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Comment by MotokoCMDR | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely no trouble at US airports. YMMV. Staff at JFK were professional, friendly and fast.

This person may not have realized an ESTA needed in advance. He could be doing the thing people often do where they screw something up, and then, irresponsibly give a vague explanation, that they can deny later, but that leaves open to interpretation the possibility that they were somehow unfairly treated, when it might have just been their screw up.

"Denied because of ESTA" --> could actually be "Denied because I didn't get my ESTA ahead of time, and follow the clearly stated requirements. Damn, I'm stupid. Everyone make sure you read the rules before you fly! My bad."

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Yes, these inflammatory stories surface on here from time to time. Everyone jumps from 'someone was inconvenienced' to 'totalitarianism' in 1 second with 0 information. People start calling for boycotts of the US.

Later, 9 times out of 10 it ends up being nothing, but there's not a story with thousands of posts with people saying 'oh, I jumped to conclusions'. In fact people don't ever hear about the resolution, and they probably don't care to hear stories that contradict the worldview they choose to reinforce for themselves.

True. People love to play at being victims of something. They absolutely love a ripper of a story of some absolute bad villain. Even if none exists. It's amazing the fictions that masquerade as truths, while everyone is out pretending they've got a monopoly on facts. I'd laugh if it wasn't so devastatingly sad. I'm still laughing tho. Maybe the internet virtualizes/fictionalizes everything and we're all just "victims" of our own creation. Frankennet.

"It's never happened to me, so it must be that guy's fault!"

Oh no I didn't say causation. But I get if pretending I did is the only way you can reply.

My own version: "Guy didn't say it was his fault, so it can't be!" "People always own their mistakes, never blame others!"

"You're not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA" is not "you don't have a valid ESTA".

Also, if your ESTA has expired, most of the time you can do another one in five minutes if you have a credit card and a smartphone at hand. It's pretty rare that it takes more than that, especially if you have done it once before.

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