I use global entry (and tsa pre) and love it. For flying home into SFO - including breaking stride at the global entry machine - it’s 10 minutes from plane to car.
i’ve been a fan.
Just got an interview appointment, but have to go out to Newark as all the slots for JFK and downtown Manhattan were full until well into early next year. Crossing fingers all goes well as I’m traveling a bunch next year.
The interview is more a formality than anything else. Ask you a couple of question, take your pic, and out in 10 min. LAX is 4 months out for interviews, ridiculous. You’ll love the program and wonder why other ppl don’t take advantage.
Keep checking back. I had same issues at Ohare where there was nothing available and then all of a sudden it was wide open. Other sites showed availability just not O’hare.
George
We had our appointments in Seattle in October. It was a several month wait (at least) to get them when we scheduled.
Yeah, I plan on checking 1-2 times a day if I can for something in NYC as opposed to hiking out to one of the airports. I have to travel to Europe in late January so I’d love to have this beforehand.
Many others had a different experience but by TSA-Pre didn’t kick in until purchased a ticket with my trusted traveler # in my Skymiles Acct. Basically it didn’t apply on a ticket that I had booked before I got into the GE program.
I got my conditional approval notification the other day…
They had a few spots open in December at LAX for interviews and I waited a couple days to schedule because I had some travel that I was waiting to hear back from a client on to schedule…
well, bad move… everything is booked and now the first available appointment is in mid march. So I’m waiting for a few months to get all set up. I’m already dreading the lines…
stupid me…
Do you still have to watch the video at the interview? I went into the interview nervous about what was going to happen and the first thing they had me do was sit in a small room and watch a 10-15 minute movie about how to use Global Entry.
I didn’t. Guy asked me my name. What countries I’ve gone to in the past few years and that was it
I got my conditional approval, but I must wait until March for my interview 
interesting. I didn’t get into GE until last month. Had booked a flight a month before that. Put in my trav # 5 days before the flight and it applied. But stupid ass LAX closed the pre-check line at the airport -_-
That was it? I go next Monday to Newark for that? Sheesh, you’d think they’d have more openings in NYC based on the number of travelers here. For the record, it’s a PITA to get to the airports as I don’t have a car and can’t Zipcar it without knowing how long it will take to do the interview.
Interview will take 15 min max.
My longest time waiting was for the person in front of me to get her kid to stop talking and get his fingerprint scanned
I went for the interview yesterday and it was pretty quick, as you all said. The longest time was for the fingerprint scanner which had issues with my right hand (I have exzema so this might have had an effect). In any case, as folks mentioned, the interview was pretty straightforward: why do you want this, where have you been, did you go to X countries within the past 5 years, any prior arrests in/out of the US.
The longest time was spent chatting and laughing with the guys. They were all jealous that I was importing wine and refused to believe that I had to suffer through oceans of crappy juice to find the few drops of deliciousness we bring in.
I’ll know in 2 weeks if I’m accepted or not into Global, but I did get a TSA Precheck number to add to all my airline profiles.
Just went back on the site today and was happy to see some open dates in mid January so I moved my appointment up from March. Thank god. Really looking forward to this, mainly the TSA precheck option. That’s gold to me…
Wow that was fast. I just got an email saying I’ve been accepted, so I’ll be getting a card in the mail in the next few days to use the kiosk. Woohoo!
Your next big struggle is, airline by airline, to make sure that your name on record (middle name, middle initial etc.) EXACTLY matches what you have in the Global Entry system. At this point I am good with Alaska, Delta, and Hawaiian. However I have been hosed with United. I think after 7 phone calls and endless dorking with my web profile that I finally have it sorted out.