JeffJ

Yes, everyone arriving in Guam has to clear customs, regardless of where your final destination is. The good news is that its usually relatively painless, particularly if you hold a US passport. 30 minutes tops. The bad news is that my own experience (see post above yours) is that they're not holding flights at GUM for late inbounds like they once did.

johbeaker

As someone who frequently travels to/from Guam and Saipan, I can assure you that arriving Saipan (or arriving Honolulu) passengers do not have to go through any inspection process (immigration/customs/TSA) in Guam if departing on any other flight (except immigration if boarding the non-stop flight to Honolulu). Also, as a change from prior procedure, there is no longer an immigration inspection at the Saipan gate before boarding the Saipan-Guam flight.

The Saipan-Guam-Yap connection should be fine.

belfordrocks

Last time in GUM as a non-US passport holder was easily 1 hour+ (especially if you arrive at the end of the 4pm Japan arrival bank... if you're on 197 etc then CBP will be empty.

HkCaGu

When was your last SPN-GUM? I flew SPN-GUM on March 8 and had UScBP (BP, not C) inspection at SPN Gate 6 and was let directly into the GUM terminal to find my way to Guam customs hall at Gate 9. So if you didn't get inspected at SPN, what was your path at GUM? Any UScBP encounter?

garykung

Unfortunately, this is not entirely true.

UA will not hold the flights in general, but will hold all flights to late UA 201 (HNL-GUM) arrival.

In your case, holding UA 200 (GUM-HNL) will create a domino effect for UA 252 (HNL-IAH), as it is the first departure for GUM-HNL connection.

johbeaker

I have flown 3 round trips in August and September, 2016. This is definitely a recent change in procedure from the past, when they always did an inspection at Gate 6 in Saipan.

At Guam, you are allowed to enter the terminal to connect to other flights, or if staying in Guam, to go directly to baggage claim and Guam Customs.

HkCaGu

This is weird since SPN is more loose than GUM in terms of admitting foreigners. I wonder if they just go by the manifest, as in if everyone's US citizen, green carder, and those with recently processed ESTA/VWP (i.e. Korean, Japanese, Russian and HK/MO/TW tourists), then there is no need to check. Maybe if UScBP sees someone who needs to be processed, they'd pop out.

The new SPN-MNL nonstop (since mid-June) may be the primary reason for the recent change. Filipino foreign workers were the only nationality permitted to transit Guam without a US visa. Now with a direct flight, the many Filipinos in the CNMI do not need to go through GUM anymore.

HkCaGu

Reason most likely being "re-accommodate-ability". Onward westbound travel from GUM is probably too infrequent (less than daily) or too big of a crowd (MNL). ATC and "weather" misconnections are extremely rare, so westbound misconnections will require UA to cough up $$$ for hotels. Meanwhile, eastbound connections to HNL are early in the morning and virtually everyone has documents to transit Japan and onto Stateside later in the day. You may be delayed for many hours but there's most likely no mandated compensation or hotels needed.

Aelx2k

This morning I flew: GUM-SPN. Leaving Guam, just TSA. Arriving at SPN we were allowed to skip immigration (walked right next to it). To get out of the airport, I had to go through CNMI customs.

Tonight I flew SPN-GUM. TSA at SPN to access the main departures lounge. At the gate the bp is first scanned by United and then your passport is checked by US immigration. Arriving into GUM, we were allowed into the main departures lounge. Those with connecting flights could go directly to their gate (that was me connecting to Yap). Those entering Guam had to walk to a specific door that fed them into Guam customs and then out (this is what happened to me arriving from HNL a few days ago).

At GUM, people arriving from international flights (such as from Japan) are fed from their gate into US immigration. I think that if they're not connecting they'll continue on to customs (and walk out) and if connecting they have the option to go back to the main departures lounge after clearing immigration with no need to clear customs.

The design of the airport is awful. They use these movable dividers to direct arriving passengers to immigration when needed. This is due to the fact that all arriving passengers (whether intl or US) pop out at the departure gates. Could this be a legacy left from the days when Guam had its own immigration agency which maybe allowed to transit without being screened?

garykung

Yes per Wikipedia.

HkCaGu

As the author of the relevant Wikipedia section, the answer is no, not exactly. Guam never had its own immigration agency.

GUM's terminal design was pre-9/11. Arrival pax were not considered a security threat. Even if they had to be processed by USINS to transit, they could walk there by themselves and return to the gate area.

Even back then, it was the CNMI having its own immigration, and Guam's only stateside link being HNL, that Guam was its own unique US immigration realm. (HNL-GUM pax still walk the same path nowadays, arrivals directly to customs, connections directly into the departure hall, since they are already TSA-screened HNL or beyond.)

After 9/11 the mid-terminal barriers began. And there is still now the problem of pax traffic intersections (arr vs dep) which still requires human staffing to separate the two groups.

The CNMI's immigration federalization was in November 2009. The GUM-SPN arrival immigration inspection was removed, as anyone admissible to Guam can go to the CNMI but not vice versa. OTOH, SPN-GUM immigration inspection, which used to be at GUM (first USCBP POE), was moved to pre-inspection at SPN, now equipped with USCBP staffing and computers.

At federalization, a joint Guam-CNMI VWP was established. However, Russians and Mainland Chinese, not VWP approved, were granted "parole" into the CNMI but not Guam. In addition, Filipinos were granted TWOV through GUM. Russians were later added to the VWP (i.e. +Guam). PAL started SPN-GUM. So now the only groups needing SPN-GUM inspection are Mainland Chinese tourists and non-Filipino foreign workers. So nowadays many SPN-GUM flights may not have any of these pax.

hoopics

Flying WAS-HKG on a Z fare, and found a crazy low Z fare (under $400) for the return leg HKG-GUM-NRT-IAD. As I've never been to GUM, I figured why not, except for the 50 minute connection time between the HKG and NRT flights. My concerns:

Do I clear US customs at GUM, or is there an international transit area?

Even without customs, is 50 minutes plausible, or are the odds of delay high enough to not chance it?

If I do mis-connect, how do loads tend to be in late January -- am I at risk of watching multiple days pass before I can get a seat out? And if that happens, how easy are hotels to find?

Given that HKG-GUM is a 737-800, and GUM-NRT is an old ghetto bird recliner 777-200, am I an idiot for subjecting myself to this?

HkCaGu

I'll address what I'm familiar with...

Guam is outside US customs, so USCBP does immigration only. Just like any US point, you have to go through immigration. After immigration, instead of downstairs to baggage claim and Guam Customs, you turn around for a pretty-much-pointless brief Guam Customs check, and a transit-only TSA checkpoint (separate from the originating crowd), and then back to the concourse.

Guam-Japan is mainly leisure market. I can't imagine premium cabins being full on routes other than 737s. Beside, you still have the midday 737 GUM-NRT that gets you to NRT-US flights. You'll spend hours in GUM or NRT airside (lounge) or landside if you prefer, if you're not taking the NH NRT-IAD earlier codeshare.

You're robbing yourself a night of sleep (comparing to taking the 10 am NH HKG-NRT widely sold by UA). But if you like paying for one less hotel night in HK in exchange for <3 hours of slightly reclined sleep then another <2.5 hours of slightly reclined sleep, then why not?

atword

GUM has these tight connects every day. You should be fine. In the unlikely event you misconnect, rent a car and drive around the island. I'm not sure on customs. I've done HKG-GUM-HNL and had customs but you are headed for NRT instead.

777-200 may be a lie flat when you fly. They are getting reconfigured.

Enjoy your unusual routing. I've done similar and it's a neat experience. Maybe next time spend a day in GUM on purpose.

Please report back after your trip. I'd like to know how it went.

uanj

My godson got married last year and I kind of forgot about it until three days before. (No comments, please!) I had to go from PVG to BWI and everything was sold out leaving China that Thursday and Friday on any carrier. Except one routing in BC, PVG-GUM-NRT-SFO-ORD-BWI, two fares put together. September 2015, not a strong time for UA operationally.

I took it. While everything went wrong, I got there on time. At check in in PVG they could not produce a checked bag tag for the five flights and when they called the help desk they were told anything over three flights is not legal! And they initially refused to short check the bag even though I had a six hour layover in GUM. After 45 minutes at check in they agreed to short check but just until NRT where I had a 90 minute layover.

I was about to explode and they very reluctantly agreed to short check to GUM with the reasoning that at a hub someone would know how to print this bag tag. (Remember these were the Smisek days, and employees were forbidden to make any exception for customers no matter how reasonable they were.) Landed there, got my luggage with no problem and rented a car and had a fantastic drive around the southern part of the island. It was early, not hot yet and no traffic, a really pleasant break in the trip.

Back at check-in for NRT they could not get luggage tags for the four remaining flights. At one point my agent asked the one next to her to push down the shift key while she typed some commands because her CAP LOCK button was broken. But, alas, even three hands on the key board could not produce a bag tag for four flights.

After 30 minutes of this (and all the while waiting to hear "the computer says no" like on that UK comedy show!) they sent me on my way telling me they would fix it and give me the claim tag at the gate. At the gate I was given a claim tag only to NRT. Almost had a heart attack. But that was not to be the next major issue.

Sitting on the plane and waiting for the door to close my NRT-SFO flight went from on time to a one hour and then six hour delay. All in a matter of minutes! One minute later the door closed and my connection went to CXL and we took off. I did not know what to think.

At NRT I was met by an agent who had prepared two options for me, strongly pushing me to take the non-stop to IAD with a middle seat in a 2-4-2 section. Not my favorite. Fortunately IAD is way out of the way so I was not tempted. I took the ORD flight which had opened up and connected to BWI.

Landing at ORD I find my BWI flight cancelled but I was able to get on an earlier but much delayed flight before dropping my bag in Terminal 5.

At BWI I got my luggage at baggage claim with no problem and arrived 10 minutes later than my original schedule.

This is a UA trip. You can see the breadth of the network, experience multiple issues including cancellations, and the staff prove they can pull heroic and ultimately successful efforts to save the day. I just don't see this happening on any other airline. This is truly UA.