Airport Hastles

[valuedcustomer]

I got back last night at LAX from Colombia.  When I went through customs and gave my declaration paper to the agent, seeing that I had been to Colombia, he automatically wrote something on the paper and directed me to other agents to get my luggage hand-searched.  I also noticed there were some other guys at the airport who had been to Colombia and were getting their luggage hand-searched.  The hand search was cursory and only took a few minutes.  The agent flipped through my passport said “you go to Colombia alot” and he asked me a few questions... I told him I had a novia.... and he let me go.  He spent several minutes typing stuff in the computer before he let me go.  I wonder if they keep a list of people who go to Colombia?  However, it wasn’t that big of a deal and LAX is still pretty hastle free compared to Miami and Atlanta.  I am now always taking LACSA out of LAX to Bogota with a stop at Costa Rica.  I take the red eye flight and I am in Costa Rica the next morning.   The Costa Rica Airport is small and easy to get around – no running several miles to get a connecting flight.      

[denvermike]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

If you read the US State Department Travel warnings and combine that with the lurcative drug business, anybody with Colombia on their card is an automatic suspect. People just don't go to Colombia to be just a tourist very often. I have been searched a few times coming back from Colombia, so what, if you have nothing to hide, who cares. I don't know what good it does, only an idiot would carry drugs or major money in their luggage, maybe that is because they could get searched??

If you are looking for a foreign bride in Colombia, the airport search is the least of your problems.

mike

[cancunhound]

... in response to Re: Airport Hastles, posted by denvermike on Oct 6, 2003

I'll second that.  I have never had any hastles that pissed me off.  Granted I don't have any fancy luggage, usually just a travelling backpack and laptop - and I always dress sharp (in the hope of getting that 1st class upgrade).  I always approach customs with a smile and good attitude.  I guess it's all just a roll of the dice.

[Richard]

... in response to Re: Re: Airport Hastles, posted by cancunhound on Oct 6, 2003

I think the smile and good attitude are the key.  The only problem I have had in Miami is when my customs declaration spilled over onto a second page.  The customs agent wrote teh total on the first page and threw away the second.

[anzo]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

been to Cali a bunch of times, BAQ twice recently, Caracas, Lima &
Santiago and have yet to be searched in Miami. I travel alone, have
longer than average hair, diamond earing and probably fit a profile
despite my age. Of course you'd have to be a magician to get anything
past the the inspectors in Barranquilla and maybe they understand that
in Miami. I get the "you've been to South America" thing alot. I just say "I
have to, because that's where the South American women are" and they
smile and send me on my way. All the inspectors have been men,
though.
Anzo

[mudd]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

been to colombia so many times and a few other countries that i ran out of blank pages in my passoprt. my bags were only searched one time and it took about 5 minutes. im 35, single good loking guy with average looking luggage. i did get a lot of questions one time returning from peru by an old lady at customs. she asked why i traveded to so may countries solo, i told her, why would i want to travel with someone else, she smiled and let me go through.

[Keith Smith]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

That's unfortunate that had to happen to you. I previously mentioned the horror I had to go through with those Customs Inspectors at MIA (between Dec. 2000 and Dec. 2001). Yes, many of us who do travel from here to Colombia and back ARE profiled (but many of those Inspectors will swear they "do not profile people. It's a random search"). Nowadays when I travel to and from Colombia, I avoid MIA altogether. For obvious reasons, I don't trust(NOR HAVE RESPECT) those particular Inspectors (at MIA). During my Customs processing at JFK or Newark, those Inspectors look at me sideways and question me for less than five minutes. But, unlike that riff-raff at MIA, the Inspectors at JFK and Newark are professional and well-mannered. NOTE: They know I've been to Colombia several times, but they also know that I've filed two very serious complaints against them. And they also know that I made contact with two members of the United States Congress regarding my predicament. I don't think that I'm "messing" with the U.S. Government. However, I refuse to be treated like a criminal. Take care.

[Brazilophile]

... in response to Re: Airport Hastles, posted by Keith Smith on Oct 5, 2003

I became a US permanent resident in 1995.  For 2 years until 1997, every time I enterd the US I was given a third degree about how I obtained residency, who sponsored me, where I lived, etc.  

From 1998 until 9/11/01, no immigration agent asked me any questions.  Re-entering the US through MIA was typically an experience of an agent running my passport through the scanner, looking at my face, looking at their computer monitor, stamping the customs form, then saying "next in line" while practically throwing my passport back at me.  No questions, no smiles, no conversation, no nothing.  It took all of 10 seconds to process me.  A few times I felt slighted by the perfunctory manner in which I was serviced.

Since 9/11, there have been a few questions.  Lately, as in 2003, I have been asked where I was born.  I became a US citizen in the spring of 2001 and now use a US passport.

I get more scrutiny when trying to board a plane out of the US than when entering the US.

[Keith Smith]

... in response to Re: Re: Airport Hastles, posted by Brazilophile on Oct 6, 2003

Please send me an e-mail. My e-mail address is: VCultist@aol.com. Thanks. I hope to hear from you soon.

[Jeff S]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

I read in the LA Times that 17,000 people per year are given cavity searches and/or strong laxitives coming through customs at LAX when nothing out of the ordinary is found. It could be a whole lot worse than a hand search of a carry-on.

- Jeff

[DW1]

... in response to Airport Hastles, posted by valuedcustomer on Oct 5, 2003

I get the impression this is the general treatment most
single guys get returning from Colombia. My first trip
there, I had a connecting flight in Miami....I hate that
place! I actually had a Customs officer there in the
airport tell me that when they see a single, unmarried
American male returning to the US from Colombia, the
first thing they're thinking is "drugs". They went through
everything I had, both the suitcase and the carry-on.

[Brazilophile]

... in response to Re: Airport Hastles, posted by DW1 on Oct 5, 2003

There is profiling for travellers returning from Colombia.  I heard that age has is an important factor.  YOUNGER single men who have expensive luggage are assumed to be in the drug trade and are targetted for drug searches.  OLDER single men with modest luggage are assumed to have gone on a sex tour and are not hassled in the least.

[Keith Smith]

... in response to Re: Re: Airport Hastles, posted by Brazilophile on Oct 5, 2003

True, but I've had my problems with Customs Inspectors at MIA in particular. Especially with that arrogant, mean-spirited, and vindictive 'clique' I've encountered. Take care.

[lswote]

... in response to Re: Airport Hastles, posted by DW1 on Oct 5, 2003

That's wierd.  I flew from Bogota to Miami 12 times in a 6 month period end of last year, beginning of this year and I was never stopped or had to have my luggage searched once.

[Cali vet]

... in response to Re: Re: Airport Hastles, posted by lswote on Oct 5, 2003

Clearly you must have the look of an elderly sex tourist about you (from the above post). Anyway on our recent trip to Peru from Cali we had to go via Panama. That being a stop also on the way to the US we were really given the third degree by police inspectors at the Cali airport. They even asked me what barrio/church in Cali we were married in. I told them the wrong one which my wife castigated me for later but it was a feasable answer so we passed muster. They obviously thought I was running a scam bringing fake wives to the US. Now why didn't I think of that?!