Some travel notes
I have had my US issued ABTC for almost a year now. My experiences:
- Philippines: I have flown in to NAIA T1, T2 and T3 multiple times in the last year. I have never been given the 59-day APEC visa even after showing legitimate business purpose, in contrast to some of other posters here. 2 IOs specifically told me "I can only give you 30 days without endorsements on the back," but never challenged the use of the line. One IO (as I was departing), asked me what the purpose of the card even was since US can't have endorsements (great question!) I told him "Basically to get the shorter line." He shrugged and said "Expensive convenience." Indeed. I'm flying into Clark tomorrow, will see how it goes then.
- Malaysia: Flew into KLIA2 a couple of times, the ABTC counter was always closed with no other option for me. KLIA2 has dedicated ASEAN counters for those countries so they probably don't see a lot of need for an ABTC line. Sucks for US cardholders though.
- Thailand: I was going to try at BKK but as I was flying Thai Airways Royal Silk Class, they have priority lanes for absolutely everything at BKK, never even had the chance to try. Will definitely always fly Thai in the future going to BKK.
Overall, ABTC has been pretty much a wash for me. Got slightly shorter lines in Manila, that's about it. But even the regular lines in MNL are a lot faster than they were 6-7 years ago IMO. Global Entry (which I got in tandem with ABTC) is great though. Totally worth it.