To be fair to the passengers, an understandable reaction given the potential humilation that can be inflicted by immigration authorities for incorrect or missing paperwork, especially if they have witnessed people being sent to the rear of the queue on previous visits.

Tightslot,

my experience was with a US carrier in mid July - all the cabin crew asked pax was "are you a US resident / citizen" - my reply being 'no' I was given the white I-94 form + customs form. The mention of ESTA was non-existant.
Having gotten the ESTA authorisation I did wonder why I had been given the form but made the assumption that the cabin crew knew what they were doing re forms. I was aware that the green form had been abolished at certain airports but not 100% sure if my destination was one of them.

TightSlot,
I can see that there could be misunderstandings.
Anyway, I looked in here to see what was ACTUALLY happening with ESTA before going BA pax to JFK in a couple of days.
We'll try going paperless and, if there are problems, report back.

We just got back. We initially flew LHR/SEA on BA then on to Juneau and Skagway crossing the land border to Canada on the White Pass & Yukon Railway then back into the USA a few days later along the Alaska Highway. After some time we got a cruise back from Seward (south of Anchorage) to Vancouver BC and then YVR/LHR on BA, I filled in my ESTA, only got a customs form on the plane and the immigration man just stamped my passport.

We crossed the border from Canada to the USA on the Alaska Highway as part of a tour group. The Tour Manager said they kept changing the requirements. In this case an agent came on board, looked at us all, asked the tour manager to gather all the passports (ours were the only UK, there were 4 Canadian and the rest (42?) US). She disappeared into the office for a few minutes then came back, gave everyone their passports and we passed through.

On the cruise we were given a briefing piece of paper the night before we arrived in Vancouver which effectively said we needed to give up our I-94W which we didn't have. I got two completely different stories from the cruise personnel neither of which was true (I am writing to the cruise company).

When I got home I checked with the CBP website and used their contact us service. They have confirmed we left the USA when we left the cruise.

So, it all seems to work, even in slightly complex scenarios.

Hartington,
Excellent! Sounds a great trip.
FE took us fishing from Anchorage; steelhead trout he said; well, at least we got hammered :rolleyes:

ESTA - Las Vegas - My experience.
Went from LGW - LAS June this year with Virgin. We were issued with Green Forms at the baggage drop in Gatwick. On board, my wife made a couple of errors in filling these cards in. Ask the CC for replacements to be told that they weren`t required for Las Vegas, and that the USA was introducing a rolling programme of doing away with said cards. We did have to complete Customs Form.
On arrival, and at immigration, I noticed that we seemed to be the only ones who weren`t clutching their green cards.
Anticipating some questions at the control gate, I handed my passport over along with the customs form. Security didn`t even bat an eyelid , but did all the usual iris scan and fingerprint stuff, stamped our passports and welcomed us to the States. No issues either on the way home at departures.
Iain

Tightslot, yes, a happy ending. It all worked the way it's supposed to.

Well, yes, but if I'm being picky....

1) It does seem to me that there is some confusion among various individuals and organisations - my cruise line for one did the right thing and submitted an electronic list to the US but their staff were ignorant.

2) As it happened when I arrived in Vancouver BC I did actually leave the US. But it was quite feasible that I might have been flying back from Seattle - there is plenty of public transport across the border - which would have required me to re-enter the USA. In the past I would have hung onto my I-94W derature record (I was still inside 90 days), shown it at the boder and surrendered it on departure from Seattle. I THINK (but I'm not sure and I can't find the documentation right now) my cruise line did make some provision for that possibility - they asked if we were leaving from Seattle but I don't know what would have happened if I'd said I was doing that.

Like I said, I'm being picky (it used to be part of my job). If was simply going a to b and back again I would have no problem with the way the whole thing works but I do have some questions about some of the bits around the edges because this is by no means the first time that I have not followed the a-b-a formula when entering and leaving the USA.

Immigration & customs people
 

Having been to Aus many times on biz, and having often been searched by customs, and interrogated by immigration on the way in, - (but with smiles most of the time) I warned SWMBO about this on our way over to Aus on hols earlier this year..

So what happened ? - The smiliest immigration person ever, world wide, and a few questions from a lovely lady at the carousel while we waited for our bags.
That was it. We were in.....................best ever entry to a L/H destination.

(Maybe I should have taken SWMBO on biz trips?

..................but then we got to the Hire car desk. Huh! Great impression of Aus ruined...............