Travelling from other countries, mostly Europe for me, is long and grueling only to stand in the Customs line for up to an hour to explain why my name has an apostrophe and yes it was a pleasure trip. Chris has been waiting to apply for the Global Entry Pass and we finally did for $100 each and good for five years. Since we were driving to Monterey, I scheduled our interview with Customs and Border Protection at LAX which I figured would be easy off the freeway and park in a structure. Interviews were there or Otay border crossing and I preferred the known, LAX.
We arrived early and told to cool our heels over lunch and come back at our scheduled time 1 PM . We went upstairs and ate Pink’s hot dogs with cheese and fries and the dogs had a nice snap and the buns were soft and steamed. I savored the famous Pink’s hot dog as I watched many of the international flights lining up to leave-British Airways-Singapore Airlines and I’m not on any of them!
Finally, we each had an interview and the officer asked why had I visited Malta? Ah, a cruise, I told the nice officer, really, it was a pleasure trip. I heard Chris explain that he has been to Europe because his wife makes him take cruises there and if it were up to him, he’d tour the USA in a motor home. Thanks a bunch. After photos and fingerprints we were finished and jumped back on the freeway only to receive a call my fingerprints didn’t turn out. Could we come back to redo my prints? Chris was able to get off the freeway and turn around and drive back into LAX, circle around while I ran inside for the print redo. We all made sure the prints were perfect before I left and then we were back on the road.
Everyone at the Customs office were professional and cordial and now I officially have my Global Entry Pass. A funny thing happened, I then received an email from British Airways about a sale-I just knew it was meant to be, timing is everything!
