I give you one reason why US airports really are the worst airports in the world. At least when you want to use them to transit to a third country. For example

I give you one reason why US airports really are the worst airports in the world. At least when you want to use them to transit to a third country. For example: Flying to Latin America from Europe it would make a lot of sense to connect in the US. Miami, Atlanta or even New York would be convenient airports to connect on a flight between, say, Zurich and Lima. The problem is that the concept of transit is completely foreign in American airports. I need to get my luggage, actually pass customs and immigration, recheck my luggage, probably change terminals to something which is kilometers away with potentially bad transportation options between them. Dealing - yet again - with the friendly folks of the TSA. And all this to finally connect to my flight to Lima. Instead of a 90 minute connection time (maybe 120 minutes on bigger airports) I have to calculate a minimum of 4 hours. Potentially more, because a lot of those variables are beyond my control and for no good reason whatsoever. I don't want to set foot on American soil, but just connect to a flight to a third country. You don't need some spiffy Asian or European airport. Just about any developing world dump of an airport figured the concept of transit out decades ago. I check my bags in to the final destination. I don't need to deal with potentially horrid immigration experiences, don't have to pass through security again (granted, that's dependent on the airport. But almost certainly less of a hassle then anyway in America) Maybe transit is just not important in America with the lion share of flights being domestic. But for international travelers wanting to connect to a third country they really are at the bottom of the barrel.