What do you do with the time you save by bypassing luggage retrieval? By having a stack of Euros ready to spend? A long lunch? An afternoon theater performance? What?

Find an internet cafe and log on to Fodor's.

I don't really think of it as saving time so much as saving aggravation.

anything I darn well please! Who wants to spend 45 mins hanging around a luggage carousel? (but the money part doesn't apply - I either get cash at an airport ATM or after I get into town)

I beat all the luggage-seeking people to the Passport Control line.

I think that whatever can be done to alleviate the arrival process on jetlagged minds, is certainly worthwhile. If something, no matter how silly, is causing a significant amount of stress, why not do something about it? No harm done...

OTOH, I check in luggage. As long as I have a littly backup clothes on my carryon in case of lost luggage I dont get stressed over this process at all.

I maintain a basic stack of Euros at home so that one is not applicable either.

There are different ways to travel, and to each their own!

I get a better place in the line at the "Non-EU Passports" queue - it generaly saves me more time than waiting for my luggage!

well, I'm small and hate dealing with overhead bins, so I actually check my luggage and then spend the 10 or 15 minutes people watching. The luggage carousel is actually more interesting than many people think.

Don't you go through passport control before retrieving luggage?

Think it depends on the airport - I've seen both in some of the smaller European cities (and some that have no passport control at all!)

I enjoy waiting for my luggage. People watching, luggage watching. I stroll gently along, wait patiently for passport control and then wait for my luggage. So it takes a bit longer than rushing for the exit with hand baggage, but I have had some great conversations whilst watching the baggage carousel go round.
I've never been through passport control after collecting my bags.

It does not depend....

Every airport I've ever been to and I have been through MANY, the procedure is:

Passport control/luggage pick up/customs - no exceptions.




Reporting from Kabul.

&quot;<i>Don't you go through passport control before retrieving luggage? </i>&quot; Nope . . . .

Luggage retrieval is <i>after</i> passport control. If you didn't go through passport control, you flew in from another Schengen country in which case, no passport control applies.

I could swear that passport control at Heathrow (arriving from US) is before baggage claim.

OK, you passed the test - Passport Control comes first, then baggage, then Customs. Anyway, I like not having to wait for bags.

The time saved from waiting for the carousel may be minimal (though not trivial after a long haul), but time saved from waiting for a lost or even delayed bag is priceless.
I acknowledge in some cases bags must be checked--with faith placed and precautions taken, but if I can avoid it I do, and it greatly simplifies my life. Further time is saved by not having a large bag to transport and pack/unpack.

How do people know how long they have to wait when they don't check luggage?

I am definetely not a patient guy, but I can hardly remember having to wait more than 10-15 minutes. And I have to check luggage once a month usually.

Due to the huge size of many airports, it often takes longer to walk to the exit than my baggage needs. Or when my flight does not get a jetway, and I have to take the bus to the terminal. Or when there is passport control, and I have to wait in line.

I don't check luggage but I do travel w/ the occasional Luddite that does so I do know about how long/messy baggage retrieval can be at places like LHR or SFO. And in a past life I did check luggage, and have lost some, and also missed connections due to late luggage.

Waiting at a carousel has nothing to do with why we don't check luggage. We don't check luggage because we want to see our luggage again.