Southwest Leaving Cozumel

[cvchief]

You have a house in Coz. Lucky you. We'll see if there are enough of you to keep them in business. I bet 95% of the people going there have checked bags. The Aerus flight is just not economical, in my opinion. It looked to me like Advantage fares CUN-CZM were 2000 pesos and from CZM-CUN were 3000 pesos. That's not even addressing the limited times.

1. Having house in Cozumel means you have to haul crap for everyone else. Coming back isn't usually heavy.

2. The time are horrible. As we go back to non-stop BWI to CUN now, we would end up sitting in CUN for hours and hours. Maybe some other route or airline with match up with the Aerus morning and later afternoon flights.

So its highly unlikely I will be helping them survive.

 

[ReefHound]

I think that I and Jackie were referring to the immigration process when returning from Coz. Hitting it monthly made me LOVE Hobby.

I know and I'm not seeing the huge difference beyond shorter walking distances due to smaller size of airport. About the past 20 returns it has gone like this. When we land at IAH and are taxiing to gate, I fill out Mobile Passport Control on my phone. After a 5 mile hike from plane(point for the smaller airport) I enter the MPC line where usually 0-10 people are ahead of me. I show the immigration agent my passport, get my picture taken, answer a few random questions on where I came from and if I'm bringing anything back, and he says welcome home. At baggage carousel, where my wife is waiting because GE is slightly faster, we get our bags and wheel them out. No lines, no checkpoints, no agents. I'm sure they are watching on camera and have already scanned the bags and analyzed our profiles but it doesn't delay us.

We've flown SWA a few times in recent years and I really don't recall the process being any different. What exactly is the big difference? For those connecting I can see where having to pass through TSA again is nonsense since you haven't left a secured area.

 

[ggunn]

For those connecting I can see where having to pass through TSA again is nonsense since you haven't left a secured area.

I agree that it is unnecessary to send internationally arriving travelers back through TSA again to get to connecting flights, but in both Hobby and IAH we do pass through unsecured areas between flights. That could be (and should be IMO) changed. I don't know the precise layout of the secure areas in IAH, but in Hobby we pass by the airline ticketing counters between flights.

I have only connected through Hobby from CZM a couple of times; did we have to collect and recheck our luggage like we do at IAH? I don't remember.

 

[ReefHound]

I agree that it is unnecessary to send internationally arriving travelers back through TSA again to get to connecting flights, but in both Hobby and IAH we do pass through unsecured areas between flights. That could be (and should be IMO) changed. I don't know the precise layout of the secure areas in IAH, but in Hobby we pass by the airline ticketing counters between flights.

I have only connected through Hobby from CZM a couple of times; did we have to collect and recheck our luggage like we do at IAH? I don't remember.

I can't think of any unsecured area in IAH between the plane and the re-check area. The baggage carousels are secured else it would defeat the whole point of customs. You exit the doors from baggage to the re-check area then exit another set of doors to the unsecured area.

 

[ggunn]

I can't think of any unsecured area in IAH between the plane and the re-check area. The baggage carousels are secured else it would defeat the whole point of customs. You exit the doors from baggage to the re-check area then exit another set of doors to the unsecured area.

In IAH I think that when you leave the baggage carousel area through the Customs gate you are leaving the secure area; I am pretty sure you can go from there to the exit doors to ground transportation without going through any other door that you cannot re enter. In Hobby you are clearly out of the secure area on the way to your connecting flight because you pass right by the ticketing counters.

But of course I agree that there is no apparent (to me, anyway) reason to route continuing travelers through an unsecure area.

 

[ggunn]

Question: When returning from Cozumel through Hobby in Houston, do you have to collect and recheck your luggage for a connecting flight as you do in IAH? I have come through Hobby a couple of times but I don't remember.

 

[ReefHound]

In IAH I think that when you leave the baggage carousel area through the Customs gate you are leaving the secure area; I am pretty sure you can go from there to the exit doors to ground transportation without going through any other door that you cannot re enter. In Hobby you are clearly out of the secure area on the way to your connecting flight because you pass right by the ticketing counters.

But of course I agree that there is no apparent (to me, anyway) reason to route continuing travelers through an unsecure area.

When you go through the Customs doors from baggage you are standing right in front of the re-check lines. There is another set of doors to ground transportation. I've never seen anyone coming through them the other way but at most it would take stationing a security agent to prevent it. No architectural layout change would be needed.

And for that matter, there is no one physically at the Custom/baggage doors either so if that is the standard for "secured" then there is nothing secured.

 

[ReefHound]

Question: When returning from Cozumel through Hobby in Houston, do you have to collect and recheck your luggage for a connecting flight as you do in IAH? I have come through Hobby a couple of times but I don't remember.

Isn't everyone required to pass Customs on the first entry point in the US? The only way to pass customs is to get all your bags.

 

[ggunn]

Isn't everyone required to pass Customs on the first entry point in the US? The only way to pass customs is to get all your bags.

I'm not sure what the rules are; that's why I ask. As I said, I have returned from Cozumel through Hobby on SWA but I don't remember how it worked.

When we flew through Amsterdam to Warsaw our bags were checked all the way to our final destination. That was nice.

 

[cvchief]

Question: When returning from Cozumel through Hobby in Houston, do you have to collect and recheck your luggage for a connecting flight as you do in IAH? I have come through Hobby a couple of times but I don't remember.

Yes, clear customs, recheck at the end. Then up the escalator, past check in desk to security.