My experiences with Global Entry over the years have all been positive, both pre-pandemic and current times - except for a couple of days ago at Dulles (IAD) in Washington DC. Half the machines didn't work, and once you found one and got your slip of paper, you still had to stand in line for 45 minutes to get past the one customs person. Honestly I think our relatives who were non-GE got through the regular line faster than we did. I suppose this is part of the staffing issues that are constantly in the news, but sheesh, we had a connection to make, tight as it was with the inbound flight delayed, and standing in that line killed the last chance we had of making it. Other airports where I've used GE in the last six months (LAX, MIA) we've just sailed right on through. So if anyone out there is counting on it working, maybe reassess.
Posted by
CA
2073 posts
Oh no! We return connect theater in a few weeks.
Posted by
Upstate NY, USA
815 posts
You can download Mobile Passport app, too. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/mobile-passport-control
Posted by
2489 posts
We used Global Entry last month at Dulles and it took less than five minutes. Our hiccup was waiting for luggage. We had hiking poles and thus had to check.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
Five minutes for GE at Dulles was what I expected...oh well. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if weren't a passive-aggressive response by someone not happy with their job. At least in Portugal we got plenty of notice about rail / metro / bus strikes and slowdowns.
Posted by
Alexandria, VA
771 posts
We came through Dulles in late May with Global Entry, and like BethFL, we sailed through. Our plane landed around 2:00 PM.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10176 posts
Geez. I wonder what happened. We came through IAD last month too and encountered no problems.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
Maybe they were just reinforcing that travel on the 4th of July weekend was going to be miserable. (I planned this trip ages ago and was supposed to be home before the weekend...)
Posted by
Boise, Idaho
1259 posts
Working the passport, customs, or TSA crews during peak holiday travel is not a job for the timid.
I just try to cut some slack.
Related: I had my preliminary meeting with my travel agent this morning, planning for March 2023. Since no one knows what the travel situation will be next year, she's going to be setting us up with comfortably long layovers, (hopefully) reducing the chance of a missed connection to near zero.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
Yeah, rolling with it is the only option. Never argue with airport personnel.
Long layovers seem to be safer. But watch out for rebookings, though, I have a trip in November where I purposely gave myself a lot of time on an international connection, and the airline last week canceled that flight and put me on another with only a 90 minute window. I had to call them and ask for a later second flight. I expect I'll go through this again before the trip.
Posted by
Chicago, IL 🌭🍕
531 posts
@skunk What is the point of the app if you already have the global entry card?
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2745 posts
Came through Atlanta last week and half the machines aren’t working.
Posted by
OP
38 posts
Other airports we've just walked through and handed the slip of paper to the CBP person on the way out. At Dulles the other day anyone who tried to walk through (and many tried) got told to turn around and go stand in line...which I thought was wrong. When we finally got to the CBP guy, we were asked questions about where we been, did we buy stuff, etc. I wasn't very happy, but I also figured a bad day would only get worse if I argued about it. Beats me what went wrong there.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5507 posts
Maybe it was some kind of random inspection. I haven’t traveled since before the pandemic, but on my last international trip in 2019, I had the same thing happen in the global entry line at Dulles …. long line and the customs guy questioning everyone (maybe you got the same guy). I’ve had global entry since 2012 and every other time through Dulles had been a quick walk through.