RandomBaritone

I returned from abroad yesterday to BOS for the first time in 2017 -- most of my trips abroad this year have seen me routed through EWR -- and when I got to the international arrivals hall I was crushed to see that CBP has merged the Mobile Passport queue with the regular line, separating it from GE. I asked several times to be sure I was reading the poorly-situated signs properly, and sure enough, each of the CBP booths was equipped with a phone scanner. The process took about half an hour, though fortunately they've also dispensed with the second, separate queue to hand in your customs paperwork, so that saved everyone a few minutes after retrieving our bags.

This change negated 90% of the time savings I've seen from using MP. To be fair, this is how I always expected it should work! I didn't have to use a kiosk, so I managed to get ahead of almost everyone else on my flight, saving roughly 10 minutes. But the days of giddily sweeping by everyone else, à la GE, are over at BOS.

Is this presumably a sign of things to come at other points of entry? The arrivals hall did look newly reconfigured.

GUWonder

BOS was very good with MPC, but now it's become rather bad about it by doing that. There will be more of that switch being attempted at places beside BOS, and it won't be a good thing for a lot of the current MPC users.

RandomBaritone

I certainly wasn't pleased, though the previous setup was almost too good to be true. Perhaps it was intended as a reward of sorts, to encourage early adopters? Either that or more likely they just couldn't get all their staff trained and the phone readers in place fast enough to roll it out to every booth, leading to the separate lines.

Is there any concrete evidence this setup will be rolled out at all airports, or does anyone have reason to believe BOS is a one-off? The signage was the newest I've seen.

seawolf

Two weeks ago JFK T8 had separate MPC line for both immigration and customs.

RandomBaritone

So did EWR a few weeks prior. I think it's clear from the preponderance of experiences here that that's been the norm thus far. I'm wondering if anyone here has seen anything akin to what BOS has done recently, or if I'm uniquely screwed living here.

(Eventually I'll go for GE again, though the denial process was so baffling and frustrating that I want to give it another year or so. I'm hoping that whatever ludicrous, secret reason they had for rejecting my spouse and myself has receded into the mists of time....)

Dahan

I've tried to use MPC twice so far and have gotten that message both times First time was at SFO in December 2016, and again at IAH last week. On initial submission of the declaration form, it showed the "please wait" spinner for maybe 15 or 20 seconds before displaying that message. I tried submitting the form again, and on subsequent attempts, it pretty much immediately came back with a message that I've already reached the maximum number of times I can submit the form. As far as I could tell, I had good internet connectivity at both SFO and IAH.

GE kiosks seemed to be working, but I was with non-GE family, so I didn't try them; just got in the regular line and waited

I sent a feedback email to airsidemobile; haven't gotten any response yet (not even a canned one).

TWA884

Folks,

Just a gentle reminder that the Practical Travel Safety and Security Issues forum is informational. Please limit your contributions here to facts; opinion and commentary on the value of the Mobile Passport App belong in the Checkpoints and Borders Policy Debate forum.

Posts have been deleted.

Thank you for understanding,
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

SkyTeam777

That negates the entire point of having MPC as it does not take that much longer to use the machines. Maybe they should start charging for MPC because the expedited exit is the only benefit.

RandomBaritone

The new setup at BOS is annoying and inconvenient, to be sure, but I still saved 10 minutes that others spent waiting for the kiosks. As I mentioned in my post, by my estimate it negates about 80% of the original time savings, though many would agree the first few years of MPC were almost too good to be true.

Not sure I follow. Why would CPB start charging for it, especially now that it's potentially less useful?

guflyer

MPC at ORD used to be convenient. I did not find this to be the case when I tried to use it in June. The line seemed to take longer than the line of people going to the regular APC (non-global entry) kiosks. The time that I went through it, it was the same line used for people who got passes from the airline to go to a special line (such as when people would almost miss their connection). This made the line slow as a lot of people had to give fingerprints, get photos taken, etc. (I sympathize with these people and do not think that the process should be problematic for them either). Eventually, they closed the line. Also, eventually, the agent asked is anyone here for mobile passport and let me cut in front of these people. I got the impression that he was trying, but that the system was setup in a way that no longer made MPC an ideal option. The next two times I flew in, the line looked like it was moving slower than the APC kiosks so I just used those instead.

I do not like this new setup. When the process came out, it was really fast and easy, I think even letting users use the global entry lane. I find it disappointing that this now seems to be the slower line, at least in some cases.

However, fortunately, the last two times that I was at ORD, the APC line moved so fast and quickly that this was not an issue.

SkyTeam777

Charge for it and keep the separate line for faster processing.

RandomBaritone

Congratulations: you've just invented Global Entry!

In all seriousness though, that's essentially what GE is: paying a fixed amount and consenting to a background check in exchange for breezing through CBP. No reason for them to create a parallel program for MPC, when its intent was always much simpler: to avoid paperwork and backups at the kiosks.

zippy the pinhead

If you're coming in on a flight > 4 hours in duration, how does that work? Official Web site says receipt is only good for 4 hours.

seawolf

You are not suppose to submit until you land.

zippy the pinhead

Good to know, feels wonderful to become increasingly addled as I age. Am I the only one who doesn't read carefully these days?