Huge Immigration/Customs back-up at LAX Int'l. Terminal
Arrived at Bradley / LAX on a 380 (AF 66) unfortunately at the same time as a jumbo jet from China and I think a third jumbo. The immigration line was the worst I ever saw. Since most of our AF passengers were not Americans, they were held up in the immigration line (with the Asians) for over an hour. This led to a total mess at the baggage pickup since the luggage was being dumped on the conveyor belt, with few people there yet to pick them up. The luggage was piling up three or four deep, going all the way up to the top of the conveyor belt where nobody could reach them, and crashing into the pillars at the top of the conveyor belt. The next problem was customs. I’ve never had to wait more than five minutes at customs but this time we waited well over an hour.
Time from plane debarking to getting out of airport was over two hours.
Questions:
I have never seen it this bad at Bradley. Is this an exception or has this become the norm? The customs person said things are frequently this bad due to increased flights from Asia.
Our plane was half hour late. Do they usually stagger the jumbo arrivals to prevent this?
Should we forget NS to LAX in the future and maybe do a one-stop from Chicago or Houston?
If you have US passport, invest in Global Entry. Saved me countless hours at customs...
This is true. Global Entry is a life saver for bypassing the customs/immigration line. Although, I usually get held up trying to leave the baggage claim area because I can never find the Global Entry exit lane.
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Sometimes TBIT sends everyone from a flight or from a continent to secondary ag inspection which can then result in a long wait to leave customs. Also sometimes to CBP computer network used to process immigration is down, which can also cause long delays.
However, I suspect that some of the delay might be the time of year. August and September see the arrival of a huge number of foreign students who apparently must be processed carefully. I've seen huge delays attributed to this is Chicago and Canada and I would expect TBIT to be even worse, due to the flights from Asia, although the worst of it should have been at least several weeks ago.
it's pretty obvious you have not made many trips into LED, IAD, or my favorite, LHR. MIA also gets messy. i do not think the airport or immigration make any effort to control planes to ease customs mess.
you want a380's you got a380s.
if lhr accepts a380's i cannot imagine what happens when two come in at the same time, and throw in a couple 747's. do not schedule an early dinner.
Up until now, the rate determining factor for getting out of the airport from international was baggage, not immigration. Do you think that has permanently changed and this global entry will actually get us out faster?
Do you think we could reduce the LAX mess by doing a one stop from Europe through a smaller airport such as Houston/ Chicago?
Up until now, the rate determining factor for getting out of the airport from international was baggage, not immigration. Do you think that has permanently changed and this global entry will actually get us out faster?
Do you think we could reduce the LAX mess by doing a one stop from Europe through a smaller airport such as Houston/ Chicago?
Do you think the new LAX int. facility will help?
If you have status and get priority baggage, I've never found that to be a big slowdown. And since I have GE, the factor most determining my rate is figuring out how to get out of the LAX baggage claim mess area. There's usually a long line to hand over the customs form, and I have been let through by waving my GE printed form in the air and the customs people will let me cut, but it doesn't always work.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyMeToTheLooneyBin
If you have status and get priority baggage, I've never found that to be a big slowdown. And since I have GE, the factor most determining my rate is figuring out how to get out of the LAX baggage claim mess area. There's usually a long line to hand over the customs form, and I have been let through by waving my GE printed form in the air and the customs people will let me cut, but it doesn't always work.
My recollection is a customs line now for Global Entry as well so you don't have to feel as if you are "cutting" the line when exiting.
Side Note - didn't realize the AF A380 was coming through TBIT instead of T2 - makes sense.
Up until now, the rate determining factor for getting out of the airport from international was baggage, not immigration. Do you think that has permanently changed and this global entry will actually get us out faster?
Do you think we could reduce the LAX mess by doing a one stop from Europe through a smaller airport such as Houston/ Chicago?
Do you think the new LAX int. facility will help?
Short of getting global entry, the only real option is to change airlines. Take AA/UA/DL whenever possible for international flights so you arrive at T4 or T6 immigration instead of the clusterf@@k that is TBIT and T2.
Transiting thru another entry point won't really help you because you will be on the ground much longer than flying non-stop. I don't really see any possibility that you can get to the curb side of LAX faster if you arrival at Chicago first and then take another AA or UA flight to LAX.
