Brahmin

I am flying AA from BOG to LAX. I am guessing that I will have to have to clear security again after Customs or does AA have a way to avoid this?

JohnDCA

Unfortunately, you'll have to go through security again after clearing customs.

clacko

if you are going bog-mia-lax, you will do immigration & customs, go out & come back thru security for mia-lax.....i haven't heard of any change in this....

if you have liquids in sizes larger than the 3 oz or so, put the in your checked bag before giving the bag to the recheck people....

emma dog

This answer is the same for all US airports.

JDiver

Yep! Arrive from abroad to the USA (except from pre-clearance airports), process CBP / immigration and customs, get unceremoniously dumped landside and process security to get airside. Done with any degree of frequency, Global Entry pays off for speeding arrivals at least.

Steve M

Consider that under US law, you could legally have items up to and including handguns and ammunition in your checked baggage, which you have access to between when you pick them up from the carousel, go through Customs inspection, and redeposit at baggage re-check. It would not be that difficult to remove an item from your own checked baggage and put it on your person. There's nothing that AA or any other carrier or the airport can do to avoid this reality, so yes, you'll have to be re-screened after clearing Customs.

sdsearch

There certainly is something the airport could do for those people who are carryon only. But someone has to think of them, realize that enough of them exist, and then decide to increase immigration/customs staffing and rebuild the airport so that there is a parallel customs/immigration line that does not give you access to the baggage claim area (and thus does not present the "security polution" issue you described). Only such a parallel line that never "touched" baggage claim could possibly stay airside.

Certainly many people do have checked bags, so they could not accomodate people with carryon only without having two separate paths (the one for carryon only staying airside and not giving access to baggage claim, the one for everyone else giving access to baggage claim and thus dumping you landside).

However, as theoretically possible as such a solutiom is, I woudln't hold my breath on any airport spending the money on it, nor on ICE agreeing to the likely increased staffing that would needed to support it, anytime soon.

(PS. ICE would not necessarily need extra staffing if the only people who go could use the parallel path not only were carryon only but also were using Global Entry. But they'd have to have a mechanism where if you were turned away from the Global Entry kiosk you would go back to the normal line, and could only continue on the parallel carryon only line if you successfully cleared teh Global Entry kiosk. So it still seems like it would require at least some rebuilding of the airport...

3Cforme

I'm not a bit convinced that the possibility of pulling something from a bag before rechecking is relevant to the current rule. (NRT rescreens arriving passengers in transit.) It's just the way we do it in the U.S.A., and it doesn't reflect negligence or lack of investment by airports.

bbmatt

I don't think this is true at ALL US airports... is it? I seem to remember the last time i flew back to LAX via SFO (HKG-SFO-LAX) on UA.

I cleared customs and had an option to exit to the street or just go back to the gates to reach my connecting flight, yes, i had to recheck my baggage with a separate (inside security) transit check-in counter, but I do not remember going through security again...

However, I could be mistaken... but i do not believe I was dumped on the street.

JDiver

Well, perhaps not literally to the street, but landside. I haven't been at any US airport where you can clear ICE and proceed to your gate without processing security again, whether it is physically from a street entrance, or via Airport Transit System (ATS) at ORD, back upstairs inside the building at DFW-D, etc.

I do think you went through security at SFO.

emma dog

Having flown UA from SYD-SFO, I can promise you that you recleared security before reentering the domestic terminal.

PHL

I recall that PIT dumps you out on the airside well inside security...doesn't DL fly seasonal service to CDG from there? Maybe a recent traveler can comment on the logistics of making an intl-domestic connection there.

emma dog

Yes you are airside in PIT but you clear security before riding the escalator upstairs to the main terminal.

PHL

That must be new (relatively...since the terminal opened in 1992). I thought in pre 2001 days, not only could people come wait for you upon exiting customs (after passing through airside security and taking the underground train), but if you were connecting you would just go right upstairs.

emma dog

I lived in Pittsburgh from 1993-1998 and flew through there a couple of times to/from Europe circa 2002/2003.

C&I is one floor down from the "C" gates in PIT. There is a TSA checkpoint immediately prior to riding upstairs on the escalator upstairs to into the main terminal. They don't have a system like the DL terminal in MCO where they force you to leave the secured area landside on arrival... before US shrank ops there, you would turn around and go upstairs to get to the commuter terminal. I don't recall specifically how one would go from C&I to the street if you wanted, but to go into the terminal you definitely have to clear security.