When Mrs Molloy and I first visited New York – for our honeymoon – in December 2024, one of the only negative experiences we had was clearing customs at JFK Airport.
In short, it took us around 2 hours to get to the front of the queue and it’s just not what you really need after an 8 hour flight, especially when your body thinks it’s 3am.
So when I booked this second trip, I decided to book the flight via Dublin, as I’d heard you can clear customs there.
Upon landing at Dublin after a very short flight from Manchester, you simply follow the signs marked U.S. Preclearance (there are also members of staff directing you in case you get lost).
You do have to clear security again at this point (I imagine because the facility is open for people flying direct from Dublin as well as connecting flights) before going through immigration.
I have to say that the customs officer was much friendlier than the one we encountered at JFK and the process was entirely painless.
Start-to-finish – from entering the security area to clearing customs – the process took just 14 minutes.
Yes, changing at Dublin adds around 2 hours on to the trip compared to flying direct from Manchester but I’d much rather get those 2 hours out of the way at the start of the journey, rather than dragging luggage along a painfully slow moving queue, when all I really want to do is sleep.
Sadly Aer Lingus are ceasing all direct Manchester to USA flights from next month but based on this evidence, it could actually be a blessing in disguise if it just means everyone can clear customs in Dublin instead.
Have you ever used a preclearance facility and would you divert a flight specifically to do this? Let me know in the comments.
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