Better airport for connecting to USA

[Ex-Airbalancer]

 when he wrote Podunk , I tjought he was writing about Cobourg Area  🤣
 

Podunk a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant.😉

Edited March 12, 2023 by Ex-Airbalancer

[Oceangoer2]

12 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

 when he wrote Podunk , I tjought he was writing about Cobourg Area  🤣
 

Podunk a hypothetical small town regarded as typically dull or insignificant.😉

LOL....I realized that later....just googled it to check proximity to London for driving time to airport. 

[Oceangoer2]

On 3/9/2023 at 2:12 PM, LHT28 said:

Thinking of  a fall cruise from NYC  to YUL

 We can fly out of London ON  but  connect in either YYZ or YUL

 connection times are 1.5 hrs or almost 2 hrs in both

 

I know we go through US immigration  at both   no Nexus or special privledges

 

My question is  are either of them better  than the other  for  ease of finding your way around ?

 

 I am also thinking of just carry on  (probably have to gate check)

 Any opinions ??

Just reading again through the posts...I'm assuming you're new to the London(ish) area and have never flown out of London or Toronto?  I'm a little confused re your question re YYZ.  On another thread you seem quite knowledgeable re European destinations and flight information and have lived in Toronto for several years.

 

As to your question 'which is better'...YYZ is very busy but larger than Montreal, however we find it easy to get around.  London airport is small and easily accessible with onsite outside parking.  As to using just 'carry on', not sure that makes your trip through the airport system faster;  backpacks don't take long through customs....it's how much you wish to manage for your trip and that's  personal to each.

[LHT28]

4 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

We live in London and use the 2 available airlines connecting through Toronto and have parked at the airport.  We try to book an early flight time with an approx. 2 hr layover time.  We haven't had a problem moving through the airport system, even though YYZ  is very busy.  Our next flight for our cruise leaves early afternoon (AC) as the London departure times are only once a day (right now) so I'd check the timing for dates when you expect to fly out. 

Thanks  that is what I was looking for  the  connection in YYZ  from London

See my last sentence in post 21

 We have never connected in Toronto never needed to before

The cruise  we were looking at was Sept   out of NYC  but  we will probably pass on it  now

 

Thanks for the info on YXU airport

 

 PS  I was being facetious about  Podunk  I could have said Timbuktu  but then people may wonder why I wanted to fly out of London on 😄

[LHT28]

4 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

 when he wrote Podunk ,

The he is  a SHE 😉

 

 

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Just reading again through the posts...I'm assuming you're new to the London(ish) area and have never flown out of London or Toronto?  I'm a little confused re your question re YYZ. 

 

Yes new to this area  we lived about  1 hr north of Toronto

We always  booked a hotel for the night before the flight  unless it was an evening flight  then just got to the  airport mid day

 

Connecting at YYZ is  mystery to me 🙂

 

[LHT28]

5 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

As to using just 'carry on', not sure that makes your trip through the airport system faster;  backpacks don't take long through customs....it's how much you wish to manage for your trip and that's  personal to each.

one more question  please

if you are returning from out of Canada  landing in Toronto  do you go through a different line for Customs/Immigration  when you are connecting  ?

 

I seem to recall seeing a line  for people connecting pax  than those  just  exciting in Toronto

 

We have not flown since we moved  down here 

Worse case  we just drive to  YYZ   but if we can avoid that  it would be better

 Thanks

Lyn

[Dismomx5]

Just a headsup. If you connect with Westjet through YYZ, you are gifted the eternal walk under the tarmac to get to/from the commuter gate. I hate that walk. 😡 (I looked PoDunk up too, wondering if it was close to my village outside of London.)

[broberts]

Is driving to YTZ 403/QEW any quicker or less painful?

[Fouremco]

51 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

one more question  please

if you are returning from out of Canada  landing in Toronto  do you go through a different line for Customs/Immigration  when you are connecting  ?

 

I seem to recall seeing a line  for people connecting pax  than those  just  exciting in Toronto

 

We have not flown since we moved  down here 

Worse case  we just drive to  YYZ   but if we can avoid that  it would be better

 Thanks

Lyn

We haven't flown through YYZ since the pandemic started, so things might well have changed during the interim, but there was never a separate line for connecting passengers. All passengers headed to the same customs/immigration hall, where there was a separate line for NEXUS members, and after we all headed to the baggage carousels before exiting the secure area. Those with connecting flights then headed to the appropriate terminal and had to go through security again.

 

Until a few years ago, you had to pick up your checked baggage at the carousel, exit the secure area, and then drop off your bags before heading to security at your new terminal. Now the bags are simply checked through to your final destination. I don't know what happens if CBSA refers you to secondary and wants to see inside your checked baggage.

[LHT28]

35 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

We haven't flown through YYZ since the pandemic started, so things might well have changed during the interim, but there was never a separate line for connecting passengers. All passengers headed to the same customs/immigration hall, where there was a separate line for NEXUS members, and after we all headed to the baggage carousels before exiting the secure area. Those with connecting flights then headed to the appropriate terminal and had to go through security again.

 

Until a few years ago, you had to pick up your checked baggage at the carousel, exit the secure area, and then drop off your bags before heading to security at your new terminal. Now the bags are simply checked through to your final destination. I don't know what happens if CBSA refers you to secondary and wants to see inside your checked baggage.

Thanks  from what I understand  unless you need to change terminals you stay in the secure area  for connecting flights

I think it was that way pre covid 

it  would be all on one ticket   so no need to check in again

This would be our transfer info

https://www.torontopearson.com/en/connections/guide?arrivingairline=aca&arrivingdestination=mia&departingairline=aca&departingdestination=yxu

[Oceangoer2]

16 hours ago, Dismomx5 said:

Just a headsup. If you connect with Westjet through YYZ, you are gifted the eternal walk under the tarmac to get to/from the commuter gate. I hate that walk. 😡 (I looked PoDunk up too, wondering if it was close to my village outside of London.)

Amen to that.  Returning from a cruise last Nov. we used WJ.  DH was in a wheelchair and I had a broken arm (accidents do happen).  There was assistance for part of the 'walk', but most of it we were on our own.  I just straightened out my arm and PUSHED to the farthest nether regions of terminal 3.  That walk confirmed we would never use WJ again, healthy or not.  Others may find the walk exercise.

[LHT28]

20 hours ago, Dismomx5 said:

Just a headsup. If you connect with Westjet through YYZ, you are gifted the eternal walk under the tarmac to get to/from the commuter gate. I hate that walk. 😡 (I looked PoDunk up too, wondering if it was close to my village outside of London.)

LOL

 I will  NEVER  fly WS  again  or AT  so no worries  😉

I prefer AC    even Rouge  was better  to MIA than AA  

when we tried that

 

 

[rodndonna]

We live in London now, and our trips are generally booked from London (with connection through Pearson on Air Canada) and have not had any problems with connections which are typically in that 2 hour window (3 trips so far this year - all through Pearson, another in 3 weeks). Departing form London is just sooooooooooooo much easier than the drive to Toronto, parking (and/or hotel), shuttle and going through Pearson, It helps that we are actually in London so we can just leave the car at home and cab to the airport.

 

We used to live in Niagara and do the drive to Pearson , was always a hassle no matter how/when we did it. That being said, when we were doing it, we eventually decided it was well worth upgrading to "Valet" with park and fly or even parking at the airport. Sure it cost more, but  just seemed worth that extra $100 or whatever it was to make the experience less painful.

 

LOVE flying from London though ...can't beat it!

[Oceangoer2]

1 hour ago, rodndonna said:

We live in London now, and our trips are generally booked from London (with connection through Pearson on Air Canada) and have not had any problems with connections which are typically in that 2 hour window (3 trips so far this year - all through Pearson, another in 3 weeks). Departing form London is just sooooooooooooo much easier than the drive to Toronto, parking (and/or hotel), shuttle and going through Pearson, It helps that we are actually in London so we can just leave the car at home and cab to the airport.

 

We used to live in Niagara and do the drive to Pearson , was always a hassle no matter how/when we did it. That being said, when we were doing it, we eventually decided it was well worth upgrading to "Valet" with park and fly or even parking at the airport. Sure it cost more, but  just seemed worth that extra $100 or whatever it was to make the experience less painful.

 

LOVE flying from London though ...can't beat it!

Agree...living in London it's a cab drive to the airport...however, presently there's only one flight out a day to Toronto so in bad weather we cross our fingers. Being a smaller airport, cancellations are well known by residents in winter months. We have driven in day before and stayed at the Airport Sheraton using their valet parking for early morning flights which does provide peace of mind.  OP seems to have  considered these options.

[rodndonna]

1 minute ago, Oceangoer2 said:

Agree...living in London it's a cab drive to the airport...however, presently there's only one flight out a day to Toronto so in bad weather we cross our fingers. Being a smaller airport, cancellations are well known by residents in winter months. We have driven in day before and stayed at the Airport Sheraton using their valet parking for early morning flights which does provide peace of mind.  OP seems to have  considered these options.

 

One nice thing about AC is the do open up the window for rebooking (without  fee) reasonably early when there are potential weather disruptions. Another thing we always keep in mind is if somehow the flight from London to Toronto is the issue but not Toronto to our destination, we would generally still have ample time to get to Toronto to catch that flight.

 

Always something of a crapshoot travelling in winter though..but we were lucky with our 2 winter flights to holidays this year.  😃

 

[bookbabe]

19 hours ago, LHT28 said:

LOL

 I will  NEVER  fly WS  again  or AT  so no worries  😉

I prefer AC    even Rouge  was better  to MIA than AA  

when we tried that

 

 

LOL indeed.  We feel the same way about AC, and only fly it under duress if no WJ flights are available.  We’d actually rather even pay more for WJ to avoid AC.  AC is better than AT and the low cost carriers like Southwest and Spirit, in our opinion, but that’s not saying much.

 

Almost every bad flight experience we’ve had has involved AC.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

LOL indeed.  We feel the same way about AC, and only fly it under duress if no WJ flights are available.  We’d actually rather even pay more for WJ to avoid AC.  AC is better than AT and the low cost carriers like Southwest and Spirit, in our opinion, but that’s not saying much.

 

Almost every bad flight experience we’ve had has involved AC.

Westjet has almost abandoned East Canada 

None of the airlines are worth paying more to get on 😁

Hoping Porter with their jets will help lower pricing 

[LHT28]

Well hopefully by Sept   there will be no issues with AC  to YUL  it is  a non stop  so fingers crossed it will not be cancelled

 

All airlines  have their  issues

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, bookbabe said:

LOL indeed.  We feel the same way about AC, and only fly it under duress if no WJ flights are available.  We’d actually rather even pay more for WJ to avoid AC.  AC is better than AT and the low cost carriers like Southwest and Spirit, in our opinion, but that’s not saying much.

 

Almost every bad flight experience we’ve had has involved AC.

When WestJet started its rewards program in conjunction with the RBC World Elite Mastercard a good many years ago, I jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of its offerings. We flew almost exclusively with WestJet, and were very happy with their flights and service. Our son and his family later followed suit. But by 2018, I became increasingly disenchanted with their flight availability and their inflight service. With a Boston-Montreal cruise booked, we looked for a Montreal-Boston flight. AC had multiple direct flights, but with WJ we would have to fly Montreal-Toronto-Boston, a routing that was both more expensive and about 4 hours longer in duration with the wait time in Toronto.

 

The final straw was when my wife received her pre-paid dinner but mine wasn't delivered. It turned out that the pilot had helped himself to my dinner! The cabin staff were most apologetic, but that did nothing to satisfy my hunger, and there were no extra meals that they could give me. 

 

Our son and family kept with WJ, but has lived to regret the decision. We have a family cruise booked, and DW and I, and our daughter and her family, have booked direct flights to and from FLL with AC. Son and family have to fly through YYZ, and that's not the worst of it. WJ is reducing  Ottawa-Toronto service to one flight daily, and it arrives in Toronto too late to catch a connecting flight to FLL that day. So they have to book a hotel room for the night and fly out the following day. After the cruise, the same applies, no available connecting flight to Ottawa until the following day, so another night in a hotel. Not only do they have to pay for two nights' accommodation thanks to WJ, but our son and daughter-in-law both have to take two additional days off work.

 

While WJ may be fine if you live in Calgary, possibly even Toronto, but certainly not Ottawa or anywhere east.

[Oceangoer2]

13 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

WJ is reducing  Ottawa-Toronto service to one flight daily, and it arrives in Toronto too late to catch a connecting flight to FLL that day. So they have to book a hotel room for the night and fly out the following day. After the cruise, the same applies, no available connecting flight to Ottawa until the following day, so another night in a hotel. Not only do they have to pay for two nights' accommodation thanks to WJ, but our son and daughter-in-law both have to take two additional days off work.

We only flew WJ once...going out was fine...coming home a nightmare in terminal 3 Pearson...so no more WJ for us.

 

Re AC.....In past years, AC had 3 flights per day out and into London (university city with students/staff and business folks for Toronto meetings).  One flight in the afternoon outbound doesn't work unless there's a hotel room involved night before either pre or post flight.  So the airlines are cutting out the smaller markets in many regions and most likely forcing local residents to drive into Toronto or closest major city if the flight timing doesn't work for them.  In our case, we don't mind the afternoon flight connecting in YYZ, arriving in FLL early evening, and having a nice day in Florida before the cruise.  Actually we're booking 2 hotel nights and tacking it on to our vacation expense.  😁

Edited March 14, 2023 by Oceangoer2

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

We only flew WJ once...going out was fine...coming home a nightmare in terminal 3 Pearson...so no more WJ for us.

 

Re AC.....In past years, AC had 3 flights per day out and into London (university city with students/staff and business folks for Toronto meetings).  One flight in the afternoon outbound doesn't work unless there's a hotel room involved night before either pre or post flight.  So the airlines are cutting out the smaller markets in many regions and most likely forcing local residents to drive into Toronto or closest major city if the flight timing doesn't work for them.  In our case, we don't mind the afternoon flight connecting in YYZ, arriving in FLL early evening, and having a nice day in Florida before the cruise.  Actually we're booking 2 hotel nights and tacking it on to our vacation expense.  😁

So  it looks like if you are not going to Toronto as the destination there  are connecting flights to elsewhere from London

 We are flying back from MIA  with a 4 hr layover in YYZ   not happy with that but  what can you do

DH is says it will be fine  better to drive home from London than  Toronto

It is  a new experience for us  in this area

[Oceangoer2]

18 hours ago, LHT28 said:

So  it looks like if you are not going to Toronto as the destination there  are connecting flights to elsewhere from London

 We are flying back from MIA  with a 4 hr layover in YYZ   not happy with that but  what can you do

DH is says it will be fine  better to drive home from London than  Toronto

It is  a new experience for us  in this area

If we had a 4 hr layover, DH would drive home also, however traffic tie ups depending on time of day may be a problem usually around the airport area.  Are you going to Miami and not NYC?

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Oceangoer2 said:

If we had a 4 hr layover, DH would drive home also, however traffic tie ups depending on time of day may be a problem usually around the airport area.  Are you going to Miami and not NYC?

We decided  not to do the  cruise  from NYC

 

cruise is  from Montreal to Miami 

DH does not like driving  in Toronto  even from the west part of the city

We will take a chance  & try the London airport

Worse case  we stay in London overnight 

We are mid 70's & our eyes are not  good  at night driving 😞

Thank for all the input

 

[Oceangoer2]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

We decided  not to do the  cruise  from NYC

 

cruise is  from Montreal to Miami 

DH does not like driving  in Toronto  even from the west part of the city

We will take a chance  & try the London airport

Worse case  we stay in London overnight 

We are mid 70's & our eyes are not  good  at night driving 😞

Thank for all the input

 

Understood.  Enjoy your cruise fellow Londoner!  Sounds like a very different itinerary.  You'll like going out of London, it's small and quick.  Wouldn't it be a coincidence if we lived in the same neighbourhood 🤔?