Airport reports (Global

Travelled to Lisbon (Jan), LHR and Dublin (Mar), and Geneva/Madrid (Jun); returned to NYC/JFK.

All immigration and security lines have gotten much, much worse than anytime I can think of that are not 9/11/2001 related. Travelers are packing the airports and line-up times at immigration and security checks can wear ones’ patience thin and stress levels were high especially for those with tight-scheduled connecting flights or appointments to make.

Just giving heads-up for travel planners to allow for appropriate lead times for connecting flights.

edited to add: Inbound airline asked for and checked vaccination status.

2 Likes

My son and daughter-in-law returned to JFK from Milan a few weeks ago. They reported no problems using Global Entry. This was on a Friday night of Memorial Day weekend.

Agree that GE line in JFK is multiple-times quicker, but not for those waiting for hold bags, at least in my terminal on Sunday.

I just flew ATL to EWR and the airport’s an absolute madhouse. It’s definitely worse than it’s ever been. PreCheck is a joke. The line was snaked like 17 segments.

A friend is traveling to Italy and got through security at JFK in 20min this afternoon.

1 Like

Took me about the same, or less, amount of time when I flew out of JFK almost 2 weeks ago. It’s the return that took way, way longer just to get out of the airport (T7).

2 Likes

Flew out of Toronto Pearson to CDG last week and I’ve never seen it so bad. Air Canada was even refusing entry into the business class lounge because it was so busy. Flying in business and with Nexus the lines through security were no worse than any other busy day pre-covid but once through it was a sh!tshow. at least half of the flights were delayed and everyone’s nerves were frayed.

CDG was fine going through customs into and out of France. Handed over our passports aftera 5 minute wait going in and a 15 minute wait going out and didn’t even say a word. Just a glance and a stamp. Very oddly and unfortunately we had to go to terminal 3 for our flight out of CDG and we bussed to the plane. That little Quonset hut of a terminal is a joke and it seems like they are using it for some overflow. I’ve never flown Air Canada out of there.


Entering pearson on Monday at lunch they said they might need to wait at the gate to allow passengers off in groups but we got off fine and the customs was normal and unremarkable in length.

Domestic much worse than international. MIA (domestic) on Monday night almost 90 minutes to get bags, line for hotel vouchers due to missed connections looked to be about 60-70 people and growing. No priority desks (at least my for AA)

International arrivals have been getting waived customs, at least I did, as I checked “something to declare “ a couple weeks ago and was waived through.

If you are misled into not following the advice of allowing additional time by the happy reports of ‘“only 20 minutes”, you are making a mistake.

Some of us experienced both, as was just mentioned.

1 Like

Speaking of the sh!tshow that is Newark.

United Airlines will cut 12% of domestic Newark flights to help tame delays

1 Like

We flew out pf Detroit to France last Friday and got through everything including baggage check in within 15 minutes. We were shocked. Return was equally easy.

We are about 20 minutes from EWR so this will definitely affect us. Hopefully not too badly. That said, EWR has become a third world airport over the past few years.

Ams Schipol - 5 min check in, 23 mins security. 13 mins immigration.

Not bad at all. This was 7:30am.

In bound to Barcelona on 6/17 at noon was more or less a cinch… will report next week when returning home.

What is the point of this thread? If one thinks a hundred good reports means you don’t need to allow for more time, I would say you’re mistaken.

Weather contributes a lot, and weather at any hub, not just yours.

Even if only if any missed flight will be hard to recover from given how packed flights. Read Flyertalk for better discussions of travel problems this year.

The OP gave a warning worth heeding. 95% of the time could be easy, still much worse than prior years.

Weather was not an issue in most instances that were cited for airport baggage delays, 1-hour lines to clear immigration, another 30+ minutes to clear security, and the unheard of 5+hour delays checking in through LHR connecting flights that I and tens of thousands of others experienced very recently.

Ground staff shortages, lack of baggage handlers, hundreds of cancelled flights due to flight crew shortages and the sudden mass of post-pandemic travelers are being blamed and can be very rough if you are not prepared.

Could be isolated, but having travelled an average of 4-5 times a year internationally, 5 times to Europe in the last 8 months, have not experienced so much related issues in recent memory.

Good to note some here without issues in specific airports, but others also pointed out where the sore points are as they stressed out in other airports.

Fwiw, MAD, LHR, YYZ, FCO, JFK-T7 have been hell holes for me. I have very recent anecdotes from fellow travelers about the craziness and lost connecting luggages in YYZ and CDG.

I took domestic flights last week from Boston to Portland and back again, and in both cases arrived 2+ hours early and didn’t have a lot of time to spare before boarding after making it through checking bags and security. Checking bags is now somehow a longer line than security.

This. Way too many variables to make this useful.

George

Much more variables today than in recent memories.

Fly back last night into Newark on Emirates from Athens. Grant it I was first class (Go Amex points!) but in Terminal B the passport control hallway was EMPTY. there was a BA flight coming in a few minutes after us so I assume for those in the back of my plane and those in BA maybe it got filled up, but with Global Entry I walked right through.

Now we sat on the runway first for ~20 minutes as our gate was being used, and hen we had to wait another 20-30 mins for the first of the bags to start coming up in baggage claim. So certainly not 100% fluid, but the passport control line seemed fine for a Sunday evening.

Left Rome FCO yesterday - we had an early flight but got through bag drop, security and immigration VERY quickly - took from 6:15AM to 6:45AM end to end. Had Sky Priority check in for bag drop, which helped.

My wife flew out 2 hours later and it took her nearly 1.5 hours to get through all. So I think the EU side of the trip can definitely vary, and I would pad here to be safe…

On arrival at LAX, all was nearly instant, despite 2 flights arriving at same time. Through in 5 minutes, for those of us with and without global entry.