USA in transit

When looking for flights to see Bee in Canada, I was delighted to learn that Waterloo has, indeed, an International Airport, and that the connection by Northwest/KLM from Frankfurt, either directly or via Amsterdam, is even quite inexpensive. OK, direct means in any case that you have to change planes in Detroit, MI. I do not know whether you are planning to travel to Canada (or to some other country) via the US, but I found the current procedures for transit quite remarkable.

The first, positive thing is that - besides all things fluid or gely outside your body - you are allowed to bring carry-on luggage on board as always. I had the impression that there is quite an incertitude about this among travellers (I was not sure myself before whether I could bring my ibook into the cabin), since I have never before seen the overhead compartments as empty as this time: most overhead compartments on the Amsterdam-Detroit flight were not even half-filled.

But then, the lady at the KLM desk at Frankfurt had told me that my suitcase would be checked through straight to Waterloo. This was not true. At Detroit, all passengers had to collect their luggage at the baggage claim, and go through immigration and customs, including leaving fingerprints and being photographed. Of course, I also had to fill a visa waiver from. I did not really expect to be subject to this whole procedure, since I had a ticket to leave the US two hours later. So, the green from was stapled in my passport, and keeping in mind that you never ever should leave the states with this piece of paper still in your hands to avoid any trouble when you ever should have to go back there, I insisted that the lady at the boarding for the turboprop to Waterloo took it out.

That would not have been necessary, as I learned on my way back. This time, I even had already a boarding pass for the flight to Frankfurt, but immigration and customs were unavoidable. I had to fill, again, a visa waiver form, which I could get neither in Waterloo, nor on the plane to Detroit. Fortunately, there were forms available at the immigration post, and a German speaking Northwest employee was very helpful and even borrowed me her pen. And no Jumbo from Tokyo or so had just arrived, so the huge immigration hall was essentially empty, and the immigration officers quite relaxed and friendly. And, after fingerprinting and photographing, I was told that I can, indeed, keep my visa waiver form in the passport when leaving the US for Canada for a period of less then 30 days. On the other hand, filling that form is no big deal compared to the whole immigration/customs/security recheck procedures...

But this was not the end of the measures necessary for a simple transit: I just had decided, one hour before boarding, to spend the $9.95 for a non-resident access to the Detroit Airport Wireless to transfer my million of Perimeter photos to the Frankfurt server, when a TSA agent informed all of us waiting passengers that right now, fingerprinting and photographing was also required when leaving the US. This is comparably easy, since it is done by machines which scan the passport, give exact instructions what to do with your fingers and where to look for the photo, and finally print out a paper slip with a picture-like pixel code, but you have to walk back the mile or so from the gate to the centre of the terminal, where the machines are located. I was a little upset, since I would have had plenty of time before if anyone had told it me, but now I had to interrupt the file transmission and hurry to these machines, since I did not know how long all this would take...

I the end, all went fine, I got the plane in time, and even all my picture files arrived in Frankfurt 8 hours before me.

However, I really wonder if it is necessary that my fingerprints and my portrait are taken twice within two hours, just because I happen to change planes in Detroit. And, for my next visit in Waterloo, I will probably be looking for affordable flights via Toronto...

Detroit Airport, Transit USA