Rotterdam, Netherlands Oct. 2008: Arriving in Houston Intercontinental from London-Heathrow

06OCT08 Houston Intercontinental. Houston TX (IAH)

We touched down quietly and smoothly at 12:45a. I looked across at the Terminal D gates and there was only an AeroMexico Boeing 737-700 with winglets at the gate. Neither the Asia nor the European heavies have arrived as yet. We had a quick taxi into the gate arriving at 12:50p.
It took a few minutes to deplane, then I headed for the Immigration area, following the lines for “Global Entry.” As we were the first European international flight in and we had a light load the normal Immigration lines were almost non-existent.

There were two customers ahead of me, but by the time I made it to the kiosk, one of them was free. I placed my passport under the reader as instructed; it read it, then I placed my right index finger on the reader and nothing. I pressed a little harder and still nothing. Eventually the machine reset itself to the main screen. Well, so much for a pleasant first experience.

I moved to the next machine advising the Officer who was thereof my experience on the other kiosk. He called another Office to take a look. My second attempt worked as it should and I received my Customs form and exited.

Downstairs, I just showed it to the Office there and of course there was no line again, so I did not feel like I gained anything. I know this won’t last forever though…

I headed to the 102 bus stop in Terminal C via the underground train. I was just in time for the arrival of the bus from downtown, so the wait was only about 10 minutes in all. I did notice two passengers who had arrived on that Aeromexico flight from Mexico City at the bus stop. When they boarded, they had no change, but luckily a passenger did so they were fine. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Metro does not have a way for customers to get a Que card or at least change at the airport…