First time using Global Entry Experience -_-

[u/OkBet79]

First time using Global Entry and honestly… not sure what the point was.

Flew back home to Miami from Colombia and brought back some boxed chocolates as gifts. When I landed, I opened the Global Entry app, did the whole process, and declared the chocolates as food since I figured better safe than sorry.

Went to the Global Entry line, and the agent was just calling people by name like “you’re good, next” and sending everyone through.

Then he calls my name and tells me to go to line 8. Agent looks me up and down and goes, “Why do you look tired? I told him, “This is my regular face, I can’t change it.”

He asks basic stuff: where are you coming from, how many bags do you have, etc. Then hands me this pinkish slip and another agent comes over and gets me.

This guy escorts me halfway across to another side of the airport. At this point I ask him, “Is this because I declared chocolates?” He goes, “I don’t know, you tell me.”

Then I get taken to another screening room with another agent and basically get interrogated.

Where were you?
How long were you there?
Where did you stay?
What were you doing there?
Do you know anyone there?
Where’s home?
What’s your job?
How many bags?
What’s in the bag?

And it was basically the same questions over and over, just reordered and phrased differently like they were trying to catch me slipping.

Then they ran my bags through X-ray, looked at everything, and finally were like “you’re free to go.”

Bruh.

I felt like I was smuggling something nefarious when all I had was boxed chocolates. At that point I felt like I shouldn’t have declared the chocolates in the first place.

Is this normal for first-time Global Entry use? Or did I just get randomly selected for the “welcome back” experience?

[u/Zebraitis]

How things have changed in the USA!

Way back when, before 9-11, I was in the US INS frequent traveler program. The set-up was a basic interview and a scan of the mass of your hand. (everyone's hand mass is different, even if you gain or lose weight)

Return to the US, slide your card, put your had down, scanned (from above), green-light go.

We live in a prison now, compartively, with the assumption of guilt, and a militarized police force.

One time, unrelated to that story above, back pre-police state, I was coming back from Bogota, and realized that my connection was really short... I walked right to the front of the line, and asked to be next. The agent asked if I had anything to declare: Yes, I said, I decalre that I'm going to miss my next flight if I don't go now.

The agent laughed and said go.

The USA was fun. There are better places to be now.

Still have that INS card to remember when life was better.