urbanSTL

jshank83 wrote:FYI, DHS is closing down pre check and global entry until the shutdown is over. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me since that just adds more stress to the system, but just be aware if you are flying soon.

It's because it's not funded. They don't really have any other choice.

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StlAlex wrote: ↑

7:14 AM - Feb 22

jshank83 wrote:FYI, DHS is closing down pre check and global entry until the shutdown is over. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me since that just adds more stress to the system, but just be aware if you are flying soon.

It's because it's not funded. They don't really have any other choice.

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It wasn’t funding during the last longer shutdown and they left it open and never even talked about closing them. So I don’t buy that argument.

Global entry uses less people than normal lines. It’s mostly automated so closing it makes zero sense when you are supposedly short staffed.

jshank83 wrote: ↑

5:26 AM - Feb 22

FYI, DHS is closing down pre check and global entry until the shutdown is over. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me since that just adds more stress to the system, but just be aware if you are flying soon.

Now they've walked that back, at least for PreCheck. Of course, who knows what the ***** travelers will actually encounter in the coming days when they show up at the airport.

Well, I'm flying back tomorrow, over the course of a day and a half. I'll report back Thursday when it's done. Assuming I'm back by then, at least.

^To be completely fair I haven't yet sprung for pre check, but I only fly once or twice a year. I always end up crossing an ocean (usually the Pacific), so it takes a while. But the number of times I need to go through security isn't that great, so I keep deciding against it. Paid fifty bucks to skip the customs line in Saigon this year though. (Customs gets brutal at the lunar New Year.)

On a side note and those not aware but your TWIC, Transportation Worker Identification Card, gives you PreCheck access.   TWIC was one of those Fed security programs put in place after 9/11.  

TheWayoftheArch_V2.0 wrote: ↑

11:59 AM - Feb 24

PRECHECK costs $85 for 5 years, so if you fly 1 round trip every year (10 flights) it’s $8.50 a flight to skip the line.  $4.25 at 2 round trips per year.  No brainer.  

Clear/global entry is $100 and sounds like that may help your international flights more.

We keep thinking about it. All that said, I can confirm that global entry was, in fact, closed at DFW this morning, and the line was exceptionally long, though it did move pretty quickly. This is my first time clearing customs at DFW, I think. Maybe they have a heavier international load than airports I'm more used to like Detroit or Chicago. All that said, the agents were polite and efficient, especially for folks that are, I guess, presently working without pay. 

An unrelated aside about which I really need to vent: There was one especially drunken and especially rude man complaining loudly that he had to walk further than folks entering on other passports, apparently too drunk to note that there were two entrances to the customs hall from different parts of the terminal, and we had just happened to arrive at a gate on the (smaller) "visitor" side of the hall. And complaining about why he lost his CDL and how there were too many non-Americans working for USCBP. (There were several people wearing hijab under their USCBP uniforms as they politely directed traffic without pay.) Drunken racist is going to drunkenly racist rant, I guess. My immigrant wife carefully kept me from picking a fight with him . . . in the sea of largely Asian American folks on the flight from Tokyo. Same dude was drunk and ranting before he got on the flight in Haneda in the first place. (He tried to cut in line in front of group one when he was group four, I believe. How he didn't get his ass arrested in Japan I'm not quite sure.) Anyway, sorry for the tangent, but I really needed to vent about that dude. I so wanted to pick that fight, even if I really didn't want to risk myself or anyone else ending up in the Border Patrol pokey. But . . . oh boy . . .

Anyway, I will think harder on Global Entry. Might need to see where it's accepted.

Oh, one other line that was mysteriously shut down: Items to declare. It was completely roped off and everyone was simply waved into the nothing to declare line, even though there were large signs saying you have to declare EVERYTHING you obtained overseas, no matter how you got it. Maybe that was a quiet protest from somewhere inside Customs and Border Patrol.

F***ing f*** T****

(Maybe being very very jetlagged is similar to being very very drunk, but with less fun and less liver damage.)

A plus if you travel internationally, you can get your Global Entry appointment when you're traveling versus waiting weeks/months (?) in the states.

When I did mine I had to wait 3-4 months for my appointment at Lambert.

Otthouse wrote: ↑

4:05 PM - Feb 26

A plus if you travel internationally, you can get your Global Entry appointment when you're traveling versus waiting weeks/months (?) in the states.

When I did mine I had to wait 3-4 months for my appointment at Lambert.

I don’t think it’s that long anymore. I got my kids one in a couple weeks last year.

Just renewed mine and at least there is no interview for renewals

^I think our AA membership even offers ways to get it at a discount from time to time. I need to investigate it more closely. I'm guessing at least the UK participates, and I seem to be going there more recently for my own reasons. And I still have intentions of getting back to Europe and hitting assorted Asian countries more often and for time periods exceeding your extended layover. (It was genuinely nice to get out of the airport in Japan this time. Though I have to say their customs are spooky levels of efficient. Very fast and very frictionless and darn near completely automated now even without global entry.)

I should also add if you have a Capital One credit card (Venture or Venture X for sure) they will reimburse you for the cost of TSA Pre or Global Entry.

(If you're going to get TSA Pre, you might as well do Global Entry as well.)

Otthouse wrote: ↑

3:46 PM - Feb 27

I should also add if you have a Capital One credit card (Venture or Venture X for sure) they will reimburse you for the cost of TSA Pre or Global Entry.

(If you're going to get TSA Pre, you might as well do Global Entry as well.)

Will add a lot of cards do this now. I think about 4 of mine do. I use it for family members

^ I saw that on FB, don't pay any attention to the route map pictured. The story is referencing the realignment that WN announced last year where we lost routes. Not sure where they pulled that route map from but it certainly doesn't match the story.

^The map is so weirdly distorted its a bit hard to parse, and the routes don't completely make sense either, so . . . sure. There's a better description (and a better map) over on Simple Flying.



Sounds like it's a pretty underwhelming expansion, particularly for us. Our only add is Puerta Vallarta. Apparently Breeze, Delta, Allegiant, and Frontier are adding twice as many routes each, assuming I'm reading the story correctly. I guess I'll take it, but I am genuinely worried about Southwest with the way this private equity horror-show is going.

matguy70 wrote: ↑

1:13 AM - Feb 28

Southwest exxpansion... hmmmm

This refers to routes already announced that start next week. Same announcement they told us they were cutting our flights to OKC, Little Rock, Des Moines, Tulsa. And adding Puerto Vallarta.

jshank83 wrote: ↑

2:16 AM - Feb 28

Yesterday I flew my first Southwest flight since the assigned seating. Couldn’t have gone any better. I am very happy with the change.

Well that is good news. I'd really love to see Southwest grow, and I've long felt in order to do so they'll have to give up on a sacred cow or two, I just wouldn't have guessed it'd be that one. (I keep expecting them to break down and go to a mixed fleet in order to have some leggier aircraft to pick up some transoceanic routes.)

I'm nervous, but you give me some hope. Glad it went well.