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US/Canadian Issued ABTC/APEC Business Travel Card: Updates, Experiences, Q&A

Old Jun 23, 2014, 10:17 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: RandomNobody
US/Canadian-issued ABTC can only be used to access the APEC/Crew/Diplomat lane. It does not replace/waive any visa requirements. Chinese embassy webpages mentioning visa not being required is for ABTC with CHN endorsed on the back. No US/Canadian-issued ABTC will have that endorsement.


The button to renew your US/Canadian ABTC will appear in your profile 30 days before the card expiration date.



Locations confirmed up and running:
AUS
BOS (Logan) only one of the two signature pads was working (late nov 2014)
BOS (Logan) still only 1 signature panel working, and a bit of confusion, but it all worked out (Jan 2015)
CVG (Minneola Pike)
EWR
IAD signature capture working in GE enrollment center; walk-in accepted after appointments accommodated - I was in the office for less than two minutes
IAH (outside security in E, no word on inside security GE office yet)
JFK (walk-in accepted; entrance directly across from Central Diner on arrivals level, T-4)
LAS
LAX
Long Beach, CA (downtown CBP Seaport offices, not LGB airport); posted as No Walk In, but may accommodate just the signature capture
MIA
MCO
ORD
PHX (Terminal 4, behind #6 baggage carousel)
SEA (Nexus office)
SFO (walk-in)
TUS (walk-in accepted)
Washington, DC/Reagan Bldg. walked in, only person there, signature captured, walked out, all within 5 minutes
YYZ (Nexus office)
YVR (Nexus office)

Usage Experience Updates:

BKK - 11/11/14 - success, 03/19/17 - success, 05/10/17 - success
CGK - 02/20/15 - denied (exit), 05/10/17 - success (exit), 08/20/17 - success (entry)
CRK - 10/28/16 - success, but only 30 days, not 59 days for no-endorsement US issued ABTC.
CTU - 03/18/16 - denied -(APAC lane has limited hours)
CUN - 12/30/17 & 12/27/19 - success (with family) but difficult to enter express lane due to pushback from line monitor
DMK - 9/20/17 inbound - success, had to go under lane ropes; use Official/Diplomatic, not Crew. No APEC markings.
DPS - 03/08/15 - success but with pushback (exit)
GMP - 09/18/14 - success, 03/18/15 - success (arrival)
HKG - 09/21/14 - success, 02/28/15 - success, 02/29/15 - success (exit), 3/18/17 success, 3/19/17 - success (exit)
HKT - 12/23 - success on entry - sign says +1 allowed and "THA" endorsement required, but didn't even check the back of card. On departure the APEC lane was not staffed
HND - 07/30/14, 03/30/23 - success - lane in clearly marked
ICN - 09/13/14 - success, 03/24/25 - success (departure)
KUL - 03/10/16 - success
MEX - 06/28/15 - success, 7/11/17 - success
MNL - 11/27/2015 - success (T1) (business visa not necessary for U.S. citizens) 59 days (depends on agent training. Most give 59, some give only 30, (Oct 2018))
NRT - 12/1/2014 - success both inbound and outbound immigration (visa not needed); 9/25/17 - inbound success
PEK - 07/25/14 - success (T3)
POM - 11/01/15 - denied, PNG immigration has a sign saying "only endorsed ABTC cards"
PVG - 07/24/14 - success (T2)
PVR - 11/2018, 4/2021 success (with family)
SGN - 09/04/2014 - success (visa on arrival), 02/15/2017 - denied (visa on arrival)
SHA - 11/10/2014 - success
SJD - 6/2017 & 6/2018 - success (with family)
SIN - 2/3/2016 - denied, 5/3/2017 - success; 9/16/17 - success at APEC lane
TPE - 07/24/14 - success (T2), 9/30 - success (T1), 10/12 - Denied (T2), 02/24/2015 - success (T1), 5/11 & 5/13 - success (T1)
YUL - 11/2014 - success inbound (repeatedly into 2016 via dip line)
YVR - 06/2015 - success inbound
YYZ - 07/2016 - Success inbound
SCL - 04/02/2017 - Success inbound
LIM - 12/04/2017 - Success inbound

China land crossings from HK:
Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau, Huanggang, Shenzhen Bay - 09/29/14 reported - success

China Train crossings from HK:
Dongguan and Guangzhou - 09/29/14 reported - success
Hung Hom (Hong Kong's International Train Station) - 04/30/15 - success in both directions

China Seaports from HK/Macau:
Shekou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Baoan and and Macau/China ferry terminal in Hong Kong - 09/29/14 reported - success

[On all above China-HK crossings look, to use ABTC to enter/exit China, look for the "Special" counters]

For CGK: Go to line marked 3 on left side just before main immigration hall. If you get to line in main hall you've gone too far. Do not use crew line.


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US/Canadian Issued ABTC/APEC Business Travel Card: Updates, Experiences, Q&A

Old Jun 21, 2015, 10:10 pm
  #691  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Programs: MPC,CA,MU,AF
Posts: 8,171
Originally Posted by Foxhare
... One IO (as I was departing), asked me what the purpose of the card even was since US can't have endorsements (great question!) I told him "Basically to get the shorter line." He shrugged and said "Expensive convenience."
Yes, that is how I view it - expensive convenience.
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Old Jun 21, 2015, 10:52 pm
  #692  
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Originally Posted by cxfan1960
Yes, that is how I view it - expensive convenience.
$23.33/year is hardly an expensive convenience if you're entering those countries for business a couple times a year. I've seen people pay more than that for one adult fast track immigration at Bangkok; paying $30+ one time seems like an expensive convenience.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 6:33 am
  #693  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: DL Skymiles Gold, PAL Mabuhay Miles
Posts: 12
Originally Posted by nkedel
Please do report back on that one! I don't recall seeing an APEC or ABTC line last time I was through there.
There was an APEC/ABTC sign on the far right desk. It was also the Officer of the Day and Diplomat counter. Fortunately/unfortunately for the report, I was the first off the bus from the plane and they directed me to the regular line since there was no one in line and the OOD looked busy with something else. IO in regular line just handed the card back to me with no comment. Got a normal 30-day stamp, was out in less than a minute.

For those who know CRK I was very surprised and upset that they have stopped using the beautiful million-dollar upstairs terminal gates with skyways and have reverted to the ground floor old-school waiting room. Disappointing.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 10:47 am
  #694  
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Originally Posted by Foxhare
For those who know CRK I was very surprised and upset that they have stopped using the beautiful million-dollar upstairs terminal gates with skyways and have reverted to the ground floor old-school waiting room. Disappointing.
Thanks for the update!

The few times I've been through there it's been on an LCC, and I've never seen the upstairs gates.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 3:48 pm
  #695  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 463
Originally Posted by Foxhare
For those who know CRK I was very surprised and upset that they have stopped using the beautiful million-dollar upstairs terminal gates with skyways and have reverted to the ground floor old-school waiting room. Disappointing.
That's because all the carriers are leaving, one-by-one.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 6:56 pm
  #696  
 
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Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.0.1; HTC6525LVW Build/LRX22C) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/43.0.2357.93 Mobile Safari/537.36)

I had my first Asia trip in a whole this month as part of my honeymoon. I use my apec mainly as a poor man's nexus into Canada but Asia fairly often.

With wife who is not apec holder, we had seamless access in all apec lines in HK, Tokyo and Taipei. Only hassle was exiting Japan when the agent first denied my wife as my tag along but then said "just this once"
So overall very well worth the cash, for Hong Kong alone.
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Old Jun 22, 2015, 11:13 pm
  #697  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Originally Posted by BobbySteel
Wirelessly posted (Blackberry8700c: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.0.1; HTC6525LVW Build/LRX22C) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/43.0.2357.93 Mobile Safari/537.36)

I had my first Asia trip in a whole this month as part of my honeymoon. I use my apec mainly as a poor man's nexus into Canada but Asia fairly often.

With wife who is not apec holder, we had seamless access in all apec lines in HK, Tokyo and Taipei. Only hassle was exiting Japan when the agent first denied my wife as my tag along but then said "just this once"
So overall very well worth the cash, for Hong Kong alone.
Technically only the cardholder on a business trip can use the ABTC/APEC line. I guess many countries are not too strict about that.
cxfan1960 is offline  
Old Jun 23, 2015, 1:45 am
  #698  
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: London; Bangkok; Las Vegas
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Posts: 8,740
Originally Posted by nkedel
Please do report back on that one! I don't recall seeing an APEC or ABTC line last time I was through there.
Yes. Far right side.

Originally Posted by cxfan1960
Yes, that is how I view it - expensive convenience.
And generally not all that convenient.

Originally Posted by Foxhare
There was an APEC/ABTC sign on the far right desk. It was also the Officer of the Day and Diplomat counter. Fortunately/unfortunately for the report, I was the first off the bus from the plane and they directed me to the regular line since there was no one in line and the OOD looked busy with something else. IO in regular line just handed the card back to me with no comment. Got a normal 30-day stamp, was out in less than a minute.
Been through Clark three or four times. They turn the card over, see no endorsements, and stamp you in for 30-days. Even though the APEC meeting was last in Clark a few months ago.

For those who know CRK I was very surprised and upset that they have stopped using the beautiful million-dollar upstairs terminal gates with skyways and have reverted to the ground floor old-school waiting room. Disappointing.
Asiana and Qatar use it. Cebu Pacific does not.

Originally Posted by nkedel
Thanks for the update!

The few times I've been through there it's been on an LCC, and I've never seen the upstairs gates.
On arrival, you still end-up in the same immigration area.

Originally Posted by RandomNobody
That's because all the carriers are leaving, one-by-one.
Air Asia and EK have left.
Always Flyin is offline  
Old Jun 23, 2015, 2:53 am
  #699  
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Originally Posted by Always Flyin
Air Asia and EK have left.
Not entirely, in the case of Air Asia -- they still have the CRK-KUL service, limited though that is.
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Old Jun 23, 2015, 3:49 am
  #700  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: DL Skymiles Gold, PAL Mabuhay Miles
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Originally Posted by nkedel
Not entirely, in the case of Air Asia -- they still have the CRK-KUL service, limited though that is.
Can definitely confirm this, as that was the flight I took. Not nearly full on either flight though (CRK-KUL and KUL-CRK), so no high hopes for the future.
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Old Jun 23, 2015, 12:03 pm
  #701  
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
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Originally Posted by nkedel
Not entirely, in the case of Air Asia -- they still have the CRK-KUL service, limited though that is.
I think KUL was the only flight Air Asia had into Clark. I know they had a flight from KUL that used to arrive around midnight at the same time the Asiana flight arrived. I never really followed the Air Asia flight schedule.
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Old Jun 23, 2015, 12:21 pm
  #702  
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Originally Posted by Always Flyin
I think KUL was the only flight Air Asia had into Clark. I know they had a flight from KUL that used to arrive around midnight at the same time the Asiana flight arrived. I never really followed the Air Asia flight schedule.
I thought at one point they were planning to hub AirAsia Philippines out of there, and had some domestic routes out of CRK. It's possible these plans never materialized -- certainly at this point after the Zest Air purchase all their domestic flights are out of MNL.
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Old Jun 24, 2015, 7:34 am
  #703  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: DL Skymiles Gold, PAL Mabuhay Miles
Posts: 12
Originally Posted by nkedel
I thought at one point they were planning to hub AirAsia Philippines out of there, and had some domestic routes out of CRK. It's possible these plans never materialized -- certainly at this point after the Zest Air purchase all their domestic flights are out of MNL.
They did; for a time in 2011/early 2012 Air Asia and AirPhil Express were flying to all sorts of places from Clark; Davao, Puerto Princesa, Kalibo, Caticlan, even Naga if I recall correctly. Didn't last long (once AK bought Zest and AirPhil was consolidated further into the PAL business). Now the only domestic flight is a 3x weekly CRK-CEB on 5J.

(To get somewhat back on topic) The only good thing about CRK now is that there's almost never a line at immigration so you don't even need an ABTC to get through quickly!
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Old Jun 25, 2015, 2:54 pm
  #704  
Ari
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Used the ABTC in Canada this week and was directed to the CBSA crew/diplomat lane (had commercial goods so didn't use NEXUS) and worked great.
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Old Jun 25, 2015, 4:03 pm
  #705  
Moderator: New York City and FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
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ABTC / APEC Interview Question

I interviewed recently for Global Entry and ABTC at Bowling Green in NYC. The CBP officer asked specifically if I had been to Asia at least 7 times within the last year. I said no, but my business travel to Asia is increasing this year. He said that this was only supposed to be for frequent travelers, and reconfirmed that my Asia business travel was increasing, then approved me.

Received my card 1 week later! Looking forward to using it at NRT and ICN next month!
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