With the number of international flights operating to the United States, this is bound to happen every once in a while. Still, there need to be multiple failures for something like this to occur.
In this post:
Paris to New York flight doesn’t go through immigration
This incident involves a Norse Atlantic Airways flight from Paris (CDG) to New York (JFK) on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. Flight N0301 was scheduled to depart Paris at 8:00PM and land in New York at 10:15PM. After a 7hr24min flight, the plane arrived a bit ahead of schedule, at 9:51PM.
I imagine the arrivals experience was easier than most passengers were expecting, because travelers report that they didn’t have to clear immigration and customs at the airport. Rather they were sent right into the terminal, as if they were arriving on a domestic flight (or a flight using a US Pre-Clearance facility).
Following the incident, the airline sent an email to passengers, informing them that they’d have to report back to the airport at 9AM the following morning. Here’s how the email read:
This is a reminder that you have to be cleared by immigration when entering the US. You did unfortunately not clear immigration upon arrival into New York JFK last night. Please report back to Terminal 7 at JFK this morning at 0900LT at Row E. It is in your own interest that you are processed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the US Government. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
My take on this incident
I have a couple of thoughts on this incident.
First of all, there must have been multiple failures for something like this to occur. Airports are configured in a versatile way, to handle all kinds of flights, including domestic and international ones. That’s why there are typically multiple people checking to make sure that passengers on a flight are “funneled” correctly when they arrive. After all, you want to avoid a mistake like this.
I guess I’m kind of surprised that no passenger quickly made the gate agents aware of this mistake? After all, you know it’s going to be a PITA to fix this after the fact, so it seems better to just have someone bring it up ASAP. I suppose Norse Atlantic Airways probably doesn’t have as many super frequent travelers as airlines like British Airways, where it seems like half of the passengers have Global Entry and are frequent transatlantic travelers.
Also, presumably checked bags arrived in the international immigration facility, so I’m curious how that ended up playing out. I suspect the airline probably figured out the issue at this point, and maybe those passengers did clear immigration?
Second of all, Norse Atlantic’s email seems ridiculously unprofessional to me. The airline makes it sound like immigration is an opt-in process. The airline made a mistake — not passengers — and there should be a more apologetic tone to it, and an offer to reimburse passengers for their transportation costs to & from the airport.
Admittedly Norse Atlantic is an ultra low cost carrier, and probably doesn’t want to pay those expenses. Furthermore, I imagine this is an email someone had to write on the spot at 11PM, and there likely wasn’t any senior manager there to approve it. But still, if you made the mistake, you should also be on the hook for it.
Bottom line
On Tuesday, passengers on a Norse Atlantic Airways flight from Paris to New York accidentally weren’t sent through the immigration and customs facility. This happens from time to time, but it’s extremely rare. Passengers were then asked to report to JFK the following morning.
Mistakes happen, though Norse Atlantic’s tone with its communication seems rather unprofessional to me.
What do you make of this JFK immigration incident?
So, the airline needs a smack on the wrist...but I think JFK (where a lot of this seems to happen...IIRC there was a similar incident from a major airline there a few years back) does as well. From a policy perspective, a lot of attention goes to the airlines...but (for example) a lot of those "really bad" tarmac delays also have their genesis in airports that let their facilities get overbooked and don't have a...
So, the airline needs a smack on the wrist...but I think JFK (where a lot of this seems to happen...IIRC there was a similar incident from a major airline there a few years back) does as well. From a policy perspective, a lot of attention goes to the airlines...but (for example) a lot of those "really bad" tarmac delays also have their genesis in airports that let their facilities get overbooked and don't have a "Plan B" in place for when things go sideways (e.g. plans to do a remote stand if all of the gates are totally busy). There's a chance that the Norse flight crew didn't know that folks were being mis-directed until folks were down the jetbridge, for example (a lot of those gates can flip between domestic and international pax flows).
Now, having said that...the last time or two I've been through immigration (at IAD IIRC), there was so little attention given to passing through customs that the process felt like it might as well be opt-in.
Having said all of the above...I really do wonder what folks are supposed to do if they get that email and they've already proceeded quite far afield? Norse's schedule for that flight at least means that most folks weren't likely connecting onward that night, but I'm imagining just what merry hell would break out for somebody who was (say) already in Florida (or heck, even Hawaii). I'd argue that the law ought to put the airline and/or airport on the hook for any contingent travel expenses - including round-trip mileage and so on - would be the only just/reasonable way this should work out (I'd argue that putting the airline on the hook and then letting the airline sue the airport if the airport screwed up would be the most reasonable approach).
Unlike some airports (such as *FRA), the airport authority really has nothing to do with this. At versatile gates, the airline ground staff are generally required to prepare the gate for the respective arrival. I am not sure who Norse contracts with for ground handling, but obviously someone was not paying attention.
But also... Norse Atlantic, not a US-domestic carrier, so where the hell else would it be coming from. Right? (Again, their ground...
Unlike some airports (such as *FRA), the airport authority really has nothing to do with this. At versatile gates, the airline ground staff are generally required to prepare the gate for the respective arrival. I am not sure who Norse contracts with for ground handling, but obviously someone was not paying attention.
But also... Norse Atlantic, not a US-domestic carrier, so where the hell else would it be coming from. Right? (Again, their ground handling team should know which flights are not pre-clearance as one can assume there may be only a few Norse flights from that station).
*FRA remark, the FAGS (Frankfurt/main AG) control jetbridge and gate operations. Hence if at that station, would be an airport authority issue.
I've done this twice in the UK.
Situation one: Arrive in BRS via Dublin from JFK. I had Ireland entry stamp because I went outside but otherwise, when we arrived in Bristol, the flight arrived as a regular domestic flight. I asked the staff on arrival about going through the UK immigration and two people just shrugged their shoulders. I went on my way, no issues departing from LHR. I'm convinced that I was in...
I've done this twice in the UK.
Situation one: Arrive in BRS via Dublin from JFK. I had Ireland entry stamp because I went outside but otherwise, when we arrived in Bristol, the flight arrived as a regular domestic flight. I asked the staff on arrival about going through the UK immigration and two people just shrugged their shoulders. I went on my way, no issues departing from LHR. I'm convinced that I was in the UK illegally for a week.
Situation two: arrived at RAF Mildenhall from McGuire AFB. From what I understand, US people stationed in the UK don't need to go through the immigration but I wasn't stationed in the UK (or anywhere in Europe for that matter). The staff that met the flight insisted that I don't need to be processed by UKBA, I protested but whatever. Wifey got the normal immigration processing including a faxed entry stamp from somewhere. Later in the week we flew from Mildenhall to Ramstein AB. German border guard didn't bat an eye about no UK entry stamp (or any other entry paperwork) but didn't stamp my passport either. Real fun began when we were leaving FRA - exit immigration was really perplexed how come I don't have UK or German entry stamps. After an explanation and a call, the guy stamped me out of Germany but I was mentally getting ready to miss my flight.
International flights are assigned international arrival gates but the airport authorities. Additionally, the customer service representative should have known the the assigned gate was incorrect. Seems to be a breakdown ok both sides.
Several years back I had a long wait onboard prior to being allowed to deplane a JFK-FRA flight. The delay was caused by the need to arrange moveable walls to funnel arriving passengers towards International non Schngen arrivals. Evidently they deal with this more often and are equipped with intelligent staff at FRA. I believe the dual use gates were at 1-B. It is likely that since Z opened they do not use the 1-B for non Schengen International arrivals.
In this “many moving parts situation”, MANY people noticed and decided not to take action. And for those reading this article, let it be know the writer has NO IDEA of what he is talking about besides reading that tweet and adding some pretty words around it. Less than minimum effort, did not even bother to try and find sequence of events on a routine international flight arriving in the USA.
One thing that non-Nordic people often don't realise is that Nordic work culture is ridiculously unprofessional, down to the government (writing this as a Hong Konger living in Sweden for years) – there is no sense of responsibility, protocol or professionalism in any interaction in this part of the world, and when snafus happen they get insanely defensive.
Relax. Maybe there is a reason why Nordic people are happy. All Scandinavian countries rank among the top 10 in the world's happiest county rankings.
American exceptionalism.
Not unique to America. The same thing happened to me in France.
Not sure I agree that this is Norse’ culpability here. The Port Authority or ICE administer proceedings along the border. When an approved transport vessel arrives at the border, its span of control consists of steering to a parking position and opening its door. After that it is beyond their control.
As a European, I certainly assumed that it was the fault of the airport rather than the airline.
From the article and comments perhaps that is not the legal or procedural situation in the USA.
Which is something you might want to look at.
Foreign passengers probably will now have a nightmare - when they go to leave the USA without having an entry stamp - probably missing their flight.
It...
As a European, I certainly assumed that it was the fault of the airport rather than the airline.
From the article and comments perhaps that is not the legal or procedural situation in the USA.
Which is something you might want to look at.
Foreign passengers probably will now have a nightmare - when they go to leave the USA without having an entry stamp - probably missing their flight.
It certainly wasn't their fault - both airports and airline expect passengers to behave like sheep.
Even if they have not moved on to a different area, why should they have to make a special trip to the airport, in many cases losing a significant part of a short holiday or when their employer expects them to be working?
Immigration's principal purpose is to avoid overstaying.
The US citizens don't matter.
Probably a majority of the foreigners will be flying out (back home) on Norse, so Immigration should brief agents with a list of passengers for whom no entry stamp is OK (more sensibly, enter the Entry into the system from the airline records, but that's probably asking too much)
The rest should be told to go to a local police station who will send confirmation to Immigration to enter into their system.
If Immigration want to, then can charge airport/airline according to who was legally at fault.
"Foreign passengers probably will now have a nightmare - when they go to leave the USA without having an entry stamp - probably missing their flight."
No one has ever checked my entry stamp when leaving the US on an international flight.
As a supervisor at an International Airport for 19 years, let me tell you, it is not an airlines responsibility to have passengers clear Customs on arrival.This is purely an Airport management and Customs responsibility only.
I think it partly depends on luggage. If the luggage was in the international arrivals and not the domestic people would have had to change their plans and deal with it accordingly. I'm surprised with enough passengers if they could not claim their luggage they did not have an internal way to get them behind the immigration to the luggage claim.
At LAX TBIT, you get off the jet way and then go upstairs (or for Gate 148 downstairs) to the sterile corridor which takes you to the FIS. What happens if the elevator does not work? Do they escort passengers to another gate with a working elevator?
I know at IAH you go downstairs in Terminal D to walk over to the Customs area in Terminal E.
JFK just screwed up or the ground staff screwed up.
Seriously though what should these passengers have done? As a US citizen I suppose I would have just left. Who do you even alert? Is it going to cause a terminal shutdown? What if immigration was only at a different terminal?
@Lucky
Another oops not covered yet?
OOPS: Feds swatting a pilot?
It was on mainstream this morning before the tabloid blogs even picked it up.
Same incident happened to me on a BA arrival into MIA from LHR. Staff (all BA) caught it but most of F and some of Club had already walked out into the terminal.
I was thrilled, had no carry-on and was out of the airport in 15mins!
Never heard another word.
To be honest, it's not the airline but the ground handling agency.
Once the passengers are off the plane, there's nothing much that is controlled directly by the airline. Unless its their own ground staff.
Ground handlers are not responsible for Customs clearance.I was a supervisor for a leading ground handler ...we don't control the funneling of passengers through Customs.. not our job.
What I see probably play out was either a miscommunication from the tower to direct the aircraft to a wrong terminal/gate. Otherwise, the likelihood of the captain not familiar with the terminal may also arise and end up parking at domestic terminal as against international. Funnelling of passengers through the right gate is neither the responsibility of airline not ground handling agent. It is entirely the duty of airport operations management.
As the airlines will tell you it's your responsibility to have the necessary documents in order to travel, it's the airlines responsibility to make sure the aircraft is parked in the correct area to allow access to US Customs and Immigration. If they so desire to pay for a limo to pick me up, pay my hourly rate an ($150.00) per hour, and return me home then Norse, then they can forget my returning to the airport.
Entitlement issues, especially for idiots who demand rights but forgot their duties to obey the law.
It's a federal offence to illegally enter the country, citizen or not.
It's your responsibility to report to CBP, even if they parked at Disneyland.
Norse can assist by sending you ICE agents and their limo FREE OF CHARGE.
It's you who's unfortunately breaking the law. You are required to present yourself to an immigration officer upon arrival into the US. This is why you can't legally just walk across the border. If you do, you need to present yourself along with a customs declaration if you are traveling with goods. So you can still be punished even though it's not your fault.
'This is why you can't legally just walk across the border' - Dems beg to differ
Lol so the email was lousy and you assume there was no senior manager to approve it? I mean for you senior managers are magically better than lower rank staff? Plenty of dumb senior staff my dear
This happened to me once on IB JFK-BCL. Strolled through unmanned immigration and customs. With all the theater of security in the US, this is laughable.
They probably just assumed it was a domestic flight since Barra de Colorado doesn't see any international service.
Why would IB fly to BCL, I don't even think they can handle jets.
Is @Robert Fahr trying to smuggle Barbasol from Isla Nublar?
Did this really happen?
The spelling errors and poorly written letter make me question it. The Reddit poster also mentioned how they walked straight to baggage claim, but that isn't necessarily how US airports work. Other than the Reddit post, have we heard anything from Norse or CBP? It just seems fake to me, but I certainly could be wrong.
A grand total of one word is misspelled, by a person for whom English is likely a second language... so I wouldn't put much stock into that per se.
However, as you say, it is sorta odd that no major/establishment stateside media is reporting on this. There's only a single (alleged) passenger complaining about this instance on Norse's public Twitter postings as well.
Odd.
Believe me it is for real. I have been advised (we shall see) that I will be reimbursed for transportation to and back from JFK and Norse Atlantic has offered a free flight anywhere within their network to each affected traveler.
It seems to me this comes down to, who has the ultimate responsibility to make sure the correct door is open before passengers come off -- the door into the terminal or the one toward CBP. I don't know the answer to that question -- i.e., is it CBP, an employee of the airport, or an employee of the airline?
Yes, maybe all of them usually work together, but it wouldn't surprise me if...
It seems to me this comes down to, who has the ultimate responsibility to make sure the correct door is open before passengers come off -- the door into the terminal or the one toward CBP. I don't know the answer to that question -- i.e., is it CBP, an employee of the airport, or an employee of the airline?
Yes, maybe all of them usually work together, but it wouldn't surprise me if the ultimate legal responsibility rests with one party, who must ensure that procedure gets followed.
This is a failure on so many levels. The Norse gate agent receiving the flight should have been one of the final points where this mistake was caught.
On the point of the passengers, what will happen to the passengers who went on connecting flights outside of NY? How are they supposed to come back to JFK? This is a crazy situation.
Presumably they would not have gotten their luggage as it would be circling in the customs area...
@ben no way is it the airline’s fault. Passengers arriving on an international flight should go via a secure sterile channel to immigration.
And it’s not so easy just to go back to terminal 7. They assume everyone is in NYC and what about all those who had separate tickets on other airlines, and could be in Hawaii or Mexico or travelled by road to destinations further afield
This is entirely CBP’s fault.
Better report this to Marjorie trailer trash Queen.
CBP sits in the inspection hall waiting for passengers to arrive. You can't take pictures in that inspection hall. But the arrival corridors are supposed to be guarded by airline/airport employees. You can take pictures all you want in that area.
It was not Norse at fault , it’s the airport that deals with gate allocation and ensuring that international passengers are routed correctly. This is done in partnership with the airlines handling agent , customs and the airport .
@ John Haffenden -- We're on the same page. I didn't say it was exclusively Norse's fault, but as you point out, it's done in coordination with the airline handling agent... who is a representative for Norse.
Still not the airline’s fault. Immigration remains the entire responsibility of the government authorities. If the passengers were directed via an incorrect channel, blame CBP
Oh, that's why I see CBP officials on the jetbridge and in the sterile channel every time I arrive in the US
It is totally the airline's fault. The gate agents control the door configuration. They made a mistake and misdirected the passengers. If the gate agents were unfamiliar with the gate, that is their and the airline's fault.
I am surprised that I haven’t heard more about this. Media love this kind of story. They missed the often rude immigration staff so that was a big plus.
Definitely unprofessional message. They MUST bring back all passengers to the airport with manifest and they should pay for that and a fine if the mistake was done by them. Also, if it's an airline operations' error, they should face a temporary suspension license to fly into the US until they do the proper training to their people. Costly? Yes... But who knows who.was arriving in the low-cost airline and stay in the US illegal???
I agree. The US takes its borders very seriously. Imagine having 300 people not accounted for just come in like that.
Lol, sorry, but how is this different from the thousands of undocumented migrants crossing our Southern border illegally? Of course, the current Woke Administration won't do a thing about this!
It’s nothing to do with the airline. It’s entirely immigration’s error. What if the passenger is on a one way ticket, holds a separate ticket to Hawaii and returning to europe via another carrier. They can’t just go back to JFK
entirely on CBP’s shoulders as their f— up
Much ado about nothing I would venture. What is the likelihood of some bad guy attempting to enter the USA on the one-in-a-million chance that he would miss clearing immigration? For the rest of them, who cares?
Exactly - the same applies to diversions caused by technical issues on 'planes.
(although some Moroccans passengers have prompted spurious diversions in the Mediterranean)
A few year ago (pre 9/11?) governments were sensible about such things.
Now the employees seem to have been told to be irrational.
Norse its a new european airline in first place and if the airplane was guided to a particular Gate # obviously the fault is at NY airport .
Saying that Norse was unprofessional? I found the statement a little out of logic.
Pilots and crew could be unfamiliar with airport terminal and neither their decision for an specific Gate #
Norse isn’t that big of airline, guarantee these pilots have flown into JFK before, this isn’t a new flight. The blame is on both Norse and JFK.
@ Gaston E -- Norse has been flying to JFK for months, I'm not sure that's much of an excuse? Also, the gate that the plane parked at was an international gate, it's just that the door was opened into the terminal, rather than into the immigration facility.
As a US citizen I'd never go back. If not, I'd probably dispute the Norse cc charge for my expenses to taxi back and forth from JFK and provide the email as proof.
Be prepared to lose Global Entry and/or Precheck then and have a very difficult experience next time you try to enter the US
Flight attendants were escorted to the open door leading to the departures level after waiting on the plane for a wheelchair. Immediately they knew that this wasn’t right & waited for ground staff to organize immigration to accept them. It seems like an airport problem not an airline one.
I cannot think why would be the airlines fault. It is the airport and Customs officials who needs to be on top of that.
I agree with you. Its JFK fault and responsible to assign the right gate #.
Most probably on its ignorance from whoever assign gates thought Norse was an US national airline
Airlines handle gate operations in the US, not airport staff.
I have never seen an immigration officer at the gate configuring the doors. It is the airline employees that perform that task.
Hey Buddy, check YOUR FACTS!!
WHERE WERE IMMIGRATION STAFF!??
If on the job (not OFF drinking coffee, etc) NO ONE can get past!!
If you don't know how airports work maybe you aren't, in fact, Well traveled at all.
Except people absolutely can past immigration if you’re deposited through the door into the departures area rather than the international arrivals corridor.
A similar situation happened to me several years ago at Heathrow. Terminal 5 had just opened a few days prior, and it was a trainwreck. I arrived on a flight from Seattle, got off the plane, and found a fork in the corridor. Half the passengers were going one way and half the other. There was no signage, so I just picked a path randomly and ended up in the terminal. Immediately realizing that it...
A similar situation happened to me several years ago at Heathrow. Terminal 5 had just opened a few days prior, and it was a trainwreck. I arrived on a flight from Seattle, got off the plane, and found a fork in the corridor. Half the passengers were going one way and half the other. There was no signage, so I just picked a path randomly and ended up in the terminal. Immediately realizing that it wasn't right, I just stood near the door we came through and waited for the immigration police to arrive and try to herd everyone in the right direction.
I’m guessing that compliance to the return request in that email will be near zero.
So what if you're not actually in NYC? Surely many readers of this blog have made their own connections. That said, I think most readers would realize if they'd been accidentally diverted away from customs and immigration, but I could imagine someone might have driven/flown/taken the train to some location hundreds of miles from JFK. You can't possibly be expected to return to the port of arrival in this situation, right?
The airline hasn't thought it through before they send the email. What are people supposed to do if they have a same day connection and are no longer in New York?
It's Norse arriving NYC at 10 pm. I bet nobody's connecting anywhere.
I’d say it’s the airports’ fault - JFK is responsible for handling incoming passengers and directing them from the gate to the CBP area.
The email from Norse is completely unprofessional and obnoxious though - reminds me of Ryanair (after all, it is a low-cost too).
I remember the same mishap happened in Japan a few years ago…
I am not sure passengers got compensation but the airline (Vanilla Air) received official letter of reprimand from the Ministry.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/18/national/159-taiwan-bypass-immigration-narita-slip-japan/
As a US citizen, I would question the legitimacy of an email with a notable spelling error. If CBP wants me to appear, then CBP has to notify me. CBP doesn’t stamp my passport anymore anyway.
As a visitor, you better show up.
It's you who's unfortunately breaking the law. You are required to present yourself to an immigration officer upon arrival into the US. This is why you can't legally just walk across the border. If you do, you need to present yourself along with a customs declaration if you are traveling with goods. So you can still be punished even though it's not your fault.
Why would a us citizen bother to "comply"? There is zero reason except of course the fine which will be levied on the airline. I had this happen when disembarking a cruise in Spain last year
When leaving the EU they asked when i arrived and then went ough ough. Finally they stamped me in and out the same day.
Because of penalties on the US citizen itself. It's you who's unfortunately breaking the law. You are required to present yourself to an immigration officer upon arrival into the US. This is why you can't legally just walk across the border. If you do, you need to present yourself along with a customs declaration if you are traveling with goods. So you can still be punished even though it's not your fault.
How does it ocurr to them that passengers are still in the airport area the next day? Many will have travelled further afield ...
This error is doubly bad, since not only did they skip immigration, but they also skipped TSA security. Every passenger therefore implicitly had access to every US airport based on a foreign country’s security screening standards (not the US’s).
All flights entering into the US must be subject to the security standards of the US. A bunch of airlines process a secondary security check at the gate at which a US-bound flight is departing.
There is no TSA security when you enter the US.
There is TSA when you are connecting from international, right after you pass CBP.
FYI, when you arrive in the US from most of Canada's airports, you go through a foreign country's security and are deplaned into the domestic terminal inside the US.
There's CATSA security when you board a plane in Canada for domestic and international, but there's a different CATSA inspection if you're flying to the US. US TSA requires something that Canada doesn't. So Canadian, Irish, Bahamian, Aruban and Emirati security when flying to the US is not a quite a foreign country's security.
Replies below correctly point out that their is no TSA security on arrival (their purpose is to prevent hijacking of 'planes, not nasty things getting into the pure USA)
But "foreign standards" implies lower standards is way off - just look at how many guns TSA misses in screening in tests.
By total number of countries in the world (so all the poor ones) US standards are above average.
But compared to...
Replies below correctly point out that their is no TSA security on arrival (their purpose is to prevent hijacking of 'planes, not nasty things getting into the pure USA)
But "foreign standards" implies lower standards is way off - just look at how many guns TSA misses in screening in tests.
By total number of countries in the world (so all the poor ones) US standards are above average.
But compared to the rich world, i.e. Canada, Europe, Japan, KR/SG/TW, Australia, NZ, US laws may have more words (and the police have more guns), but standards for most things are lower.
Why do you assume it’s the airline’s fault? Isn’t it more likely their ground handler or PANYNJ that is at fault?
@ Ben -- I'm not saying it's exclusively the carrier's fault, which is why I said there had to be multiple failures. But an airline gate agent meets international flights, and is responsible for helping to ensure passengers go in the correct direction.
Typically when you land on an international flight, the gate agent comes onboard the plane to make an announcement welcoming passengers onboard, and informing them of which baggage claim belt will be used.
I know of no airline which has a gate agent make an immigration or customs announcement.
You're likely not listening then. I make those announcements for one carrier, and hear them for many others - every single day.
Never in over 30 years of flying, have I ever heard this, on any carrier and in dozens of countries. Believe me, I pay attention to all announcements. Not happened once. Ever.
Cabin crew make pre arrival announcements. Once the aircraft is on blocks, and the door opens, the customers exit and follow signs.
Displays show the baggage carousel since it’s not always known in advance which one may be used at a major airport.
@ Icarus -- Like I said, clearly we have different experiences. I'm pretty well traveled as well. ;-) Just look at the comment from Joe:
"You're likely not listening then. I make those announcements for one carrier, and hear them for many others - every single day."
Before any customer is allowed to leave the plane, the purser and the ground agent first exchange some words, to make sure they're on the same page....
@ Icarus -- Like I said, clearly we have different experiences. I'm pretty well traveled as well. ;-) Just look at the comment from Joe:
"You're likely not listening then. I make those announcements for one carrier, and hear them for many others - every single day."
Before any customer is allowed to leave the plane, the purser and the ground agent first exchange some words, to make sure they're on the same page. Sometimes there's an announcement (in my experience), and sometimes there isn't.
At LAX TBIT, you get off the jet way and then go upstairs (or for Gate 148 downstairs) to the sterile corridor which takes you to the FIS. What happens if the elevator does not work? Do they escort passengers to another gate with a working elevator?
It is likely that on a low cost airline the passengers had no checked bags and did not realize that there was no immigration check until they hit the door. As an American, I would not be likely to go back to JFK next day. Even though JFK is my usual airport,I have no clue where to go. I would probably get dumb looks from many officials before they figure it out.
Typically? I can't remember that ever happening. Not once.
@ eaci -- Is that directed at me? To be clear, when an aircraft door opens, it's typically first met by a representative of the airline. At a minimum, the ground agents and cabin crew exchange paperwork. And if you don't remember this happening even once, then see Joe's comment above, as he does this for work.
When??? A gate agent never comes on board and makes any announcement, especially concerning the carousel number. I’ve travelled on hundreds of international flights and never have I ever.
@ Icarus -- I can only share my experience. When the aircraft door opens, the gate agent and purser usually exchange paperwork, confirm how many wheelchairs there are, etc. Often the gate agent will announce something like "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to JFK Airport. You've arrived at Terminal 7, and all passengers will clear immigration here. You can collect your bags at carousel three."
That's my experience, and I totally get if you have a...
@ Icarus -- I can only share my experience. When the aircraft door opens, the gate agent and purser usually exchange paperwork, confirm how many wheelchairs there are, etc. Often the gate agent will announce something like "ladies and gentlemen, welcome to JFK Airport. You've arrived at Terminal 7, and all passengers will clear immigration here. You can collect your bags at carousel three."
That's my experience, and I totally get if you have a different experience. One thing that's not open to debate, though, is that an airline agent typically meets the flight.
I have certainly never heard a gate agent make an announcement.
Most of my flying has been outside the USA, but not all.
Perhaps a US-thing only, and perhaps US-domestic thing only?
Very occasionally the pilot has announced the luggage belt number.
And worth remembering that many years ago an "airline agent" would be an employee of the airline.
But there are very few employees at outstations nowadays.
They are...
I have certainly never heard a gate agent make an announcement.
Most of my flying has been outside the USA, but not all.
Perhaps a US-thing only, and perhaps US-domestic thing only?
Very occasionally the pilot has announced the luggage belt number.
And worth remembering that many years ago an "airline agent" would be an employee of the airline.
But there are very few employees at outstations nowadays.
They are typically employees of E.g. John Menzies, covering multiple airlines.
In fact, could the blunder be because the staff person in question handles domestic as well as international arrivals?
How is this airlines fault? I would assume they were assigned a gate and airport should know if the flight is domestic or international and organize everything properly. I do agree, however, that the message from airline is a bit unprofessional.
@ Tom -- Most gates can be used for domestic or international service, it's just a function of whether you open the door to the terminal or the immigration facility.
For example, when you depart the US, you're just in a standard domestic terminal, and you end up going down the jet bridge that arriving passengers used when entering an immigration facility.
An airline gate agent is one of the people (among others) responsible for...
@ Tom -- Most gates can be used for domestic or international service, it's just a function of whether you open the door to the terminal or the immigration facility.
For example, when you depart the US, you're just in a standard domestic terminal, and you end up going down the jet bridge that arriving passengers used when entering an immigration facility.
An airline gate agent is one of the people (among others) responsible for ensuring people are funneled correctly.
Unless it’s the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX or international terminal at SFO. They host a few domestics which are clearly separated, such as the Hawaiian arrivals at LAX. international arrivals go up to a sterile walkway which eventually leads to immigration. Domestics are very much separated. Probably as it’s better organised
that is not always true, most airports have separate terminal(s) for international departures and arrivals. Not every terminal has a immigration department but International terminals can be used for domestic too in which case what you said is true