Weatherboy

For the sake of United Club access at GUM, does flying in the forward cabin of a GUM-HNL flight give you access to the lounge? With nuances of calling the flight first/business and calling Guam domestic/international, I was wondering how things worked out there lately.

WineCountryUA

UA states
Also noted in wiki of Consolidated "United Club Access Questions" Thread

ithinkurdumb

SO and I will arrive GUM on UA172 (J) at 1:30am and connect to UA155 (Y, J-waitlisted) at 8:20am, and have some questions hoping the GUM experts can offer some advise.

* Should we book a hotel room near the airport, or just stay in the airport and use the lounge? The concern of getting a hotel room is that it might take too much time in and out of the airport and ended up with little time to actually sleep. We have access to the Sagan Bisita lounge (which I assume we can shower and nap a bit) through PP, and should have access to UC.

* Is it correct that UA should be able to through-check our bags NGO-GUM-MAJ (our final destination)? So if we are staying in the airport, we should pass immigration and turn back to the transit area?

Both of us have GE, if that matters regarding immigration/security wait time.

Thanks

findark

I think it's a pretty personal decision as to whether it's worth the extra time and expense to get a hotel for the very short time you could have a bed. I did a similar GUM connect a while back, but decided that the 0130 arrival was crazy and took the earlier flight, leaving enough time for 6 hours in bed, plus transit to the hotel (stayed at the Days Inn and rented a car for the 1.6mi return because of the crazy Hertz deals going on at the time). The sad thing is that the 77G just sits in GUM anyway, too bad UA won't let you stay on the plane

I would not assume the bags will get checked through because of the overnight, but it might be possible. Double check what tags print in NGO.

ithinkurdumb

Thanks and noted on the bag situation. I thought United won't consider that an overnight connection since we arrive and depart on the same day and is only 7 hours apart, but I will double check at NGO.

It's not really about cost but rather about spending too much time getting out and back into the airport. I probably should've asked the question differently: how much time should we expect to get through immigration + custom at the time of our arrival (1:20am), and how early should we plan on arriving the airport for the 8:20am (Friday) flight?

findark

I would expect basically zero time to clear immigration at that hour, especially since you will be at the front of the plane. GUM is a small airport and doesn't usually have long lines.

If you have bags to check I strongly recommend getting to the airport two hours in advance. It looks like the cut-off in GUM is listed as T-60, but I recall there being an exemption for the Hopper at 75 minutes (can't find it though, might only be on the HNL end) which is strictly enforced, and the uniqueness of the Hopper can slow down the check-in process. We had split segments and it took about 20 minutes to check our bags at the GUM counter, culminating in a hand-written bag tag. (You may have fewer issues with a simpler PNR.) If you can check-in remotely and don't need to see an agent in GUM, then you can probably show up around T-75 -- the actual security line is not bad.

turboocco

When flying from Japan to Saipan via Guam, do passengers need to go through immigration and/or customs in Guam? Example routing is United FUK-->GUM-->SPN (UA 166/112), which has a 40-min connection time in GUM. I'm considering booking this flight for a couple family members traveling from Japan to Saipan. The family members can walk fast and are somewhat experienced travelers, but hoping to not put them in a risky situation of needing to clear immigration and/or customs and make the connection in 40-min (minus the 15-30-min gate closing time).

Related to the above, will passengers on FUK-->GUM-->SPN need to pickup & re-check their bags in GUM? If the answer to the above question is they don't need to go through customs in GUM, I'm guessing that they also won't need to pickup & re-check their bags in GUM. But figure it's worth asking just in case.

Apologies in advance if this has been answered elsewhere. I tried reading through this thread and searching the forums, but might have missed it. If answered elsewhere, would appreciate a pointer.

Thank you for the advice/info!

fumje

They would need to clear US CBP at GUM because they are entering US there. I have only gone through GUM a couple of times, but I have not seen a long line there. Still, 40 minutes feels risky to me. I would expect bags need to be rechecked, but I am uncertain; it is possible they don't.

jp12687

I’ve done similar time frame connections before there (from HKG to HNL). It’s plenty of time. As long as it’s one solid itinerary on one airline they are aware of the timing and people coming.

I never check bags so I’m unsure about needing to recheck.

turboocco

Thank you for the quick replies! I was thinking the same thing (that Guam is their US port of entry) but United allowing a 40-min connection made me wonder if passengers connecting to Saipan might be treated like "international" passengers (as long as they don't leave the airport).

After my original post, I called United twice:
1) First agent said passengers transiting to Saipan don't go through customs/immigration in Guam
2) Second agent said the minimum allowed time to transit from an international flight to a domestic flight is 60-min, so she thought that the ticket would not be bookable, but then I showed her that it's a ticket that United offers for booking on the website, and she said she wasn't sure whether passengers transiting to Saipan would go through customs/immigration in Guam

Does anyone by chance have experience transiting to Saipan from an international flight into Guam?

uanj

This is a job for SPN Lifer

SPN Lifer

When my wonderful wife flew MNL-GUM-SPN in September, and when she, I, and our son flew SPN-GUM-NRT-SFO in October, our bags were checked through to our final destinations without need to retrieve them on Guam.

An easy way to understand this is to keep in mind the legal status of the Territory of Guam and of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) (USPS state/territory code MP).

Like all other U.S. territories (PR & VI) except American Samoa (AS), Guam & the CNMI (GU & MP) are subject to U.S. immigration law. So U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be checking everyone's passport and immigration status just like anywhere else in the USA.

However, the five territories all control their own customs (except PR), quarantine (same), and income tax. So in this case, everyone flying into GUM has to complete a Guam Customs form.

https://www.guamairport.com/passenge...rantine-agency

Fortunately, CBP and the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency (CQA) have a separate line and screening personnel for transit passengers making it quicker than for those actually leaving the airside of GUM and going elsewhere on Guam.

I do know from my own three GUM transits in April, May, and October that the process is quick. However, I have not actually left the Guam International Airport by land in more than a decade, so cannot say with certainty how much longer doing so takes, in these days of reduced tourism arrivals.

I will be flying back from MNL in two weeks and will update with more specific time details if no one else has done so by then.

turboocco

SPN Lifer Thank you for the reply! Just to double-check my understanding, when transiting from an international flight into GUM to a flight to SPN (and not leaving the airport), passengers won't need to retrieve/re-check their bags but they will need to go through immigration & customs in GUM? And then they go through customs again in SPN?

SPN Lifer

Yes, that is correct. CBP & Guam CQA at GUM, and CNMI Customs at SPN.

HkCaGu

Telephone agents cannot be trusted on immigration, customs and COVID document issues these days. It is impossible for UA telephone agents to know about US territories. Unless you can reach one on Guam.

Guam and the CNMI are two slightly different visa regimes compared to the States+PR. Guam is more relaxed than stateside and the CNMI is more relaxed than Guam. So from Honolulu to Guam to Saipan, you won't see USCBP. But from Saipan to Guam to Honolulu, USCBP will check your admissibility before each flight, and at Honolulu for customs.

Last time I transited HKG-GUM-HNL, I had to go out landside and used the same TSA checkpoint as local passengers. SPN Lifer can confirm if this has changed. Regardless, coming from a foreign airport, you'll have to go through TSA at some point.

All these can be very quick, and you won't need to retrieve checked bags. And gate agents for the not-so-frequent GUM-SPN flight will be aware of you.