irishguy28

PHXflier

I can see the security advantages of preclearance, but do not understand why it would be a "strong economic opportunity". After going through customs the passengers are held in a holding pen (like what is done now after clearing security at the gate), and the passengers may be there for an hour or so. Maybe the economic opportunity refers to vendors or AmEx card hawkers who have a captive audience for an hour? Anyway, I'm not sold on the benefits of preclearance....

orbitmic

I keep reading that argument but it absolutely does not have to be the case. Multiple pre-clearance airports (notably in the Caribbean, bring you into a terminal section with access to normal shops, lounge (AUA, YYZ, YVR, etc), etc.

There is absolutely nothing in pre-clearance rules which requires passengers to be hold "in a holding pen" as is the case at DUB. It is just a question of airport organisation and with sufficient number of flights to the US at AMS, I am sure that a lounge (at least shared) could be organised and have no doubt that plenty of shops would be too.

I like pre-clearance but a more appropriate risk, perhaps, is that while you can exit faster, it strongly increases connection times at AMS and that would of course be an issue for KL which banks on very short connections, and is hoping to further reduce connection times with centralised security.

It is also fair to say that whilst pre-clearance works great at small airports like SNN, at bigger ones, you lose much of the advantage. In short, it works sort of well for people like me who tend to arrive early at the airport anyway, and especially if you travel to a busy US airport at a busy time of year, I can see how for some others - especially if you travel in the middle of winter to a secondary US airport with fast immigration performance - it would be an overall loss.

ulxima

My last trips to USA this year have been excellent in terms of waiting time at border control (custom control is another separate issue).
In both cases I went through passport reading machine and the process was indeed very quick.

Ulxima

johan rebel

I'm not that frequent a US flyer, but the last two times at ORD I went from aircraft door to kerbside in well under ten minutes via One-Stop.

Johan

SchmeckFlyer

I really hope this is not true. I despise pre-clearance for US bound flights. In my own experience, it ends up increasing the amount of time spent traveling, and increases hassle and stress. What does it matter if I where I wait for immigration?

My last experience in Aruba flying to JFK had me going through passport control three times, security twice, checking bags twice, and standing in multiple lines. The entire miserable process took two hours. I felt like cattle. I arrived over two hours early and almost missed my flight.

It must also cost a fortune for US taxpayers. All those US government employees stationed "overseas" and such, with the commensurate benefits. Why not spend the funds making sure large, centralised US points of entry are properly manned, rather than overextending resources across the planet.

And like other commentators, my recent experiences have been quite good (except for Seattle, which continues to operate like it still has only one international flight a week). Make sure it works properly in the US, rather than extending US authority unnecessarily.

mfkne

I think that's the whole point, the US Government wants the airports to pay for that.

orbitmic

+1. It effectively costs the US very little if anything!

Goldorak

Compared to many posters above, most of my waits for immigration at US airports for the last 2 years have turned into a complete nightmare (except in DTW). I precise that I fly to the U.S. very often. With the federal budget cuts, they have cut many positions at CBP hence the longer waiting times (in addition to the increase of pax). The only positive recent experience in term of wait for me is at LAX TBIT with the kiosks : it took me 5 min. But when you have no kiosks...my recent last record was 90 min in JFK T1 last April.
The most "ridiculous" situation was reached last month in BOS (E) where they have finally installed plenty of kiosks but then after having done that, you must go in line as usual and you redo everything with the CBP agent (fingerprints, picture, questions, etc) and so you wait forever
To come back to the pre-clearance subject, they should rather focus on having kiosks everywhere at US entry airports and a sufficient number of agents rather than spending time at establishing them abroad.

orbitmic

They will install more kiosks but they certainly won't hire more agents. There is no cash. In fact, I think that they will inexorably push for more pre-clearance because ideally, if they could get rid of the entire immigration and customs system in some of the secondary airports (like precisely DTW, etc) this will be a huge saving for the US overall.

Now of course, the question becomes whether we should also impose Schengen pre-clearance to the US, and then perhaps impose it to a few additional destinations like LHR/LGW/STN/LTN/LCY, MAN, DUB, SVO/DME, DXB, AUH, DOH, etc We'd make foreign airports subsidise our expensive immigration and clearance customs system, cut numbers, and save a lot of cash too! In a number of secondary airports this would also allow you to mostly get rid of non-Schengen areas in several secondary airports and would implicitly make low cost pay a fairer share of immigration costs!

Calchas

The airports don't pay for this the passengers do

caliform

Reviving this as the latest news is that this has been torpedoed by the recent new border policies of the US which the Dutch government considers to be unacceptable.

Hannibal Lecter

September 29, 2020
Clint Lamm, CBP director of preclearance field operations
... negotiations are in the final stages for both Colombia's Bogota airport and Amsterdam Schiphol airport in the Netherlands to join the program.
CBP Is Expanding Its Preclearance Airports, Making Flying Into the U.S. Easier | Condé Nast Traveler

Goldorak

If true for AMS, I wonder what it will mean for KL non-Schengen lounge. Either KL will have to open a 2nd lounge in the "US area" or it will mean no lounge when flying to the US with KL. I really don't understand why the US CBP continues to expand those pre-clearance facilities while it's not necessarily an advantage. They'd better continue to install kiosks at US airports (or stop to remove them like in IAD or use them randomly). Those have really changed the arrival experience in the US.

johan rebel

Making flying to the US easier will take a lot more than just Preclearance these days.

OT, but I'm surprised at the considerable numbers of Americans I keep on encountering on planes, airports, tourist attractions and just on the road in Europe in recent months, ranging from the aged to entire groups of teens and the college-aged.

Johan