Connections to International through Toronto?
 

I'm booked on a flight in two weeks through Toronto Pearson airport - my flight leaves DC at 6am and gets in at 7:25am - the flight for London leaves at 9am.

When I booked the flight I didn't realize I'd need to go through Canadian customs and security again, and now I'm worried there won't be enough time to make my connection. I'm especially annoyed because if I miss that flight, the next one out doesn't leave until 6pm - and the only reason I went with Air Canada was because they were the only flight out that morning that flew during the day instead of overnight (and out of DCA, not IAD, which for me isn't easy to get to).

I'm regularly kicking myself for not going with another airline.

Anyway - any tips, anything to help ease my mind, anything to warn me about? I'm checking one bag - a friend flew AirCanada in June and was told on the way up she'd have to collect her bag to go through customs, that it wouldn't be forwarded ahead to the connecting flight, but once she got there she found out it had been forwarded on. She was flying through Montreal on the way back, though.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I get anxious anyway when I travel, and the thought of missing this flight really makes me almost ill.

Have you called the airline about this to confirm? Typically they will ship your luggage all the way through and you don;t have to pick it up - but since you have to switch terminals I don;t see how you can avoid going through security again.

Not much you can do now. I hope your London hotel is not prepaid, and have their number ready so if you miss your flight you can call to cancel that night of hotel.

And do you have to check luggage. It may help if you just use carryons.

I agree, not much you can do but Toronto airport is terrible each time for us when going through immigration. After dealing with this 7 or 8 times we decided to do everything possible to never use Toronto. Montreal is much easier to navigate and we found immigration and custom officers to be much nicer there than in Toronto. Each time

Thanks for the advice - I called the airline and all they've told me is that it's a "legal" connection, that there's enough time to make my flight. They said I'd need to collect my bag to go through customs, and so did the Airport authority - but like I said, my friend asked several people on the way to Canada also and half of them told her the wrong thing. As for the luggage, unfortunately I need to check the bag I'm bringing. I used to have the absolute *perfect* sized bag, that would have been able to go in the overhead, but my cat peed in it and I tried everything imaginable to get the smell out and couldn't. The only other bags I have are large or much too small for two weeks.

I booked this flight back in March - wish I'd thought to check up on all of this back then.

Oh and thankfully I don't have to worry about a hotel, I'm staying with a friend. I'd just have to call her.

Thanks for the help.

to add insult to injury, last night at work I sprained my right wrist. any tips on traveling while injured?

I'm starting to think this trip is cursed.

Wanted to thank everyone for their responses. The trip...well, the trip itself was *fabulous*.

The Toronto airport stinks, and I have a less than favorable view of Air Canada as well.

The trip to London started off with the plane from DC being 45 minutes late leaving, which meant that when I landed I had been rebooked onto the 7pm flight instead of the 9am flight. This was totally unacceptable to me, so I ran like a wild woman (it was 8am when we landed), got to the gate, and did make it onto the flight. In a seat that was broken, no electronics and wouldn't recline. The only plus of it, and the best thing that happened regarding travel on the trip, was that it was in first class. With the champagne and dramamine, I was dead to the world for half the flight and pampered for the rest of it. (I also discovered the manual recline button midway through the flight)

My luggage didn't make the flight and wasn't delivered until 5pm the next day - which put a damper on my first day in London, though I did get a few things done.

On the way back, the plane was (surprise!) late. Luckily, the flight from Toronto to DC was also late, otherwise there was no way on earth I would have made it. Somehow, even though they had an hour to get my bag on the plane, it didn't make it. I had to stay awake until 12:30am to get my bags - which meant I'd been up roughly 24 hours by the time they arrived.

After this trip, there's no way I'll travel through Toronto again unless I absolutely have no choice.

Also a thumbs down to Ryanair, who forced me to check my backpack on the way back from Stockholm and proceeded to rip one of the straps off and then call it 'minor' damage so now I can't get any compensation from them.

Forgot to mention - yes, they did check my bag through all the way on the way over - there just wasn't enough time for my bag to actually make it there. And I did have to go through security again - but it was in Terminal 2, right before getting on the bus to the Infield Terminal (luckily the flight attendant gave me the heads up about a direct shuttle - the website tells you to go to Terminal 1 first and then to the Infield Terminal). I think there were two people in front of me at security. I actually got to the gate in about 20 minutes after getting off the plane from DC.

I made a virtually identical connection via Toronto a few days before Kris. It was perfect, and I couldn't fault any bit of it, EXCEPT:

1. Why does Canada have this ridiculous system of going through immigration for an international-to-international transfer anyway? Civilised countries don't. Hell, even Uzbekistan doesn't.

2. The "international" (ie non-North American: since when did Canada merge with the US?) terminal is a VERY long way away. From touchdown to getting to the London gate took us about 50 mins (we had to wait about 20 mins for the bus and the pointless job-creation scheme for unemployable immigration staff added another 10).

3. Both the Air Canada inflight magazine and the Air Canada staff on the incoming flight were wrong about connecting baggage. Whereas people are treated in this weird North American way, bags are actually treated the way they're treated in the bits of the world where 95% of the planet lives: they're just automatically through-checked to the ultimate destination.

However irritating the Candadian system is, it's the system and no doubt the rebuilding at Pearson slows everything down.

But it's simply unforgiveable that Air Canada inflight staff give wrong information.

flanneruk -

About your point #1. Well, don't forget the US.