American travel

mirwillbeback

Hi,
Booked via BA to go to the states next week, first leg is an Aer Lingus flight to Gatwick at 8.45am

I'm trying to find out what time I should check in as I can't find out if I do ESTA clearance in Dublin or upon arrival in America.

Rang BA for info, but they said to speak to Aer Lingus...they say it's not their booking so can't help.

Anyone on here have any ideas?

Thanks

Paul

coylemj

ESTA is the travel approval that you do online, 'pre-clearance' refers to the procedure of going through US customs and immigration in another country i.e. before you arrive in the US. You will not do pre-clearance in Dublin as you are not flying direct to the US so you will do immigration and customs when you land in the US as I believe they do not do pre-clearance in Gatwick.

In terms of check-in in Dublin, treat it as a normal flight to the UK but given that you will probably be doing a bag drop, I'd allow 90 minutes.

Riskymove

I presume you have approved ESTA though?

Arbiter of Good Taste

Whilst not directly related to your query, I would advise that if you are checking your bags all the way through (specify this when you check in at Dublin airport), that when you are going through security again in Gatwick, ask Security to confirm whether the bags are actually checked through all the way to the US.

I've never done the trip through Gatwick, but in Heathrow, apparently AL are notorious for getting it wrong and your bags end up sitting on the baggage carousel in Heathrow.

This nearly happened to me on a flight to LA. I was lucky that the security person at Heathrow was clever enough to realise that someone going to LA from London for a week was likely to have checked in a bag (which didn't come up when they scanned my ticket through at security). The security person was able to fix it then and there, so I didn't have to go an check in again.

conor_ie

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

Make sure you have this filled out as soon as possible if you haven't already!