Originally Posted by
Pip Carlson
Just flew out of CUN yesterday and had the exact same experience. A complete cluster. No e-tickets, paper only. Lines were obviously very long at the 4 or 5 ticket printers near the Delta check-in. Finally got through to check-in all the required documents and check bags. Got stopped trying to enter the security line because I didn't have some health questionnaire or something even though I thought I had all required documents. Looking around, I was far from the only one. It was a packed mad house or people trying to figure out what to do. Was told to go back to the Information Desk for it. Went there, lady acted like I was crazy but finally give me a small additional paper questionnaire. Filled it out and went back. Finally got through after they confirmed I had it. Best part of the story is that other than looking that I had this small piece of paper filled out, no one ever requested or took it. I still have it. And because of it, it created chaos and large groups of people stuck together which is exactly what they're trying to avoid. The phrase "security theater" gets thrown around speaking about the TSA sometimes, I'd like to add "COVID theater" to that list. It's a bunch of things to look like you're doing something without actually really doing much.
Glad I'm not the only one that felt that it was absurd. My partner and I have never been so frazzled before. I knew about the questionnaire (which isn't collected), but not the physical boarding pass requirement.
Lastly, I believe the required COVID tests could be faked. All I ever provided was a printed test that my resort in Cancun provided to me. As far as I know, there's no electronic submission of this data and it seems you could easily falsify those since I don't believe they verify them beyond seeing that you have an official looking COVID test document with your name on it.
As with most things in travel and customs/immigrations, it relies on the honor system. There's a 95-99%+ chance you could get away with it. But if the CBP asks for your test results and determines they are fake, you're going to be in for a world of hurt. You just committed multiple felonies. So it comes down to whether you're feeling lucky or not.
Although, that said, given my experience with the CBP, they seem to take COVID more as a joke than anything so perhaps the probability is closer to 0%. They don't even wear masks in secondary. I had to keep asking the officer who was standing a few feet in front of me searching my bags to put on his mask. He'd put it on and then every time he talked to me he would "helpfully" pull it down. I would optimistically say that this is because they've all been vaccinated, but this has been their behavior since last year.