New US Customs operation means ugly luggage is "out"
Posted on Friday, August 12, 2011 at 09:09 AM
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| Its day has passed |
She told me this three weeks ago in the departure lounge awaiting our flight to New York, but repeated it again yesterday. "I have to have new luggage before I go again."
You see, the trouble is, luggage is not something we ever invested much in. Although she'd rarely agree with me on such matters, she did go along with my view that luggage only has to be functional, not attractive. I pointed out that cases were tossed around and occasionally maltreated by airline and/or airport staff, so why I pay for something that looks good.
That was before our July 20 flight to America.
Until this year, customs checks on flights from Ireland were done in America. After arriving you collected your luggage and then walked through the customs checkpoint, occasionally being asked a question or two by a customs official and directed to put a case through an X-ray machine (or whatever). {Once, infamously, I managed to incur a $100 fine by blithely answering a customs officer's questions while my wife was busy rounding up a wandering toddler. By the time my wife arrived at the scene the official had our illicit Irish rashers (bacon) in her hand and was citing me for having contraband and lying about it, although I didn't so much lie about having the rashers as lie when I assured her that I knew what was in our cases.}
Anyway, starting this year, US Customs opened a pre-clearance operation at Dublin airport, which is an added extra to the immigration pre-clearance operation that has existed for years. Now, in addition to checking that the passports and other papers are in order, the American official will show you a picture of each of your suitcases and ask you to confirm that each one is yours.
This is where the problem with our bags arose. My wife was mortified by our luggage. While ugly cases may have been acceptable when we were just lifting them on to a belt before the flight and collecting them off a belt afterwards, they were suddenly rendered 'totally unacceptable' because some man called up a picture of our ugly cases on his computer screen, turned the screen towards us, looked my wife in the eye and asked, "Is this yours?"
After muttering "Yes" three times, my wife walked away from the desk and towards our flight for our vacation feeling nothing but shame, burning shame.
With that the suitcase known in our family as "the carpet bag" was out; the case known as "the ratty, flea-bitten one" was also out. For the moment, the third case, a (possibly) passable nondescript red bag, has managed to survive the chop, but what she wants is "elegant" luggage.
My hopes that my wife might change her mind with the passing of time have been dashed. I'm mourning the loss of such easy-to-identify luggage, but next time a customs official turns his screen towards my wife and asks, "Is this yours" she wants to be able to look him back in the eye and say "Yes" with a bit more dignity.
12 comments
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Yardleypa | Aug 14, 2011, 12:31 PM EDT
What a beautiful story it made me cry.I will never look at a bag again and feel the same way.Sometimes the less said is the best.
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RedBranch | Aug 13, 2011, 05:19 PM EDT
Did you know Aer Lingus employs TWO full time drivers whose sole responsibility is driving around the island returning cases which have been misapprehended by other passengers at the carousel?
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GeorgeDillon | Aug 13, 2011, 04:31 PM EDT
bogsidebunny--Maybe I didn't explain. I wasn't thinking of any security threat. My experience is that the US operation at Dublin, combined with the airport's own security, is among the tightest I've ever seen. Maybe even overkill, but I accept that both parties concerned--the ICE and the Irish authorities--are conscious that it is a unique operation for Europe so it must be carried out with the utmost care. What I am questioning is not security but regular customs stuff. Meat, for example, or any of the other things that are banned--seeds, plants etc. How are they caught if they're in your cabin luggage? I am pretty certain there was no visual inspection of my carry-on on either of my trips home thru Dublin. I don't think the X-ray catches stuff like that, it's designed for something else. But maybe I'm wrong. I'm just curious. They have something similar when you're coming back to the US from Canada. But my memory of coming back thru Toronto last year was that it differed from Dublin in that I had to carry my checked bag thru US Customs in Toronto.
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bogsidebunny | Aug 13, 2011, 10:51 AM EDT
Also, the bags you take with you on board seem to avoid scrutiny. Isn't that somewhat questionable?......... GeorgeDillon, In my several trips recently through the "new" customs there's a second security (American) point AFTER you show your passport and customs card to the immigration folks. They put your carryon through another X-Ray machine then.
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TheYank | Aug 13, 2011, 01:31 AM EDT
GeorgeDillon
I'm not too sure myself, but I suspect that those dogs are still sniffing around your case, but it happens where you don't see. Then if the dog or a scan or whatever turns up anything they take it further than just asking you to identify your case.
Someone told me that if they want you to open your bag they ask you to walk through a door where your case is waiting for you. Hasn't happened to me so I don't know.
I'm not too sure myself, but I suspect that those dogs are still sniffing around your case, but it happens where you don't see. Then if the dog or a scan or whatever turns up anything they take it further than just asking you to identify your case.
Someone told me that if they want you to open your bag they ask you to walk through a door where your case is waiting for you. Hasn't happened to me so I don't know.
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TheYank | Aug 13, 2011, 01:29 AM EDT
joan1954,
I'm not sure red is going to cut it. You probably should have gone for the wild purple with patches of brown set that I saw while shopping recently. Red cases are pretty common on the luggage belt, but definitely not as common as black.
I'm not sure red is going to cut it. You probably should have gone for the wild purple with patches of brown set that I saw while shopping recently. Red cases are pretty common on the luggage belt, but definitely not as common as black.
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GeorgeDillon | Aug 12, 2011, 01:27 PM EDT
I'm curious about this operation. I've gone thru US Customs at Dublin twice now. What I wonder is, if they had some reason to want a closer look at your bag, what do they do? Also, the bags you take with you on board seem to avoid scrutiny. Isn't that somewhat questionable? And there are no equivalents of the dog patrol that you see at Newark and other places. So how do they catch you if you have meat etc? As a vegetarian I never bring in meat. My most serious "infraction", in traveling back to the US over the past 30 years, was when a little dog sat down beside my bag in Newark a few years back. Turned out he was objecting to my bringing in a Christmas pudding that a relative of mine had given me.
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joan1954 | Aug 12, 2011, 11:52 AM EDT
I bought new red luggage because I have problems finding mine which were black and even when I put yellow ties there inevitably was someone doing the same thing.
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TheYank | Aug 12, 2011, 11:13 AM EDT
stephendoyle & forflann,
Both excellent arguments, but I'm afraid they will fall on deaf ears if I try them on my wife at this stage. So long as someone is going to be taking pictures of our suitcases she's going to want luggage that looks "respectable."
Both excellent arguments, but I'm afraid they will fall on deaf ears if I try them on my wife at this stage. So long as someone is going to be taking pictures of our suitcases she's going to want luggage that looks "respectable."
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forflann | Aug 12, 2011, 11:01 AM EDT
If your bag has ever fallen off the trolley from the plane baggage compartment and been run over, it think you would prefer it be an old one. Especially since the older ones are more sturdy and your belongings would probably not have tire marks upon them!
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stephendoyle | Aug 12, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT
Look at the bright side,on the luggage carousel at the airport your bags will be easy to find!But really, there is that old addage "don't judge a book by it's cover".I would rather have nice people with ratty bags than bad people with good bags....
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