Delta trialling intnl-domestic bag transfer in the USA

One of the most painful aspects of travelling from anywhere outside the US to a destination in the US that requires a connecting domestic flight to the final destination has been the transit process – which essentially is non-existent. As with many other countries, the US insists that all international arriving passengers clear immigration at their first point of arrival, collect their bags regardless of destination, clear customs, then re-check them before again being spat out at arrivals and heading back towards departures to again re-enter the terminal as a domestic passenger. Although US Pre-Clearance is the holy grail of avoiding this, it exists in only a few countries.

After decades of the status quo there has at least been a small degree of change. Delta in conjunction with US Homeland Security will commence a trial where passengers arriving on select international flights and transiting onto a domestic flight will not need to collect and re-check their bags with their luggage reappearing at their final destination. Although of course the passenger themself would still need to clear immigration, exit the terminal and go back through security.

The first trial will take place on flights arriving from Tokyo Haneda and providing this proves a success will continue to Seoul, Frankfurt and London Heathrow flights.

Although hardly alleviating all the pain points of transiting in the US it is great to see a positive step in streamlining the process.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240421/p2g/00m/0bu/028000c