Hi,
Someone just told me that even though my wife has a ticket package with all planes including connecting flights.... She will still have to get her baggage for customs/immigration at the port of entry airport.

How can she do that when the airlines automatically transfers checked baggage to the next connecting plane.
After point of entry in Portland, Oregon she connects on another plane to Medford, Oregon.

Any one with experience on this?
Thanks,
Mike

The airport will not transfer your wife's bags automatically at her POE. She will collect her bags before passing through customs, and then recheck them for the final leg of her flight. Everyone else will be doing the same, and the staff in Portland will help her. My fiance did this in New York. Allow plenty of time between flights to clear customs/immigration, and she will be fine. Good luck, and happy reunion.

In my experience, I picked up my luggage, went through the POE, then put my luggage on another conveyor belt that took it where it needed to go.

Best wishes for your trip "home"!!!!

One has to go through immigration after getting off the plane, get his/her checked baggage from the conveyor, go through customs, and then bring them to baggage drop-off counter. I had about 2 hours of layover last week at LAX and got done with immigration, customs and bringing my luggages to baggage drop-off counter (for those with connecting flights) before heading off to the terminal for my connecting flight in less than 10 mins after getting off the plane.

Thanks for the replies....

You are saying the airlines will already know to pull her luggage at port of entry and she just goes to baggage area to pick it up? Sounds pretty simple.

Yes. People have international connecting flights everyday. Since they have to clear immigrationa and customs at the first point of entry, there is a system set up for people who need to reconnect upon clearing immigration and customs.

Learn something every day. I lived in Oregon for 21 years and never knew Medford had an airport that could handle passenger planes.

What I'm wondering here is have you never visited her in her home country? You would've done exactly the same thing if you had a connecting flight.

Not only will they know to pull her luggage they will know to pull everyones luggage on an international flight at port of entry. This is what they do with every international flight at port of entry.

They will know to pull her luggage because they pull everyone's bags because the procedure is the same for all passengers on an inbound international flight.

She just needs to follow the "ants" theory of navigation. She doesn't really need to know where she's going or what she's doing, just follow the crowds in front of her and everything will be fine.

The drill is: Get off the plane, follow the crowds to immigration. After passing through immigration, the ONLY place she can go is baggage claim. ALL of the baggage from all the passengers on her flight (and any other international flights arriving near the same place and time) will be circling the carousels. She should pick up her bags, like she sees everyone else doing. In order to exit baggage claim, she has to pass through customs, where they may examine her luggage. Only when she exits customs is she free to go wherever she wants. At the exit from customs there will be an airline agent waiting right there to help her put her checked baggage onto a conveyor belt for the next flight. At this point, she's outside the secure part of the airport, so she'll have to go through TSA screening to get to the gate for her next flight.

The last time we went on vacation to the Philippines we had LAX as our POE with connecting flight to Dallas, Tx and then North Carolina (our final destination). When we checked in at the airport in the Philippines, they tagged our bags to show our last destination airport in NC. When we got to LAX, we went through immigration, baggage claim and then customs. After going through all three we exited that part of the airport. Right before we got to the exit there was another conveyor belt and people assisting those with onward flights. They checked our luggage tags to make sure that we do have onward flights.

Then we proceeded to another terminal and went up to the airline's counter to get our boarding passes for TX and NC.

We had allowed for 1hr and 50 minutes between our LAX arrival and flight to TX but it was very close. The baggage claim took most of our time. Immigration was a breeze as my hubby and stepson were USCs while my son and I had our GCs.

I used Portland as my POE, as I live in Milwaukie in the Metro area.

Makes sure your wife knows that after all the formalities transiting passengers and passengers terminating their journey in Portland go different ways.

If she follows the people stopping at Portland she will end up on the bus that takes them to the main terminal building and will find herself in the domestic baggage reclaim area, and would then I guess have to go upstairs and check in as if she was starting her journey at PDX.

There is a sign in the international arrivals at PDX directing transfer passengers, it is after the usual customs and agriculture examination and if I remember correctly transfer passengers go right and those stopping go left.

This may sound stupid but make sure her name and address are on the luggage and not just the tag the airport puts on. My wife landed in newark, got her luggage, went thru POE and then the guy put it on the conveyor belt for her connecting flight. When we went to claim the luggage in tampa it was no where to be found. The next night the airport delivered it to our home, the airport tags were no where to be found.

Thanks everyone,
Yes I have been to philippines twice. But both times I had no visa..... just a passport and no checked baggage... only carry-on.

Well I'm giving my wife maps of her terminal in narita airport and portland.

Also typing up instructions trying to help her make the trip as easy as possible.

Thats why the questions. Thanks again!
Mike & Lorna

Hi BJZags,
Yep! Mostly shuttle planes to nearby cities(portland, SF,LA, etc.

And they are currently remodeling the airport and surrounding area and make it an international airport!!
Place is growing like crazy! :-)
Mike

When I went to jakarta I could check my luggage all the way there even though I went through two diffrent airlines and had to check in again at SFO. But on the way back, I could only check my luggage in until SFO, then I had to take my luggage all the way to the domestic terminal to check it in at the NWA counter. (Might be diffrent with code sharing airlines) Each airport does things diffrently.

Most carriers nowadays have interline luggage agreements so they will if they can check the bags all the way to your destination....