US Esta

Indout96

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

What on earth is the point of asking ridiculous questions such as those, and precisely who is asking?

Agree - we have been all over the states (around 40 trips) and never been asked anything like that - which is a good job as I have no idea (I could take you to it but as for what its called ???)
We have never had any sort of problem except for walking over from Niagara where there is a fee and as we had no US $ wanted to pay via visa - the official was not a happy bunny.


Having just managed to get our Russian Visa's for a trip in 10 weeks I now appreciate how easy the ESTA system is :rotfl:

bradders1983

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

What on earth is the point of asking ridiculous questions such as those, and precisely who is asking?

Its someone employed by a company on behalf of the airline, they have to do it or the plane doesnt get into US airspace. So just smile and nod and answer anything they ask.

[Deleted User]

bradders1983 wrote: »

Its someone employed by a company on behalf of the airline, they have to do it or the plane doesnt get into US airspace. So just smile and nod and answer anything they ask.

But - name of grandchildren's school …. ? What is the point of that one? What if you don't know, etc, etc.

bradders1983

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

But - name of grandchildren's school …. ? What is the point of that one? What if you don't know, etc, etc.

No idea. Probably as pointless as half the questions people get asked when they have to go for an interview to get a first passport these days

Rosco62

OP your answer is in post 5

badger09

The questions might appear ridiculous, and the answers may or may not be relevant to your visit. However, immigration and customs officials are trained to spot behaviour which could indicate that all is not as it seems.

Engaging in apparently casual conversation enables them to observe your behaviour.

koalakoala

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

What on earth is the point of asking ridiculous questions such as those, and precisely who is asking?

When I was flying to US from LHR with AA, We were hauled into a room for TSA precheck.
One of the questions they asked was about hobbies.
When I said swimming they asked where, and how many lengths did I swim and how far was that??? Luckily I know 64 lengths of our pool is a mile.
I stuck to BA after that, none of that nonsense, and I've never been asked stupid questions in US, only why am I there and how much money do I have with me.

bradders1983

koalakoala wrote: »

When I was flying to US from LHR with AA, We were hauled into a room for TSA precheck.
One of the questions they asked was about hobbies.
When I said swimming they asked where, and how many lengths did I swim and how far was that??? Luckily I know 64 lengths of our pool is a mile.
I stuck to BA after that, none of that nonsense, and I've never been asked stupid questions in US, only why am I there and how much money do I have with me.

I really doubt the airline matters, I was asked silly questions flying to the US from Manchester with a British based airline back in September. You have just been lucky not to have been asked since.

[Deleted User]

badger09 wrote: »

The questions might appear ridiculous, and the answers may or may not be relevant to your visit. However, immigration and customs officials are trained to spot behaviour which could indicate that all is not as it seems.

Engaging in apparently casual conversation enables them to observe your behaviour.

I wonder how many people respond to such questions with incredulity and are then denied travel? You've got to laugh at the Americans. They impose this nonsense on travellers and yet they're quite happy for people to stroll around the streets tooled up with machine guns and the like. Did you see that gun lobby protest? :rotfl:

isplumm

johnsmith1890 wrote: »

They impose this nonsense on travellers and yet they're quite happy for people to stroll around the streets tooled up with machine guns and the like. Did you see that gun lobby protest? :rotfl:

Yep - saw that - the state wasn't even really putting much gun control in place - one of their suggestions was that people could only buy 1 gun a month.

There were people carrying machine guns on their backs - bonkers!

Mark