No security or bag recheck? International connections in US are (slowly) getting easier

Travel just got a lot easier for passengers flying from Australia to Southern California.

American Airlines on Tuesday announced a new initiative with U.S. Customs and Border Protection that will allow passengers to skip the time-consuming baggage recheck at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — a process bemoaned by passengers in between a long-haul international flight and a connection.

It's just the latest in a series of major changes that could shake up the travel experience after an international flight, potentially saving passengers significant time at some of the nation's largest airports.

New benefits after flights from Sydney

American announced on Tuesday that passengers on flights from Sydney Airport (SYD) to its LAX hub — and then connecting on to another flight — will see their checked luggage transferred directly to that later flight.

The change will eliminate the often frustrating sequence connecting passengers frequently face after an international flight.

Typically, passengers arriving from abroad must deplane, go through passport control, wait for their bag to come out and recheck it. Then, they have to proceed to a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint to get rescreened, as if they'd just arrived at the airport like a local passenger.

The new program announced this week for American's LA-bound flights from Sydney won't eliminate that very last requirement — at least, not yet — but travelers on other flights may see that change quite soon.

Skipping the dreaded rescreening

Several airlines — American included — are now in the final stages of preparation for a program that would eliminate both the bag rescreen and security recheck for passengers connecting at two major hubs following flights from London's Heathrow Airport (LHR).

This trial "one-stop" security program could launch by midsummer, TPG has learned, covering passengers inbound from LHR who are connecting to other flights at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).

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“For us, it’s huge,” Gary Tomasulo, American’s chief security officer, told TPG earlier this month.

The move comes months after Atlanta and Dallas passengers on American, Delta Air Lines and other carriers already gained similar freedom when connecting in London. That change is already saving travelers up to 45 minutes during connections at Heathrow, airlines estimate.

Trialing a 1-stop security setup

Once this one-step concept rolls out, it will mean a far simpler set of procedures for passengers connecting at ATL or DFW after a flight from LHR. Passengers on American flights from LHR to DFW would be greeted by two CBP officers right as they deplane, Tomasulo told TPG.

“We’re going to have two CBP officers at the gate,” Tomasulo said. “Those connecting passengers will be broken up into two groups: U.S. citizens [and] non-U.S. citizens."

Assisted by CBP facial comparison technology, those agents will process the inbound connecting passengers on the spot. Then, those passengers will be free to head to their connecting flight — with checked luggage moved along just like on a domestic flight.

Tomasulo said a similar concept will also be available to passengers flying from LHR to DFW on British Airways, American's Oneworld alliance partner.

A Delta spokesperson told TPG it’s working with U.S. and U.K. government officials to finalize similar one-stop security protocols at its Atlanta home base — which would also apply to ATL-bound travelers with onward connections when flying from London on Delta’s SkyTeam alliance partner, Virgin Atlantic (not to mention, ATL-bound British Airways passengers, too).

A downside: Global Entry

A notable downside of American’s new security setup is that, according to Tomasulo, there are no plans for an expedited Global Entry line. However, the carrier expects the end-to-end process will still be a time-saver, even for passengers who pay for the fast-tracked trip through customs.

“A couple of minutes at the gate,” Tomasulo said. “But you’re saving probably 45 minutes, an hour, an hour plus, otherwise.”

Expansion hopes

This new, simplified arrivals process is years in the making, owing to extensive collaboration among airlines, CBP, the TSA and those agencies' counterparts overseas.

The program seems likely to expand to more airports — here and abroad — in the not-so-distant future.

Inflight surfing: American debuts new Wi-Fi redemptions but stops short of making it free

American on Tuesday said it, along with CBP, expects to expand the seamless bag transfers debuting at LAX this week to other airports. Assuming the far more travel-altering one-stop security trial goes well at DFW and ATL, the airline hopes to expand the security-free connections to other major hubs as well.

“If it works well as we expect it to work at DFW and Atlanta, it’s going to expand to other locations in the U.S. — at least from Heathrow,” Tomasulo said. “We’re going to expand to all of our hubs in the future.”

Expect to eventually see one-stop protocols expanded to more flights to and from a longer list of international airports. As TPG reported last year, in 2022, Congress directed the TSA to partner with up to six international partners on trial programs for these seamless connections, with the focus on pairing up with countries that have comparable air travel security protocols to the TSA’s.

“We’re looking at a number of different countries. We’re at different stages with different countries,” former TSA Administrator David Pekoske, whose tenure ended in January, told me last September.

That means we will likely see these benefits extend to an increasing number of airlines, too. For example, United Airlines tells TPG it’s likewise in talks with both the TSA and CBP on one-stop security solutions.

These new, simplified protocols — years in the making — come as the U.S. has recently seen a steep drop-off in the number of international travelers visiting the U.S.

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