TSA, Imigration/Customs during US Gov Shutdown

[AussieCaribou]

G'day,

Has anyone been through the west coast US international airports since the US Gov Shutdown?

My husband and I are flying over in late Feb. Our US carrier changed our connections in Dec to give us only 1.5 hours between our International and Domestic flights. As we are flying through San Fran, we thought that we would have enough time... then the shut down happened... 'Well, we are going in late Feb. Certainly we will be okay then,' we thought. So, now that we are over 30 days with no end in sight, do you guys think that 1.5 hours is going to be okay? We plan on calling the carrier tomorrow, but I don't know what type of luck we will have.

Thanks!

 

[ColinA]

G'day,

Has anyone been through the west coast US international airports since the US Gov Shutdown?

My husband and I are flying over in late Feb. Our US carrier changed our connections in Dec to give us only 1.5 hours between our International and Domestic flights. As we are flying through San Fran, we thought that we would have enough time... then the shut down happened... 'Well, we are going in late Feb. Certainly we will be okay then,' we thought. So, now that we are over 30 days with no end in sight, do you guys think that 1.5 hours is going to be okay? We plan on calling the carrier tomorrow, but I don't know what type of luck we will have.

Thanks!

If it was me 1.5 hours is risky. Depends on if your flight is on time, customs, luggage & immigration and maybe security again. SF you may have to change terminals.

Who are the flights with?

We fly Qantas and then American. If there is a problem they look after you but the domestic flight may be the next day if you miss the flight.

Last August we had flights changed Sydney to Dallas and then to Des Moine and only had 1.5 hrs change. Customs was crazy and we missed the AA flight and then waited 6 hours for the next flight. Lucky it was the same day.

TSA are still doing their job but are not very nice sometimes.

 

[Sharkmeister]

We flew through San Francisco two weeks ago and I have to say it was the fastest that we have ever been through immigration. We could have caught an earlier connection, but decided not to risk it, as our bags were tagged for the later flight. Well, it turns out our bags did make the earlier flight and were waiting for us all day at our destination.
San Francisco is much easier to get around than LAX. Bag drop to connecting flights is simple and if you need to reschedule flights die to delays, the counter is right next to the bag drop. We did miss a connection through SFO once, but that was due to massive delays and cancellations in Sydney before we left.

 

[AussieCaribou]

Thank you, guys. Just because I don’t want to stress about flights while flying across the pacific, I have rescheduled to a later flight (now have 2.5 hours).

Super excited about my trip. Only 22 more days!

 

[Montanabel]

Have a wonderful time! Don't forget to post photos either there or when you get back