My wife and I travel to USA each year for spending some time with our grandsons. Though Lucknow boasts of an international terminal, the only international flights available are those to destinations in the Middle East. We often wondered why did they not offer flights onwards from there to other destinations, but could not find an answer. In the absence of such connecting onward booking, the only option for us was to travel from Delhi. Airlines operating between Lucknow and Delhi do not allow any extra baggage allowance to passengers connecting to or from international sectors. In view of this and also double the normal baggage allowance for USA bound passengers, we used to travel to Delhi by train. This often meant a prefix interval of 24 hours from the time we left home at Lucknow to the time we boarded the international flight at New Delhi. The travel time from New Delhi to San Francisco being 24 hours, this train travel doubled the total travel time.
So we were very happy when we learnt that Jet Airways was likely to start bookings for the sector LKO-SFO. Finally, when my son made the booking, we discovered that the itinerary was a collaboration between three airlines. For our outward journey from Lucknow, the first flight from Lucknow to Abu Dhabi was operated by Jet. The next flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, 16 hours of flight time, was an Etihad airways flight. The third airline is Air Berlin on the return leg which doesn't trace back the outward journey. But the most unusual thing was US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi. Pre-clearance simply means completing US immigration and customs check at Abu Dhabi itself. And this means that you exit on arrival in USA as if you had traveled domestically! Though, as we discovered, this has one disadvantage too: you have to pay for the luggage cart! Regular international travelers get the cart free. Another side effect is that the admission date stamped on your passport is the date in Abu Dhabi at the time of clearance. Thus though I actually entered the USA on 11th June 2016, the date stamped on my passport is 10th June 2016!
It seems that all US bound passengers at Abu Dhabi board their flight through gate no. 59. It also seems that this gate opens only after boarding for an US bound flight is announced. Passengers have to wait in the waiting areas of the adjoining gates.
The way to pre-clearance facility is through a door across the corridor from gate number 59. You descend a flight of stairs into the pre-clearance area and then ascend a flight of stairs to get back to gate number 58 adjoining 59. The whole process starts 3 hours before departure. About an hour before this starting time we were asked to vacate the seating area at gate number 58 so that the area could be sanitized: sanitized as in security and not in hygiene. Upon inquiry we were told to return to that place after an hour. The customs clearance form was also provided.
At the appointed time the queue started forming in the corridor which had been blocked near gate 59. Passengers were directed towards the pre-clearance area. The boarding pass and the passport were checked by the airlines staff. Then there was a thorough security check. After the check we went for the proper immigration process. It was exactly as done in USA on arrival. Usual questions were asked and biometric impressions were taken. The only difference was that a picture of all our checked-in bags appeared on a computer screen in the immigration officer's cabin. I may add that the luggage had been accepted at Lucknow under through check-in and we were NOT required to take possession of the luggage at Abu Dhabi for custom clearance.
After the immigration formalities were over, we exited and went one flight of stairs up to gate number 58. At around the time of boarding all economy class passengers were requested to move to the waiting area of gate number 60 and wait for the boarding call. The boarding was in the usual zone-wise manner.
So we were very happy when we learnt that Jet Airways was likely to start bookings for the sector LKO-SFO. Finally, when my son made the booking, we discovered that the itinerary was a collaboration between three airlines. For our outward journey from Lucknow, the first flight from Lucknow to Abu Dhabi was operated by Jet. The next flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco, 16 hours of flight time, was an Etihad airways flight. The third airline is Air Berlin on the return leg which doesn't trace back the outward journey. But the most unusual thing was US pre-clearance at Abu Dhabi. Pre-clearance simply means completing US immigration and customs check at Abu Dhabi itself. And this means that you exit on arrival in USA as if you had traveled domestically! Though, as we discovered, this has one disadvantage too: you have to pay for the luggage cart! Regular international travelers get the cart free. Another side effect is that the admission date stamped on your passport is the date in Abu Dhabi at the time of clearance. Thus though I actually entered the USA on 11th June 2016, the date stamped on my passport is 10th June 2016!
It seems that all US bound passengers at Abu Dhabi board their flight through gate no. 59. It also seems that this gate opens only after boarding for an US bound flight is announced. Passengers have to wait in the waiting areas of the adjoining gates.
The way to pre-clearance facility is through a door across the corridor from gate number 59. You descend a flight of stairs into the pre-clearance area and then ascend a flight of stairs to get back to gate number 58 adjoining 59. The whole process starts 3 hours before departure. About an hour before this starting time we were asked to vacate the seating area at gate number 58 so that the area could be sanitized: sanitized as in security and not in hygiene. Upon inquiry we were told to return to that place after an hour. The customs clearance form was also provided.
At the appointed time the queue started forming in the corridor which had been blocked near gate 59. Passengers were directed towards the pre-clearance area. The boarding pass and the passport were checked by the airlines staff. Then there was a thorough security check. After the check we went for the proper immigration process. It was exactly as done in USA on arrival. Usual questions were asked and biometric impressions were taken. The only difference was that a picture of all our checked-in bags appeared on a computer screen in the immigration officer's cabin. I may add that the luggage had been accepted at Lucknow under through check-in and we were NOT required to take possession of the luggage at Abu Dhabi for custom clearance.
After the immigration formalities were over, we exited and went one flight of stairs up to gate number 58. At around the time of boarding all economy class passengers were requested to move to the waiting area of gate number 60 and wait for the boarding call. The boarding was in the usual zone-wise manner.
