Why pay for a service to get yourself a Global Entry appointment when you can write one yourself?

At least, that’s what I told myself when I was looking at scheduling a Global Entry appointment late last year. This project is a simple python program that polls the global entry api looking for earlier appointments than what you have. It was a fun little experiment to see if making something like this was even possible.

Results

Me and my wife ended up just doing the interview on arrival for our Global Entry, however I did try “simulating” getting a better appointment. I pretended like I really did need the interview, and made an initial appointment for 6 months out. As the app notified me, I would quickly log into the Global Entry website and attempt to book the appointment myself. I would make it all the way to the confirmation screen before I considered it “booked”, and if I couldn’t make it there, it wouldn’t be “booked”. Over the course of about a week, I successfully “scheduled” an appointment for the next week! If I really needed this appointment, 1 week would definitely be better than 6 months (or even worse, like $20!).