Dublin airport US pre-clearance & Flight Review: American 777 business class to Charlotte

Good morning, welcome to the hotel in Dublin. I'll be departing on American Airlines on one of their 7200

business

class trips from Dublin to Charlotte, but we're not just talking about the

flight

, we'll also be taking a look at pre-cleaning here in Dublin as well, so if you're curious about how pre-

clearance

works for US immigration in Dublin, how can you clear US Customs before you even arrive in the US and just get off the plane as a domestic customer? You are in the right place traveling the world on Planes Trains, trams and more. Join Mark Hopwood as he shows you some of the fantastic trips he has taken.

Travel with him as he takes you to a wide variety of destinations and just remember to subscribe to the channel. Like the video and give Mark your feedback on this video so my day started at the Crown Plaza Hotel at Dublin Airport. I was very lucky to have booked into the IHG group's Holiday and Express hotel next door, which was still closed and undergoing renovations. So they kindly upgraded me to the Crown Plaza. I got up and headed to the shuttle bus, it's a battery powered electric bus so I did my bit for the environment at the start of the journey to Dublin Airport and then on to Terminal 2 where check-in American Airlines is literally right in front of the bus stop, which is pretty handy.

I checked my 11:15

flight

to Charlotte aa725 and everything looked good and then headed towards US premium check-in which was not busy at any time. from the desks but a little quieter in premium, I checked my luggage to LA and then took the elevator to the departures floor and then was looking for FasTrack security as I had a

business

class ticket and was able to get straight through of runway safety, a Dublin

airport

. Dublin Airport is equipped with new security equipment to scan without you having to take out your liquids or anything else which was very useful and as well as the departure boards they also have these US departure screens We'll come back to that in a moment, like in many

airport

s, you have to walk through the dutyfree to the main departure lounge, but this is where things start to get a little different because you're not looking for a lounge or getting straight into your room. flight, you are looking for the signs that indicate pre-cleaning.

Many passengers in Dublin travel to the US and you clear customs here in Dublin. My flight was not showing on the screen. He appeared shortly after. and once your flight is on that screen, you can begin heading toward US pre

clearance

from the main departure hall. You will often be able to see your plane as it heads toward US preclearance and you may want to make sure you have done what you need to do in the departure lounge. I'll talk a little bit about that in a moment, but you'll go down these escalators to this area. It's marked with the US flag so you can clearly see its pre-clearance and I don't have permission to film that so I'm showing this little video now.

Today I fly F to the United States from an international airport that is pre-cleared by US Customs and Border Protection unlike my usual international trip. I can save time and relax knowing that with our preclearance I will pass CBP inspection before taking off. My journey begins like any other. I check in and go through security and then head to our pre-clearance. It's the same as the US inspection. I'm used to it, but here our office cleared me entry before I even boarded my flight, instead of when we arrive in the US, there's even time to shop at the free store tax and relax before taking off, once I have boarded.

I can enjoy my flight and not worry about a busy arrivals hall and when I land there is no queue, I can just grab my bag and head straight to my destination. International travel is perfect with us, prior authorization and now I have plenty of time to relax. and the best thing, of course, about that video is that it suggests that I can get a Boeing 727 on a preclearance site, you know, viewers, I'm still looking for that, well, this is the Beyond Preclearance area, a couple of cafes, a bar and you. I saw the sign there for 51st and Green Lounge and that's where I'm headed, unfortunately it's right at the end of this corridor and if, like my flight, your flight came back, you're going to do a lot of things in this area.

Walking through the room is circular in shape, but it is on the ground floor, so the views are not very good. There are many seats. There is a departures board there so you can monitor your flight. It only shows the U-shaped exits. You can choose between the seats, uh, longitudinal seats. individual seating window seating table seating more relaxing seating a bar that makes cocktails mocktails and also serves you freshly brewed espressos and lattes, but you can also make your own coffee in this food area, there is a sparkling and still water cold tap water hot breakfast items when I was there pastries of course juices and toast.

Hello from 51 in the Green Lounge here at Dublin Airport. A very different lounge to many others, you will see that it is managed by the airport and if you are flying on Delta United American uh or air persists, so any of the airlines that fly across the Atlantic to the US, yes you're in business class, you can't get anything if you're in premium economy, you can pay £45 to get into the lounge and use it, um, it's nice Lounge, it's not huge but it's a nice facility. Now I just wanted to resume the prior authorization. There have been some changes recently, some changes that I just experienced and thought about.

Firstly I would go through you with you, they are no longer doing a security check, a secondary security check for each passenger, so now you go through Dublin airport security, it has been improved, it is like London city, in the UK so you don't You don't have to take out your laptops or your iPads or your liquids and there's no limit on liquids so it's a lot easier but I think the quality of the security is down to the trust of the Americans that they don't need to do an extra level. security before preclearance, but they are doing a random check on about 1 in 10 passengers who are told to exit the line into a red queue and then have to carry their bags and jackets, etc., through of security.

Now damn law, that was me this morning, um, reasonably simple, not that bad, the only thing that was a little annoying was that they asked for all the electronics and when I checked that included cameras and other things you wouldn't normally have to do um. go out, so, kinda faf, but I was the only one who was asked to do that, so there was really no queue and the staff were quite helpful, probably waited five or six minutes for a queue, um, the other thing en The change is that before you had to identify your bags so they would appear on the screen as part of the discussion you had with the US Customs officer, they are no longer doing that of course, it works very well.

The only thing I would say in Dublin Airport marketing is that it is about saving up to 2 hours. You know, I'm not sure all passengers save that amount of time. I flew our Lingus Fire from Dublin to Orlando a few years ago and I really appreciated it because the Orlando airport at the time, particularly with the afternoon flights, was just a nightmare and coming from Dublin and arriving as a domestic passenger was fantastic, but You know I've been to several airports in the US recently and I've barely had to wait in line at immigration, so yes, it's a useful facility.

I think one of the biggest advantages of preclearance is that if you connect like I do today, I fly from Dublin to Charlotte on American Airlines and then you connect to Los Angeles, but if you do that, your bags are checked directly. My little suitcase is headed straight to Los Angeles. We'll be on our way to Charlotte. A nice trip to Charlotte today. Once we take off it will be 7 hours in the Andes and we will arrive there at 19° approximately 57°. It should be a great day. As you have seen on the map, there will be a departure from Dublin on Runway 1 Z just over Irish.

The sea heading east is completely the wrong way to go to the US, so you have to make a sharp right turn with a 180° turn back south of Dublin, over Ireland, over the Atlantic , to make landfall over Canada, Newfoundland and then descend again toward Charlotte Landing. on runway one eight left after a descent through Virginia and North Carolina so I was soon aboard the American Airlines 7200 in the Ford business class c2a cabin uh for me great SE business class on American just one seat up front of me seat 1A uh no Passengers there, but the flight deck crew, we used it as a rest seat for small periods of the flight and once everyone was on board, we moved back from our position once the jetty was moved back, a taxi of reasonable length. but we weren't busy in Dublin, we taxied straight onto Runway 1Z and here we are as we turn onto the runway threshold for our departure.

If you're enjoying this video about Brand Trains, Plains Streetcars, please take a moment to like it. subscribe to the video and then hit the notification button so in case you don't know how to use a face cloth delivered on American Airlines, that's my demo before we look at the menu for this American Airlines business class flight when They welcomed us. I approached the meal with a great main course and dessert and a snack as I approached Charlotte with some drinks too so I chose to have a Mexican beer so I served it with some nuts before my meal.

In fact, I ordered a Bud Light, but the slightly eccentric cabin crew member told me that he couldn't allow it to be just flavored water, but that it was also a very good beer from Mexico and that led us to the starter. , both served at the same time, this was a small plate of antipasty vegetables. leaky zucchini, the grilled Ary choke there and some eggplant puree on the plate with a seasonal vegetable salad with balsamic vinaigrette and very nice too, the food service started very early, uh, on the flight and I was very happy with that so I could go ahead and rest a bit and then onto the main course a choice of steak, chicken, grilled sea bass or fried paneer.

I had pre-ordered the grilled Sirin steak and very good, it was also a bit more like a fet but it was good quality to the extent that steak served on a plane is always good quality. It was served with truffle. Dew potato and celery. Caramelized gratin carrots and roasted slices. It's great to be able to order your food in advance. The crew told me how useful it is to them. You get what you want, but you have to make a decision a couple of days beforehand. And with my main course I chose a glass of Argentine malbeck and that was what it took.

I took dessert which was a lemon tart for me and it was very nice and as you can see I still had my glass of Savinon Blong from New Zealand which was also great and I had a cup of mint tea to wrap it all up . a great meal with some great wine some great drinks and it was nice to sit relax and just enjoy the flight enjoy the space enjoy the comfort of the Great American Airlines business class seat so let's take a look at the cins super diamond seat the magazine Storage also fits one of the larger iPads, a small storage area for flat items that may fit but are still quite useful and then a deeper storage area next to it for charging with a charging point and a point USB to keep cables. its cables, other parts in there, they really are very useful and the remote control for the INF entertainment also stores in there, so overall there is quite a bit of storage space.

There is the console for your seat, you can obviously move it to partially recline. reclined or as a flat bed and your table, your table unfolds so you can have a smaller or larger table. It slides back and forth, but you can't move it on any other axis, but it's great if you just want to. To have a small table or a large table to eat, uh, a full meal, your armrest can be moved up or down and opens up into a small, fairly narrow storage area. I had my toiletries bag in there, but you can use it for other things, including small ones.

Drink and quart bottles, so overall a good seat. American Airlines has chosen well. I went back to the plane to the rear galley and then walked around economy class which is a combination of two then three four 4 3 then 343 with about 242 people in the back, obviously a lot more seats but a good entertainment system on board, a good combination of seat back facilities with that space, two cabinsWell used economy class and both in that configuration, so it's a pretty generous economy class deal. class seats on this American Airlines Tri 7200 and then as we complete our journey through economy we enter the premium economy cabin which is exceptionally small and only has three rows of seats but has a two 42 configuration, Much more generous, more space, more reclining, more legroom. much better space in all aspects and in business class, two business class cabins and the sanitary facilities in business class with the bathrooms improved with this type of fake wood for Mica inside a changing table that could be used for other things, i guess.

Well, the toilet itself, a sink and all the usual facilities that you would expect to find in an airline toilet and which you probably don't need to see in the video, but I have included it as additional bonus material to take a look at the sliding door in Instead of to the folding door, which is much better in many ways, and exit the bathroom, take a quick look at the in-flight entertainment system with the flight information visible, and then return to the galley to take a look. At the meal, some wrapped snacks there, but also some menu items that had not been delivered to customers, were placed for people to take away and enjoy during a later stage of the flight and finally I thought I would show you a quick glimpse of the toiletries bag with a pen, a sturdy brush and a sturdy cape, the usual eye mask and a couple of creams and lip balm as well in a tube, so some useful ones. facilities, of course, you must be careful in accepting that if you are transferring to another flight safely and then it was the approach to Charlotte airport, where the weather was reported as widely scattered cloud, with at least 10 m visibility, wind from the south southwest at 8 knots with a temperature of 28° C or 82° F on behalf of everyone we want to thank you for flying with American Airlines today we see our us in the near future please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until turn on the seat belt sign and keep the aisles clear of all luggage, take a moment to check the back pocket of your seat for personal TS and cell phones when you open the overhead bin, use caution as items may have moved during the flight and thanks to the Americans, well, hello from the Light.

Train station at the i485 interchange here in Charlotte, North Carolina, well, we'll finish that flight from Dublin. I got off the plane straight through the airport, no immigration of course, and got into an Uber, straight down the highway and over here for a quick look at the light rail. I hope you enjoyed the video. Like and subscribe. I'll see you next time, I'm sure.