[RichHI1]

I find it amazing that in thes days when economic growth is needed and encouraged, the various groupings around the world, APEC, MERCOSUL, EFTA, Global Entry/NAFTA (include US, Canada, Mexico) and the other schemes notably in Africa and Middle East cannot get together to aid the travel of business people. Easing travel would aid commerce yet no one seems willing to co-operate (you cannot point the finger in any one direction). Is it pride or politics? Either way we are the ones who stand in line and suffer.

[Swissdiver]

ORD today: 20 minutes from the plane to the taxi, with checked-in luggage… Beatable for an international flight arriving in the US (Nassau and other places offering immigration facilities at point of departure excluded)? To be complete, I landed at 6:00pm on a Sunday.

[RichHI1]

Same experience July 1st arriving early afternoon. 20 minutes from door open to getting on Hertz bus with 2 checked bags – no AA 5 Star line jumping…did it on my own. Place was empty and CBP and Bags team were fantastic.
We were lucky the flights from Europe due to arrive at same time were delayed. ORD is a real cr*p shoot. If you are the only flight in it is superb if you arrive just after 3-4 jumbos from FRA, CDG or NRT then you will be there all afternoon. Note to those not familiar with ORD there are two immigration halls and even if one is jammed up the other may be empty as most people just follow the signs. Ask one of the CBP support team the way to the other immigration hall, they are connected by very short corridor.

[hendry5]

Try to avoid it but if you can’t, just play with your ipad while you are queing

[Swissdiver]

@Rich: Not sure there are booths for non US resident/national/green card holders in the second hall…

[TravelwaveBerlin]

i had a new record in JFK 15 minutes from the Aircraft to the Taxi
incl immigration and baggaeclaim with BA 117 LHR-JFK

[seanyjmuclhr]

Worst ever was 2 hours to clear passport control at LAX T2 and this having enjoyed a great time aboard NZ1 from LHR in business premier. Talk about down to earth with a bump. And then a further 45-50 minutes to clear customs once I grabbed my bag. Apparently a number of NZ birds had landed and a AF one too.

Surprisingly, last week, flew UA to ORD, arrived around 7pm, we docked at a gate right next to the immigration hall (M8 I think) so no long walk and I was through the visitor immigration line in 5 minutes.

[RichHI1]

Swissdiver, yes there are. I go through here regularly, they have the same options and it just depends which gate you land which hall(s) are open as to which hall you are directed to.

[IanFromHKG]

RichHI1, you may be unaware, but APEC *have* done something to make life easier for the traveling businessman. Even though I am a British passport holder, as a permanent resident of Hong Kong I am eligible for, and have, an APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) which gives me visa-free access (and in many airports expedited immigration) in a number of APEC member countries. The US is not a full participant in the ABTC scheme BUT they do give one important perk (which I mentioned in an earlier post) – access to the crew lane at Immigration. Wonderful – except that, as I discovered earlier this year, that doesn’t work when transiting at DFW because there isn’t a crew lane available (sigh)

Clearly posters have different experiences – some people have breezed through, others (including myself) have been stuck for inordinate lengths of time, and some (again, including me) have on occasion had to wait two hours or more. Unless this arises from some sort of “force majeure” event, this really is unacceptable.

I find it particularly noteworthy that several posters have proclaimed with glee and triumph that at times they have got through US immigration in as little as 20 minutes. I am not sure why. If anyone at Hong Kong was stuck for 20 minutes they should complain – the official target is a maximum of 15 minutes. If only more airports/countries did the same and published their performance figures perhaps things would improve. It *can* be done – witness the massive improvement in Bangkok in recent years (admittedly with a new airport, but I don’t think that was the reason). More to the point, some places do it so well and have done so for so long there was really nothing to fix in the first place, and here I would have to nominate Singapore for the honours. I have never waited more than 5 minutes there after almost 20 years of relatively frequent travel, and most of the time it is less than one minute.

I would like to suggest an addendum to Martyn Sinclair’s proposed new immigration regime for Americans at Heathrow as an interim step until his new regime is formally introduced – every American who complains about LHR immigration should be forced to land at JFK on the CX flight, be held back so they are last off the plane, and then made to clear Immigration carrying a foreign passport – that way they can find out what immigration hell is really all about.

[RichHI1]

HongKong Ian thanks for the APEC update.
On a point of detail I am talking 20 minutes doors open to hertz bus, so we have 6 min walk, no wait, 90 secs fingerpinting, photo and have a nice day, 9 minute bag wait and 3 minute walk through Customs and to Hertz bus, again no wait, 4 officers on duty, hi, why are you here, happy 4th of July bye…
Now the rant….
I am afraid I have stopped taking the US bashing in good grace although I try.
I have many US colleagues who arrive on the evening arrivals at LHR from NYC, ORD, IAD and BOS and they have some horror stories on waits at LHR in T’s 1,3,4 and 5 that would make your hair curl.
Again normally when 1-2 jumbos have landed from non EEFTA destinations.
CBP in the US can be a pain, it is getting better but it is often pretty bad for US Citizens too. Some terminals like AA at LAX are always good others who share terminals between carriers can be very bad as airlines time their flights to arrive at sweet spots and set up the jams as in other places.
IRIS makes my life easier in UK but that is apprently being scrapped and replaced with E-Passports, which are EU only and my experience in Lisbon has been attrocious.
I was told many years ago by UKBA they were following up the British Government commitment to work together with the US and other countries who were keen to improve security to open up UK IRIS and US Global Entry and NL Privium to each others citizens. The Netherlands have implemented this but the UK has not.
My MP is currently asking the Minister why nothing has been done as this would be a valuable service to UK Business people with trade to US.
So by all means enhance Martyn’s suggestion but when people whine about US CBP they should be put in the Non Euros line at night (when fast track is closed to save money) at LHR when 2 Jumbos jets from non EFTA destination for example (not a complete list) Asia, Africa or Latin America have landed just before and see them smile when they leave the airport. I feel this would help understand what immigration is all about too.
I was flying to HKG, PVG and NRT when the Bird Flu scare hit in 2006 and I have to tell you 5 minutes went out the window with all the heat checks, extra health forms, secondary inspections…
Apologies for the rant… Let’s hope things continue to improve everywhere, though after the terrible events in Norway I suspect it will head south for a while longer.
For the sake of fairness, HKG is a fantastic airport. It is very effiicient with an excellent range of services, a customer focussed agenda and has a wonderful CX First lounge with pre dining that is some of the best I have experienced. I wish they were running LHR but they are not Euros and I suspect there was a political agenda there but that is probably my bias showing… Or they saw an investment opportunity that should be passed up (Govt scrapping runways, anti capacity improvement measures, forced to sell of large part of it etc)

[IanFromHKG]

RichHI1, I would respectfully suggest the avian flu period fell within my force majeure exception (and the checks were separate from immigration, and more akin to a security check – the 15 minute rule is only the Immigration Department).

Your other points are valid or course – the US has no monopoly on incompetence at Immigration. It does seem to be particularly endemic there, though, wouldn’t you say?

Out of curiosity, and in the interests of balance, do share some of your American colleagues’ LHR horror stories. And did these horrors come on top if visa/visa waiver/ESTA form-filling requirements, pre-flight passport information submission requirements and fees?

[stevescoots]

just to add I flew into San Diego last week, my waiting time was a mere 30 minutes, fastest ever in US for me. That said SD is a small international airport so very few flights

[RichHI1]

Ian, yes it comes under force majeure, I just observe that even the most organized of airports can come unravelled by circumstance. CBP is the result of combining INS and Customs and it still has a way to go to reach a service level that meets travellers expectations.
Without boring everyone wait times of 45 minutes to 2 hours are frequent for LHR, there were some unpleasant repercussions a few weeks back when they went on strike (interestingly the delays were the day before they went on strike (but again force majeure I guess). A fair point is that LHR is normally not too bad in the mornign when there is a fast track with the “invitation” but this shuts in afternoon and that is when fun begins.
Second point ESTA is a US development as you know and at present there is no such system in UK, Visas are required where foreigners conduct certain types of work or activity (the need for visas though is much greater with respect to the third world rather than the new world (or indeed the first world) and for some US residents who carry passports from such third party countries and I am told the UK is as burocratic as Uncle Sam in this respect.
Pre flight TDI is required for all travellers into the UK as the UK uses eBorders to perform background checks on foreign travellers.
Purpose of my post was not to bash the UK. People who insist on trashing everything in UK I find just as bothersome as those who trash the US on principle.
My hope is to raise the bar everywhere and maybe we use HKG, SIN or NRT (all of which I have found excellent in Immigration, baggage handling and Customs) as models to aim at rather than bash the US, Mexico City T1, Sao Paulo, LHR, or any of the others that need to improve.

[LuganoPirate]

Had dinner Saturday with American friends who told us they had to join a separate queue at LCY where it took them almost an hour to clear immigration and they were fingerprinted (or photographed, can’t remember which). They expressed horror at such treatment and I expressed delight that finally the UK is treating American citizens to their own medicine!!!

[RichHI1]

ah good old schadenfreude… Interestingly the EU E-passport desks replacing IRIS work either by photographing or finger printing the traveller.

[Author]

Posts