Originally Posted by
poisson
Here's an example of a real hastle.
A French friend was flying from Paris to Tahiti. He had a layover in Los Angeles. Because the US makes EVERYONE go through customs and passport control, regardless if they just have a layover, he had to obtain his bag, go through customs and passport control, then recheck the bag.
Technically, he was not entering the US and his final destination was non-US.
If I flew NY - Frankfurt - somewhere in Africa, I wouldn't be required to touch my checked bag, or show my passport in Frankfurt.
Some airports in the US allow bags to skip the customs step for int'l to int'l connections. Houston-IAH has one-stop (as do a couple of others) where they only have to do immigration (and still reclear TSA).
For example a friend of mine flew Europe-Houston-Mexico two weeks ago and his bags went straight through and he did not have to pick up in Houston. It is a baby step but more airports are doing it.