Avoid Dublin Airport

We were lucky our US flight arrived a little early. Once in the terminal transit passengers had to walk forever, queue in a regular line for passport control then walk through a series of passages, finally getting stuck in a narrow corridor waiting to join those flying from Dublin for the regular security check. Here a number of people were panicking about getting their onward flights, and we were pretty tight for time. We could easily have been kept separate on the air side and avoided the scrum for security, but this was clearly beyond the airport authority who no doubt prioritize developing another "retail opportunity". Once past security there was another considerable walk. Not good planning!

Lack of Customs and Immigration

We discovered an interesting loophole in border security coming into Scotland. We flew Aer Lingus to Dublin and then transferred to a small plane for the last leg into Glasgow, with our bags delivered all the way to our final destination. In Dublin we went through Immigration where we said we were in transit, Tim used his US passport (as that was the one I checked in with in New York), and the official gave us a transit stamp with barely a second look. We then headed for the UK flight.

Once in Glasgow we went straight to pick up our bags just like a domestic flight. No Customs, no Immigration. There was certainly no way to know that Tim was not some random american with no visa, as opposed to a dual citizen!

The Scottish Government are Stealing Our Ideas

We've been planning to return to Scotland at the beginning of 2009 since the summer of 2006 (we had some traveling to fit in first!). And what do we discover a few months ago? 2009 is apparently Scottish Homecoming Year. And no sign of either a subsidy for coming home or a licensing fee for our idea. Alex Salmond, you owe me at least a pint.