Expectations in Travels Can Be Messy…
Traveling into the unknown can put us on the edge. As I mentioned in my previous blog on our travels to Europe, one of our experiences was with money. However, we have impactful experiences in releasing the role of expectations. Flying here in the states, we don’t think about passport checks when going from state to state despite the states being of similar size to the countries in much of Europe. Flying back from Barcelona we went into Amsterdam then onto Minneapolis before getting into Phoenix. However, just like every airport in the states, no two are exactly alike and neither are those in other countries.
I finally understood the meaning behind all the layover stops from Christmas of 2019 after my dad transitioned through every trip since then. Rarely have we traveled to an airport that was known or that we have done often enough for it to be second nature. When we flew to Orlando to Universal Studios for that holiday, we had multiple stopovers that took us north before heading south. On our return home, we flew from Florida to St. Louis to Seattle before returning to Phoenix. And I see the big picture now…nothing would feel the same after my dad transitioned. We were going to be out of our element regardless of whether we went somewhere known or not. It reminds me greatly of all the hospital visits…rarely the same one back-to-back. When my mom and I found the cafeteria, we knew we had been there too long.
And that statement has a stronger meaning as we got lost trying to locate a restaurant the tour guide spoke of in Lucca, Italy despite going past it and others multiple times. We were looking for what we perceived a restaurant to be. We expected something different and did not see it. Likewise with our luggage when we landed in Minneapolis, we didn’t see our luggage had been pulled off to the side as the colorful straps that we have placed around them for fifteen plus years to easily identify them had been lost along the way. So, we did not see them until an airport official said they arrived, then we went back to the area to search a fourth time and finally claimed them.
I digress, returning to the passport check points at international airports outside the United States before you can go to your connecting flight gate, you must first head to a passport check location. They have both manned and self-serve. The latter is the one we were in line, and we observed the people in front of us to see how it was done. We individually entered an automated small glass booth the size of a turnstile at Disney or when getting on a train. It closed behind us with any carry-on luggage fitting in the booth with you away from the automated doors on either end. The passport is placed face-down, and the machine briefly scans it by taking it and at the same time, your picture is taken. When you are given the green light, your passport slides out for you to grab, and you exit the booth and go to an official who stamps your passport. Once that is done, you can then head to your gate. There are several passport check points in the Amsterdam airport depending on where your flight is heading. We asked an airline stewardess for help – and believe me they were able to guide us. I honestly do not recall how we did it at one of the airports in Germany last year. My guess is that each has their own unique way of handling it. At your gate, your passport is looked at again as your boarding pass is scanned.
Customs is only done upon re-entering your home country from outside it. Last year we went through the DC airport and this year it was in Minneapolis. I can tell you our experiences were different, however for multiple reasons. At the DC airport customs area, we stood in line for over an hour as there were so many international flights. This ate up a good portion of our layover time along with identifying and pulling our checked luggage from one conveyor to place it on another for the domestic flight as well as standing in another line to go through security again for our carry-on and self before heading to the other end of the airport to find our gate.
This year we had gotten a card called Global Entry which although being quite a process was similar to a Fastpass at Disney Land/World. This was a 4-6 month process to complete government paperwork, background check, and schedule an interview at one of the airports. There is an application process that once complete and submitted will provide notifications for when you can move to the next step of scheduling an in-person interview. I watched for several months to see if availability existed at the Phoenix airport and finally, we drove down to a location near the Tucson airport for our individual interviews which included fingerprinting and questions. Once that step is completed, you will receive notification within two to three weeks as to whether you were approved. A card will be sent to you. It also includes the TSA Pre-Check which allows for streamlined security check points within the US.
The Global Entry program card is valid for five years. It is $100 to apply. For us it was money well spent after last year. We got to the Minneapolis customs location, we were guided by an official to the Global Entry kiosks in which no one was ahead of us or behind us. The kiosk scanned our passports, took our picture, and we moved to an officer who asked if I was Kelly, I said yes, and we were out in less than five minutes. Yes, this was a win for us after nineteen hours of travelling at that point!
For those seeking this as an option, you can find the information at www.ttp.dhs.gov which will eventually take you to www.CBP.gov for certain steps. Start at the first link.
Where will your travels take you? Will you find what you are expecting, or do you need to broaden the scope? There are often ways to streamline the end process despite the earlier process being a bit messy. And maybe that is the true lesson in our travel experiences whether local or worldwide that in the end we will find what we are meant to find even when the path pushes us beyond our perceived comfort zone into this not-so-neat and messy world. Yet in the end when we have worked through all the challenging upfront steps, it will feel and be easy breezy in the end.
