The international arrival experience, particularly at major airports in the United States, can be a tiresome experience. This becomes exponentially more stressful during a connection, if there’s a train you want to catch, or a meeting you have to attend right after arrival.
Whenever I travel internationally, I always try to fly with just a carry-on bag, in addition to Global Entry. This makes my arrival experience into the US much smoother and faster.
I recently had a textbook arrival experience at JFK. Despite it being known for one of the more hectic airports for international arrivals, it took just over 10 minutes from the moment I stepped off the plane to the moment I got to the AirTrain platform.
It was a nice day to fly, with a lot of sun as we approached JFK:
As is true with most of my international travels recently, I was arriving from Tokyo Haneda Airport on a Japan Airlines Airbus A350.
We landed at 10:45 in the morning, while I received a notification from the Flighty App.
We had a lengthy taxi to the gate that lasted about 10 minutes. According to Flightradar24, we got to the gate at 10:58. Additionally, the flight attendants announced that there was a sick passenger on the plane and asked everyone to stay in their seats upon gate arrival as this person would be guided off the plane first.
Of course nobody listened to this when we got to the gate, and everyone jumped out of their seats when the seatbelt sign turned off. I’d say this only added a few extra minutes, so it wasn’t a big deal.
First Class began deplaning at about 11:05, and I got off a few minutes later.
After deplaning, I (fast) walked to immigration and customs, which I’d say took about 3 or 4 minutes. Our flight parked fairly close at gate 6, which is in the main terminal building.
There was no line for Global Entry, so I immediately went up to the kiosk, took a picture, and walked up to the CBP agent who let me through right away.
I’m sure it helped that this was at 11 in the morning, with still some time until the rush hour of flights from Europe.
After clearing CBP, I essentially walked straight to the AirTrain platform. I breezed by baggage claim and customs since I only had a checked bag. It took about 5 minutes from CBP to the AirTrain platform.
The benefits of Global Entry are diminished to some extent if you travel with a checked bag, as you will likely have to wait some time at baggage claim anyway. However, I argue that it’s still beneficial as I’d prefer waiting for my bags with time to use the bathroom instead of sitting in a line.
Still, traveling with just a carry-on is a nice experience when flying internationally. I realize it’s not always easy to stuff everything into a carry-on and a personal bag, but it’s great when you can. I also talked about a speedy, 11-minute arrival experience at Tokyo Haneda recently, and this same concept applied in that post.
Given that First Class began deplaning at around 11:05, and I stepped off the plane a few minutes later, this whole process took approximately 12 to 13 minutes.
International travel with Global Entry and a carry-on bag has its benefits, and it was on full display for me at JFK on my most recent trip. This combination has served me well many times.
All photos taken by the author.
