Global Entry: First Time Use Newark, New Jersey

I got to use my Global Entry status for the first time on my flight from Hamburg, Germany to Newark, New Jersey. Using the Global Entry Kiosk worked just fine, but the big lesson that I learned is that it doesn't fix all the problems related to entering the US via airplane from another country.

The first problem I had actually wasn't with the Global Entry system itself, but rather finding the Kiosks in the first place. When I enter through Houston IAH for example, there are Global Entry signs all over the place, you can't miss them, and it is very clear where you need to go. It was these signs that convinced me in the first place to sign up for the service. However, when I arrived in the immigration area in Newark, there was not a single sign that I could see anywhere that mentioned Global Entry. After wondering around for a bit, I ended up just getting in the regular line and walking up to a worker to ask him. It turns out that the signs that say Kiosk are are where you need to go. In hindsight that makes sense I guess, however they just say the word Kiosk in large red letters on a white sign. I expected the large standard "Global Entry" sign that I see everywhere else, or even some of the other equivalent systems they support as well.

Once I found the Global Entry "Kiosk" it was no problem. I just stuck my passport in the slot, the machine then takes your picture, the fingerprint pad lights up and you put your fingers on it, then you use the touchscreen for a few quick questions. Then a receipt prints out and your done. The whole process takes about 10 seconds. There was no line in this case, no declarations form to fill out on the plane, I didn't talk to anyone, and didn't even get a passport stamp.

Now, here is where it gets interesting...since I walked directly from the plane, through the kiosk, then to the baggage claim area, I was now the only one there waiting at our baggage carousel. I then proceeded to stand there and wait while all the rest of the 300 people on our flight proceeded through the normal immigration line into the baggage claim area as well. Then we all waited some more until the bags finally came out.

By that time, all the bags for another very large flight had completed coming out and the customs line was about 300 people long. I grabbed by checked bag and got in this line with my little receipt from the Kiosk with everyone else. This took another 20 minutes or so.

Once through that line, there was the line to recheck my bag for the continuing flight to Houston. This took another 10 minutes. At the front of this line, I was told to go to location 2 and leave my bag.

I next proceeded upstairs to the domestic security line.  The PremiereAccess security line was exactly the same length as the regular security line, so that was no help either. Just like in Houston last week, they only had two machines working for the 100s of people trying to get to their flights. So I obediently waited in this line as well to get back into the terminal for my flight. 

In the end, the total time saved getting from the plane to baggage claim: 10 minutes. Total time saved getting from the plane back into the terminal: 0 minutes. The total time plane to terminal: about 60 minutes.

Thus, the lesson learned...Global Entry is awesome if you don't have any checked bags, and you are not connecting on another domestic flight after arrival. What has been your experience?


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Flight: United BusinessFirst Hamburg, Germany to Newark, New Jersey

I originally was not going to upgrade this flight. Normally, I upgrade an Eastbound transatlantic flight that is overnight to get the bed, full dinner, and breakfast; but not a daytime return flight, which starts out in the morning and arrives later that same afternoon. Since it's a daytime flight, I don't mind so much sitting upright, as long at I get a front row or exit row with plenty of legroom, and I just save the miles and upgrade fee for the next flight. However, after the long week I had with crazy travel, long meetings, and the Hamburg train system breakdown earlier (it was well after midnight by the time I got to my room the night before and I had to be at the airport by 7am), I was just exhausted.

When I went to check in for the flight last night, I happened to notice that there was upgrade space available for both legs of the flight to Newark and Houston, which is unusual, considering coach was completely booked for both planes. I took it as fate and called the elite help line and requested the upgrades. That finished, I literally put the phone down and went to sleep.

The next morning, when I showed up at the United checkin counter at Hamburg International Airport, I was greeted immediately by name as I approached. Surprised, I looked at him and asked how he knew who I was, since I had only flew from this airport once before, and I was pretty sure he wasn't working that day. "You're the last one to check in!". He meant the last BusinessFirst person out of the 16 flying today. I checked my watch to make sure it was in fact still 2 hours until the flight was scheduled to leave, the economy queue was still winding all the way across the terminal...but all was fine. I guess, since everyone in BusinessFirst at Hamburg gets access to the Lufthansa Business or Senator's Lounge, with full breakfast service, everyone had arrived extra early to take advantage.

After the normal EU security questions and checking my bag, I headed for the "Fast Lane" security queue. There was no one in line so it really didn't make any difference. However, after I went through and was putting my stuff in bins for the x-ray, there was a commotion. A line had formed by then and a man was apparently upset that someone was trying to get in front of him. The offending man kept yelling "Fast Lane" and pointing to the sign. The other man was yelling something incomprehensible back. Apparently, the man trying to use the "Fast Lane" had upset the other man who didn't understand why someone was cutting all the way to the front of his line. I just went through the scanner and didn't find out how things ended up, but since the airport wasn't shut down afterwards, I assume all was well.

Breakfast spread at the Lufthansa Senator's Lounge

After an hour or so at the Lounge for breakfast and a pretty decent cappuccino, I decided to just walk around the terminal for a while. Our plane had arrived about 30 minutes late, so there was an equivalent turn around delay leaving. By the time I arrived at the gate, they were just starting boarding. Due to the arrangement of the immigration gate and entrance into the waiting area, I ended up being right at the front of the line just at they called group 1. I was nearly the first person to board. I found my seat and started unpacking things. 

Today's Flight Menu

One really nice thing about the United pods, besides the obvious lots of space and bed function, is all the little shelves and places to put things. I can take out my phone charger and plug it in. Put my iPad and magazine on the shelf, one bag in the overhead, and various chargers and other things in the bin behind my head. 

Appetizer and pretzel roll

They immediately asked about pre-flight drinks, I ordered orange juice as usual. Soon enough we were airborne and they started the meal service. As it was about 10am for me, I chose the brunch option, though I had recently eaten a bit at the lounge, at this point it was a couple hours ago.

Brunch Option

After brunch I managed to sleep for a few hours, then got up and got a little work done. Soon enough it was time for the second meal service. This was more of a light snack.

Snack

Unfortunately, unlike my last few landings in Newark, we didn't come in along the New York City skyline, I was not able to get the awesome view of landing along the west side of Manhattan. You are just far enough away that you see the entire island, almost like a toy city (Would be a perfect time to use one of those offset focus toy effects). We came in over the water and I had a southern view of New Jersey.

Once able to get off the plane, I high-tailed it to immigration so I could try out my brand new Global Entry status!

 

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Train Outage Between Bremen and Hamburg Germany

When I visit one of our clients in Bremen domestically, I fly into the Bremen airport, as it is nearly walking distance to their office. However, for international flights, Hamburg is a much better option. I can fly directly to the US without needing to go through Frankfurt or London.

To get from Bremen to Hamburg, the train is about an hour and one runs every few minutes. I was on one such train again when we stopped for what seemed like an extended period of time at a rural station. My colleague commented that he didn't think this express train normally stopped here. I wasn't sure, but it did seem like we should be moving soon. 

Eventually, they announced that the power was out for the whole train system in the area. Seems some construction workers had knocked down the power lines on a track between there and Hamburg. They would be sending buses to get us and take us the rest of the way.

Middle of nowhere and ALL the trains are out!

The train was full, as was every other train, on every other track, in every other station between Bremen and Hamburg. It was late rush hour on a week day. This was going to suck...  

This end of the train didn't even fit on the platform...Clearly we weren't expecting to stop here!

Everyone lazily started piling out of the train, up across the bridge, and queued up in the parking lot. It was a great social event, and would make for a great story, but we had both just flown in the day before, met all day with a client, and were completely exhausted. Also, since we were way out in the country, there was not an option to get a taxi, or much likelihood of one showing up since every other train station was full of people as well.

Amazingly, we only waited about 2 hours for the first round of 3 buses to arrive. It was a bit confusing, since each bus turned out to be going to a different station, but they didn't announce that initially. Add to that not everyone spoke German, so people got on the wrong buses, then had to get off, dig out their bags, and try to cram onto their other bus.

Queuing for the buses

We were both going on to different trains in the city, so we just got on the first bus we got to. We would figure out the rest once we got somewhere with more options.

After a very scenic bus ride through the German countryside, we eventually arrived in the city, where we grabbed a local train to the main station, grabbed some food, then another train to the hotel near the airport. We arrived just about midnight, late and tired, but otherwise intact.

Do you have a great travel disruption? How did it work out?


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Flight: Lufthansa (Contact Air) Stuttgart to Bremen, Germany

This is a flight I have taken a number of times. It's much quicker (about an hour) than the train, which takes most of a day. The flight is from the south west of Germany to the north central area, Bremen is a kind of industrial city, with lots of government and military contractors.


I took a taxi from our office to the Stuttgart airport. It's quite a bit quicker than taking the train, since that requires going all the way downtown, then changing trains to go back south to the airport. Stuttgart actually has a fairly large airport, it is great for international arrivals, and I like it almost as much as Frankfurt.

I waited in the Lounge until the flights was ready board, then headed downstairs. One thing that's a little different is that nearly all the planes board using mobile stairs, and you ride out to the plane on a bus.

This was uneventful and we arrived right on time in Bremen. Getting a taxi was simple and I headed out for my hotel.



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Lounge: Lufthansa Senator's Lounge Stuttgart, Germany

Lufthansa Senator's Lounge at Stuttgart is one of my favorite small lounges, at least of those that I frequent, second only to the Senator's Lounge in Hamburg International. I'm sure the First Class lounges are great, but I have yet to try them. 

Located up one floor just above the terminal gates, it has a great view, generally has a decent spread, and is not nearly as crowded as many. They have free wifi of course. About the only shortcoming is that the restrooms are outside the lounge, just across the hall, so you might need to show your documents again when you come back.

I spent the usual first few minutes rearranging my bag after security, then went to grab some dinner, which you can actually do in most travel lounges OUTSIDE the US. I was pleasantly surprised that they had my favorite German dumpling soup on the buffet! It was Awesome! I had to get several bowls.

And OH the pretzels, I love Germany for the pretzels and pretzel rolls!

Afterwards, I just relaxed and checked emails, then headed downstairs to catch the bus to the plane.


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Train: ICE Brussels to Frankfurt

On a rainy summer day in Belgium, I boarded the German ICE train headed back toward the office for another work week. There is not much to say here. I was on the last day of using my 1st Class Eurorail pass, tired from the last week of work and travel, anxious to just get to the next hotel and sleep some more.

I used the awesome DBBahn iPad app to plan the route as usual. We ended up with some delays in route, which meant I wouldn't make the first connection, but not a big deal. I had the app, which allowed me to track our progress and see that the next train out of Frankfurt was on time.

After another relatively uneventful trip, I arrived back in Reutingen later that evening, and headed back to my work hotel. Only one day in the office this week, then I'm off again to Bremen, Germany to meet with a client.


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How To Tour London In One Hour

During my recent ride on the Eurostar to London and back, I had planned to have about 3 hours to take the Underground downtown and retrace the steps I took years ago on a family trip. Unfortunately, I didn't count on 30 minutes in line through customs in St. Pancras Station, 45 minutes in immigration and security lines for the Channel Tunnel trains, plus the time I spent in queue trying to buy tube tickets, since the machines don't accept non-chip US credit cards. That left me about 1.5 hours to get back and make my return train. I decided to go for it.

Welcome to London St. Pancras International Train Station

Shopping in St. Pancras

I got a single day round trip from St. Pancras to Westminster station. That put me on Bridge Street right next to Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. After walking across the bridge and back taking pictures, I headed toward St. James Park where they were setting up various Olympic structures, then to Buckingham Palace. 

Jubilee Line to Westminster

So, drive on the left, but ride the escalator on the right?

Bridge Street at Westminster Station

I recommend looking both ways, lots of Americans hire cars...

London Eye

Some big clock everyone was looking at

Olympic Preparation in St. James Park

More Olympic buildings

There appeared to be a well organized climate protest going on, men were climbing on the Palace gates and holding up signs. There were police everywhere and the whole area was well partitioned off. I grabbed a few pictures of this as well, then headed for Green Park. I was hoping to get to Hyde Park as well, but I was pushing my time budget by then and decided not to risk it.  

Keeping us well away from the "action"

Old palace yard gates

From the Palace, I cut directly across Green Park with all its tents, green chairs, and hopeful up-and-coming park bench singers, and took the Victoria line back to St. Pancras station. Total time from the station to downtown London and back, about 1 hour 15 minutes!

You may recognize this from EVERY MOVIE EVER FILMED about London.

Have you ever Speed-Visited a city? Tell me about it!

 
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