IAD Dulles terminal procedures "c"

Welcome to the new world of airport security and screen. In case you didn't notice you went through customs when you picked up your bags and dropped them again. That is what you have to do when you return to the US. And you would have gone exactly the same thing if any other airport have been your point of entry. Just cannot be to careful. Don't know who is trying to sneak into the country. I think the new administration has given a green light to this kind of behavior.

Unfortunately, it is a pain but don't know what we can do about it. Complain to your Congressman or woman.

The situation you descibe has been experienced by a number of us at various airports when returning--and connecting--to domestic flights. Sorry that this happened (hey, my dad was a Marine and he never barked that much), but I don't think it makes Dulles the worst ever. I've had a bad time at Philly. Others have mentioned Atlanta.

The whole "going back thru security" process when you're tired and a U.S. citizen who's worked hard every day of your life and has followed every rule in the book is frustrating, humiliating and just plain irritating. But I don't think it's an IAD-only situation.

Frank,
Left out some points
Not my first time or second arriving from EU,
At IAD after scanning passport you next walk up to a person sitting behind a little desk who took the declaration card listing items being brought in. He was satisfied with the form. Then passengers move on to another area and pick up their suitcases which have all been unloaded, They are told by a waiting worker who was not dressed ina customs uniform or tsa uniform to walk a few yards straight ahead and drop them on a second conveyer belt. The only other statement from them came in the form of a hand scrawled note,. I mean scrawled like a young child had done it and without anything looking remotely official, to remove all locks and nothing else. But the guy told us to ignore that and just drop the bags on a conveyer belt. So as far as customs we had already made and passed that before entering a room and finding the suitcases to cart over.
I have no doubt others report issues at other airports.
But the job of securing passengers never needs to include flagrant abuse of them.

We lost a friend on 9/11 on the flt that hit the Pentagon, he was a fantastic guy and former naval officer, two members of my family spent years as flight attendants one lost her life in a mid air, lost friends in peacetime and war in the usmc. So yes I did call my congressman and discussed that added hasseling of passengers is not added security,

Of the airports we went through this trip IAD was the only jarring one. The others were respectf of and reasonable with passengers. Sfo and Chicago were respectful. from this'll t on we will fly direct to Heathrow and other points like Frankfurt a d Rome. Places where security is security but people are polite.

If you have checked luggage, at any entry point in the U.S. (or Canada, if you go through US customs there), you have to take your luggage off of one conveyor belt and take it a few feet away and put it on another conveyor belt. That's simply standard practice.

I am so sorry you had such a negative experience at Dulles. We flew home from Amsterdam two weeks ago into Dulles and our experience could not have been more efficient and stress free. As a matter of fact, the couple we were traveling with have Global entry and we do not. We ended up through customs and on our way to baggage claim at exactly the same time. The one thing that does determine the speed of getting through customs is how many other flights are coming in at the same time. We must have hit a sweet spot! When traveling we always comment on the "people factor" whether it is from fellow travelers or travel personnel with airlines, TSA etc.....my husband spent his career in public relations and he can get just about anyone to smile and be pleasant. He has much more patience than I do but I have noticed over the years his methods work but this situation sounds like even he would have been challenged!

Not sure how many flights were in the 'C" area but in terms of people numbers, the lanes to scan the passports were 3/4 full. The jarring manner of speech was directed at everyone in the room as we waited our turn to scan our passports, giving a sense that this was policy as even the assistant helping people scanning their own passports was doing this toward passengers generally.

The "Close Operator", no name on badge, was outwardly hostile toward passengers in general and one older American woman in particular whose red overnight bag had to be tested, imparting information to her with hostility I associate with attempts to intimidate and control., She never found a thing in the bag despite repeated testing. Even the simplest briefest statement to the passenger was barked, the older woman just stood there and took it. This "Close Operator" was unprofessional.. But of course the all important message conveyed is that's how security is enhanced, only it isn't. At other airports we have been through instructions are given in a forthright manner but polite, often prerecorded. We had TSA precheck going out and coming back in for this trip, didn't seem to matter at Dulles but did at SFO. SFO has had issues but they have improved.

That is why I always fly direct from SFO to Europe and viceversa. That way my first port of entry back in the US is also my final destination.

SFO is also one of the few airports where passengers' screening is actually provided by a private contractor CAS, which has a contract with TSA to provide that service, and they are doing a much better job, based on the lowest number of nationwide complaints at SFO. Note that the same table shows that MIA, JFK, and IAD have the highest complaints per enplanement.