Time needed for customs ?
 

Afternoon Flyers,

Have been searching for an hour for info without any success... please advise.

Going to Cancun and flying Air Tran. On the return flight from Cancun, we change planes in Austin, TX with a connecting flight on Southwest to LAX. I'm assuming we go thru customs in Austin since it is the first stop in the U.S.?

Will we have to get our bags and go thru Customs or do they pick and choose the baggage of who gets searched?
Are the buildings/rooms connected and will there be a way to check the bags in directly to SW without going through security?

If all steps are needed, will a 2 hour layover be enough time to get bags, go thru Customs, check into SWA and go through security?

Thank you...

You will need to collect your bags, go through immigration and customs, drop off your bags again, and go through security. I am not familiar with AUS, but it is not a big airport so 2 hours should be enough.

Two hours is sufficient there and you will have to do customs and immigration at Austin and recheck your luggage and re-clear security there. There aren't many international flights there, except seasonally there is a pick-up in processing times when the flights from Mexico increase.

Hopefully you beat the BA flight or come well after it arrives (as it was/is to start in March).

It's never taken us more than half an hour.

When we are sent to customs they run our bags through an x-ray and only open those that contain anything with a density that could be food.

On the other hand you're coming from drug country, you might be subjected to more of a search.

Did Cancun ever get US preclearance for CBP? I know there was talk of it. Not sure it happened. But if it did you will clear in Cancun.

No. I don't recall any US CBP Preclearance airports in Mexico used by any airline which I've flown.

No such thing in Mexico still, according to CBP.

The amount of time depends on the amount of people at the immigration.

Not having checked luggage speeds things up.