US Immigration delays due Budget cuts

[drsmithy]

What about going the other way?

I have 2 separate award flights booked:
JFK - LAX Arriving at ~7pm
LAX - SYD Departing at ~10pm

Will I be in any trouble trying to make the flight back to SYD?

Will only be a problem if your earlier flight is significantly delayed (which it may well be !).

Last Friday I had a 4 hour layover flying DFW-LAX-BNE.

Our DFW-LAX flight was delayed for an hour (something to do with ATC and the sequestration cutbacks), leaving three, but I still had time to:
Go landside to meet someone delivering a bicycle.
Wait half an hour for them to show up.
Check the bicycle in.
Go through security.
Drink two beers in the lounge.

(Admittedly we did not need to change terminals, as both our arriving AA flight and departing QF flight were at Terminal 4.)

 

[niqian]

No way just getting between the terminals takes ages. Reckon you can do it with 3 hours, but I wouldn't like to do it with any less than that. We were there in January, and had no hassles. We walked between the terminals, great way to get some fresh air and stretch your legs after a long flight.

 

[Fruitcake]

Somewhat reassuring for me to hear your experiences. I'm booked on VA23 in late August (albeit on a Tuesday), and I was beginning to worry that the 4.5 hours I'd allowed to get to my next leg (Delta from T5, but not booked together) wouldn't be enough. But it sounds as though I might even have some time to check the place out a bit!

I can second mel-world's VA23 experience. I connected there on a Tuesday last year. Immigration > Baggage claim > Customs > Bag drop (actually, I checked in at the bag drop counter, because my next flight was a separate booking) > TSA checkpoint > SkyClub took 25 minutes. The T3 immigration hall was empty when we arrived (apart from the J pax from our flight that I didn't manage to overtake on our sprint through the hallways).

Worst case would be they send you upstairs to check in for your next flight, you might hit some queuing there.

 

[cirqueboy]

One thing people who are arriving at the congested points in the US (LAX, MIA, JFK specifically) is to look at the live flight arrivals info for the airport and the time and time zone you are arriving at, in advance, to get an idea of what you are in for. Check to see what else is arriving within a 30 minute window before and after your flight.

Eg, if you see a few big flights from the EU arriving (BA, IB, AF, KLM etc) around the same time as yours, it will be rough. If you see a whole bunch of smaller planes from South and Central America, it's going to be alot easier.

For example, we arrive into MIA on Monday around 12:00. There are no big flights coming in around that time, just continental american stuff. The time at immigration probably won't be that bad. Contrast that with a 09:00 arrival into MIA a few months ago that coincided with a whole bunch of flights coming in from the EU. We spent 2.5hrs waiting in line.

Just make the checks and plan accordingly in advance and you can avoid a whole lot of pain

 

[kempvet]

Thanks kempvet, I thought as much. Unfortunately I have an 83yo with me who will prob not be able to stand in the immigration queue for the sort of possible times members are quoting but I suppose we will find a wheelchair or something for him?

The helpers almost always move families with young children and elderly people to the US citizen lines, if in doubt, tell the helpers that you need a wheelchair for your elderly relative, and you will probably be taken to the much shorter US citizen line

 

[kempvet]

One thing people who are arriving at the congested points in the US (LAX, MIA, JFK specifically) is to look at the live flight arrivals info for the airport and the time and time zone you are arriving at, in advance, to get an idea of what you are in for. Check to see what else is arriving within a 30 minute window before and after your flight.

This strategy will not help at all in my experience, the CBP people also look at the arrival of flights, when flight arrival level is light, often there are fewer CBP's working, so the lines are still there.

 

[anna2103]

HI what are the delays like in dallas at the moment off QF7 travelling on a Friday thanks

 

[Katie]

Best ever arrival into LAX this morning. Worst part was security queues at T4. QF15 was the first flight at TBIT, we had to wait for customs to open before they'd let us off the aircraft.
6:30 I was out the plane door, and by 7:00am I was at T4 in the security line. I was very surprised at how quick it was
If I'd been further back in the plane or on a slightly later flight, it wouldn't have been so quick.

 

[mintinta]

Have had two recent experiences when flying VA into LAX. First arrival was one hour 30 mins getting through immigration - slow computer system, staff off sick, no-one cares, and I was in the first 10 off our plane, then the long delays in getting through security for a flight to YVR had me arriving at gate 20 mins before departure. Only 1st class ticket with Alaskan allowed me to board. Second arrival was 4 weeks later and cleared immigration in 20 minutes - still had a long delay getting through security at Alaskan terminal but made the plane with more time to spare. Travel via LAX is generally terrible.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Ok an update: Terminal 2 at LAX this morning, AirNZ. Off the plane at midday, huge queues. Through first customs point at 1.25pm, but then after i got my bags, another long queue for 2nd customs point. Left the terminal at 2.25pm.

So it's bad, almost 2.5 hours from deplaning to walking out of the terminal. Customs staff grumpier than normal.

 

[serfty]

Saturday Morning T5 at LAX, at 10:35am first PE PAX off VA1 after waiting for Business to disembark, passed about 20 with a long meandering but brisk walk - along then up a level, along some more and more then down two levels then along again to a small immigration hall.

Was about 30th in line for Visitors/Foreigners queue, which had 5 booths processing. The front 15 were Chinese from another flight, remainder VA1 Business PAX (a surprising number of VA1 PAX appeared to be US citizens and basically went straight through).

Initially the line moved slowly while the Chinese completed processing, but after about 15 minutes once the VA1 PAX started processing it sped up dramatically; in the end I was out after 20 minutes and was having a shower in the T4 F/L by about 11:15am.

That T5 hall is small - I passed many snaking metres of movable tape barriers in the corridors approaching the immigration hall - obviously it was not peak when I came through.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Saturday Morning T5 at LAX, at 10:35am first PE PAX off VA1 after waiting for Business to disembark, passed about 20 with a long meandering but brisk walk - along then up a level, along some more and more then down two levels then along again to a small immigration hall.

Was about 30th in line for Visitors/Foreigners queue, which had 5 booths processing. The front 15 were Chinese from another flight, remainder VA1 Business PAX (a surprising number of VA1 PAX appeared to be US citizens and basically went straight through).

Initially the line moved slowly while the Chinese completed processing, but after about 15 minutes once the VA1 PAX started processing it sped up dramatically; in the end I was out after 20 minutes and was having a shower in the T4 F/L by about 11:15am.

That T5 hall is small - I passed many snaking metres of movable tape barriers in the corridors approaching the immigration hall - obviously it was not peak when I came through.

T5 is the best to arrive in by far out of all of them...

 

[drewbles]

T5 is the best to arrive in by far out of all of them...

Unless the holes in Swiss cheese line up and you end up with three fully loaded 777's arriving at once which always seems to happen to me there.

I'm off again in a few weeks so let's see what it's like then

 

[TheRealTMA]

Just some feedback. We arrived LAX Monday morning on QF11 from SYD around 9:15am and were very pleased. Got from plane, through immigration, collected luggage and out in under 20 mins.

 

[Geoffm]

Just some feedback. We arrived LAX Monday morning on QF11 from SYD around 9:15am and were very pleased. Got from plane, through immigration, collected luggage and out in under 20 mins.

I had the same 2 weeks ago- was in T4 lounge in just under 1 Hour

 

[mel-world]

T5 is the best to arrive in by far out of all of them...

So it is a pity that VA arrivals will move from T5 to TBIT in June this year (per their website). Seems they will still depart from T3 though.

 

[EvanC]

So it is a pity that VA arrivals will move from T5 to TBIT in June this year (per their website). Seems they will still depart from T3 though.

Ah, damn! Hadn't realised that until now.

 

[HKGNZL]

Travelling to Toronto and then Philadelphia next week, returning PHL-YYZ-HKG the week after. Has anyone had recent experience in Toronto or Philadelphia regarding length of time needed to clear customs? From memory PHL has always been bad even in the best of days...

 

[Fruitcake]

So it is a pity that VA arrivals will move from T5 to TBIT in June this year (per their website). Seems they will still depart from T3 though.

Oh dear. That's a downgrade. Now every connecting passenger will need to change terminals.

I was hoping their next change would be to start departing from T5 (which was briefly advertised as the future plan for a period in late 2011) so that DL SkyClub access would be possible, but as soon as the VX Loft opened my hopes of that happening were deflated.

 

[mel-world]

Travelling to Toronto and then Philadelphia next week, returning PHL-YYZ-HKG the week after. Has anyone had recent experience in Toronto or Philadelphia regarding length of time needed to clear customs? From memory PHL has always been bad even in the best of days...

Arrived at YYZ ex EWR around 1700 one day late last week. The line was long as we were just behind a full EK 380 from DXB but the line moved quickly and we were directed to the Canadian citizen line that was empty so the area was well managed. I think we got to the luggage carousel before our bags so all good.