<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by aaronma:
The trip goes LAX->MSP->DTW->LGW, and back the same way. Plane lands in DTW at 4:01P, and leaves again at 9:30P. I plan on catching up with a friend while I'm in the area, but I don't know what time to get back to the airport in order to make the connection from DTW->LGW. Do I have to go through customs at any point in my trip other than at LGW on the way there, and LAX on the way back?</font>
1. Don't know what the security wait times are at DTW, I haven't left the terminal since about last May. Perhaps someone else could comment. You might consider entering through a parking garage, I recall they might be quicker than the terminal. Do a search on FT. I think, however, that you'll get boarding passes all the way to LGW when you check in at LAX, so all you have to do is clear security in DTW, no check-in required. Boarding your LGW flight in DTW will be no different than if you were boarding a domestic flight.
2. They seem to begin boarding international flights 40 minutes before departure in DTW. If I were you, I would probably show back up at DTW security 1:00 or 1:15 prior to actual departure time.
3. You'll clear English immigration and customs in LGW, and American immigration and customs in DTW. After DTW customs, you'll then have to go through TSA security prior to re-entering the terminal, something which makes no sense to me, since you never leave the secure area. I guess they figure you could have passed less than adequate security overseas, so they need to be sure you're clean. In my case, Dutch security was much better than these TSA folks.