The Department of Homeland Security has announced it wants to set up Customs and Border preclearance facilities at 10 new airports: Brussels, Punta Cana, Tokyo/Narita, Amsterdam/Schiphol, Oslo, Madrid/Barajas, Stockholm/Arlanda, Istanbul/Ataturk, London/Heathrow and Manchester. The new preclearance facilities would provide the same services as those longstanding units at major Canadian, island and Irish airports. When returning to the United States, you would go through the immigration and customs processing at your departure airport, so, once through the system, you would already be in the United States. When your flight arrives at a U.S. airport, you arrive as a domestic passenger, free to pick up your baggage and go on your way.
Preclearance offers two potential benefits:
• You go through the red tape at your departure airport, where you have to arrive early anyhow, rather than face long lines after arrival at a busy gateway airport.
• Preclearance allows nonstop international flights to any airport in the United States, including the many that cannot now accommodate them.
Initially, preclearance would seem a "win-win" situation. But some industry pundits question the benefit. First, they note, the relatively new Global Entry program provides fast-track processing on arrival, so preclearance wouldn't benefit travelers who paid for Global Entry. And Global Entry wouldn't help much at departure airports. Next, they point out that with preclearance, airlines might demand you be at the departure airport even earlier. Third, they note that once through preclearance, you're stuffed into a confined area with no access to shops and lounges available in the departure areas of large international airports. These concerns are real.
An additional complication is how the international airports would implement the program. At Heathrow, flights to the United States depart from four of the five separated terminals. Would Heathrow establish a special U.S. departure section in a single terminal or would the United States have to establish four separate preclearance stations?
Despite these questions, chances are that at least some of those 10 airports will have preclearance within two to three years.
SURCHARGE AND 'STYLE'
The other big news is that Lufthansa announced that on Sept. 1 it will add a surcharge of $18 to any ticket bought through any sales channel that uses a global distribution system (GDS), including the big online travel agencies (OTA) such as Expedia or bricks-and-mortar retail agencies. The new policy also applies to the three other airlines Lufthansa controls: Austrian, Brussels and Swiss.
First, Delta takes its information off of some search sites, now Lufthansa moves against all the GDS-dependent systems. Airlines basically don't like and don't want fare transparency. They don't want you comparing fares; they want you to come to their websites.
I suspect that the big OTAs will figure out how to bypass the GDS. But, overall, finding your best deal will get tougher, not easier.
I can't go through the week's news without commenting on another item. Alitalia, rescued from financial near-disaster by Etihad, announced a big re-branding with lots of florid language and typical Italian flair and blather about Italian design. The change? A new paint scheme on its planes. Honestly, where do these airline execs get the idea that anyone cares about paint schemes?
We get nothing about a better product in economy class; instead, we get "classic Italian style projected into the future with a modern, fresh feel." Feh!
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Travel on 06/28/2015