Flying into Canada from the USA

[DirtyDawg]

1 minute ago, Magicat said:

Well, it is a dream to fly out of somewhere else, but just booked flights to Europe out of Toronto.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  Or maybe I have the misguided dream things will get better by then.

 

Welcome to the club. All of us in the GTA are always glutton's for punishment! 😁 😉

[gold1953]

Since we have very seasoned flyers here do you know if we need to clear customs in Toronto ( terminal 1 Air Canada) when returning from the US . We are continuing to Halifax and only have 1.5 hours. The process was grueling when we flew in from London last month!!  Such long lines and then back through security!  We do have Nexus though

[LHT28]

9 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

Since we have very seasoned flyers here do you know if we need to clear customs in Toronto ( terminal 1 Air Canada) when returning from the US .

YES

 I believe you can use the ARRIVECAN  App 

https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/services/arrivecan/declaration.html

someone will know for sure if it works better now

[gold1953]

28 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

YES

 I believe you can use the ARRIVECAN  App 

https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/services/arrivecan/declaration.html

someone will know for sure if it works better now

so if we do this do we skip the very long snaking line?

[thon]

You will need to clear Customs in Toronto - it is your “port of entry” into Canada.

[d9704011]

35 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

so if we do this do we skip the very long snaking line?

Don't bother with ArriveCAN... it's unnecessary and essentially dead.  Oh, it never did provide any 'skip the line' benefit, it was a COVID-19 pre-screening tool.

 

If you're flying into Canada with the connection in Toronto (at least with Air Canada), you follow the signs to the connection gates (very well marked) and you'll go through a pretty quick and painless check with CBSA before making your way to the gate for your connecting flight.  No need to worry about your luggage, it should have been routed to your final destination at your departure point.  You're unlikely to find yourself in a crowd at immigration... most people arriving in Toronto go to the regular immigration/customs hall but you, as a connecting passenger, are split off from that herd.

 

 

 

 

[gold1953]

1 minute ago, d9704011 said:

Don't bother with ArriveCAN... it's unnecessary and essentially dead.  Oh, it never did provide any 'skip the line' benefit, it was a COVID-19 pre-screening tool.

 

If you're flying into Canada with the connection in Toronto (at least with Air Canada), you follow the signs to the connection gates (very well marked) and you'll go through a pretty quick and painless check with CBSA before making your way to the gate for your connecting flight.  No need to worry about your luggage, it should have been routed to your final destination at your departure point.  You're unlikely to find yourself in a crowd at immigration... most people arriving in Toronto go to the regular immigration/customs hall but you, as a connecting passenger, are split off from that herd.

 

 

 

 

When arriving from London last month we were told that there was no line for connecting passengers and were had to wait with everyone else and then ended up on the other side of security and needed to re enter . It was dreadful!

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

so if we do this do we skip the very long snaking line?

not sure  if you have NEXUS   maybe  you will have a separate line

Check the connecting info

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/connections

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

When arriving from London last month we were told that there was no line for connecting passengers and were had to wait with everyone else and then ended up on the other side of security and needed to re enter . It was dreadful!

I can't explain that.  In the last six weeks or so I have flown in from Zurich and Milan with connecting flights to Ottawa and the procedure was as I described it earlier... no big immigration lines, no security check, luggage arrived safe and sound in Ottawa without me ever seeing it.

[Fouremco]

22 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

I can't explain that.  In the last six weeks or so I have flown in from Zurich and Milan with connecting flights to Ottawa and the procedure was as I described it earlier... no big immigration lines, no security check, luggage arrived safe and sound in Ottawa without me ever seeing it.

It must be something new. In all my years of overseas flights to Ottawa via Pearson, I've never seen a separate line for connecting passengers. Along with baggage no longer needing to be collected and then re-checked, and the advent of NEXUS, this change is one more step in making connecting flights through Pearson a bit quicker and more pleasant, this past year's issues notwithstanding.

[gold1953]

12 hours ago, LHT28 said:

not sure  if you have NEXUS   maybe  you will have a separate line

Check the connecting info

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/connections

very good .. thanks . My Gatwick trip show clear customs and clear security and my US flight is customs only!

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, gold1953 said:

very good .. thanks . My Gatwick trip show clear customs and clear security and my US flight is customs only!

So you can clear Canadian customs in Gatwick??

[d9704011]

2 hours ago, gold1953 said:

very good .. thanks . My Gatwick trip show clear customs and clear security and my US flight is customs only!

That sort of confuses my understanding of the discussion.  AFAIK, Air Canada does not fly out of Gatwick and I thought that's the carrier you plan on using.  If you're taking Westjet out of LGW, the whole connections thing is likely different.

 

Of course, you cannot clear Canadian C&I in Gatwick.

[LHT28]

17 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Of course, you cannot clear Canadian C&I in Gatwick.

I did not think  so but things  have changed  since 2019  the last  we flew  home from the UK  😉

 

 I think  people confuse  customs  with Immigration 

JMO

 

[gold1953]

On 11/10/2022 at 10:21 AM, d9704011 said:

That sort of confuses my understanding of the discussion.  AFAIK, Air Canada does not fly out of Gatwick and I thought that's the carrier you plan on using.  If you're taking Westjet out of LGW, the whole connections thing is likely different.

 

Of course, you cannot clear Canadian C&I in Gatwick.

I wasn't referring to clearing in Gatwick but to the process when I reached Canada

[gnome12]

15 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

I wasn't referring to clearing in Gatwick but to the process when I reached Canada

I would assume that any flight from Gatwick arrives at Terminal 3, and not at Terminal 1. The process is different at the 2 terminals. If the OP is flying from the US into Terminal 1, the process is fairly simple, not so much if arriving at Terminal 3 (especially if connecting to a flight out of Terminal 1).

[gold1953]

3 hours ago, gnome12 said:

I would assume that any flight from Gatwick arrives at Terminal 3, and not at Terminal 1. The process is different at the 2 terminals. If the OP is flying from the US into Terminal 1, the process is fairly simple, not so much if arriving at Terminal 3 (especially if connecting to a flight out of Terminal 1).

Thanks , I am learning!  I usually fly direct from the UK but they seem to have dumped Halifax so we now have a very long day!! Our 5 hour flights have turned into at least a12 hour day. Can't even find Halifax to FL direct

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, gold1953 said:

Thanks , I am learning!  I usually fly direct from the UK but they seem to have dumped Halifax so we now have a very long day!! Our 5 hour flights have turned into at least a12 hour day. Can't even find Halifax to FL direct

Just curious, but as Air Canada has direct flights between YHZ and LHR, I''m wondering why you are flying Gatwick-Toronto-Halifax. While LHR isn't my favourite airport, I'd rather fly direct from LHR than take the roundabout routing through YYZ. 

[gold1953]

10 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Just curious, but as Air Canada has direct flights between YHZ and LHR, I''m wondering why you are flying Gatwick-Toronto-Halifax. While LHR isn't my favourite airport, I'd rather fly direct from LHR than take the roundabout routing through YYZ. 

We did this has we had been booked direct with WJ and they changed the flight. At that point the AC flights were close to triple the cost.

[Fouremco]

3 hours ago, gold1953 said:

We did this has we had been booked direct with WJ and they changed the flight. At that point the AC flights were close to triple the cost.

Oh, that's a shame. 

 

A few years ago, we had a Boston-Montreal Canada/New England cruise. We decided to drive to Montreal, leave a car at the airport and fly to Boston. WJ could only route us through Toronto, while AC had several direct flights daily. In our case, not only was the AC flight much quicker and easier, but it was actually cheaper.

[d9704011]

3 hours ago, gold1953 said:

We did this has we had been booked direct with WJ and they changed the flight. At that point the AC flights were close to triple the cost.

I believe you can fly Air Transat from LGW to YHZ with a long layover in YUL and a change to Porter.  I think about the only reasons I'd contemplate this is any difference in pricing on the one-way and how long I had to cool my heels in YYZ making the Westjet connection there.

[gold1953]

2 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Oh, that's a shame. 

 

A few years ago, we had a Boston-Montreal Canada/New England cruise. We decided to drive to Montreal, leave a car at the airport and fly to Boston. WJ could only route us through Toronto, while AC had several direct flights daily. In our case, not only was the AC flight much quicker and easier, but it was actually cheaper.

we were originally to fly direct to Glasgow and WJ dumped the $300 flight. AC was $1100. Then we found WJ still going direct to Dublin for $298. Grabbed a BA flight to London for $42. Coming home left us no options. There were a number of people on the flight who were to be direct home to other Canadian cities as well and they all got put on this one flight to YYZ

[NWT Cruiser]

On 11/9/2022 at 5:14 PM, d9704011 said:

no big immigration lines, no security check, luggage arrived safe and sound in Ottawa without me ever seeing it.

 

We just arrived into Yellowknife from Houston last night (via Vancouver) on Air Canada.  Same thing as you, no immigration line, no security check in Vancouver and our luggage arrived without us seeing it from the time we checking it in at the IAH Airport.  Hopefully all airports start this type of process where you don't have to go through the process of collecting your luggage before going through customs.  Easy peasy!

[cdn_tbird]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:53 AM, gnome12 said:

I would assume that any flight from Gatwick arrives at Terminal 3, and not at Terminal 1. The process is different at the 2 terminals. If the OP is flying from the US into Terminal 1, the process is fairly simple, not so much if arriving at Terminal 3 (especially if connecting to a flight out of Terminal 1).

We just returned from the US via Terminal 3 and the whole process was extremely easy. We simply used one of the kiosks (not Nexus) grabbed our receipt and headed for the doors, stopping just long enough to show it to a couple of customs agents. Once we collected our bags, we handed it to one last agent and we were out of there. Is the process @ Terminal 1 easier than that?

 

[d9704011]

10 hours ago, cdn_tbird said:

We just returned from the US via Terminal 3 and the whole process was extremely easy. We simply used one of the kiosks (not Nexus) grabbed our receipt and headed for the doors, stopping just long enough to show it to a couple of customs agents. Once we collected our bags, we handed it to one last agent and we were out of there. Is the process @ Terminal 1 easier than that?

 

I believe the discussion is centred around making connections when arriving in Toronto.  It appears as though you simply arrived and went home from the airport.