evacboy

NickB

That would have been true 10 years ago maybe but I do not think that it is true anymore. I do not have GE but I find entry into the US since the kiosks have been in place no longer the major pain than it used to be. If you have pre-clearance, it means that you front-load the extra time needed to proceed through clearance. And since you need to plan on the basis of the worst case scenario, it means that you must turn up at the airport a long-time in advance, especially where you have a large number of flights leaving within the same departure window, which would be the case with London. If you want to have some sense of how counter-productive pre-clearance can be in some circumstances, just turn up any saturday at AUA and see the humungous queues of people "pre-clearing", which results in having to turn up at the airport much, much earlier than would otherwise be the case.

That would not work like that. Minimum connection times would have to be calculated so as to ensure that the quasi-totality of passengers can make the connection, so, even with GE, your minimum connection time would be based on the lowest common denominator of passenger lambda. What you would gain is some more time in the lounge, assuming that the lounge is located after pre-clearance. I suspect that a consequence might also be lounge-overcrowding.

T8191

Ah, PUCCI, with the right incentives they coukd get rid of a lot of shops to create the space. ISTR there’s a aubstantial core to T5B, and as many here know the BA Lounge upstairs is quite large for the custom it receives. I could see a solution.

World Traveller Fuss

Airprox

If you mean 548, it's not about the width, the pavement hasn't been strengthened to support the A380. 558 and 557 are on T5C and are both A380 capable, but 558 is a non-contact stand.

HIDDY

Never likely to use it so didn't give it much attention but I'm sure I read something recently about that being on the cards. If there's room then it would make sense.

Lost-in-Space

Seńora Pucci, you beat me too it! I couldn't see how a 747 waiting for a gate at T5C can immediately become 'pre-clearance is starting at T5B'. I've only had one small beer and two glasses of wine, so I don't think my misunderstanding is due to alcohol consumption. (I'm eating albondigas, but I don't think that's entirely relevant.)

Perhaps it's due to my advancing years. Can some of the more switched on members of FT explain how a plane waiting for a gate at T5C means pre-clearance is coming to T5B?

Yours,
Confused.

UKtravelbear

I've had a look at the AA board

There is not a peep about any possible AA move to T5. Nothing, Nul, NADA

I imagined wails of 'no' at them being deprived of the CX and QF loungesand the proposed AA Flagship Lounge in T3 and being forced to use BA Galleries in T5

But nothing!

SpeedbirdLHR

Sorry to disappoint, but USA departures from T5B has largely been around efficiencies. The team who do the passport checks/selectees and security searches can be based there with little need to be going between T5B and T5C. This also means that the swabbing equipment can be based at each gate and not need to be moved around. Moving them ends up with them having to be calibrated after each move.

Longer term there may be other benefits to having these flights in T5B.

steview111

GUWonder

CBP Pre-Clearance at LHR would be yet another reason for me to avoid transits using BA via LHR en route to the US. Unless and until say an EU-LHR-US route would spare passengers the security re-screening hassle at LHR, don't be surprised if the additional line for CBP pre-clearance at LHR may require an increase in MCT to do a BA-BA routing via LHR on the way to the US. Also, for trips originating at LHR, CBP pre-clearance set-ups may require showing up at the airport earlier due to worse check-in cut-off times for passengers and/or luggage.

GUWonder

Just because a passenger has been cleared by CBP pre-clearance to fly to the US does not mean that the person won't be taken by the authorities on arrival to the US and turned back to where the passenger came in from. It's rare, but it happens to some who had what were previously considered approved ESTAs and/or visas associated with their (non-US) passports.

SKRan

NickB

This is not pre-clearance. There is no CBP personnel at AMS. This is just additional security checks for Delta flights. You still need to through immigration and customs clearance on arrival in the US.
Incidentally, I thought that they no longer add the separate Delta screening in AMS. Have they re-introduced it recently?

GUWonder

That indeed is not a CBP pre-clearance facility, but AMS has a history of having some CBP personnel at AMS. But that limited CBP presence at AMS has been part and parcel of the IAP or whatever it is called nowadays and doesn't operate like a CBP pre-clearance facility for travel to the US.