At BDA now. This was a cinch.

Upon arrival as you walk down a hallway a sign directs you to Arrivals Hall and you run smack into the queue for immigration. It may actually be possible to transit entirely airside as I saw a sign that said "All Gates" and a wide open door. I should have gone that way. But I wanted lunch off airport. While in the immigration queue I asked a staffer whether a transit was possible. He wasn't sure, seemed confused about why I wanted to.

So back to immigration. I was in F so one of the first dozen off the plane. We were behind recently arrived DL and B6 passengers. Even so, there were plenty of Bermuda immigration staff and the line moved very swiftly - never really stood still for more than 30 seconds. I was at a desk in about 10 minutes - had I been in the back of the plane I estimate it would have been no more than 20 minutes.

Ran into a small hiccup. I had to show my return ticket which I had. He didn't understand why I would be "IN TRANSIT" as written on the immigration form. I explained the purpose as being airline miles for a promotion. He still didn't like that answer and had me follow him to his boss' office. He explained my story to his boss for a minute while I stood outside, then I explained the story again. The boss asked what I get out of it and I said a bump in status level. He said they don't exactly get a lot of transit people but was fine with it. This added less than 5 minutes to my entry. Nothing to declare so I was in once the boss let me go.

I arrived on US981 from DCA and am departing on US1425 to PHL. There's about 3 hours between them and my arrival was early so it was closer to 3.5 hours. I took a cab into town, had some street food and got back to the airport in about an hour. Easily went through US CBP pre-clearance and airport security and I'm awaiting my flight. Got just over an hour before boarding. There's few gates here and two US flights depart within 15 minutes of each other so I'm curious to see how this works out.

Pity I didn't get upgraded on US1425. It's an east 757 with Envoy according ot the seat map.

So short answer: Going to BDA for the Caribbean hop is not a problem if flights run on time and you build in a long enough layover.