need info from GREATAM

[lucky white heather]

On Sept 6 , response 4...in "cruise air v. self obtained air" you replied to the OP

if you use Aer Lingus via Dublin or Shannon you can clear immigration for the USA in Ireland so no " standing in line in the USA for immigration".

 

We have consistently had to stand for two hours usually after debarking from a flight into Miami to join various cruises...which has been very off putting to start your holiday to say the least. We fill in the green forms as required on the flight but that makes absolutely no difference to your long hang around waiting to be checked into the country on arrival at the receiving airport.

 

Since we usually have to fly to London first in order to get a direct flight to Miami ( nothing departs direct from Scotland) would it be easier in your opinion to find a service on Aer Lingus to Dublin or Shannon from Scotland and benefit from clearing US Immigration in Ireland then fly on from there...how does it work???

If you can only reply to an email address I can provide mine.

[billybob123]

Since we usually have to fly to London first in order to get a direct flight to Miami ( nothing departs direct from Scotland) would it be easier in your opinion to find a service on Aer Lingus to Dublin or Shannon from Scotland and benefit from clearing US Immigration in Ireland then fly on from there...how does it work???

If you can only reply to an email address I can provide mine.

 

Not greatam, but I can certainly try to answer. If you can make a single connection from Edinburgh (assuming that's your hometown) through Dublin or Shannon to Miami to rival the connection from London, then it's worthwhile, as you will clear the immigration at the airport in Dublin. It is similar to flying to the USA from Aruba, Nassau, and multiple Canadian airports; US immigration pre-clears you at the airport (so no need to undergo the 2-hour lineup to be photographed and fingerprinted and having your paperwork checked).

 

If, however, you need to make a third connection in order to make this work, then the time savings are thrown out - which is better for you? 2 hours sitting in a third airport, waiting for your extra 2-hour flight? Or 2 hours in Miami where, once you're cleared, you're on your way to your ship.

 

Certainly something to consider.

[lucky white heather]

Not greatam, but I can certainly try to answer. If you can make a single connection from Edinburgh (assuming that's your hometown) through Dublin or Shannon to Miami to rival the connection from London, then it's worthwhile, as you will clear the immigration at the airport in Dublin. It is similar to flying to the USA from Aruba, Nassau, and multiple Canadian airports; US immigration pre-clears you at the airport (so no need to undergo the 2-hour lineup to be photographed and fingerprinted and having your paperwork checked).

 

If, however, you need to make a third connection in order to make this work, then the time savings are thrown out - which is better for you? 2 hours sitting in a third airport, waiting for your extra 2-hour flight? Or 2 hours in Miami where, once you're cleared, you're on your way to your ship.

 

Certainly something to consider.

 

Thanks for your response billybob 123..we've never heard of being able to clear immigration before flying so wanted to check that it is actually the case..if all things worked out properly we would miss the inevitable line up queues at Miami ..what a drag.....pity they don't do pre-flight immigration in London!

 

We are always wondering if our luggage will have walked out the door with someone else although we understand the carousel cannot be expected to still be full of our luggage (after a minimum of two hours waiting to be allowed entry ) sitting there just waiting to be claimed..it makes the whole travel experience even more of an anxious event!

[DanJ]

I've always wondered why they don't have US pre-clearance at LHR considering the large number of flights to the US from there. There's at least 7 or 8 airports in Canada with US immigration clearance, and I'm sure that at least half of those have fewer US-bound passengers than LHR does. It sure is convenient.

[greatam]

I guess I am late to the party. billybob123 has given you correct information.

 

I was absolutely ecstatic when AA started flying into Shannon. Really small airport, not a bad lounge and clear immigration in Ireland instead of getting in line at LHR. And you could get anyplace on the Continent with an Aer Lingus, BA or even RyanAir connection. No more, sad to say. Shannon and AA just couldn't make a go of it.

 

And yes, you could fly Aer Lingus from Edinburgh through Dublin to JFK or BOS, then on to Miami on AA or Jet Blue. Luggage would be checked through to MIA on AA. You would clear immigration in Dublin. BOS is probably the easier airport to fly through. You MAY have to book a separate ticket to MIA RT. I can't get AA.com to book an Aer Lingus flight from EDI through Dublin. But you can sure book the EDI/BOS or JFK, even Chicago or Washington DC direct on the Aer Lingus website. Good luck!!!!

[Globaliser]

Since we usually have to fly to London first in order to get a direct flight to Miami ( nothing departs direct from Scotland) would it be easier in your opinion to find a service on Aer Lingus to Dublin or Shannon from Scotland and benefit from clearing US Immigration in Ireland then fly on from there...how does it work???

Although this is possible, I am really not sure that you would find it less hassle overall.

 

On current timetables, you can't get a same day Aer Lingus connection from Edinburgh to Boston. The one daily flight from Edinburgh to Dublin arrives after the one daily flight from Dublin to Boston. You could get there from Glasgow, but you'd spend from 1140 to 1430 waiting for the Dublin-Boston flight.

 

You could get to New York from Edinburgh on the same day. But the Dublin-New York flight doesn't arrive at JFK until 1930. As far as I can see, that's too late for any JFK flight to Miami that night. There is a jetBlue flight that you could get to Fort Lauderdale. But that doesn't arrive until 0102 the next morning. By this time, your body clock will be telling you it's 6 am, you've basically been up all night while travelling, and you will probably feel like death warmed up.

 

So while it's a superficially good idea, the actual execution may mean that the immigration wait at Miami on a normal flight would be preferable.

I've always wondered why they don't have US pre-clearance at LHR considering the large number of flights to the US from there.

Basically there's not enough space, and there wouldn't be enough US immigration inspectors to staff the posts that would be necessary to do this efficiently.

 

Remember that the facility would have to be provided at two terminals now, and at three terminals from next March. None of these terminals has really been designed to have a large US-bound sin bin, which would be necessary as US-bound pax have to be segregated after they've pre-cleared US immigration. But it would be both politically and commercially unacceptable to have a dedicated terminal or area for US-bound flights for all airlines. The terminal moves starting in March are designed for intra-alliance connectivity, and putting all US-bound flights into one area would wreck those plans.

 

And if the facility were not over-staffed to keep the length of the queues down, the queues would rapidly intefere with normal airport operations.

 

Also, you have to do this post-retail. So either you would get lots of late passengers, or retail sales would fall. Neither is acceptable.

 

I think that pre-clearance is feasible at DUB and SNN precisely because the number of passengers is low.

[lucky white heather]

Thanks also to both Greatam and Globaliser who can always be relied on to give you "the full monty need to know details " of your enquiry... I will take on board all information as usual...it would be so much less hassle for us to be able to know that we won't have to stand for hours after debarking the aircraft as we do regularly in Miami ...and if I remember correctly, you also have to be aware to use the toilet facility on the aircraft before you leave it as I don't think they encourage you to "need to go" before you get allowed past immigration.

Presumably ( we have no experience )...all other airport entry queues are just as long as those in Miami within the Florida area ...thinking Orlando or possibly Tampa.... they also receive PAX from a UK direct flight ??? ... how do they compare with Miami in waiting time for entry???

I realise of course any arrival there would be counterbalanced by the need to find your way to FLL (or possibly Tampa) for sail date depending on your itinerary.

[Globaliser]

Are you usually on a particular flight? I ask this because most of my London-Miami flights are on the late BA, and I think that the longest that I've queued for immigration is just over an hour. On one or two occasions when we've been the only arrival being processed, I've been through in about ten minutes.

 

So I wonder whether you could improve your chances of a better immigration experience at Miami by taking a different flight.

[lucky white heather]

Are you usually on a particular flight? I ask this because most of my London-Miami flights are on the late BA, and I think that the longest that I've queued for immigration is just over an hour. On one or two occasions when we've been the only arrival being processed, I've been through in about ten minutes.

 

So I wonder whether you could improve your chances of a better immigration experience at Miami by taking a different flight.

 

WE are usually on the 207 or 209 because we have to fly down from EDI to make the connection..once we had a tech. hitch while we were loaded on the EDI connection and were off loaded and then had no chance of getting to LHR to connect to the last flight of the day to MIA on BA .... left around 1.50pm or something ...as the other listed PAX already had preference on the next flights down from EDI (as it should be) so we would have missed the ship entirely if we had not left a couple of days spare.So we learned not to rely on taking the last flight out to MIA unless we could fly down really early that morning and sit and wait for the later of two MIA flights which solves that problem.We negotiated with BA to fly to Washington that day (on United) and then down to MIA that evening in order to be there although later than planned ..that was the quickest we ever got through...arrived MIA around midnight. Maybe we've been unlucky in waiting in the one queue where some problem occurred with someone's entry or something...we've tried looking at the lines to decide which one looks like it might go through without any problem but inevitably something slows it down.

It's just something we dread!

[Globaliser]

WE are usually on the 207 or 209 because we have to fly down from EDI to make the connection

OK - it's obviously just been the luck of the draw, then. I'm going to be on the early BA in November so we'll have to see how we fare then.

Maybe we've been unlucky in waiting in the one queue where some problem occurred with someone's entry or something...we've tried looking at the lines to decide which one looks like it might go through without any problem but inevitably something slows it down.

This is a trick that we use: The two of us stand in two different queues, adjacent to each other. If one moves distinctly faster than the other, then the other person moves over just before getting seen.

[lucky white heather]

OK - it's obviously just been the luck of the draw, then. I'm going to be on the early BA in November so we'll have to see how we fare then.This is a trick that we use: The two of us stand in two different queues, adjacent to each other. If one moves distinctly faster than the other, then the other person moves over just before getting seen.

 

We've even done that too! Next step is the wheelchair!

In fact, last Transatlantic we saw 2 couples arrive at gate with wives in wheelchairs...on ship, one couple was at our table, she really did need the chair as she walked with a stick most of the time.

The other wife (their friends) beat us round the dance floor EVERY night at a rate of knots whilst claiming to be scheduled for knee replacement surgery the day after they got home! We thought she was "making the most of her original knees while she still had them" was the kindest way to put it!

[jimc_usa]

...thinking Orlando or possibly Tampa.... they also receive PAX from a UK direct flight ??? ...

 

Quite a drive.

[lucky white heather]

Quite a drive.

 

Some years ago we drove from Tampa(receiving airport) to Flagler Beach (north of Daytona) when we exchanged our home with Floridian folks who loved to golf.....before we discovered cruising! I am not saying we would love to do it again but it is an option we would consider if things get so bad in Miami we cannot hack it any longer.Standing for two hours is an absolute waste of our time and we fill in all the details ahead of schedule to comply with regulations the US wants.... what is the problem..more booths at the airport, more staff?????Even LHR is not so bad and that is saying something!