Originally Posted by
DC777Fan
While I've never transited the USA en route to a 3rd country, I've never arrived on a USA-bound international flight and not had the entire plane emptied into immigration and customs/ag which required claiming your bags. There's usually/always? an area post customs to re-check bags that are checked to a final destination, but I've never heard of not even having to claim bags.
You are correct in that when arriving in the US, everyone has to go through immigration and customs.
However, if on an international-international connection and arriving on BA, the luggage will
not appear on the belt. You are required to go through all the same steps as everyone else, sans picking up/dropping off your checked luggage.
I've connected through MIA multiple times to int-int using AA/BA/AB and with AA and AB have had to always pic up luggage, with BA this was never the case. (Much to my surprise the first time, when I stood there for quite a while waiting for my luggage that hadn't arrived. It wasn't until I asked the BA agent about my bag, he told me that BA sends it through.)