Flying into U.S.A. Different from Before

I am a U.S. citizen who loves to travel. Many people know that returning to the airport here can be a bit of an ordeal. It is quite easy to arrive in some EU countries. For instance when I was in Denmark last month, we were able to walk into the country with no customs/immigration stops. Then flying into Iceland was the same: walk straight out of the airport.

On returning to the U.S., I took a flight from Reykjavik to Seattle. Throughout the flight we were reminded to fill out that blue slip of paper for customs. I filled mine out on the plane and kept it accessible for the airport. It turns out that filling out the blue paper was completely unnecessary, so I stressed over accidentally writing in lowercase letters for nothing :).

This time, upon entering the airport, we were directed to kiosks with touch screen monitors. The screen took us through a simpler version of the blue slip of paper. Then we were supposed to take our own photo with the webcam on the monitor, and take the receipt that printed out. This receipt is what the customs people wanted to see. I suppose it makes things easier and faster if you know what you are doing, but most of us passengers were blindsided by the kiosks which took some getting used to, especially when jet lag disorientation is a factor.

I remember looking with sympathy at the parents with babies, having to juggle with their carry-on luggage while holding up their babies and toddlers in front of the webcam just right, and trying to click the shutter button at the right time. It looked like a bit of a circus for those passengers.

Overall, the speed and efficiency that new airport systems have implemented made for the smoothest transition I have had so far.

I thought some people might like to hear about how the airports are keeping up with modern technology. Safe travels, everyone :).