Just for the interest of anyone travelling the US route

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3699276.stm

Is the extra baggage worth the hassle?

I dont think it was worth it anyway unless you were planning on staying in the states for a holiday before heading off to Australia.

It takes far too long and the jet lag from going that way hits 10 times harder than going the short way. I'd never ever do it again even if it saved me loads of money.

Yep, I agree, and even before now the queues were reputedly bad. My mate flew to NZ for a holiday earlier in the year and he said the agro of US immigration was horrendous and made him dread the return trip. If they are now fingerprinting/photographing everyone....allow several days to change planes!

Yep also, from the 26th October everyone who enters the US on the visa waiver programme must have their own passport, including children.

I keep going on about this but you wouldn't believe the ammount of people who turn up at the airport and the kids don't have their own passport.


Kala

Los Angeles is one of the slowest US entry points. And even those in transit from one international flight to another international flight have to clear US customs and immigration, eg if flying London - LA - Auckland.

Jeremy

Thats what I think some people don't realise when they book via the US - mainly to get the extra baggage. I've seen lots of people on here blithely saying they will go by that route, but I wonder if the majority realise they need visas or waivers and have to enter/exit the USA en route.

and also any Australians(SMH)


No entry to US unless fingerprints given
September 29, 2004 - 4:31PM


Every Australian who enters the United States from tomorrow will have their fingerprints scanned, a digital photograph taken and their details stored and checked on American databases.

Australians will have no choice but to surrender their fingerprints and submit to a photo if they want to enter the US.

The information will be available to American law enforcement agencies and government authorities.

Deputy director of the new visa waiver program, Robert Mocny, said it was designed to catch terrorists, drug traffickers and visa overstayers while at the same time protecting people in the US.

He said from tomorrow every Australian who arrived in the US would fill out a visa waiver form as normal but would also be asked to submit their fingerprints with their passport when they passed through immigration checks.

"He (the immigration officer) is going to ask you to first place your left and then your right index finger onto this device," Mr Mocny said via videophone from Washington, pointing to a small box which scans fingerprints.

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"During that conversation your picture is being taken too.

"He just taps a key on a keyboard and a digital photograph is taken.

"Your fingerprint will be taken and sent to our servers in Washington DC and within five seconds that officer should have a response back to him or her indicating, first of all it's you, it's not a problem, there's no hit and you can come into the country."

Mr Mocny said the process would catch out suspected terrorists and criminals on the US watchlist.

"We have about 1.1 million watchlist individuals in our database, those are known suspected terrorists, criminals ... and other undesirables and they will masquerade as someone else because they know that there's a watchlist," he said.

Mr Mocny admitted there was a slim chance a criminal could steal an Australian's identity if they were the first to have their fingerprints matched with a passport, but said there were procedures to rectify such a situation.

"An area of concern is that if someone was to steal your passport today, that they would become you," he said.

"But the chance of that happening is rather difficult."

Mr Mocny said visitors' names were matched with airline details and checked against lost and stolen passports.

Australian passports issued from November last year already carry biometric information, including a digital photograph, which would be used for a facial recognition check.

Mr Mocny said the new visa scheme was unlikely to result in delays in entering the US and doubted it would affect tourism, even though some people were likely to have privacy concerns.

"What we hope it does is assure people that it's a safe, more secure way to come to the US," he said.

Visitors would have to check out of the US at an exit station under the visa program.

You can get through US immigration/customs at LAX with no wait at all....if your name is Bono.

Us lesser mortals join an extremely long queue, whilst hoping that noone picks up your luggage which can been seen from the queue dumped on the floor, have a rude immigration person interrogate you, then upon collection of luggage join another queue to get through customs.

Will let you all know just what it was like when I travel to Oz via the US in November (27th).

We are off to San Francisco for 3 nights (direct from London) then an internal flight to Vegas for 3 nights and then from Vegas to LA then onto Brisbane.

To be fare queing doesnt really bother me and it cant be as bad as 20 hours in a queue waiting for my FA cup final tickets back in 91.

TT

Could be worse.If you have access to the SMH do a search for : australian visitor visa.choose the 2nd result it returns.Seems databases and checks have a place

Indeed, even if simply passing through on the same flight (e.g. an Air New Zealand London-Auckland flight), one has to pass through US immigration and customs, I believe.

In article <[email protected]> ,
member7609@british_expats.com (Pollyana) wrote:

    >
    > Just for the interest of anyone travelling the US route
    >
    > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3699276.stm
    >
    > Is the extra baggage worth the hassle? :rolleyes:
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com
    >

Er, yes, it is for me. Not bothered about queuing to have my prints taken,
2 x 32kg suitcases means I don't have to ship anything for a couple of
years. It's taken me a couple of hours to get through Narita and Sydney
before so LA has no fears :-)

--
Paul
http://www.labrose.com

Yep you do done it , hated it, Like I said, Unless you are stoppng for a holiday the extra baggage alowance really isn't worth it.

And when I did it 1.5 years ago there were no seat back tele's on the ANZ flight not good when you have 11 hrs to LA, a wait in LA and another 13 odd hrs to OZ.

I would honestly rather pay another £500 than put myself through that again.

When I came into the US in DC 2 weeks ago, the queues were not that long...no longer than I have had to wait getting into Sydney or Melbourne.....

In all my travels through the US (approx 8 times), I have never encountered a particularly rude immigration officer...in fact most have been quite pleasant. I have no problems with them taking my fingerprints or my photo...I dont plan on doing anything for which they will ever really need to use them...nor do I have anything to hide....

I did one trip where I flew from London to DC, stopped for 24 hrs - DC to New Orleans, stopped for 24 hrs - DC to LA and on to Melbourne then turned and flew back to UK via Vienna and I have to say the return leg was alot more painful as far as jet lag goes than the first leg. The flight from LA to Melbourne, if you do the 10/11pm flight and arrive at like 7am...you can sleep and its like you just flew over night....I was fine when I arrived in Melbourne...

I definatly would recommend anyone to come this way, and take the opportunity to stop and have a break here...this place is the bomb!!

I have never come across a rude immigration officer either. The problem at most US airports (certainly Los Angeles) is firstly the queues - they are not resourced to deal with the numbers coming through, and secondly the fact the airport itself is not configured to deal with the recent requirement for transit passengers to have to go through arrivals and back up to the departures area.

The Los Angeles stopover must be a real competitive disadvantage for Air NZ - if I was going from the UK to NZ I'd most likely prefer to fly via the Far East rather than through LA.

Jeremy