Originally Posted by Dovster

Preclearance and Global Entry may be ginger peachy if you don't have any checked baggage but if you do they are worthless.

I don't have GE and on my last TLV-JFK flight there were not enough Immigration officers working in the "Citizens Only" lines, so a number of us were instructed to go to the "Visitors" lines. I was one of them.

I had the great good luck to be behind a family of four from some Asian country and apparently at least one of them had a passport problem because they were talking to the Immigration officer for at least 30 minutes. Our line remained stuck.

Finally, they were cleared and our line moved. As everybody behind them were US citizens there were no further delays. Still, having waited so long, I was a bit concerned that my baggage was going around on the carousel and that anyone could grab it and walk off with it. (I was flying Biz Elite and had the "Priority tag" which, I believed, would mean that my suitcase would be among the first off.)

When I got to the carousel, I did not see my suitcase. Nor did I see anyone else's -- our baggage had not yet started to be unloaded. When it was (about 15 minutes later), I had to wait another half hour until mine arrived.

That totals up to about 1 hr, 30 minutes, from the time that I got off the plane until I got my checked baggage. Having GE would only have meant that I would have spent less time in the Immigration line and more time waiting for my luggage.