Is 90 minutes enough time to clear immigration in NewYork?
 

US passports, flying from Zurich to Denver via JFK, American Airlines, July 31, 2015.

Is 90 minutes enough time to clear immigration and make it to next flight? We will have checked bags.

Flight lands at 1pm on a Friday. Flight to DFW also on AA leaves at 2:30

I've never flown AA to/From Europe

Possible but not guaranteed. Besides immigration (time depends on how many planes have landed at once) you need to pick up your bags, clear customs, recheck bags, go through security and get to the next gate.

If your plane is late, you are seated in the back of plane, line is long at immigration, baggage is delayed, security line is long - you might not make it. I would check the on time record of the incoming flight.

(Several times I have had it take more than an hour to get out of customs at JFK even when staying in NYC - never mind catching another flight.)

Re-post on the US forum . . . (or even on Air Travel)

But one never knows what the queues at immigration will be. You will have to collect your bags for Customs and drop them back off.

One ticket or two?

I wouldn't count on it.

DFW is Dallas Fort Worth.

DEN is Denver International.

If you want to make your connection at JFK, you shouldn't check your bags because collecting your luggage will be your biggest time constraint.

Immigration at JFK is super fast.

But it can take up to 1/2 hour to get your luggage.

Also the walk from your plane to Immigration can take up to 10 minutes depending where the plane lands because JFK is so huge.

I just flew from Austin to JFK and it took me 20 minutes to walk from my Delta gate to the Sky Train.

JFK is not Zürich Flughafen. No fast Moo Cow train!

Thin

It can also depend on your ethnic background - Americans who say are of Mid-Eastern extraction may get extra scrutiny even though they are not supposed to I think.

It is a crapshoot. If there are a lot of other flights arriving at that time, it could take up to 45 minutes to get through US citizens customs.

And you must remember that airlines are now very strict about the time you must board.

We have flown American many times to Europe, it is like every other airline, depends on the daily circumstances, no better, no worse.

There is no such thing as US Citizens' Customs.

Everyone exiting JFK luggage area goes through the same Customs' lines.

US Immigration is a different matter.

US Immigration and US Customs are not the same thing.

Thin
 

And what happens if the plane has some headwinds during flight or after it lands....there us a delay to taxi up to the location..

Flight are not noted for taking off on time or arriving on time.

In January it took my son and his girlfriend almost 2.5 hours to clear immigration because of a TSA shift change. You never know at JFK. Can you opt for a later connection?

I thought that if you were held up at Customs the airline would put you on a later flight at no charge?

>>I thought that if you were held up at Customs the airline would put you on a later flight at no charge?<<

Only if they are booked on the same ticket.

It will be a single ticket but I've decided not to take the chance with the 90 minutes at JFK. I'll keep looking.

Thanks for all your great advice.

Thin is right. I have must have gone through customs at JFK 30 times and I always thought there were separate lines for US citizens and foreign nationals, but it is one line, unless you have global entry.

Our cousin from Spain came in January and it took her 2 hours to clear customs.

I went thru JFK last October and cleared immigration in about 10 minutes by using the automated passport control kiosks, and I am not even American. If you are non US and have an ESTA and have been to the US before using the ESTA programme, you can use the kiosks. US citizens can use it, they don't have to be pre-approved on the Global Entry scheme either. Maybe people prefer to stand in line for 2 hours and see an immigration officer rather than use the kiosks. All these posters who are regular travellers don't even mention the kiosks for some reason.

I've been to the US 1000s of times over the years, i have never seen a separate line at Customs for US citizens and another for foreigners. I have also never been thru Customs quickly either and this is where you can get seriously held up even if immigration is super fast.

Thank God for Global Entry which has eliminated our waits for Immigration when we return home and even when the kiosks don't always work correctly.

Some days it's enough time, some days it isn't. The good news is that AA is usually good at helping to expedite connections (when you have a tight connection, they'll give you a bright orange card when you get off the plane, and that card will bring you to the front of some lines).

If you miss the connecting flight, AA will put you on another flight to DFW -- unfortunately, you'd have to get yourselves and your luggage to LGA for that flight. (Assuming that OP meant Dallas not Denver -- there is a JFK-DFW flight at 2:30.)

And yes, you would improve your chances significantly w/Global Entry