Anyone been at Pearson Toronto lately?

[ccudmore]

We leave two weeks from tomorrow at 7am. Flying with Air Canada. We are 2 adults travelling with just carry-on luggage. What time should we be at the airport?

Flying to where?

 

[Baldy]

Flying to where?

Orlando (MCO) sorry. I should have specified.

 

[starvenger]

Do you have NEXUS? If so, I think you're probably safe up to 90 minutes before takeoff. If not, I think adding 60-90 would be prudent.

BTW, according to the Toronto Pearson website, CBP - in theory - doesn't open until 4:30am.

 

[Baldy]

Do you have NEXUS? If so, I think you're probably safe up to 90 minutes before takeoff. If not, I think adding 60-90 would be prudent.

BTW, according to the Toronto Pearson website, CBP - in theory - doesn't open until 4:30am.

Thanks. We will plan to get there around 4:30 (2 1/2 hours early). We have no checked bags and we will get our boarding passes online but we don’t have NEXUS.
I will let everyone know how it went. Hopefully others will continue posting their experiences too.

 

[musika]

We flew to YYZ late last month (domestic, T3). Totally smooth sailing. We had carryon on the way there, 2 checked bags on the way back. Maybe took us 15-20 min to get through security at 10am on a Wednesday. Did have to wait for a takeoff slot on the runway but nothing out of what I'd consider normal.

 

[starvenger]

Just got back (it's Sunday) after dropping the wife and kids off at T1. They're going to LHR via Air Canada. Unfortunately I couldn't go as my last job did not afford me enough vacation time, and then they fired me (which would be a completely separate topic) at a point where it was too expensive to buy a ticket. But I digress.

We got there around 5:50 for an 8:30pm flight. T1 was quite busy. We checked in online, and getting baggage tags was quick. Getting the bag drop machine to accept one of the bags was a pain - we rotated it to about 4 different positions before it was deemed to be acceptable.

The general International security line was super long - I'd estimate at least an hour to get through. And here is where we score another win for NEXUS, because on the far right side of the terminal, past the D entrance, is a NEXUS/Global Entry area that you can use to go to the international (E) gates. It took them 15 minutes to get through the line and through security. The one drawback is that there is a lot of walking to get to the E gates.

I do hope that the offices open back up for those of you that have applied and need to do the interview. I've said before that it is the best $50USD you will ever spend for travel, and based on my family's airport experiences over the past month, I still firmly believe that.

 

[Prince John Robin Hood]

We leave two weeks from tomorrow at 7am. Flying with Air Canada. We are 2 adults travelling with just carry-on luggage. What time should we be at the airport?

We got stuck on the train at terminal 3 due to a fire alarm yesterday and didn't get to terminal 1 until after 5 am. We were through security and customs in 30 minutes and we have two young kids. Definitely don't stress about getting there super early.

Everyone seemed to be doing carry-on and quite a few people ended up having their bags checked as the overhead bins on the plane were full.

 

[CanadianKrista]

We got here 4 hours early for our 1:20pm flight today. We got through bag check, security and customs, and were at the gate with 3.5 hours to spare. No lines to speak of at all. Just waiting for boarding now (also OMG, we are actually going to Disney!)

 

[pangyal]

We arrived at 7:35am for a 10:15am flight today…we have Nexus, but the Nexus security lines were closed anyway (not the kiosks). We were through everything by 8:15am. The non-Nexus lines didn’t look long at all. This was T3, though, not the gong show that T1 seems to be continuing with.

 

[starvenger]

(also OMG, we are actually going to Disney!)

I was asking a similar question when we were going to California. It was the most pre-vacation jitters I've had in 20 years.

 

[Susan2771]

Just got back (it's Sunday) after dropping the wife and kids off at T1. They're going to LHR via Air Canada. Unfortunately I couldn't go as my last job did not afford me enough vacation time, and then they fired me (which would be a completely separate topic) at a point where it was too expensive to buy a ticket. But I digress.

We got there around 5:50 for an 8:30pm flight. T1 was quite busy. We checked in online, and getting baggage tags was quick. Getting the bag drop machine to accept one of the bags was a pain - we rotated it to about 4 different positions before it was deemed to be acceptable.

The general International security line was super long - I'd estimate at least an hour to get through. And here is where we score another win for NEXUS, because on the far right side of the terminal, past the D entrance, is a NEXUS/Global Entry area that you can use to go to the international (E) gates. It took them 15 minutes to get through the line and through security. The one drawback is that there is a lot of walking to get to the E gates.

I do hope that the offices open back up for those of you that have applied and need to do the interview. I've said before that it is the best $50USD you will ever spend for travel, and based on my family's airport experiences over the past month, I still firmly believe that.

I am sorry to read things did not work out at your last employer. Hope something exciting comes your way soon

 

[starvenger]

I am sorry to read things did not work out at your last employer. Hope something exciting comes your way soon

It was kind of a nightmare job anyway. High turnover and a CEO who is very bad at his job but very good at self-preservation.

Thank you for the support. I'm starting a new job after Labour Day.

As for vacation... because I couldn't go, I'm making lemonade out of lemons and doing a trip that I've always wanted to do - 3 baseball games in three cities (Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo) in three days. Heading to Windsor tomorrow, in fact.

 

[podgirl]

Add another short wait time to the list for Pearson-took 10 minutes to get through security for departing for Vienna, then yesterday when we arrived back, it was literally 5 minutes to get through all the passport/arrivals things. In fact, my husband remarked that they had the lines organized like Disney. There was a lady who kept opening and closing off sections so that the lines kept moving.

 

[Susan2771]

It was kind of a nightmare job anyway. High turnover and a CEO who is very bad at his job but very good at self-preservation.

Thank you for the support. I'm starting a new job after Labour Day.

As for vacation... because I couldn't go, I'm making lemonade out of lemons and doing a trip that I've always wanted to do - 3 baseball games in three cities (Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo) in three days. Heading to Windsor tomorrow, in fact.

Oh how fun. I hope you enjoy the games. For me, you would need to substitute baseball for Target and then it would be a home run!

Enjoy the new job!

 

[spewey]

We’re at Pearson right now. Got here about 10AM for our 1:20PM flight to Orlando. Almost no line for security or immigration. Got to the gate in under 30 minutes.

That tracks with our other experiences and from what I’ve been reading, which is things can be crowded and chaotic for early morning flights (ie before 9) but usually very smooth for the afternoon departures.

 

[MamaLema]

DS travelled Toronto to New York this morning.
Flight was 8:40am
Got there at 5:30. Got through security 8:00.
Then delayed 40 min

 

[starvenger]

Picked up wife and kids from Pearson today. They were coming back from Heathrow. Took them 45 minutes to get from the gate to the baggage claim exit, which is about the fastest we've ever got out of T1 at any point in time.