Originally Posted by
noturbulence
I think preclearance is really a great advantage and one of the best things that was ever instituted to ease traveling to the US ^ - you might have to come early to the airport but you can actually plan your onward travel much, much easier.
It is no fun at all arriving at a US point of entry and standing 1-2h in the visitor line just to see a CBP officer (JFK and MIA spring to mind as the worst by far), then wait again to retrieve your baggage (or rather try to locate it as you are arriving with a big delay from immigration and the suitcases were already cleared away by the handlers) then rush to TSA and then try to get a connection that you wisely scheduled to be no earlier than at least 2.5 hours after arrival.
Preclearance is also available in Ireland and I would praise the day this would be rolled out to all major European airports but there I am probably dreaming wildly.
Agreed. I've never had the opportunity to use it, but it seems so much easier to just land in the US and go, especially if you've got connecting flights. I'd like to see it implemented in FRA, CDG and London as well. They have enough daily US bound flights to make it worthwhile.
Do the preclearance airports have actual TSA agents screening passengers through? That might be a problem with more preclearance, although in reality, the folks at the above airports do a good job of screening passengers as it is (in my opinion)