USofA work trip - ESTA and global entry

[brums evil twin]

Okay so my first work trip to South Carolina is coming up at the end of April - just confirmed, so flying AA to Charlotte then hop to Greenville for a few days.

So I have my ESTA sorted and now the MPC app to speed up immigration.

Next question is Global Entry worth it? I have started and paid for the UK part, just waiting for the green code then it's a $100 to join and then an interview when I land (I think!!!)

Just trying to work out what is best to minimise it all - hate lines and queing.

So any advice please, thanks

[Truckosaurus]

I believe scheduling the interview is the tricky bit, often the offices are only open certain hours, so it might need you to take a chunk of time out of your holiday or business trip to sort it out.

(eg. Charlotte is open 1pm-8pm Mon-Fri)

I often travel into Vegas and they only open in the morning when the UK flights are in the evening, so you'd be wasting pretty much a morning of your holiday going to the airport and back for the interview to save a few minutes once or twice a year....

[bodhi]

I've been to the US a couple of times a year through work for the last 13 years or so, and never bothered with Global Entry. Unless you land in LA the queues don't tend to be too bad at all - for eg in Denver a couple of weeks ago we waited 5 minutes to see one of the CBP people.

[HD Adam]

I have Global Entry and along with that TSA Pre-Check.

Completely worth it.

[Matt Harper]

If this is going to be a regular thing, then yes, it's worth it - if just an occasional visit, I wouldn't bother. Despite being American Airlines hub, Charlotte isn't all that busy with international traffic. Domestic, on the other hand.....

[gotoPzero]

If you do more than a couple of trips a year I think its worth it - but it can take quite a bit of effort / time to get it.

[theaxe]

Agree with other comments that if you go a few times a year it's definitely worth it. It's actually a bit surreal to enter the country without even taking your passport out of your bag.

I did my interview in JFK and didn't need an appointment (once I had the pre-approval).

[fat80b]

I’ve done the US maybe 50 times in the last 10 years and haven’t yet got round to doing it.

The reasons for not getting round to it are / were :

• The immigration queues are never that bad any more - Even more so post Covid. Last month in JFK, we were in the taxi 18 minutes after the doors opened.

• the interview is a pain to schedule and as others have said, it takes time out of whatever you were there for.

• the global entry stuff doesn’t seem to be much quicker than regular. It’s often now the case that there are just as many people doing it as not.

• But the biggest reason for me is that - if you find yourself mostly travelling with others, then the benefit is totally negated.

If you are doing a lot of solo travelling then it might be worth it but if not then I’d say don’t bother

[theaxe]

Worth mentioning that Global Entry also gets you TSA Pre which can help when leaving the country...

[x5tuu]

Lately whenever been coming/going I’ve seen more and more that the GE terminals are out of service / covered forcing all travellers into either automated immigration or physical (depending on airport)

I debated on GE a while ago but as mentioned above I’ve been seeing faster and faster immigration clearances and have also experienced being outside the airport within 20mins of doors opening a number of times in recent months.

Just seems like a (mostly) rapidly outmoded programme in my eyes now.

[brums evil twin]

Thanks all for the info

I will be going twice this year - but if all been well, 6/8 times next year. So I have started the process and have just got my Green Code from the UK so I can start on the US admin. For $100 bucks I will give it a go and the TSA seems a good thing to have too.

Going to be flying in to Charlotte, Atlanta, Newark and then over to the west and ending up in Palm Springs so. not worked out which airport to land there yet.

This trip in April will be two of us so both will not have it and I don't think we will have time for an interview on the way. As we land in Charlotte and have 1H45 mins to get our connection to Greenville.

[RC1807]

It all depends when appointments are available.
When I did my GE it was very difficult to get an appointment at any airport I was flying in/out of.
I knew I was going to be in Tampa for 4 days and in advance booked an appointment in Orlando.
Drove there and it was done quickly.

Sadly my GE has now expired, and my ESTA this year will need more input / explanation as I now have 4 passports covering 3 nationalities.

[sleepezy]

Can't you complete your GE at Charlotte on your first visit (register on arrival) ? You should be able to, just go to the normal booth and tell them what you're doing. Noted on your connection time though, that will be an issue,can take up to an hour.

Very much worth it. I went through Charlotte last Thursday, no GE queue at all, took seconds. They do have a weird card thing, you get given a yellow card to hand in to customs, but that's just because they like to do things differently.

When I registered i did register on arrival at JFK. Takes some time but easier than faffing about with an appointment. OK you are slower on the 1st visit but much quicker afterwards. It will likely save you about 30 to 40 mins at Charlotte and up to an hour and a half if you go through JFK (as experienced by some of my travelling companions who missed out on some beer time while queueing, I was safely ensconced I a lounge)

You now also get TSA PreCheck included. That's really useful too for the return journey.

Edited by sleepezy on Sunday 24th March 08:35

[Matt Harper]

brums evil twin said:

This trip in April will be two of us so both will not have it and I don't think we will have time for an interview on the way. As we land in Charlotte and have 1H45 mins to get our connection to Greenville.

Greenville SC? You are aware that this is a 100 mile, all on I-85 semi-commute, presumably... By the time you've frabbed-about with your puddle-jump connection, you could have comfortably driven there and had the benefit of a car while you are there.

[brums evil twin]

Yes aware of how close it is, and looked at hire cars, but we are staying and working in one location for the few days we are there. I suggested driving and having a car, client said fly!
1st visit so going with the client this time.
Palm Springs in September so I will definitely have a car then as I want to drive up the coast

[poosemon]

I had started the ball rolling on mine waiting for the next US trip for work...however after a series of trips in quick succession and an expected one after I had completed most of the work behind the Global Entry - that trip didn't materialise and now been long enough that would need to do it all again (luckily work paid for it).

I had a close call going into Boston transferring to Buffalo which would of been a non-issue with Global Entry so could see the value in it.

As were in the northwest and most flights are from Manchester invariably you end up with a transfer unless you want to go down to Heathrow each time. So the Global entry would be quite useful for this a you don't need to worry quite so much on if your going to hit an immigration queue on first border crossing....

[bad company]

Interesting reading as I’ve been looking at GE. The immigration queue at Miami was over 2 hours when I flew in a few weeks ago.

I reckon Miami is the worst though.

[sleepezy]

bad company said:

I reckon Miami is the worst though.

Seattle used to regularly be 2+ hours - worst was 3.5 hours - although this was in 2018-19 so may have improved

[djc206]

bad company said:

Interesting reading as I’ve been looking at GE. The immigration queue at Miami was over 2 hours when I flew in a few weeks ago.

I reckon Miami is the worst though.

Bloody hell, last time I flew through Miami the queue was maybe 30 seconds. One that surprised me was San Diego, that was about an hour. Nashville took about 45 mins recently, again a bit of a surprise because it’s so small. I think the worst we’ve ever had was either San Fran or LA at ~2hrs. It seems to be a lottery and on that basis I can see tremendous value in GE. We only have one more trip to the US this year so I won’t bother just yet but if we start going more often I’ll definitely look at it again.

[valiant]

sleepezy said:

bad company said:

I reckon Miami is the worst though.

Seattle used to regularly be 2+ hours - worst was 3.5 hours - although this was in 2018-19 so may have improved

Dulles. "Hold my beer..."