Bags checked through to final destination. US vrs Europe.

I suspect it’s because in the US we handle immigration and customs at your port of entry. Hence you need your luggage with you. Within the Schengen zone they are separate. So if I fly San Francisco to Budapest via Frankfurt I would enter the Schengen area in Frankfurt where I would encounter passport control. My bag would go straight to Budapest where customs is handled.

Your bags actually are checked through to the final destination when travelling from Europe to the US. Look at the luggage tag they put on the bag when you check in. Its just that ALL the bags come off the plane when it lands at its first US port of entry and you go through immigration, collect your bags, go through customs, then put them back on the luggage belt and they go to your final destination.

Indeed, what Sam said.

Sam and Kim are correct. Your bags are always checked to final destination. Just look at your tags. Unless, of course, you are flying on two unconnected or separate tickets.

Yep, we just came back from Amsterdam flying Delta all the way. Bags checked thru to home airport but in SLC we had to claim bags from customs and put them on a conveyer belt to be loaded on the plane for our flight home. Didn't need to get another luggage tag.

If our flight from SLC to home had been with a non-Delta airline like Southwest we would have had to claim in customs, take it to the SW counter and have them check and tag them.

Bags checked to final destination? Technically yes. Look at our luggage. Let's say if you fly from Europe to Seattle via JFK, first tag says JFK and the other SEA. But that's just playing with words because in reality your bags are not flying to final destination, you have to claim them in JFK (or wherever your plane from Europe touches runway) and then you stand in line not only for immigration but also for customs. Since 1994 I fly to Europe every year lately twice a year. I walk from the immigration and customs area through the green gate - Nothing to declare. Customs officers are standing there not bothering travelers with impertinent questions. They can randomly stop passengers. In all these years it never happened to me nor did I see it happening to anybody. So for example if you fly from Seattle to Prague via Amsterdam (usually my way), you go through immigration in Amsterdam and your luggage is put on the plane to Prague without you seeing it in Amsterdam. Plane then lands in Prague and you get out of Terminal 2, which is for Schengen countries. How can poor customs officers know that your plane originated somewhere else than in Schengen country. They cannot unless they come closer and study the tag on your luggage. And now the point: No customs bothering whatsoever. But on flights toward USA about every third or fourth flight I had to open my suitcase as many others as I saw around me. Just a random bothering of travelers. "Can anyone explain the logic?" I don't see any logic there therefore cannot explain. I suspect that it's something like in many other aspects of American life - paranoia. In my observations Europeans are much less paranoid. They don't need guns for protection or against their government unlike many Americans.

How can poor customs officers know that your plane originated
somewhere else than in Schengen country.

It is actually easy to visually differentiate bags that originated within the EU from those that did not (which is what is relevant for customs as the EU, including non-Schengen states like the UK and Ireland, forms one customs area) -- all checked bags that are tagged within the EU are tagged with two green strips on both ends all the way down the bag tag. There is no need to look at the tag in detail; if it's striped in green, it originated in the EU. If it's all white, it originated outside of the EU.

As for international-to-domestic connections in the US (e.g. Paris-Chicago-Minneapolis), bags being checked to the final destination isn't quite just a technicality. Certainly the process isn't as seamless as in Europe, but there is a difference.

In either case you have to pick up the bags in Chicago. If your bags are checked to the final destination, e.g. with an "MSP" tag in this example, once you clear US customs with your bags you can just drop them on the re-check conveyor belt that is right outside of US customs. No need to talk to an agent because the bag is already properly tagged.

But if your bags are not checked to the final destination, you can't just drop them off on the re-check belt. You have to find an airline agent (or a kiosk) that can issue you the correct bag tags, which in some airports can basically just mean lining up again at the check-in desks, which as you can imagine can add a considerable amount of time. This will also probably mean incurring a domestic baggage fee as well.

Like several other countries (Australia, New Zealand), the USA has stricter laws about what you can and cannot bring into the country than Europe does. Since one Spanish orange contaminated with medfly larvae that is not properly incinerated upon arrival can trigger a multimillion dollar crop loss in the citrus industry or large pest eradication bill in order to contained a detected medfly, I'm all for pickiness.

And since 85% of US air travel is purely domestic and many smaller airports would have such limited need for ICE services, it makes sense from a financial and efficiency standpoint to consolidate all customs services at the point of entry and in the same place as immigration services. And part of the customs process means having access to your bags at some point in the ICE process, hence the taking and redepositing of checked bags.

This is one reason why, when you have a choice (as those of us in Seattle typically do), I prefer to make any necessary flight connection in Europe instead of in the US. (Other reasons include travel time, entertainment options, etc.)

If it is a huge issue to pick up bags at the first port of entry in the US and transferring them to the conveyor belt for the ongoing flight, one can always try to route the trip through one of the airports with US customs pre-clearance such as Shannon or Dublin airports in Ireland or many of the international airports in Canada.

I think we've covered the subject but I have to ask JHK why it would save any trouble to fly via Dublin or a Canadian city -- wouldn't you still have to produce the luggage to clear US customs there?

And to Selkie, not to nit-pick, but the people who look (or don't look) at your bags when you enter the US work for Customs and Border Protection (CPB), not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Confusing I know. Both are within the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS). There are many more initials and acronyms in our government, as you may have noticed. ;-)

I think we've covered the subject but I have to ask JHK why it would
save any trouble to fly via Dublin or a Canadian city -- wouldn't you
still have to produce the luggage to clear US customs there?

The three major Canadian airports that Americans are often connecting through (YYZ, YVR, YUL) have made changes such that you usually don't have to pick up your luggage when in transit from an international destination back to the US.

Each airport is a little different, but for example at Toronto (YYZ) most US-bound passengers coming off of international flights don't have to produce their luggage because it's registered in a "Baggage Image and Weight Identification System" that automatically captures the image and weight of the bags.

A connecting US-bound passenger basically waits in a designated waiting area until the baggage system indicates (on a screen) that their bags have passed through the system. They can then proceed straight to US CBP pre-clearance without having to pick up their bags. It should be noted that the CBP officer does have the discretion/ability to send the passenger for additional screening and then to get the bag from the system, but obviously for most people this doesn't happen.

Montreal has a similar system, and I think Vancouver does as well. It does make the process easier, although you still typically have to re-clear security because of the US's security requirements.