybe one day humans will rise above the stupidity of borders , passports and customs ...

Shows how broken our immigration is.

We let in hundreds of thousands of destitute people from the third world half of which will likley end up on benifits.

Yet we dont let a American in for haveing too much money


America just as bad with there immigration they stoped me once in New york an queationed me even though I had a full schedule of what I was doing there They let millions of Mexican across the border without any checks and they are worried about a white Brit traveling with a full Visa and paid for tickets for a return journy? What do they think I was going to do take back the colonys for King George III ?