Houston IAH

My husband and I were there on Monday night coming in from Mexico we had 3 hrs to connect to our homebound flight and missed 2 flights due to the ridiculous line in the US Resident/Visitor line. We waited there 3 hours! The immigration officers were disrespectful and lazy. They were in a corner hanging out laughing while people waited and missed their connecting flights. As a US Citizen with a US resident husband I was able to go through the same line and now they have this bad system where residents have to go in the same line with visitors. Talk about inefficiency. This airport needs a better Operations Management Chief and these government employees that are being paid with our taxpayer dollars need to be put to work. Once we reached the United Airlines counter there were another 200 people in that line. United was nice enough to put us up in a hotel and gave us food vouchers. Houston is the worse. It gives a bad impression to visitors about my country step it up and welcome to the first world!

Flew through here last night from Mexico flight. The jam in Customs was spectacular. We waited in the cattle call lines for 1.5 hours. Approximately 800 ppl total. With 40 gates available only 2 open. The new kiosks were being used to check passports when you scan your passport you get a slip of paper (that should be the end of it) but no you then go into another line and wait for the 1 or 2 live people at the only 2 gates that hand stamp and initial your paper. Then onto another line for the customs person to again check your passport and initialled paper is taken. In the meantime some people are let to go right through after the kiosk and others going into another line. No rationale for that process. We had been allowed 1.5 hours between flights by United. Apparently you need at least 3 because by the time we took our bags out of the baggage area we could not recheck it because of time and took it with us through TSA. With all of that it took us almost 2 full hours to get through the process and that does not even count the time to get from terminal E to terminal C - a very long commute on a good day without people in the walk ways. As a result of the missing of the flight we had to spend the night in the airport hotel and miss the next morning because we then had to fly when we had not expected that. There needs to be a better system 40 gates and only 2 open. New kiosks that still require people to be seen by the 2 attendants at the gates and then the checkpoint beyond that just to make sure of what? The Customs system I understand is needed for our protection but really the expedition of the process should and needs to be streamlined and more accommodating for the flyers.

I travel continuously in my job definitely the worst airport in the world for immigration queuing creates an awful impression of the country (which I really like) on arrival. I queued for nearly 3 hours missed my first meeting and it created all kinds of hassle at work that day - no one expects to have to wait that long to clear an airport in a civilised society but no one seems to care. I now do everything I can to avoid this airport but that's not always an option. Best way I have found is to come (from the UK) via Canada clear customs there.

Arrived in Houston Saturday evening around 8 pm. Standing in customs line over 20 gates available for US citizens. Only two open. Line is several hundred folks long. Nice service by the US Government. Typical poor performance.

Arrived in Houston from Costa Rica yesterday. In such a large area with lots of customs bays only 12 were open. 8 for international passengers and 4 for US citizens. Seems to me no matter what country you are from if you are arriving back into your home country your citizens should get priority or at the very least have the same number of bays open for both citizens and international passengers. It was slow slow slow. Then there is getting your bag and going through security again which was very slow and chaotic. Extremely lucky to make it to our connecting flight with only 5 minutes to spare. The customs both arriving and leaving Costa Rica was much much more efficient and the agents were friendly. Due to the time it took to get through customs still awaiting arrival of our bags which did not make the connecting flight. In the future will avoid this airport for any international travel.

Eight of us arrived from Cozumel Mexico at 2.20 and took us 2 hours to clear customs saw lots of people cutting in line to no avail to the hundreds of airport personnel. We had four hours to our connecting flight thank goodness we finally get to the gate to catch our flight to Amarillo only to find out that 8 United Express gates were basically in the basement of the terminal! As other flights left we heard the p.a. say to scan your ticket we say" No Way" sure enough at our departure time you scan your ticket and are let out a gate to walk down a hall much like a movie theatre with departing cities in lights above doors. When we got to ours a lady was checking our names off a list? We had already scanned in was the first and last time for Houston. Will stick with Dallas.

I was coming over from Colombia going to the UK. A journey I have made many times. I have never met a more unprofessional set of immigration officers in the world. They deliberately made me wait just enough so that I missed my flight.

Who was on the planning board when terminal E was in conception? Let's walk all the way through terminal C without a moving sidewalk and when you finally arrive Terminal E we'll give you about 75' of moving sidewalk! Not to overlook the fact that about 6 electric vehicles passed by shouting to make way having no passengers on board!

I flew from Heathrow to Costa Rica via this airport. Never again will I do so. I had to change planes here going and coming back. I was treated terribly on the change going over. I was taken away to a room and had to wait for about half an hour. I was up set and asked why were they keeping me here so long as I had a flight to get. After what seemed like an age all I was told that I did not press my fingers on the x ray hard enough. Then on the way back I was questioned by a passport staff member for ages. Terrible. I will never ever go to the States again not even in transit.

Arrived at Houston Intl on Sunday August 11 from Belize. My connecting flight was over 1.5 hrs. later. Apparently that's not enough when you have to go through Immigration/Customs in Houston. At least 500 people ahead of me and within 30 minutes there were that many behind me. Out of about 20 Customs booths only 5 were manned. It took 85 minutes to get through. I had to sprint to new gate and was about the last one they let on. I'm sure quite a few people missed connecting flights because there were a lot of empty seats on my plane. I'm sure they have all kinds of excuses of being undermanned etc. but when I look at the amount of money they take out of my plane ticket I know it's just waste inept management and the general "couldn't care less attitude" of most Govt. employees. I travel outside the US 3 to 4 times a year but I will avoid Houston Intl. like the plague in the future.