JMN57

I came through PHL yesterday from Italy and it was a mess. The kiosks were timing out. My wife went through before it timed out. Mine timed out. I was then told to fill out a form and go through that way. So, I had to go back to fill out a form. When done, I asked someone managing a line what to do and they told me to go back to a person who was waiving through GE people. He turned out to be a jerk as he said I should have gone to the regular line (I told him I was told to go back to him). He put an "A" code on my form which pushed me into an Ag inspection at Customs. When I went back there was a huge line @ GE kiosks as the machines were taking forever to clear and timing out on a lot of individuals.

My advice if this is going to be common is to fill out a form beforehand and have it ready so if you do time out just go forward, tell the officer that GE timed out and hand them a filled out form.

BTW - the stupid timer counts down the time left and I can't remember the exact text but the implication is that it is more your fault than theirs. The Immigration officer should have at least apologized for the fact that it is GE that is messing up - not the person trying to use it.

cmx

Weird this would happen in PHL--I've always found the Philly airport to be up-to-date both technologically and aesthetically. To think such an advanced place would have things that were broken.

Maybe there was a pile of random trash leaking into the machines?

PHLondoner