Originally Posted by
jmrp
Not sure what terminal you'll be flying into, but I can talk about T3 at CUN... Also, not sure if you've been at CUN before. And, not sure if you would have to collect your luggage & take it w/ you to your other terminal (I assume so ??). And, not sure if you have to re-check in at your 2nd terminal ??
Sometimes when you enter the Immigration hall at T3, the multiple lines are all backed up almost to the escalators where you come down. That's what happened July 30th when we arrived. They had Immigration officers at almost all of the booths, so the wait wasn't too bad. I think it took under 30 minutes to progress to a booth.
By the time you get through lines like that your luggage will have been pulled off of the conveyor & will be lined up on the floor near the belt it came off of. Even if you get through Immigration quickly, the luggage always comes out pretty quickly for us, so that shouldn't take much extra time.
Then, you'll walk through the Customs area. Nowadays you just walk through at T3 (no more luggage scanner) (no more red/green light to press) (& they rarely stop anyone for a luggage search, that we've seen).
Then, you go outside & get yourself to your next terminal. We've never done that so I don't know those details, but I know there are inter-airport buses that you catch (that are free, I believe).
Anyway, personally I think that 3 hours sounds like enough time for you to do what you need to. Hopefully someone else that's switched terminals will reply here !!
Thanks for responding. I'm transferring from T3 (United) to T2 (Copa). I Google Mapped it and it's only an 8 minute walk, so if we don't feel like waiting for the shuttle, it won't be too bad. Also, thankfully both of us will just have carry-on, so there won't be a need to re-check. I was just worried that:
Immigration + ~10 Minutes to Switch Terminals + Re-Checking In with Copa (if only to turn in our forms) would eat up a lot of that layover. I've read some of the horror stories of 2-hour waits in the immigration line. But, it sounds like immigration isn't too bad right now, and I have a hunch that the Copa check-in line won't be nearly as bad as any of the U.S.-based airlines. There are two flights leaving to Panama City right around the same time, but I did look at the seat maps (not a good indicator of load, I know), and both are only about 25% full at most right now.