MSE News: US border agency blunder ruins holidays and costs British tourists £100s

DUKE

duchy wrote: »

littlereddevil wrote: »

Ooops
They tend to be more "abrasive" there as it's a Mexico/Carribean/South America gateway with the attendant immigration/drugs issues. It's also incredibly busy and queues tend to be long.

Or more paranoid & on a massive power trip.

Just don't step out of line, or speak, & you'll be OK littlereddevil, oh & expect a jolly good patting down.

brewerdave

...Perhaps our Border oficials should send a few US visitiors home ? Tit for tat and all that ......... I'm sure Putin would.

John259

In my experience the US immigration officers vary enormously. Some of them make Joffrey Baratheon look like a saint, but others are perfectly ok. I haven't really detected any pattern at different airports.

VT82

US Border staff are vile.

OH was held for an hour with his 12 year old nephew at Orlando while I was waiting the other side of security with our luggage. Absolutely no reason to stop them. Guy was very rude. When OH said politely enough 'you're not creating the best first impression for the start of our dream holiday', he was told 'well, you don't have to come to our country'. You don't want to start you're holiday in such a foul mood because you want to do nothing but complain about disgusting border staff!

And if that is any indication of how much on a power trip the US Border Authority is, no one affected by this ESTA issue is going to get so much as an apology, let alone any compensation.

PompeyPete

Can't say that I'm really looking forward to transiting Houston at the end of this month, on the way to a month of volcano spotting in Nicaragua.

EssexExile

VT82 wrote: »

US Border staff are vile.

In nearly 40 years of going to The States I've never had a problem.

duchy

I've never had a bad experience either ....a bit grumpy or short sometimes but never rude and I must have made somewhere between twenty and thirty trips to the US. I tend to greet them with a smile and a cheery hello and they tend to want to just get me through as fast as possible which suits me. It actually surprises me that when travelling as a single woman on very frequent trips I've never got intensely questioned or selected for a secondary interview.

Miami apart where passengers and immigration are both irritable because it's busy, badly designed and has long queues always I think there's no pattern. I've flown through just about every gateway airport except Charlotte and there's good and bad at all.

duchy

Actually there probably was a reason ....... He wasn't the child's parent so more questions tend to be asked.

VT82 wrote: »

US Border staff are vile.

OH was held for an hour with his 12 year old nephew at Orlando while I was waiting the other side of security with our luggage. Absolutely no reason to stop them. Guy was very rude. When OH said politely enough 'you're not creating the best first impression for the start of our dream holiday', he was told 'well, you don't have to come to our country'. You don't want to start you're holiday in such a foul mood because you want to do nothing but complain about disgusting border staff!

And if that is any indication of how much on a power trip the US Border Authority is, no one affected by this ESTA issue is going to get so much as an apology, let alone any compensation.

Murphy_The_Cat

EssexExile wrote: »

In nearly 40 years of going to The States I've never had a problem.

I'm only a 25 year newbie, but I've never had any issues either.

p.s. unlike Mrs Cat you didn't want to leave her in flight fruit leftovers/peel/stones on the plane as litter and took it though customs/anything to declare/have you get any fruit and veg that we need to know about.
They were a tad cross with her :mad:

duchy

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I'm only a 25 year newbie, but I've never had any issues either.

p.s. unlike Mrs Cat you didn't want to leave her in flight fruit leftovers/peel/stones on the plane as litter and took it though customs/anything to declare/have you get any fruit and veg that we need to know about.
They were a tad cross with her :mad:

Ha Ha
Where are the Murphs off to this year ?