Customs and Connections in TXL
 

Newbie here. Please forgive if posted in the wrong place.
Using Advantage miles to fly LAX to KRK (Krakow, Poland). Flight stops in TXL (Berlin, Germany) for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Does this give me enough time to go through customs and get on the connecting flight?

Do I need to get my luggage or does it transfer to the next flight?

Any help would be appreciated before I book.

Thx.

Your luggage will get checked through to your final destination (assuming that this is one ticket, which I assume).

It's essentially only the USA which requires you to pick up luggage at the port of entry, in Europe(well, in the Schengen area) you will go through immigration at your first stop in Europe, while customs inspection will happen at your final destination.

Slightly incorrect. AFAIK, customs inspections take place both when entering the Schengen area and when arriving at your final destination within the Schengen area.

Just after entering the Schengen area, you are supposed to declare any declarable goods, that you carry in your carry-on. When arriving at your final destination (i.e. the place you are reunited with your checked luggage), you'll need to declare the declarable goods in your checked luggage.

That's as far as the theory goes. In practice, there's usually an empty desk just behind immigration and you have to ring somebody to arrive. I've never seen anyone declare something there. All of this is of course irrelevant to the OP as he probably won't need to declare anything.

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Your bags are checked thru automatically if you bought the journey on a single ticket. You'll have to go thru immigration in Berlin and - provided you booked everything on 1 ticket - will just have to walk to the next gate and eventually go thru security again.

Customs at TXL must be the most laid back job in the world because I can't think of a time I saw anyone declaring anything or anyone questioning a pax about their travels.

OP, you really don't mean customs, do you? You mean immigration, which will be very quick. Unless you are importing commercial good or have 8,000 cigarettes, you needn't worry about customs. The whole thing, if on one ticket, is very doable. (You would not have been sold the (single) ticket if it weren't.)

I'm not sure I've seen anyone from Zoll waiting at the exit for the United flights since 1€ was around $1.40.

Had some duty to pay on alcohol once, and since it was for a friend's collection, he wanted the duty receipt in case it should ever get sold. Went out of my way to wait in line behind the people getting export stamps for their Global Blue forms. Needless to say, they were surprised.

Rest assured, they are there. However more likely taking care of UAE or Canary Islands flights or inbound flights from LHR or AMS. Taking too much care of a US flight does not make too much sense with the Dollar at 1,10 to the EUR. The US is a too expensive place to go shopping nowadays.

Nope, there is no need for that, and there is no customs desk (empty or not) after transfer immigration, since there will be one once you try to get out of the airport.

Even within Schengen, there are import restrictions, and each country has their own restrictions, therefore there is no point in declaring in Germany something you are importing to Poland as the rules may differ.

Cf. EU rules on the matter
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs...velling-air_en

The question is rather tricky, given that most airports put up a small sign or a desk with a call button. They have them in AMS after the transfer immigration too and I've never seen anyone declaring something there.

The theory is however that you should be declaring there and a friend of mine did so in FRA while transferring. At his final destination the customs official wanted to look into his carry-on and he pulled out his receipt from the Zoll.

The regulations aims to hinder passengers from avoiding duties, by entering the Schengen area claiming to declare at their final destination and declaring at their final destination that they bought it within the Schengen area or giving their goods to other passenger, etc... .

I don't quite see how those regulations (which I have never seen enforced) hinder such a thing, nothing prevents me from moving stuff from my carry-on luggage to my checked baggage (and v.v) before leaving customs, I even do it quite often in the form of putting my duty-free shopping into my checked luggage, or getting my jacket out or what ever the case may be.

There is also nothing preventing you from handing over goods to other passengers before entering Schengen (instead of before heading out of customs in your destinations), and actually there is nothing illegal in that.

And how do you access your checked baggage when you're transiting? Either you have it checked thru and you will only be able to access it at your final destination, at which point you will (at least theoretically) already have paid due duties on the items in your carry-on or you'll have to recheck your bags during transit, which means that you have to carry all your things thru customs and check them in (in turn you get labels with green stripes).

And how that person has to go thru customs too. So you won't be able to avoid customs. If however they let you thru with your carry-on without checking, you could swap carry-on with an passenger traveling within Schengen, who could upon arrival pass customs without being checked (thanks in parts to the two green stripes on the luggage label).

We aren't talking just goods here. There are some areas where the system of hand luggage being checked at point of entry and checked luggage at destination play a more important role, such as transporting cash. Not likely to be in the checked baggage. Yes, someone with more than 10,000€ could try handing something off to someone waiting in the bathroom or whatever to then have less than 10k, etc. But with *no* checks at point of entry it becomes even easier for smuggling of cash.


As far as goods, yes, someone with a long connection time could have goods worth the 430€ in their hand luggage, go through customs and be legal, mail the stuff from the airport. Then when they arrive at their destination, the other 430€ in goods in their checked baggage looks legal too.. But then that's a lot of effort to save not so much money.

FRA has some phones, but there is the one area airside that has a small red/green channel to go through, though I've often seen it unmanned with a note to go find some office... At least the time I needed to declare a pile of DM banknotes I had to go on a hunt for someone to stamp my form just in case there was someone at the next airport.

Granted, I suppose if one actively approaches a customs official at your final destination about declarable goods in hand baggage, I would guess most would be lenient, but might not always be the case if someone is having a bad day.

I'm not accessing it while transiting, I am accessing it after I got it off the belt at my final destination and before heading out of customs.

Yes, of course that person will go through customs too, no problem there still, if I bring in say 2 packets of smokes while only allowed one, and that other person doesn't smoke, then he can take one packet through customs for me, there is nothing illegal about it.
Whether this takes place prior to entering Schengen or when leaving the airport at the destination makes none the difference, does it?

But again, this bathroom transaction can take place before entering Schengen in the same way it can take place before leaving the destination airport, the again unless this customs check is really enforced in all transit airports within the EU, it is meaningless. I can't comment anything about airports in Germany since I never connected there, but take CDG or FCO as recent examples, there is not even a hint that someone should declare anything...

And by then your carry-on will have been checked (at least in theory) or will be checked if you can't show that you've been on a itinerary with a transit at a Schengen airport before arriving at your final destination, which is a Schengen airport as well.

It can still be illegal. Once you bring in goods that are not for you personal (or for your immediate family), the limits do not apply to these goods. Obviously, it's impossible for a customs officer to proof, that passenger bringing in smokes doesn't smoke.

No, because anyone in the non-Schengen area will be liable to be checked by customs. Unless you are just slightly over the limit, there's no way past customs (at least in theory).

And please just stop. I've linked you the rules. Those are applicable regarding when and where your checked baggage/carry-on has to be checked by customs (at least in theory).

Right, so at that point in time I can take my contraband out of my checked luggage, and into my hand luggage? And refuse to open my hand luggage claiming it was already checked?

No, as you say yourself... this is very much a theory, not the practice.

If your carry-on has been checked, you'll be able to show the second customs officer the declaration of said goods and the proof of payment of any due duties.

Without those papers, you'll need to pay all due duties, whether the goods are in your carry-on or your checked bags.

The theory aspect applies solely to the point, that customs are allowed to check your carry-on, as it will never happen that they do active checks. What remains is however the passenger's obligation to declare any goods when he crosses into Schengen. The two signs (green/red) after immigration aren't just there for decoration. In other words: If you pass the point during transfer without declaring and they stop you, you'll have to pay the duties and on top of that fines. You might even get your stuff confiscated.

BTW: It's the passenger's duty to declare. If he has something in his carry-on, he will need to declare it before joining the Schengen area.

It's frankly surprising that you still continue to hang on to your opinion even though the rules on the matter are clear and apply to the whole Schengen area. Whether you find these rules logical or/and practical is irrelevant to the discussion. I therefore suggest that we stop this whole OT now.

On the page referencing the rules, there is a note that there are instances where they can still in some cases examine anything.

Even within the EU, there are restriction on quantities that can be brought without paying taxes between member states on goods such as alcohol and tobacco. So you can't even for example, enter EU in Warsaw, buy a ton of cigarettes, then connect on to Germany and refuse to allow your hand luggage be inspected.

Doesn't even have to be at a border where a baggage check takes place. It's not uncommon in Germany to see customs in the A2 motorway well away from the border. I've been fortunate enough to be subject to a random check at the central station in Stuttgart. Customs from Belgium and Germany can often be seen near Dutch border, etc.

You keep on claiming that those signs exists after immigration, while in fact, I have never seen them in CDG despite connecting there to other EU countries at least 10 times in the last few years.

The practicality of those rules is much more relevant to this thread than the theory.

I can't speak for CDG, but they do exist at other major airports including FRA and AMS. They don't exist at LHR, as LHR is not part of the Schengen area. I know that they don't exist at smaller airports, where passengers arriving from non-Schengen origins enter baggage claim immediately after immigration and pass customs as passengers arriving at their final destination.

BTW: I don't make claims. I state the rules and linked the source explaining them. If that's not to your liking, get hold of some responsible from the EU and make them change the rules.

For now this won't change anything: The rules exist and are passively enforced (i.e. not officers actively checking you).This however doesn't change the fact, that the passenger has to step forward and declare goods if necessary.

I don't disagree with that, but that doesn't change the the fact that PAX arriving at some of the biggest Schengen airports have no way of knowing that they should do that...

Just a little side note

The whole customs issue at hand here is EU related, not Schengen.

Norway and Switzerland are Schengen but not EU, so you could transit ZRH and at destination hand luggage and checked baggage are liable to be checked.

UK is (currently) EU but not Schengen. So even if there is no passport control if you are solely connecting at LHR, declarations to HMRC are still required and, in theory, they could, should, and probably do sometimes do checks.

Yes indeed. I wrote Schengen to exclude the situation regarding the UK, which is somewhat specific. They don't really care regarding transit passengers and the control once you actually enter Schengen will usually do the trick.

While it is correct that it is the pax's obligation to declare, this has nothing at all to do with Schengen or not. Schengen is a travel area and not a customs area. When travelling from Switzerland to Germany, you need to clear customs, but no immigration. When travelling from the UK to Germany, you need to clear immigration, but no customs.

Being in the customs area of an airport, all of you baggage including yourself can be inspected in most jurisdictions....

Couldn't agree more. Was at TXL a couple of days ago. Landed remote gate. Once bus arrived at terminal, mass of people just walked thru both green and red channels. Everyone who walked thru red channel just strolled thru as if it had no meaning whatsoever.