DTW Customs
 

Hi all,

I am sure this has been posted - any tips for arriving at DTW customs? Experiences?

To be clear, I am a US citizen traveling BE to/from UK in November. I have never cleared customs & immigration at DTW (several in MSP/ORD) & would like a heads up on any known issues.

Thanks!

If you have carry on bags only, you can breeze right through. With checked bags, it can take a while before they start to appear on the belt. I must admit that Detroit is the only place where I have had "random" inspections of my bags, on more than one occasion. Never had a problem with that at Memphis, O'Hare, or Minneapolis.

If you are connecting to another flight, you drop off your checked bag again for x-ray screening and go through another security checkpoint, then up the escalator to the A Concourse. The WC (now CRC) is right there just before you enter the concourse, and the overhead tram and the walkway to the B and C gates are all very handy once you enter the concourse.

What he said. Fast and efficient if carry-on only, although carry-on only if the bag is small (I can't lift much weight) may cause some jokes: "Where are your clothes?" Takes longer if you have to wait for a checked bag to come off, and sometimes bags are searched or sniffed by the agricultural dog.

I have had my smoothest immigration/customs experiences at DTW. Most recently in April I was flying in WBC from NRT, travelling only with carry-on luggage. I was off the plane, through immigration and security, and in the WorldClub taking a shower all within about 15 minutes.

I too got a comment at customs about "traveling light".

All of our secondaries have been at DTW. I avoid booking returns through DTW when I can.

With regards to international arriving passengers, DHS employees -- CBP and TSA in this case -- at DTW are to be avoided in comparison to almost all the other US airports that act as a major hub for a US airline in one of the three big global airline alliances.

MSP is a breeze in comparison to DTW.

Never a secondary for us anywhere else -- MSP, ORD, ATL, EWR, HNL.

This spring we did 4 MRs (3 one day, 1 two day) to TXL/TXL/HAM/AMS. At DTW they would have been automatic secondaries, esp. the one from Germany where I was traveling solo. At EWR it's just "Welcome home". We've also breezed thru ATL after one-day MR's.

That has been my experience too, whether I have just carry on or checked bags. Baggage inspections seems to be just an excuse as in a some incidents, they didn't even bother doing anything more than having me unlock the luggage. Yet we had to wait for as long as an hour or more, without our passports.

Strange comments. Over the past few years (since the new DTW terminal opened) I've cleared immigration and customs there maybe 10 times/year. Out of those ~50 I've had a single secondary baggage screen which took no more than 10 minutes and I've never encountered problems with the officers. On all of my trips so far this year my typical time from stepping off the plane to driving my car out of the lot is 15 minutes. For DTW based folks it's a sweet setup; I can't comment on making a connection but from what I've heard it's easy.

The one strange thing about DTW customs is the way they run the baggage belts - they almost always use 2 adjacent belts for the same flight so you have to keep an eye on both. Solution - don't check bags...

I consider even a ~2% secondary screening for a returning US national with a high level of international travel to be a rather high selection rate as I and most people I know who travel about as much as that or more are not ordinarily selected even that much.

Kinda funny re: Customs and inbound AMS flights
 

I agree with most posts here, no big problems with customs at DTW. Carry on is the easiest. AMS flights based, on your age, might get you a closer look see, however. Case in point. Flying back in July with a young man (I am a professor) about age of my students 20-22. He was very excited about what he had in his back pack and, without any comment took it upon himself to show me. Let's see: five packages of Shrooms, a chunck of hash, and bunch of grass (what my students prefer calling "weed, " but I am older now....:D

I told this young man, this was an unwise thing to do, and he was running one hell of risk. He told me everything was "cool" DTW is breeze on clearing customs.

Flash forward about 5 hours....I get to customs and there are dogs (I kid you not) dressed in DHS uniforms with the American flag on it. They are beagles... one named "Daisy" in particular seemed cute (it did not hit what they were there for: jet lag I guess) I went to pat her and she almost took a bite out of my hand, not a very nice dog and it made one understand what a rabbit must feel like, but I digress: DHS or customs, I am not sure which, were busting folks for tulips, smoked salmon and cheese (for the most part): all three items of which I had on me in *my* back pack. Okay, I head for the bathroom to stay away from Daisy whose "hit" rate for elderly folks with tulips was very high.

Alas, "our young man" was heading for the line to clear customs: Well, Daisy got him in heart beat and then the cops, DHS, customs, you name it they were there and he was not breezing through.... While preoccupied officials dealt with the young fellow, most of us cleared customs, I myself with my cheese and smoked salmon--making a fast exit to my car. The moral of this story is look for young'in on their first trip to AMS and wait for Daisy to catch him/her, then clear customs....oh yea, look for a twenty something gate keeper who is tired-- you get through even faster. The poor guy was treated like he was Bin Laden, I felt bad for him too but everyone cleared customs with their tulips, cheese, and whatever's. :)

Interesting point, I wonder at what rate CBP pulls random screens - my uninformed guess is that 2 out of a 100 people that pass by a particular officer's station doesn't sound unreasonable, but what do I know. It's also possible that DTW is considered a higher risk port of entry than others, not sure why that would be, but it's possible. I do agree however that MSP might be easier since it gets less traffic, I've always found that when crossing by ground from Canada the higher volume crossings are a lot tougher than smaller posts.

Regardless my overall experiences thru DTW have been totally fine, so chalk up one anectodal vote for the OP not to worry. IMHO it would be silly to factor in customs (DTW or anywhere) as a consideration when picking routes and fares - if the connection and price are good, use it.

Huh. Not really my experience. My husband always gets secondary'd at IAH or returning from Canada (where TSA does the screening in Canada) but he wasn't secondary'd at DTW. We left time for it because of his common name, but we breezed through. It was a business trip for him coming back from the U.K. The other flights were leisure. So I don't know if that makes a difference. I myself have traveled through DTW boocoo times with no problems at all, I think they're quick and efficient, even if they sometimes ask silly questions and/or make a silly joke. They seem aware that you have a connection to make.

I've seen the beagles many times at DTW and until you said it, for some reason I didn't realize the "agricultural products" they were looking for, silly me. I really thought they were looking for tulips. Ha.

Didn't have a problem with DTW customs last week. Basically the immigration officer asked me, "Are you traveling alone?" I answered yes and she let me through. Then when I got to the agricultural officer he asked me, "Do you only have 1 carry-on?" I said, "Yes," and he let me through too. Both of them literally only asked me one question each.

The worst part about DTW customs is waiting for your luggage at the baggage claim. That's all.

Being from the Detroit area, I use customs here a lot. I've never had a problem with them-not once looking into my bags. As prior folks have said, the biggest issue is with baggage delivery. They just can't seem to get it right in either the international OR domestic sides.