American's "One Stop Security" At DFW: Amazing, But I'm Confused

Interesting. All things considered, this would *almost* be enough to make me consider stopping at Dallas... but at the end of the day, ORD's new 787 business cabin is a bigger factor than a shorter wait time at immigration.

Great news for Texans, though.

Back in the day, there was a great HBO (hand baggage only) immigration and customs point at Chicago O'Hare. You exited the plane and walked towards immigration, and on your way, there was this unnoticable side exit with no line at all and a single officer who processed everything for you in a minute, and out you went. No immigration hall, no baggage claim hall, no customs hall. Very practical. I wish they had more of those, but to be honest, my three last entries to the US this spring and summer have been very painless. Short lines, no unnecessary questions asked. Easier than ever.

AA is already doing something similar on SYD-LAX. Not skipping security but bag recheck is not needed. That setup is simple as people just walk to customs after passport control. Unsure what happens if anyone needs extra step on customs. DFW setup will be more complex - we’ll see if there will be a few booths at specific gates that can accommodate one-stop flights.

I feel like this could work, but only if US airports were designed similarly to European airports. Flying from a “trusted security” nation to the US and connecting abroad? No customs or re-screening. Connecting to a US domestic flight from a “trusted security” nation? Only go through customs and no tsa. Connecting from a “non-trusted” nation to an international flight? Only through security and no customs. Otherwise, security and customs. You’d need emigration protocols for this to work, which the US doesn’t have.

I'm glad you are covering this because it does have the potential to totally reshape the US arrival process.

In the case of the LHR-DFW flight, the US is comfortable enough not just with the passenger data they get from the UK but also with the scans of luggage so that CBP can do the entire process electronically for US arriving passengers.

The AA process is that connecting passenger luggage is not screened but CBP will check passports at the arrival gate - which could be a long process depending on how many agents they send up and how many questions they ask.

For local DFW passengers, they leave the airport completely w/o interacting w/ any CBP personnel.

For SYD-LAX, they are eliminating the need to claim and recheck bags but you still have to go through immigration processing.

and DL is supposedly the next airline to use the One Stop system with LHR-ATL
In the case of SYD-LAX, they h

Do it! 🙂

I feel like this could work, but only if US airports were designed similarly to European airports. Flying from a “trusted security” nation to the US and connecting abroad? No customs or re-screening. Connecting to a US domestic flight from a “trusted security” nation? Only go through customs and no tsa. Connecting from a “non-trusted” nation to an international flight? Only through security and no customs. Otherwise, security and customs. You’d need emigration protocols for this to work, which the US doesn’t have.

Great, this is bound to put Delta leaps and bounds ahead of their biggest competitors, Frontier, Spirit, and Allegiant.

(iykyk)

Lucky/ Instead of just asking questions of the ether on your blog, why don’t you reach out to AA, DHS and CBP for comment and ask their media departments for answers to all these questions?

Not exactly the same but I had to fly to DFW early during the pandemic (like right after everything shut down and there were almost no flights). Texas required travelers coming from certain states to “be processed” and fill out a questionnaire and attestation before allowed to leave.

We were all escorted off the plane into a protected area with a lot of security (not sure which jurisdiction but pretty sure they had guns) guarding and confirming your info before you could leave.

Now there were about 6 people on my flight haha so a little different than a fully loaded wide body landing

Looks like a reciprocal program with the LHR trial for flights arriving from DFW https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/2185126-lhr-trialing-no-security-check-needed-flights-dfw.html

If you are connecting in the EU from non EU - EU you only have passports checks at the first Schengen border. Via London you always have airside transit do nothing special here.

If you travel from Paris to Tahiti and vice versa it’s a similar process at LAX. Bags are already checked to the final destination.

The Tom Bradley International Terminal is also set up for international airside transfers however the vast majority originate and terminate in LA.

I suggest the US look to Europe or almost any other country on the planet to learn how international connections are organized at major airports without forcing transferring passengers who do not even wish to remain in that country through immigration or let alone requiring them picking up and rechecking their bags.
“OSS”? Sounds inefficient and illogical but in good old US fashion people shout out “awesome” for something which has been quietly running in a more refined way elsewhere for decades.

The AA press release said local DFW passengers, will not be eligible for this program. They will got through normal immigration process.

The entire connection in the US has been nothing short of bizarre. Finally some sanity being brought back to airport screening.

For those that aren’t aware, this OSS thing has already been happening on select flights for months on arrivals into LHR for connections onto BA out of T5. Customers on ‘in scope’ flights from AA/DL/VS (it’s based on the origin destination) are bussed from T3 to an area next to A10E where customers have their onward boarding passes scanned and they are straight into international departures in T5 without having to be rescreened.
What goes on in T3 before they get bussed over I don’t know.

It won’t be screening “in the jetbridge” literally. Like most international arrivals there lots of hallways and corridors that people walk through to get to immigration. They have probably found some space in those corridors where they can redirect connections to one area where there is room to have a line and some officers. The rest go a different way through the maze until they get to the normal passport control.

At DFW when you arrive on an international flight you go through passport control, claim your luggage, recheck it and go landside and back through security.
what is changing here is that you don't need to claim your baggage and there is a shortcut after passport control to departures.
there is no difference needed in passport checking, just making sure you only allow those arriving from the LHR flight to go through the shortcut.
As others point out, this "revolution" is something we've had in europe for decades.

Well, he won't reach out to Marriott either when blogging about property's currency scams. I tend to think Matthew has much better industry contacts and uses those when needed.

It's a tradeoff, the cost of not having exit immigration.

Also a much smaller percentage of passengers are making intl connections in the US vs Europe.

Different places are different.

“No passport exam & checking your bags thru” works if you’re flying on the same airline. But if you have to change terminals or switch airlines, then the existing way is all you have.

However if this frees up 10-15% more slots at customs for the travelers above, then it’ll be a win.

in LHR as in most countries (not intra-EU), you always have to re-clear security when arriving from another country; it is indeed novel that these particular DFW flights do not have to do so.

whether an airport is set up for international transfer of through-checked baggage is a different issue.

Canada has been doing this for decades now.

They only stopped during the pandemic when other health stuff needed to be checked.

Now they have it back sort-of. Ive had to reclear security for Canada domestic legs routinely now for the past few months. I suspect its the type of flights coming into YYZ now...afterall PIA now flies to YYZ and banned from USA. So the security of ALL incoming flights need to be trusted....so it needs to be all or nothing for the most part....

those were the days... when Texas patrolled the actually troublesome border, the one with Louisiana... 😉

Inventing the wheel, I see...

The two floor departure area of Munich airport (and others in Europe) is really well-thought out. Have one floor for Schengen, and one floor for non-Schengen, and if you design the skybridge right, can use the same gate for both.

thanks, Chris,
someone mentioned that above.

I don't know why more people don't have Global Entry. Glad they don't for lines. But even if you don't travel internationally every year, it's worth it.

TBIA is not set up for international airside transfers... you can walk out of the terminal to be landside whenever you'd like. Foreign airports that are setup for it have passport control when leaving the sterile area.

I wonder if this will eliminate the need for transit visas for international to international connections. When we picked up our adopted Ethiopian children, we had to transit through Germany coming back to Canada rather than the US because the wait for a US "transit" visa would have taken longer than the rest of the adoption took, because it really isn't a transit visa.

I feel the success of this will really come down to airport infrastructure and manpower. When I first heard about OSS I couldn't fathom how it would be possible given when you walk off the jetbridge in most (all?) US airports you are immediately mixed with other foreign arrivals.

I was imagining entirely separate pathways connected to a few select gates that would route to officers who would scan passports then dump passengers back into the terminal, to keep the one stop authorized pax from mixing with unauthorized pax. That or bussing from the jetbridge to some other area for passport control before going into the terminal.

Doing some form of passport control on the jetbridge would make this work, but is it really better? With global entry I think i'd prefer to just go through the global entry line then the precheck line rather than queue on a plane waiting for my turn with one of four CBP agents on the jetbridge.

I bet it happens in the terminal D gates that have dual-use domestic / international gate jetways, which can redirect passengers “up” to the sterile immigration corridors or “out” into the airside domestic concourse. Normally a door would close for international arrivals to direct people into the FIS, but if you keep both doors open, a couple CBP officers perched right there could easily wave people one direction or the other, based on facial recognition (already in-use for GE and mobile passport control). Plus it’s from a trusted secure origin (LHR) with data sharing capability. No, there won’t be any passport stamping. I haven’t had a US passport stamp in years, using MBP and GE.

This would only work if the passengers aren't mixed with other non-one-stop passengers working their way through the maze to immigration. The 'one stop' passengers would no longer be as low risk if they were able to, say, get a bag off of someone's shoulder who came off a different flight.

I think it is either passport control in the actual jetbridge and arrive like a domestic flight straight into the terminal or its the regular process, at least until airports redesign international gates to have three expit paths instead of the current two.

That argument doesn’t hold.
UK doesn’t have exit immigration either and still you can transfer without immigration or worrying about your bags. They do send all international transfers into another round of security though.
Not sure what exit immigration would have to do with forcing everyone to immigrate and manually transfer their baggage.

I don't think it will change because the sterile airside section of US airports doesn't have any exit controls. Meaning you could be a transfer passenger through LAX connecting to wherever, but then just decide to walk right out of the airport in LAX without any passport control.

MPC has worked fine for me (German passport) recently. Why bother with GE?
But why do I have to go through immigration in the first place when I am in transit to another country? What does US customs have to do with my bags when they are sent straight to PPT? Well, for some stupid reason I am forced to enter the US in LAX and pick up my bags. Obviously in that case customs would have an interest. In other places I would not even see my bags at the transit airport…

The future is not about trusted “nations” though, it will be trusted “people”. USCBP already processes most US Citizens and foreign GE members like this. I just flew LHR-PHX last week, and CBP arrival in Phoenix took only seconds - I didn’t pull out my passport at all, walked past a touchless GE kiosk that instantly gave me a green “Go” light, and was waved through by the CBP agent sitting there on a stool with a tablet. That’s eventually how everyone “known” and trusted by the US, UK, or EU immigration control databases will be handled, and that doesn’t require a full CBP FIS facility at all - so it can happen “at the gate” or even upon departure (like current preclearance, but more mobile). Going back and forth from the US to UK as a Global Entry member is already a touchelss, stamp-free experience.

It seems like customs in general is going away? I have global entry and you don't get asked the 5 customs questions and you don't get a paper to hand to someone. You still pick up your bag and drop it off but there's no one in the way. I don't get it

"I feel the success of this will really come down to airport infrastructure and manpower." Agreed.

To your point, we must also remind ourselves, soberly, that this is being implemented both at DFW and by American Airlines.

Hahaha and with the US government. A-team for sure

Canada has ITD ("International to Domestic") in major airports: arriving on a nonstop from Cancun CUN, connecting to a domestic flight to Toronto YYZ, pax are inspected by Immigration and Customs without checked bags, which are transferred to the domestic flight automatically. Since they divert to the special ITD area rather than continuing to International Arrivals and Baggage Claim, there's no security re-screening. They've never left airside, so they don't need screening.

My understanding, which was not covered here, is that this is only applicable to CONNECTING pax. Pax ending in DFW go through conventional customs and immigration.
Am I mistaken ?

At least in European Schengen airports, international flights (or to outside Schengen) are separated in their own sterile terminal. An international arrival is let out of the plane straight into the terminal with the only option to board another international flight. If you want to leave the airport or take a domestic flight, you have to clear immigration and customs.

In US airports, domestic and international departures use the same terminal. So if the US were to allow international transfers to deplane straight into the terminal without passing immigration and customs, there's nothing stopping passengers from getting on a domestic flight or just walking out of the terminal.

I have flown International, into the EU with a transfer. My checked in bags arrived to the destination which was a small airport in Italy after everybody else had gotten theirs. There was a procedure where it was known that these bags were first entering the EU and were somewhat inspected.

It has to do with creating a barrier that stops the people in the concourse from walking out. UK doesn't officially have exit immigration, but they have one way barrier gates at their international airports that cannot be crossed back - the presumption is that anyone passing is leaving the country. If you're on a domestic flight, the gates take your picture, and that is checked before boarding to ensure it is the passenger who was already in the UK. If you don't make your flight (very hard, the gates enforce a cutoff), security has to escort you back through UK Border like an international arrival.

In other countries, exit immigration serves the same purpose - it's just that they're actively checking the people departing vs UK having an automatic gate. The US has none of this - anyone can walk right out of any airport at any time, no matter where they are flying.

"To your point, we must also remind ourselves, soberly, that this is being implemented both at DFW and by American Airlines."

Touche, sir.

Just a point of clarification: Humans don't "clear customs"—items do. People clear immigration.

Actually it isn't - CBP immigration officers determine if you need a customs secondary screen and in most locations they take your passport and tell you to go to Customs (line x) when exiting to get it back and go through customs screening.

They just make the determination with one officer now

Because asking questions here drives engagement.

Nobody has ever suggested that Lucky was a journalist.

The biggest trade-off is that you have to fly through Hatethrow; the airport itself, high prices for departures, and the high prices for award tickets from there makes it very unattractive. The only way to combat this is if you actually connect through Hatethrow from another airport.

But you’re also having to reclear security..,
This would make it so you don’t have to go through immigration and tsa

Correct.

No, that is what is happening here. The change will be at the arrival gate - passengers with connections will be directed straight into the terminal, while terminating passengers will be directed through the normal international arrivals process.

I suspect this will all be done using biometrics and similar tech to the current global entry process.

JustinB- exactly. This has to be done in the jetbridge before passengers reach the common corridors leading to the immigration hall. Otherwise passengers from the OSS flight mix with passengers from flights not part of the program and thus are not "clean" from a security standpoint.

For the life of me I can't understand the need or reason for a second security screening when you're making an international connecting flight and bags are checked all the way thru to the final destination and you have boarding passes all the way thru to the final destination and you have not left the secure airside section of the airport and only have 1 carry on bag....why can't I simply walk off my incoming flight (SAN-NRT) and walk back on to my departing flight (NRT-BKK) Both flights on the same airline (JAL)? It's beyond all rational comprehension.

some countries do require every passenger (connecting or departing) to get security screening according to their standards. The UK is a notorious example of this (although there is a similar OSS pilot program taking place for a few select US originating flights).

I’m a local DFW traveler, so I’m interested to see if there is anything here that affects me. Possible effects include:

- Baggage delays - Before this change, all bags went to the belt in the customs hall. Now, they need to be sorted with only DFW terminating passengers going to the belt. This is AA at DFW after all and I would think this will take longer for DFW passengers to get their bags.

- Deboarding Lines - Connecting passengers clear immigration (and customs) at the arriving gate. Local passengers go to immigration first and customs second. I foresee that there may be lines in getting off the plane as the connecting passengers backup at the screening point. DFW terminal D has a lot of space so I suspect that’s why it’s being trialed here.

Customs Confusion - Folks often conflate immigration and customs and call both customs. As someone already noted, immigration is for people, customs is for stuff. I see how this works for immigration, less so for customs. How and when does someone declare something and pay duty? It’s already confusing enough without the paper declaration but this could be even more confusing, cause some fines, and folks to lose GE status.

I’m very interested to see how this actually works

they already do this at Heathrow when continuing on connecting flights

Some airports/airlines, e.g. IAH/UA, already let you bypass baggage claim and automatically transfer your bags when you are on an international-to-international connection. However, you still have to clear Immigrations, as there are no facilities to quarantine TWOV passengers; everybody arriving from an international flight mixes with the totality of folks wandering the terminal. There is nothing preventing a foreign passenger arriving on an international flight to just exit the airport and be in the USA-at-large.

Pre 9/11 the USA did have TWOV at some airports where folks could be quarantined and then escorted directly to the boarding door when boarding began. Not any more, however.

It does not make sense and never has. There was a security check on the outbound. Many airports around the world do not make passengers go through security check again. After clearing customs there should be a way to stay in the secured area for a connecting flight, at least at major airports in the US. Furthermore, if connecting often times there is one lane regardless of Pre Check or not. This has nothing to do with airlines. This has to do with the US Government and the TSA.

Sounds like an underdeveloped version of the Vancouver airport transit experience for international passengers inbound for the US. Which is sensational btw.