Global entry

[caribill]

That could speed up Customs and Immigration but the real issue is TSA security screening. Returning to the U.S. in 2014 in Philadelphia, Customs and Immigration took just a few minutes but after we got our bags the line at TSA to get to our connecting flight took well over 90 minutes while we saw TSA PreCheck passengers skipping the line. TSA PreCheck is a major benefit with Global Entry.

 

May work in PHL, but not at ATL where there is no PreCheck available for going through security after clearing customs and dropping off your luggage for your next flight.

[TinaLee]

Lots of good information here, and I really appreciate it, but I do have a question. We're mostly interested in GE if it will help us in international travel. For some reason, Delta loves us and almost always in the last couple of years has given us precheck for free on all domestic flights. However, next year we are flying to Europe (into Copenhagen and out of Rome) and I'd like to know if GE will help us in either of those circumstances?

[missymerv]

Just got GE cards in the mail. Something I wasn't aware of was that they have to be activated. So don't forget to go back into your GOES account and activate them when you get them. Also when your passport renews you need to put the new # into the account as well.

[thinfool]

Just got GE cards in the mail. Something I wasn't aware of was that they have to be activated. So don't forget to go back into your GOES account and activate them when you get them. Also when your passport renews you need to put the new # into the account as well.

 

 

I believe that CBP has to change a passport number. We were told this at our interview.

[Coral]

I believe that CBP has to change a passport number. We were told this at our interview.

 

I was told at my interview it could be done online through GOES.

 

A friend recently did this online.

 

I think years ago, you did have to visit a GE site to change it but you no longer need to which is good as I am really far away from a GE site.

[capriccio]

Lots of good information here, and I really appreciate it, but I do have a question. We're mostly interested in GE if it will help us in international travel. For some reason, Delta loves us and almost always in the last couple of years has given us precheck for free on all domestic flights. However, next year we are flying to Europe (into Copenhagen and out of Rome) and I'd like to know if GE will help us in either of those circumstances?

 

The beauty of Global Entry is the 'entry' part on return to the US from overseas. You enter your info at a kiosk (no wait at Washington Dulles last month at 3 pm on a Sunday with multiple planes landing), get a receipt, pick up your luggage and then proceed thru the Customs Global Entry line (same trip - only one person ahead of us so it took 10 seconds whereas the lines for everyone else went the length of the carousel area - I had never seen it that bad). GE saves lots of time.

 

Regarding pre-check - that is only in the US and on certain airlines. I've read that the days of giving pre-check to passengers not enrolled in pre-check or GE are over or will be soon since it makes sense that more and more people are paying good money for the service, why give it away for free?

[AJs Grandpa]

I was told at my interview it could be done online through GOES.

 

A friend recently did this online.

 

I think years ago, you did have to visit a GE site to change it but you no longer need to which is good as I am really far away from a GE site.

 

Agree. Both DW and I renewed our passports in the past two years. We changed the info in our GOES profiles in both cases. Very easy.

[Cruise2End]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TinaLee View Post

Lots of good information here, and I really appreciate it, but I do have a question. We're mostly interested in GE if it will help us in international travel. For some reason, Delta loves us and almost always in the last couple of years has given us precheck for free on all domestic flights. However, next year we are flying to Europe (into Copenhagen and out of Rome) and I'd like to know if GE will help us in either of those circumstances?

 

Global Entry includes TSA Precheck. With TSA PreCheck, when you drive at most US airports to depart, you go they security first , and many have separate lines for TSA Precheck, which are usually much shorter and saves a lot of time. You enter your TSA Precheck number or if Global Entry, your Known Traveler number on your profile on the airline's website. When you print out your boarding pass, it will indicate Pre Check and you show that to the TSA Agent at the airport. Global Entry will expedite going thru customs. As with everything it may not always work as well as you like, but we have seen a huge savings of time having PreCheck. There have Ben been posts in reviews that Global Entry helped at Rome airport.

Edited July 7, 2016 by Cruise2End
Addition.

[BRANDEE]

Lots of good information here, and I really appreciate it, but I do have a question. We're mostly interested in GE if it will help us in international travel. For some reason, Delta loves us and almost always in the last couple of years has given us precheck for free on all domestic flights. However, next year we are flying to Europe (into Copenhagen and out of Rome) and I'd like to know if GE will help us in either of those circumstances?

 

Just returned from Europe. GE did not get us pre check outbound with British Air (Heathrow). My brother did get pre check outbound on Delta (Glasgow). Returning home none of us got pre check on Delta (four of us) from Paris.

 

We all did breeze through immigration at JFK by using the GE kiosk. Always carry your GE card, we have found some places still ask for them (Port Everglade cruise port for one). Just tape it to inside of passport.

 

Well worth the cost.

Edited July 8, 2016 by BRANDEE

[lstone19]

Just returned from Europe. GE did not get us pre check outbound with British Air (Heathrow). My brother did get pre check outbound on Delta (Glasgow). Returning home none of us got pre check on Delta (four of us) from Paris.

 

Pre-check is a U.S. TSA program that requires air carrier participation. To the best of my knowledge, the only participating foreign carrier is Air Canada. So apart from AC, you will never get Pre-Check when flying a foreign carrier.

 

Also, as it is a U.S. TSA program, Pre-Check has no meaning when outside the U.S. Even if your boarding pass had said Pre-Check at Paris, it would not have done anything as TSA does not do the security screening in other countries.

 

The only exception, my experience is showing an actual Global Entry card may get you access to expedited security lines in Canada, the same as if you had a Nexus card. My experience is only when boarding a flight back to the U.S. at a pre-clearance airport so I don't know if that will work when boarding Canadian domestic flights, other international flights, or at non-pre-clearance airports (at pre-clearance airports, it is a separate check point for flights to the U.S. since it comes after you've dealt with U.S. Customs and Immigration.

[metairiegal]

Dh and I had our interviews today (Sunday) in Fort Lauderdale. We got there about 45 minutes early. I was anxious! But, we only had to wait about 5-8 minutes and the actual interview took maybe another 5 minutes. We were out of there way before our real interview times!

 

One agent called us both in. But when we got in the back, he told me to go to another agent's desk while my dh was interviewed by the 1st agent. The desks were separated by a small office panel and you could easily hear everything that was said at both desks. They took our pic and fingerprints and asked a few basic questions. That was it. No mention of the kiosks or how to use them.

Edited July 10, 2016 by metairiegal

[Coral]

No mention of the kiosks or how to use them.

 

Did they give you a small fold out pamphlet on kiosks?

[Dudleydog73]

Did they give you a small fold out pamphlet on kiosks?

 

Not a peep about kiosks in CLT either I guess they assume we are technologically able to follow along on the screen if we are signing up for GE.

[capriccio]

No mention of the kiosks or how to use them.

 

That was exactly our experience at Fort Lauderdale in March.

 

Did they give you a small fold out pamphlet on kiosks?

 

Airport kiosks weren't discussed and we didn't receive a pamphlet. Now they were showing a video in the waiting room that may have included info on how to use the kiosks but we spent less than 1 minute in the waiting room.

 

Last month we went thru Dulles (Washington, DC) on a return from Europe and I was nervous about using the kiosks but it wasn't a problem. There were plenty of available kiosks (even at 3 pm on a Sunday with lots of flights arriving) and we just took our time. They were very intuitive and we didn't hold up anyone waiting to use them.

Edited July 10, 2016 by capriccio

[metairiegal]

Did they give you a small fold out pamphlet on kiosks?

 

No pamphlet, no video, no mention at all.

[Coral]

No pamphlet, no video, no mention at all.

 

They gave me 3 small pamphlets.

 

This is the kiosk one:

 

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/GE_wallet_card_MECH_FINAL.pdf

 

--------

 

I guess if everyone is using kiosks now a days, GE and non-GE, there must not be a need for instructions.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Coral

[JohnS43]

I applied for Global Entry about a month ago. Finally got the email advising me of the pre-approval and asking me to schedule an appointment. Foolishly, I thought I might be able to do this within the next week as I'm doing an overseas trip beginning this Saturday. HAH! There are two interview locations that are relatively convenient to me: LAX and the Long Beach Port. First I checked LAX: the earliest appointment available was OCTOBER 31! So then I tried Long Beach -- and they have NO appointments available at any time!

 

Oh well-- maybe it will be ready by the next trip. (And the TSA Pre-check wouldn't have worked for this trip anyway, because my carrier doesn't participate.)

[JF - retired RRT]

I applied for Global Entry about a month ago. Finally got the email advising me of the pre-approval and asking me to schedule an appointment. Foolishly, I thought I might be able to do this within the next week as I'm doing an overseas trip beginning this Saturday. HAH! There are two interview locations that are relatively convenient to me: LAX and the Long Beach Port. First I checked LAX: the earliest appointment available was OCTOBER 31! So then I tried Long Beach -- and they have NO appointments available at any time!

 

Oh well-- maybe it will be ready by the next trip. (And the TSA Pre-check wouldn't have worked for this trip anyway, because my carrier doesn't participate.)

 

We had the same issue. Just got approved, checked LAX & LB, the wait is months long. If you don't mind the drive, take a look at Otey Mesa & San Ysidro (they're both in the San Diego area). We got an appt for the first of Aug. There's another one near the border (forgot the name), could have had an appt the next day!! Didn't want to go there. So, we booked a hotel for the day before and will treat ourselves to a day or 2 in San Diego. Rough life.

[metairiegal]

They gave me 3 small pamphlets.

 

This is the kiosk one:

 

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/GE_wallet_card_MECH_FINAL.pdf

 

--------

 

I guess if everyone is using kiosks now a days, GE and non-GE, there must not be a need for instructions.

 

Thanks for the link.

[GTMoose]

I applied for Global Entry about a month ago. Finally got the email advising me of the pre-approval and asking me to schedule an appointment. Foolishly, I thought I might be able to do this within the next week as I'm doing an overseas trip beginning this Saturday. HAH! There are two interview locations that are relatively convenient to me: LAX and the Long Beach Port. First I checked LAX: the earliest appointment available was OCTOBER 31! So then I tried Long Beach -- and they have NO appointments available at any time!

 

Oh well-- maybe it will be ready by the next trip. (And the TSA Pre-check wouldn't have worked for this trip anyway, because my carrier doesn't participate.)

 

 

 

Go ahead and book the appointment time, then keep going back to check on times to see if any opened up. Like I said in my post, my original date was in mid-September, but I was able to get an appointment for three days later the next day. I'd check it every 15-20 minutes until you get an opening. Good Luck!

[arizonaperson]

An example ... we recently flew out of Las Vegas and had TSA precheck printed on our boarding pass. There was a very short line but the other line was very long. The TSA agent that was working at the pre-check line roped it off and said it was closed. He must have seen the disappointment on my face as he asked 'Precheck?'. I said yes and he let us through but closed it immediately after us. We had packed everything away as we normally would with the pre-check but were required to remove it all upon screening. The only think we didn't have to do is take off our shoes. We were sent through the x-ray as well ... not just the metal detector. So, you can have pre-check and not reap the benefits ... although the line was much shorter.

 

I flew out of Vegas mid-May 2016 and I have a known traveler number and get TSA pre-check and the line for the gates that I was suppose to go through and southwest airlines the TSA pre-check lane was closed .I was really disappointed and wish I knew the Vegas airport layout better, but I guess I could've gone through another area of gates that had TSA pre-check open. TSA pre-check was printed on my boarding pass ,but the lane was not open. I showed the TSA agent that was checking the IDs after I've gone through the long line that I had pre-check and I did not have to remove my shoes or my 311 liquids, but I ended up having to remove my shoes because they have metal in them.

So unfortunately for those of us that have paid for TSA pre-check at some airports the lanes are closed much to our dismay .

Julie

[lstone19]

Unfortunately, Pre-Check hours are variable and are not always the same hours as the overall checkpoint. Although it's poor management (IMHO) to have a long line and not have the Pre-Check line open.

 

At Las Vegas, it can be very difficult to get between concourses without going through security again. The last I knew, there were separate checkpoints for A/B, C, and D in Terminal 1 as well as a checkpoint in Terminal 3 for D and E. I think there is an inside shuttle bus between A/B and C although it may have limited hours. And D and E are connected. The big problem is getting between C and D which although the checkpoint are adjacent (and you need to be careful not to get in the wrong line), has no connection inside security except for a door marked "Do Not Enter". Some reports have said if you ask nicely, TSA will let you through although it would not surprise me if they intend that for people making connections, not for people looking for the shortest line. Other reports say that door is now normally open. But as the carrier I normally fly uses Terminal 3, I have not been through the T1 D checkpoint in a couple of years.

[metairiegal]

Go ahead and book the appointment time, then keep going back to check on times to see if any opened up. Like I said in my post, my original date was in mid-September, but I was able to get an appointment for three days later the next day. I'd check it every 15-20 minutes until you get an opening. Good Luck!

 

Constant checking in Fort Lauderdale is what worked for me. :)

 

For weeks nothing was available until late August and then only in September. Then one day I checked, and days/times in July were wide open.

[RocketMan275]

Constant checking in Fort Lauderdale is what worked for me. :)

 

For weeks nothing was available until late August and then only in September. Then one day I checked, and days/times in July were wide open.

 

There were a lot of complaints about availability including some made to congressional offices. They opened up weekend and evening appointments. Additional slots can only be opened one time. After they are full, you're pretty much waiting.

 

I had the same experience. No slots until November. I went back a couple of weeks later and there were weekend slots available. Snagged one for the next weekend.

[metairiegal]

We got our cards this past Saturday. So, it took 1 week to get them. I updated our SWA profile, & called to make the info would get in the ressie we already had. Our flight is today and when I did they boarding passes yesterday "Pre" was noted on both mine and dh's. Hopefully we're all set. Thanks for all the great info on this thread.

 

One thing to note... My card expires 4/2022 and dh's will expire 9/2021. We did the whole process together, so I guess the expiration date is some how connected to our birthday? (My birthday is in April and his is in September.)