I'm hoping that the collective wisdom of PPRuNe can help save my sanity.
Despite having vowed never to do so again, I recently transited at LAX en route from NZ to the UK.
On arrival at LAX, I had, as usual, the delightful dilemma of spending the transit time in a cattle holding pen or running the gauntlet of US immigration. Since I felt that having a shower would be in the interests of both me and my fellow passengers, I decided to go through immigration. An hour later, I finally got through immigration. Then just customs and security to go, and I finally get to the shower with 5 mins to spare before boarding
.
Everywhere else in the world seems to manage to keep transit passengers airside without going through immigration, and from a passenger's perspective it's hard to see why LAX is different. It is very tempting to just rant about our American cousins not understanding international travel, etc. But there
must be a reason for the system, since it takes up resources that could otherwise be used for other security work, it lengthens the immigration queue for everyone not in transit, and it removes a large pool of potential customers from the shops at the airport.
Can anyone help out with what the reason for the system is? It would help me to cope with the queue a little better if I knew.
Pohutu