Does GE expire? Paying $100 every five years or whatever makes it a lot less worthwhile.

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Don't know but it depends on travel patterns even if so. I would probably pay $100 a year if I had to. Just walked through JFK last night in about 10 minutes or so. Longest ever on GE but shorter than the best time without it.

Perhaps if you only use it once a year. But as someone who uses it say 3 times a year it amounts to about $6 per use to avoid 30-60 minute lines. I, at least, find that very worthwhile. Of course YMMV.

I believe it is $100 every five years.

To each their own on value. I would actually pay $100 for one trip. If I'm able to get out of the no mobile phone zone 10 minutes earlier and talk to a client, it has paid for itself for me.

By the same token, if I'm lucky enough to be going home and it gets me 10 more minutes with my kids, it's also worth it.

Greg

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Yea. On occassions where I have made connections I wouldn't have made otherwise or made earlier connections that got me home hours earlier it is hard to overestimate the value.

Very worthwhile...my whole family has it...arrived into EWR Terminal C at around 5ish this afternoon...immigration lines were easily about an hour long...we were thru the GE kiosks in 3 minutes...LOVE it...

If you have an amex plat. card, they will credit the $100 GE fee,

Plus TsaPre is covered for the 5 year period as well. That's worth at least $100 by itself.

I suppose that really depends on how much you travel. It's very convenient for those who leave the country 4 times or more a year. That's $5 per entry to not to have to wait.

My wife and I have used it exactly once. It allowed us to make a tight connection at IAH. Otherwise we would have had to wait around another 2 hours for the next flight. I think 2 hours of my time is worth at least $100, therefore, already broke even and still have over 4 years left (plus the upcoming PreCheck benefits). Will use it again at LAX this August.

Used my GE for the first time today in SFO. I took my time gathering my stuff, got my picture taken in one of the new Global First suites. Also took a few cabin pictures and then exited the plane The lines were short so maybe saved me 10 min. What it did save me was from being grilled about why I was only traveling to Asia for a weekend. I'm looking forward to pre-chek as long as UA gets its butt in gear. Oh well ill get a taste on my Alaska trip next month.

Flew into a jam packed Miami Int'l airport Passport Entry. Look like the wait had to be close to an hour. As a custom agent where the GE Kiosk was. She told me the lane and said in front of everyone in line to cut all of them. Got to the Kiosk and the looks on the people face's waiting was priceless :) I was in and out of the Kiosk in 30 seconds with No "X" on the receipt. Also got to bypass the luggage retrieval crap! So smooth of a process, I wanted to do it again to piss people off j/k.

Verdict: If you're an impatient, don't like to wait, get it-- it's worth the $100

GOES is a no go
 

It's hit or miss. I applied when it first became available, and was approved. I've had five trips to Europe since. When trying to re-enter the U.S. not only am I not approved at the kiosk, I'm taken to a separate room where I have to wait for them to bring an agent to give me an interview. That whole process takes about an hour, then I have to go through regular customs. I never had a problem going through regular passport lines before I joined Global Entry. The last time this happened I asked the agent why they keep doing this. He said it was something in my record. I asked him why they approved me to get into the program if there was something in my record, and why they now put me through a longer re-entry process than someone who isn't in the program and just goes to the regular passport control line.

I cannot figure out what it is, and he said he couldn't tell me. He told me it's an error, and I need to call the GOES office where I had my approval interview, and tell them to remove it. I called them, and that office said I had to send an email to the main office in Washington, explaining the situation. That was last September, and I still haven't heard back.

A few months ago I tried to log onto their website to see if there was anything I could do there. I have my ID number written down, but didn't remember my password. I tried what I thought my password was, and after a couple of failed attempts to log on I tried a password recovery. Instead of sending me a link to generate a new password, I received a message saying that because I typed in the wrong password too many times (3X's), I'm suspended. It said to contact Support to get them to do a password reset. I sent support an email a few months ago, and never heard back that was in January.

The program sounds great when it works, but it's also possible to get swept into a federal bureaucratic nightmare.

I could swear I read in this thread about someone with a similar problem. Apparently they had something that matched someone bad/watched that kept tripping things up. (If I remember correctly)

Hopefully that will jog someone else's memory in order to find that post.

Did my interview at ORD on Memorial Day. Got a really curt guy, classic immigration-officer surliness. He didn't appreciate my knowing as much as I did. When I asked him about jumping the line at Customs, he was emphatic that it wasn't allowed; after a few seconds he acknowledged (seeing as how I was looking at him with disbelief) that it was allowed at certain airports, but (he claimed) not at ORD.