Re: [84attendees] US immigration vs. customs

[Ben Campbell <[e-mail]>]

On Aug 6, 2012, at 9:20 PM, Steven Bellovin <[e-mail]> wrote:

> The same can happen at in the EU with checked baggage.  Carry-on
> luggage enters with you; checked baggage enters at the airport of
> your final destination, since that's when it's accessible to you.
> (I've had some bizarre corner cases involving that and too-helpful
> airline personnel.  On one trip to Heraklion (Crete), via (for
> complicated reasons involving airline fares), my flight over was
> via two different record locators.  I was helpfully ticketed through
> (and boarding passes issued) for all three legs, and the bags checked
> straight through, even though HER is not an international airport and
> hence doesn't have customs.  In other words, my checked luggage, as best
> I can tell, was never (nominally) screened.

Years ago, I flew DFW-ORY-NCE. My bags were checked through to Nice. But since the final leg was a domestic flight (on a French commuter airline whose name I cannot remember, and AFAIK, no longer exists), and no international flights were scheduled to arrive in Nice near the same time, C&I was closed. I waited with everyone else for my luggage to come out, to no avail. Then I saw the belt in the nearby international arrival area wake up, and spit out one bag. The area was dark, and roped off. I waited a while to figure out what to do, then carefully and slowly walked over, stepped over the rope, and got my bag. 

This was all in the direct view of the gendarmes with submachine guns. I moved _very_ slowly with no sudden moves.

Last time I flew to NCE, they had completely rearranged things, where outside access to the international area appeared impossible. I can only assume if that happened now, my bag would be gone forever (perhaps destroyed by the very same gendarmes who I gather delight in destroying dodgy luggage).

The return flight was almost as much fun, as I got to explain to the AA attendant that some dang-fool corporate travel agent had actually written an itinerary with a 50 minute window for transferring from a domestic flight from Nice (the first flight of the day) to an USA bound AA flight at ORY (the only flight of the day).