Re: [85attendees] Initial Atlanta experiences

["Toerless Eckert (eckert)" <[e-mail]>]

Wrt to the wait time, I would suggest you submit a complaint to

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/list

Ask them how long you have to wait before they would considere reimbursing
you on the ESTA fee.Tell them you are attending an international
conference and are inclined to suggest that the conference should not be
hosted in the USA in the future anymore.

Given how only $4 out of the $14 ESTA fee go to border protection, and $10
are spent on marketing to get even more visitors into the lines, I would
hope that border protection would like to receive complaints like this
because they could leverage them to ask for more for more money in the pot
to go to them instead of marketing. Just don't tell them that the IETF has
already downgraded the US from mostly 2 conferences a year to only 1 so
there isn't that much more downgrading possible ;-))

Cheers
    Toerless

 
On 11/2/12 1:59 PM, "Jari Arkko" <[e-mail]> wrote:

>I arrived yesterday. Some initial experiences:
>
>Airport -- The airport itself was efficient and worked well, but
>immigrations was a bad experience. We arrived a bit later than predicted,
>and by the time the planeload of people entered the immigrations hall,
>there was an announcement that the agents are free to go home. They did.
>Several hundred people waited in line for that one poor one remaining
>agent (who is in good spirits, all things considered). At some point
>during the wait there was another announcement that apologized they are
>experiencing "technical difficulties". It turns out that they have been
>experiencing computer problems for some time, nationwide, but to us in
>the queue this seemed ... wrong. I waited maybe one hour and fifteen
>minutes, but I was lucky in how the queues got split up at some point, so
>others probably waited longer. They increased the number of agents in the
>end, before that I was afraid we'd be there all night. In any case, it
>was a long wait late in the evening, after a 10-hour flight
>sitting next to the singing golf buddies at the back of the aircraft :-)
>
>Taxis -- Good availability, short ride, reasonable price, my fare was 33$.
>
>Hotel -- Pretty familiar Hilton experience, but exceptionally friendly
>staff. No hotel wireless at 25th floor (in the Hilton), but wired
>Internet. None of the few dozen other visible networks seem to be open or
>working, so it is either your own connectivity or the wired network. In
>the 27th floor there is an executive lounge for Hilton regulars, open for
>breakfast and snacks during the day. The breakfast is quite limited
>compared to usual Hilton lounge standards, but was sufficient for me.
>(Youghurt, pastries, bread, fruit, coffee, soft drinks, etc but no meats
>or warm items.) The Marriott is connected by a bridge to the Hilton. For
>the budget-minded, there's a Motel 6 next to the hotel as well.
>
>Other hotel services -- there's an outdoors pool, access from level 3.
>
>Food -- There is a nearby foodcourt in the Peachtree Center building.
>Recommended for quick lunches, good variety of food options. I liked the
>Yami-Yami Sushi in particular :-) Access the center via the the Marriott
>which is connected to the center via a bridge. But walking on the streets
>may be faster. There's a coffee shop in the hotel lobby with some
>sandwiches and similar.
>
>Network -- Hotel network has transitioned to the IETF. IPv6 routing
>doesn't seem to be up yet, at least not from my room. Otherwise the IETF
>network works great, as always! I wish the hotel wireless would extend to
>my room so that I could use my computer's wired interface for the testing
>that I need to do, but my requirements are probably special. (Update:
>IPv6 now seems to work when I test again after composing this e-mail. But
>I've also seen a network outage.)
>
>Mobile networks -- I have found that it is economical to carry around two
>devices, one with my regular SIM where I can be reached on my usual phone
>number, and another one with a local SIM that provides inexpensive
>network access as a portable access point. For instance, T-Mobile SIM
>card with unlimited access (limited MBytes for 4G though) costs $50 per
>month whereas my roaming costs in the US are 8$/MB on my regular provider
>at home.
>
>Still looking for: Restaurants. To be honest I have not seen one yet. I
>guess there are some, somewhere :-) And I'm hoping there's a gym in the
>hotel. I'd also love to drop by some climbing wall in the city, but have
>not yet had time to search for one. It might of course also be that I run
>out of time to go there. I'll try though.
>
>Jari
>
>
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