Last year we arrived at 3:30 and it took us just over an hour to wait in line and finally clear customs. How long has it been taking anybody??
Printable View
Last year we arrived at 3:30 and it took us just over an hour to wait in line and finally clear customs. How long has it been taking anybody??
Saturday afternoon is the busiest time to get thru the airport upon arrival. We travel on different days and have got thur the process in less then 30 minutes. Consider the fact it is a 10 to 15 minute walk from our arrival gate to immiigration it is not that bad. By the way we walk at a rapid pace.
Yep Saturday afternoons are bad, over an hour everytime, around 1:30 multiple flights landing and a back up at Immigration and Customs.
Over many visits to Jamaica, most of our arrivals have been early to mid Saturday afternoon. Its always like that. The only real breeze we've ever had through Immigration and Customs was when we arrived later on a Saturday afternoon.
it usually depends on how many flights landing near the same time as yours and the weather. bags come slow when the liquid sunshine is falling.
Randy
We arrive at 4.45 but on a Tuesday is it any less busy midweek.
It depends on how many flights are arriving at the same time. We arrived around 2:30 on Sat. in January and were pleasantly surprised that the lines were very short. We were at the Couples lounge in no time. However, leaving Jamaica on a Sat. we had a very long wait in the NW/Delta line! One of us had to stand in line with all the luggage while the other stood in line at the kiosk to print boarding passes!
Last April we arrived on a Sat. again at 2:30 and we had a very long line through customs.
We were there this Dec on a Saturday and arrived @ 4:30. We actually went thru immigrations and customs faster than it took our luggage to come thru. I believe it took a half hour from the time we got off the plane till we were having a beer at the Couple lounge. Enjoy!
It just depends on how many flights are arriving when you do....We always arrive on the first flight of the day and have never spent more than 20 minutes in Immigration/Customs combined....even when all of our bags were opened and picked through ...
Are you talking about going into Jamaica, or going out?
We arrived at 12:30 on a Sunday a few weeks ago, and it took us less than 10 minutes to go through Immigration. It really depends if other planes are landing at the same time as yours. But they had plenty of immigration officers available, and we were sitting towards the front of the plane.
any expierences with a sunday arrivial or a monday departure?
We arrived on a sunday in November and only had about a 20 mintue wait through the line. It wasn't really all that bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by goodygirl
not sure when you are traveling but spring break is in the not to distant future and that will add to these times!!
It takes as long as it takes. Depends on staff, depends on number of arrivals, depends on how and what people in front of you do, etc. You'll get through a lot faster if you don't worry about it in advance. The Red Stripe will be there when you're through.
We're scheduled to arrive on a Saturday at 10:30am. Not sure how busy it will be at that time. It's a Saturday, so that's definitely a negative, but hopefully the somewhat early arrival time will result in smaller lines. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Based on my limited international flying experience (and it's been more than 3 years since my last flight out of the country), I seem to recall the Customs lines are always longer and more time consuming when coming back into the U.S. Does going thru the lines in Mobay defy this norm?
Hmm you should try being a brit coming through customs in the US. We have it down pat now, leg it off the plane to try and get to the front (without pushing in) and then are very polite to the nice men and ladies at the immigration desks. Who afterall are only doing their jobs - just that some are nicer than others!
Ron & Rosa,
You're correct about the lines being longer in the US. We arrived at MBJ ~12:30pm on Saturday and sailed through customs with no lines or delays. The following Saturday, we arrived back at MBJ airport with horrible expectations. Guess what - there was nobody at the Delta check-in desk. They have the automated check-in so once we'd pressed a few buttons, we walked straight up, handed over our luggage, and were completed in minutes.
Customs in Atlanta was a whole different story. We arrived mid-afternoon. There were no signs to separate American citizens from non-cititens which was confusing for everyone. Once you found the correct line to be in, it was extremely long and not all customs desks were open.
When we rechecked our luggage, the baggage handler just snatched the cases and literally threw them onto the belt. Completely ignored us - definitely not a good impression to give visitors to the US.
When we finally got through there, going through security to catch our internal flight was painfully slow. I wear an insulin pump and ended up going through one of the full body scan machines. Not a problem for me, but, the security didn't know how to read the scan and couldn't find someone who did. In the end, they just waived me through.
Every airport is different, but this was not the greatest way to end what was a wonderful vacation.
Karen
I just checked the arrivals for Sangster on Saturday. Assuming that the flights will be identical six weeks from today (May 12), there will be four planes landing within 12 minutes of each other. Unfortunately, ours is the last of those four.
The only saving grace is that we are sitting in seats 1C and 1D. Hopefully we can beat some of that crowd.