It's hit or miss. I applied when it first became available, and was approved. I've had five trips to Europe since. When trying to re-enter the U.S. not only am I not approved at the kiosk, I'm taken to a separate room where I have to wait for them to bring an agent to give me an interview. That whole process takes about an hour, then I have to go through regular customs. I never had a problem going through regular passport lines before I joined Global Entry. The last time this happened I asked the agent why they keep doing this. He said it was something in my record. I asked him why they approved me to get into the program if there was something in my record, and why they now put me through a longer re-entry process than someone who isn't in the program and just goes to the regular passport control line.

I cannot figure out what it is, and he said he couldn't tell me. He told me it's an error, and I need to call the GOES office where I had my approval interview, and tell them to remove it. I called them, and that office said I had to send an email to the main office in Washington, explaining the situation. That was last September, and I still haven't heard back.

A few months ago I tried to log onto their website to see if there was anything I could do there. I have my ID number written down, but didn't remember my password. I tried what I thought my password was, and after a couple of failed attempts to log on I tried a password recovery. Instead of sending me a link to generate a new password, I received a message saying that because I typed in the wrong password too many times (3X's), I'm suspended. It said to contact Support to get them to do a password reset. I sent support an email a few months ago, and never heard back that was in January.

The program sounds great when it works, but it's also possible to get swept into a federal bureaucratic nightmare.