I supposed this isn't exclusively UA-related but considering EWR is a significant hub for UA I thought I'd share this here:

- I took UA83 from DEL-EWR yesterday. When the flight attendant offered the blue customs form I declined as I usually do. He said, "Just so you know, 3 times last week the kiosks weren't working, so you may wish to ask the agent when we deplane if they're working. They'll have blue forms there if they're not."

When we got to customs, the kiosks appeared to be working. They recognized the fingerprints, asked the questions, but on the last step appeared to hang. The unhelpful customs agent nearby said "they might be updating" when a couple people started complaining that they weren't working. He said if you want to get out of there faster it was time to fill out the blue forms.

By this point a rather substantial crowd of about 20 was waiting for the kiosks, and we all reluctantly went to get the forms. Global Entry is supposed to let you line jump if the kiosks are out of order but CBP agents weren't really guiding anyone or caring that nothing was working. They did open another line though and some people were going to the diplomat line which was processing rather quickly.

Anyway, for the time being, if you're arriving (particularly early morning) to EWR, I'd bring the blue form just in case. Maybe some of you do this already but I've never had problems with this before now.

Thanks for the heads-up. Another reason to avoid EWR

When coming back from Europe PMCO I often picked EWR over coming directly home to IAH. Texas has a lower limit on wine imports than the federal limit (and NJ). So having a non Texas embarkation point is often important to me.

Did you notice if they were the old vs. new machines?

At JFK last month they only had two functioning machines, the older "bent back" kind - they also had a few new slimmer, more upright/flat looking machines not yet operational.

Moving this to the NYC forum.

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA

They had both kinds. Neither were working.

I normally bring in 2 cases 12 x 750 ml of wine into IAD ( never had an issue over the yeard ) I am now going to try EWR and see how it goes. As am aside, why would Texas rules Govern if you transfered through IAH? For example EZE-IAH-LAX with the wine checked to the final destination? Never heard this before. Thanks and Safe Travels

When I did my Global Entry interview, the agent suggested that I fill out the customs form every time, just to be on the "safe" side.

I always do--I had some problems early on, but thankfully have not in quite some time--if it doesn't work, I don't want to be wasting time filling out the form as I'm trying to get someone to recognize my right to jump the queue.