Houston IAH-Immigration Queues and BA Lounge

[Seat62K]

I'm planning a trip to Texas and would be grateful for any information on the following:
What are the immigration queues at Houston Bush like? Would DFW be a better bet?
If you've used it, what is your opinion of the BA Executive Club lounge at IAH? Am I right in assuming that it's better than the third-party one at DFW?
Many thanks.

[Momo]

Iah Ok

The queues depend on the arrival time. Various European flights seem to arrive together in the early afternoon. I remember being on LH and hearing BA and AF people in the rather long queue. However, I have been there twice in this year arriving on the second AF flight, and there was nobody in the immigration area either time, so speedy.

Generally I try to choose immigration queues where the adjacent booth is not manned, so that I can rush forward if it opens.

Have not been in the BA lounge. The LH and AF ones are OK, but small. The BA one looks equally small.

Never been to DFW.

[obgraham]

In my opinin, Houston Bush has the best designed immigration facility in the US. Maybe that's because it's new! Lots of booths, well manned, and things move right along. Even when a bunch of flights from Central/South America arrive. Well organized (though loud-mouthed) directors keep the booth lines short.

DFW is not too bad, but nowhere near as good as IAH.

No opinion on lounges. Out of my pay grade.

[13Alpha]

Agree that immigration at IAH is well organised and works well. Queues are indeed dependent on which other international flights arrived just before yours but in my experience they've never been too bad. The fingerprints / twenty questions routine is of course a pain in the @ss but that's not unique to IAH.

The BA lounge is usually pretty crowded though and a bit dark and gloomy. The First lounge is small but has better daylight. (I had the good fortune to get a free upgrade from Club in my gold card days).

Baggage reclaim can be a bit slow but all in all IAH is a nice airport to travel through.

Been a while since I was at DFW but I think I would choose IAH in preference (although the Houston/Galveston area is in a bit of a mess at the moment, courtesy of Hurricane Ike)

13Alpha

[sg64]

I arrived at IAH in January 2008. We stood in a queue for a little over 2 hours at immigration, the longest I've ever experienced at any US airport. We arrived on a Continental flight from Gatwick, and unfortunately a Lufthansa and a BA flight arrived at pretty much the same time. Sadly, despite there being many booths, only 6 were open.

[obgraham]

Originally Posted by sg64

I arrived at IAH in January 2008. We stood in a queue for a little over 2 hours at immigration

Ah well, just goes to show that consistency is not a strength of US Immigration and Customs.

For what it's worth, I stood in line at Schiphol for 90 minutes last time also. Nobody thinks that's possible!

[visioncat]

lines are variable in length depending on what comes in, but the immigration officials at IAH are fiendish compared to other ports of entry. Invariably it's not just the 'pleasure/business'/how long are you staying, but more like 20+ questions. One official once told me outside the terminal building that they pride themselves on being the toughest point of entry in the US. I don't know if they've succeeded in that, but it can be pretty intimidating.