Delta Air Lines could be on the verge of removing an irritating rule for international passengers arriving in the United States who are then connecting onto a domestic flight, the carrier’s vice president for the Asia Pacific region, Jeff Moomaw, has revealed.
At present, passengers who arrive in the US after an international flight and who are connecting to a domestic service must get through immigration and then collect their luggage from the carousel in order to clear Customs before rechecking their luggage for their connecting flight.
The process is pretty convoluted, especially when you consider the fact that many countries allow passengers arriving on international flights to check their luggage through to their final destination without the need to collect luggage and recheck it.
The more complicated procedure is in place in the US because smaller airports don’t have customs facilities for passengers arriving off domestic flights, but Delta might have found a solution to this irksome rule.
According to Moomaw, Delta is working with US government officials and Japan’s transport ministry to initially eliminate the recheck rule for international passengers arriving from Tokyo Haneda.
If the trial is successful, the initiative could then be rolled out to Seoul Incheon Airport, as well as London Heathrow and Frankfurt.
“Anyone who has travelled and connected in the United States knows that it’s a difficult experience,” Moomaw conceded in an interview with Japanese publisher Mainichi.
“We will soon be able to remove that part of the experience,” Moomaw continued.
There’s no timeline for when the program might be introduced, but the initiative could prove a game-changer, making the connections process for US-bound travellers a lot easier than at present.
For now, it also looks like Delta might be the only airline to have the right to check luggage through to its final domestic connection, although View From the Wing notes that the recheck requirement will remain in force for passengers connecting through the United States to another international destination.
