westtexas

Howdy folks. The Houston Chronicle had a story this morning about a new international arrivals facility at IAH. I fly between Mexico City and Texas quite a bit, so this was interesting to me. While I have mostly flown American in to Dallas (which was always lightning speed for me), I have since switched to Continental. I have flown in to IAH twice, and clearing customs and immigration has never seemed that bad. The only pain has been waiting for luggage to come down the ramp. Has anybody else had bad experiences clearing customs at IAH in particular?

I will be interested to see any posts on this after it opens up in a couple of weeks.

Renard

I've never had any big problems at IAH. Sometimes it can get hairy...especially is your flight doesn't arrive around when it is supposed to and you get there and there are either tons of people from other flights or nobody working the immigration booths.

I am not a big fan of the whole process...it is so much more tedious than entering other countries (immigration,baggage claim, customs, recheck, security again)...but that is not an iah issue...it's just a fact that you're entering the US and the US has its own procedure.

One beef I can think of is that when you arrive earlier you tend to end up sometimes sitting in the plane because there is no one to greet the plane to escort passengers to the immigration zone...but that is a pet peeve and certainly not a 'major nightmare'

Duhey2

I asked Mrs. D/2 if she wanted to go with me to check out the open house today and she yes ( ) so we're gonna check it out.

flymeaway

It can get really crowded down there if you're unlucky enough to land during certain times of day, when several widebodies come in all about the same time. The biggest benefit of the new arrivals area is that it will be for CO flights only, so no more waiting in line with everyone else. In and out a bit more expeditiously.

ssullivan

Actually the new customs and inspections area will serve all arriving international flights. It's replacing the existing facility in Terminal D. However, it is MUCH larger than the current facilities and was designed to handle many more passengers than what we currently have so it should be pretty efficient.

Terminal E will continue to serve only Continental. Passengers arriving on Aero Mexico, Aviacsa, British Airways, KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, China, Air Jamaica, Cayman, Grupo TACA, and Pakistan International will continue to arrive at Terminal D but will use a skybridge to reach the new inspections building, which is between D and E.

EmailKid

Never had any problems in customs at IAH except one flight from Costa Rica. The same year I flew to Spain, Panama, Argentina and Colombia among others, my carryon (virtually never travel with anything but carryon) on one of my three trips to SJO was searched COMPLETELY. It took over an hour, and the agent looked at pockets in my bag I did not even know i had.

At the end he thanked my for my patience ..... I've been searched several times, including coming back from Canada, and to the guy's credit, he was the most professional one of them all.

About post above: Lacsa is part of Grupo Taca now, in fact some the planes have both logos on them. You do see them listed separately sometimes on Travelocity though ....

EmailKid

kymrbill

This facility is the roll-out for the new contactless smart card system at IAH. Each employee carries a tag on their ID card that incorporates encrypted fingerprint and iris templates as well as an ID number. When the card is presented to a biometric device, the template is extracted from the tag and the comparison is made to the employee's finger or eye. Once access is granted (or denied), the template is erased and the unit is ready for the next cardholder.

My company makes the stuff and I conduct training on the product around the world. This is how I got the honor of being a CO elite.

Duhey2

Well, Mrs. D2 succumbed to my airport geekiness and we went to the open house today. It was really cool and even she agreed.

As stated in the Chronicle, free parking was provided at the IAH City Economy Lot. We were directed to an overflow area designated as "Special Event" and rode the shuttle to the FIS Facility. We were dropped off at the car service/shuttle bus exit to the "meet and greet" area where arriving passengers (who don't connect) can be met. As we drove up, I couldn't help but notice there were only a few people there (well, it started at 11 and we arrived at 11:20). There was more Houston Airport System (HAS) personnel than guests.

After we walked in, we were greeted by a security guard who welcomed us, let us know there would be tours, and directed us to the Starbucks stand for complimentary coffee and a table with trays of cookies. There were also gift basket door prizes donated by Starbucks, Hudson News, and Westfield (property mgmt.?).

After some coffee and a cookie, they called us over to the exit from the sterile area to begin a tour. A gentleman gave us some info on the facility and how it'll fit in with the operation of IAH: Continental will arrive into E, foreign airlines will come into D; this FIS is the largest of its kind in the country and will be able to handle 4,500 arriving pax per hour where JFK and EWR can handle 1,500 pax/hour. He also let us know that our tour would be somewhat backwards than how we'd flow as arriving pax.

The first stop beyond the doors was the area for handling connecting baggage. I believe they had about six or eight stands for connecting baggage. We then proceeded upstairs to the a screening area that was off a walkway that connected terminals D & E. It's kind of interesting to see pax walking by on the other side of the screening equipment curiously looking at this group of people.

We then went through a couple doors that opened at the end of a corridor where pax arriving into terminal D would walk up to enter the passport control reception hall. I believe they said they have 20 lanes for passport control each with a camera and finger scanning deal. Right beyond where you would go through passport control, was a wide lane (where you would turn left to go to baggage control) and on the other side was another set of passport control desks so essentially it's a mirror where pax from D come in one end and pax from E come in the other.

We then were brought into the secondary screening area where a CBP officer spoke at length about the secondary screening process and answered questions. I asked how many times they send people back and he said 3-4 per DAY Then they showed us the interview rooms (they have 14), the male and female detention cells, the Public Health Service quarantine rooms, etc. This was truly "behind the scenes" and it was said more than once "This better be the only time I come back here." Mrs. D2 (as did I) found this whole part the most interesting...I also think we were there longer than expected but I didn't mind.

We then went downstairs through the baggage claim area. They had these opaque miniature suitcases in the "median" of the conveyors that were illuminated from within with different color lights. We then had a brief introduction from a baggage control officer (read, customs) as well as officers from USDA and US Fish and Wildlife. With that, we then exited back into the connecting baggage area, beared left and were back to the starting point.

We hung out for a few more minutes, grabbed a couple commemerative baggage tags, hopped on the shuttle, and went back to the car.

I know my wife thinks I'm a total geek but she actually enjoyed the whole experience. To think this'll be the only time we could see everything we did is really cool.

ND Sol

Thanks for the "trip report". Very interesting. So will all the gates at E be used only for Continental international? Seems like quite a few.

Duhey2

While that question wasn't asked....I seriously doubt it. I have seen a few gates the can channel you behind glass to allow you to remain separate before clearing passport control and baggage control.

flymeaway

Ohh...whoops. My Houston chronies have been passing on bad info. Sorry for the mistake.

Steve M

The US procedure flow you describe above is what's used in most countries. The only real difference that I can think of is that some countries have the "Green lane / Red lane" system where you (usually) bypass speaking with a Customs officer if you don't have anything to declare and therefore go through the Green lane.

rkkwan

D2 - Excellent report. Thanks.

I have one question though. Will arriving passengers collect luggage first, or go through passport control first? One thing I like the current D terminal facility at IAH is that you immediately go through passport control first, then baggage. I know that isn't the case at ALL airports. I hope that doesn't get changed in the new facility.

Duhey2

You'll go through passport control then head downstairs to baggage claim.

I would like to point out that when we first stopped in the reception hall, a different CBP officer gave a little spiel about the photo taking and finger scanning. When I asked a question and said "immigration" he smiled and said "We're now passport control. Downstairs which you're used to calling Customs is now baggage control.

So the new euphimism is "passport control". As we walked toward the secondary waiting area, I started singing " waaahhhh passport control" to the tune of Prince's "Pu--y Control" under my breath raising the ire of my wife.

ssullivan

E will be used for all international Continental flights, and overflow for domestic. All of the E gates are designed to handle international arrivals, with access to sterile corridors that lead to the new FIS building via a skybridge. I'm sure some domestic flights will continue to operate through E, however, keep in mind that all of those COEX flights to Mexico will be using E now. That will require a lot of gates each day. Those flights currently park away from D and passengers are bused to the terminal, but with the opening of the new FIS building, the COEX Mexico flights can pull right up to the terminal.