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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

> meant for people who are connecting (and therefore needing to pick up bags)

Why do airports in the US do this? At other airports in other countries your bag moves automatically onto the new flight. In the US I have to manually pick it up, almost leave the airport, and then go back in again to drop it off?!

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So I don't know why but for some reason even if you're only changing flights in the US you need a full transit visa(if you're from a country that's not part of the visa waiver programme obvs). Was a big pain when travelling to Costa Rica from Europe, because 90% of flights there change in US, which means having to book a visit at the Embassy, pay $150 and pray the consul actually gives you a visa so you can spend 2 hours on US soil to change flights. In comparison when changing flights in Amsterdam you don't need a Schengen visa, the airport is designed to accommodate people changing flights without leaving the airport.

It isn't just the US, I had to manually transfer my checked bag in Mexico City while connecting on a flight from JFK to Lima.

They mostly do in the USA. Two exceptions: from international to domestic or international transfer must go through customs first, so there is a bag recheck and a checkpoint after customs (but usually not in baggage claim). Otherwise, people might buy a connecting ticket who doesn’t have a baggage transfer agreement with their first airline.

Other countries manage international to domestic without picking up your bag! There must be some way.

France does it by deferring customs until your final destination (so you might do immigration in Paris but customs in Nice). I’ve never seen that in another country, however.

Turkey does it too

Not sure why you think this is specific to the US. Plenty of other countries require you to collect your luggage in order to clear customs when making an international to domestic transfer, for example: Japan and New Zealand.

You don't need to do this for regional flights.

Not every airport in the US has customs, if you arrive at an international airport you need to go through customs and then travel anywhere else.

The US has agreements with specific airports in some countries like Canada to allow them to skip that step by going through US customs in another country.

I know you need to go through customs. But why do I need to pick up my bag, leave the airport, and go back into the airport?

For example international transfers in a major airport like Frankfurt you do customs but you don’t see you bag and you don’t basically leave the airport.

In Newark you go all the way out to where people are being dropped off for departures at the curb!

It’s airport specific. Not every airport in the US operates this way. JFK may require a complete terminal change.

You do not have to do this at most US airports. New York City and Newark in particular is a special case of bullshit.. I avoid that place at almost all costs. There’s a reason those tickets are cheaper.

>I know you need to go through customs. But why do I need to pick up my bag, leave the airport, and go back into the airport?

Because a customs check is not complete if they can't also check your bag on demand?

But it’s complete in other countries? I guess they pull you bag back out of the system if needed in other countries. Optimise for the common case if not needing to look in your bag.

key word being international I assume. Which country doesn't have you fetch your bags and go through customs on entering it? (purely transit between international flights excluded sometimes)

In other countries you go through customs but you bag continues through the system without you.

In some countries. It depends on the country. Personally I prefer having custody of my bag through customs. Even in the US, most airports allow you to redeposit your bags without leaving the customs area.

You’re taking a few examples (try something other than Newark next time) and overgeneralizing.

I've never encountered this in the US.

Happens every time I fly from Europe to Newark, and then on to another US city. You go through customs, pick you bags up off one belt, walk a hundred meters, and put it on another belt. And in doing that you leave security so you have to do it all again!! Why not send bags automatically through?

You would have to go through security again anyways since you are coming off an international flight (same is true in japan, Russia, Europe).

As a US man travelling inside the country?

Because this is not about this case

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