Speaking of disasters, we came back through IAH last saturday from a week in the Caribbean. Coming through immigration and customs was fine. Global Entry saved us probably 30-45 minutes based on the length of the main line for residents.
But the checked bag drop after you leave customs was a hot mess. Instead of the previous system where you dropped your bag at a counter then walked away to go through security, they had several xray machines lined up and had lines going to each one where you had to walk by and wait your turn to put your checked bags through the machine. Then they had you walk through a serpentine set of turnstiles with about 8 unnecessary switchbacks before letting you walk through a little pen, two at a time, side by side past a dog and its handler. Then more switchbacks for no good reason before going upstairs and into a security line.
Rather than letting people choose which security line they wanted to go to, there was some rentacop looking TSA lady (with an overinflated infatuation with her own power) who was forcing people to go to the line she told them to, even if it split you up from the rest of your group and put you behind the absolutely clueless person who was having trouble just navigating the turnstile switchbacks for the last 20 minutes in front of you in line. Oh, and no TSA pre-check on that security line.
I miss the days when they just had the dog walking around the area between baggage pickup and customs, then you dropped your bags at a counter (so they could run them through the xray themselves), then stayed secure side to go back to Terminal E.
Next time if they still have that same circus working, I am just going to exit the secure side, drop my bags at the Terminal D baggage drop line, then go through the pre-check line at Terminal D security. Would have probably saved us a half hour over the fiasco they have working now.
