I wonder how many Americans are aware (because I don't think I've ever heard one mention it) just how uniquely obnoxious the transit system in their airports is. You might not immediately grok what I mean; you might think "foreigners aren't entitled to anything" but in which case you didn't get my point - my point is that *for a traveller who has no interest in entering the United States* the experience is uniquely obnoxious. Every other major international airport has what's called "transit". I'm going from country A to country B with a connecting flight in country C. if C != USA, I just stay in the pre-immigration area and move over to the other flight; sometimes they have baggage checks (and ticket checks ofc), but not full blown immigration, because you're not entering the country. The problem is that the USA is a *major* hub for flights, for the Western hemisphere; it's not trivial at all, to avoid it, for some routes. And couple this with the fact that US immigration is not exactly relaxed (which is fine, but is not fine when you have no intention of stepping foot in the country ...)
Why?
And as bad as it is for me, I could use the 'visa waiver program' (still shit - still have to go through immigration) but many countries don't have that entitlement, meaning a citizen wanting to travel *via* (again, not into, via) the US would have to do this just to get to their non-US destination. Which goes from obnoxious to .. I don't know, surreally obnoxious.
waxwing
npub1va…knuu7
2026-07-15 12:23:50 UTC
Author Public Key
npub1vadcfln4ugt2h9ruwsuwu5vu5am4xaka7pw6m7axy79aqyhp6u5q9knuu7Seen on
wss://nostr.winewss://relay.hodlboard.org/intent:relay.hodlboard.org/inboxwss://relay.hodlboard.orgwss://nos.lolPublished at
2026-07-15 12:23:50 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "51dc102e5b1efdabac47f0e87f2fbe8bd9644018703c0fd5a3916904556ef130",
"pubkey": "675b84fe75e216ab947c7438ee519ca7775376ddf05dadfba6278bd012e1d728",
"created_at": 1784118230,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"alt",
"A short note: I wonder how many Americans are aware (because I d..."
],
[
"client",
"Amethyst"
]
],
"content": "I wonder how many Americans are aware (because I don't think I've ever heard one mention it) just how uniquely obnoxious the transit system in their airports is. You might not immediately grok what I mean; you might think \"foreigners aren't entitled to anything\" but in which case you didn't get my point - my point is that *for a traveller who has no interest in entering the United States* the experience is uniquely obnoxious. Every other major international airport has what's called \"transit\". I'm going from country A to country B with a connecting flight in country C. if C != USA, I just stay in the pre-immigration area and move over to the other flight; sometimes they have baggage checks (and ticket checks ofc), but not full blown immigration, because you're not entering the country. The problem is that the USA is a *major* hub for flights, for the Western hemisphere; it's not trivial at all, to avoid it, for some routes. And couple this with the fact that US immigration is not exactly relaxed (which is fine, but is not fine when you have no intention of stepping foot in the country ...)\n\nWhy?\n\nAnd as bad as it is for me, I could use the 'visa waiver program' (still shit - still have to go through immigration) but many countries don't have that entitlement, meaning a citizen wanting to travel *via* (again, not into, via) the US would have to do this just to get to their non-US destination. Which goes from obnoxious to .. I don't know, surreally obnoxious.",
"sig": "591c9f809cbf7c851568c3dca4fe7112875243aabcc00219d9f8c2a4265a654e52f355d0341bf819c90980e21b4b84520593f5747e36e78971e026004f6252c4"
}