I can only imagine that people who get stuck in US immigration queue for 8-9 hours are either osama bin laden look-a-likes or just bloody unlucky!!

My father-in-law is in the merchant navy and regularly flys via the US and as long as you are in 'transit' i.e. not going out of the airport, you will have a max 2 hour wait and you can get through immigration relatively easy under the Visa Waiver programme. AnywayI for one will welcome the chance to get off the plane to stretch my legs!!

All personal choice though I guess!

Rob

We flew Singapore Air Sydney to London March last year one way ticket.

We were one of the first to check in and had 72kg between us. We apologised to the lady on the desk and made a joke out of it saying we were going back to the UK to live reluctantly. I think she took pity on us for that, even though it was a fib. We got it all through no extra cost.

We had packed the cases in smaller amounts for ease of handling by us and ground staff. Did this help or was it just a nice lady at check in? The flight was jammed to the rafters so it wasn't like a half full run.

Murphy's Law Bit like the Murphy's Law for upgrade to Business Class.

Merlot

We flew with Emirates in December last year. When we confirmed our flights i asked what our baggage allowance would and they said that as we had one way tickets they assume you will not be returnng and the baggae allowance per person would be 40kg.

I left it a day or so and rang back to confirm this and got the name of the customer adviser just in case when we got to the airport and found this to be incorrect. Thankfully they were telling the truth, weight was not a problem we were well under the 40kg per person.

As someone said the only stipulation they have is that not any one bag should weigh over 31kg.

You are quite right and we should have thought about this before we left.
I just wanted other people to be aware and not make the same mistake she made.
She knew she might be slightly over the allowance and was willing to pay, obviously not that much!!!


The Bread Knife

Hmmm. I have been pulled apart in US Immigration several times. My personal record is just 4 hours and stopped 3 times for "additional security" when trying to board the plane. The funniest one was as I stepped foot onto the plane and I thought my ordeal was over, a security guard standing at the doorway hauled me back off again!!
Our conversations were getting quite heated by now as I fully appreciate security but wished the seperate groups of security officials would communicate with each other as it was 3 seperate groups that questionned me.
Look like Osama? 30s, very white, married, clean shaven, business professional, well-educated, suit, 3 young kids (not with me nor wife), British passport, never been to Middle-East. They told me it was random and I was unlucky. Incidentally, it seemed to be random that only non-US passport holders were selected.
In all seriousness, they told me that is the typical profile of a terrorist.
As far as I am concerned, the US airport security are extremely incompetent and I would avoid like the plague.

PS: Not all airlines go through the US and most travel agents will be affiliated to certain airlines and if they don't go through the US, they won't be offered. This applies to web site searches too.

Andrew

There is another alternative. Fly to Vancouver with Air Canada, and then they fly to Sydney via Honolulu. One of the two flights daily does not take on any passengers at Honolulu (or let anyone leave) and hence you apparently do not need to go through US Customs.

Even if you take the other flight and need to go through US Customs & Immigration, you can do this in Vancouver at the US pre-clearance facility. Transit passengers do not normally have to clear Canadian customs and immigration.

Make sure the extra baggage allowance also applies to your UK domestic flight connection.

Jeremy

Not everyone wants to wait for 2 hours in a queue. And I am not aware they give any 'fast-track' for transit passengers - many people miss their connections for this reason.

Nobody argues with the right of the US to police its borders, but it would be nice if it was resourced properly (ie with enough security checkpoints and personnel to deal with the numbers coming through). A 2 hour wait at immigration is never acceptable.

Jeremy

Not entirley true, depends on your passport (and visas contained within).