Anyone been at Pearson Toronto lately?

[madame_jedi]

Where are you flying to that requires a test?

To fly from Canada to the US a negative Covid test is still required by the US government.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We fly out of YYZ on Friday....will let you know how it goes.

 

[spewey]

My wife returned yesterday from Nashville. Lately it seems there those flights (Air Canada) are always delayed, especially the afternoon ones, which is probably a result of hiccups throughout the day with short staffing, baggage issues, etc all slowing down operations.

Scheduled for 2:50, got in the air about 4:20. However, arrival at Pearson was very smooth, as good as pre-pandemic in fact.

But if you check social media you'd think YYZ was a war zone, so maybe she got lucky. And despite what many are doing to lay the blame at the feet of specific politicians people must realize this is happening all over the world, especially at larger airports. I read about a SEVEN hour line to clear security at Dublin this past weekend, snaking over 2 kms outside the terminal, with 1000's of people missing flights. And that was just one of many such stories just in Europe in the last week.

A former COO of Air Canada posted his take on this last night on the Twitter. According to him, the source of the chaos at Pearson is directly related to under staffing at the CBSA, leading to massive slowdowns to clear customs, meaning airline staff being pulled elsewhere to try to manage the problems that then arise.

In any event I am not confident that this can be resolved simply or quickly. As someone else said, there isn't a "Magic Hiring Wand" - Canada's unemployment rate is as low as it's been in 50 years, and everyone is scrambling. And with all this pent-up demand for travel, I don't think the pressure will be easing either.

 

[TammyLynn33]

My wife returned yesterday from Nashville. Lately it seems there those flights (Air Canada) are always delayed, especially the afternoon ones, which is probably a result of hiccups throughout the day with short staffing, baggage issues, etc all slowing down operations.

Scheduled for 2:50, got in the air about 4:20. However, arrival at Pearson was very smooth, as good as pre-pandemic in fact.

But if you check social media you'd think YYZ was a war zone, so maybe she got lucky. And despite what many are doing to lay the blame at the feet of specific politicians people must realize this is happening all over the world, especially at larger airports. I read about a SEVEN hour line to clear security at Dublin this past weekend, snaking over 2 kms outside the terminal, with 1000's of people missing flights. And that was just one of many such stories just in Europe in the last week.

A former COO of Air Canada posted his take on this last night on the Twitter. According to him, the source of the chaos at Pearson is directly related to under staffing at the CBSA, leading to massive slowdowns to clear customs, meaning airline staff being pulled elsewhere to try to manage the problems that then arise.

In any event I am not confident that this can be resolved simply or quickly. As someone else said, there isn't a "Magic Hiring Wand" - Canada's unemployment rate is as low as it's been in 50 years, and everyone is scrambling. And with all this pent-up demand for travel, I don't think the pressure will be easing either.

I hope it’s simply a case of the loud angry voices getting all the media attention . Hearing things went smooth is not as click bait generating

 

[damo]

My sister had a domestic flight scheduled to leave from Pearson at 9:30 last night. Her flight finally left at 12:30. It wasn't security that was the issue as that took half an hour. Their reasoning was runway construction and directions from air traffic control.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I’m sitting at the gate at YYZ. We ended up arriving a fair bit earlier than planned….there was zero traffic. We walked right through bag drop, security then US immigration with not a single delay. We were from curb to gate in 45 minutes. That’s very good considering at T1 the walk to the gates is a kilometre or more.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I’m sitting at the gate at YYZ. We ended up arriving a fair bit earlier than planned….there was zero traffic. We walked right through bag drop, security then US immigration with not a single delay. We were from curb to gate in 45 minutes. That’s very good considering at T1 the walk to the gates is a kilometre or more.

That's great to hear! Thank you.

 

[dancin Disney style]

So things went a little sideways for us after we boarded the plane. The flight was not full…maybe 75-80%…so boarding was fast. The pilot made an announcement that we would be delayed departing YYZ due to severe weather at MCO. So it got interesting…we pushed back 5 minutes earlier than originally scheduled and then out to park on the tarmac along side the 427. Engines were powered off and we sat for 90 minutes. Then the Pilot came on and said there was a 5 minute window for take off so everyone had to be seated and buckled immediately. The FA’s made a really swift and serious pass through the cabin and in 5minutes we were on the runway.

 

[mort1331]

But at least your gone..whoo hooo

 

[dancin Disney style]

But at least your gone..whoo hooo

Yep…made it. We are sitting in our villa this morning feet up, sipping coffee with The Golden Girls on the TV while we decide which pool to go to.

 

[grantclaire]

Yep…made it. We are sitting in our villa this morning feet up, sipping coffee with The Golden Girls on the TV while we decide which pool to go to.

Glad you made it! Have a great vacation!

 

[mort1331]

Yep…made it. We are sitting in our villa this morning feet up, sipping coffee with The Golden Girls on the TV while we decide which pool to go to.

Not that it matters,,,but which "home"

 

[dancin Disney style]

Not that it matters,,,but which "home"

Shady Pines

 

[dancin Disney style]

Vistana…I think that is the actual answer you wanted

 

[chimo2u]

So happy the testing requirement to fly INTO the USA is gone noW That alleviates some worry for our YEG to Toronto to Orlando in October! We chose a 1 pm flight leaving Edmonton, and decided to stay the night in the Gateway Sheraton in Toronto. I am wondering what time I should have us all down to the airport checkin for our 10:10 am flight?? Our biggest worry now will be to ensure all 4 of us test negative 3 days later to board our cruise.
I am considering getting the tests that can be proctored in the hotel room. Does anyone remember how we can register our at home test kits to be proctored?
I am thinking if we arrive in the airport for 6:30 am for a 10:10 flight to MCO we should be pretty safe?? I am flying via west jet and chose Premium seats for 2 of us, and our boys are only a few rows behind us so we should get on and off the plane fairly fast

 

[dancin Disney style]

So happy the testing requirement to fly INTO the USA is gone noW That alleviates some worry for our YEG to Toronto to Orlando in October! We chose a 1 pm flight leaving Edmonton, and decided to stay the night in the Gateway Sheraton in Toronto. I am wondering what time I should have us all down to the airport checkin for our 10:10 am flight?? Our biggest worry now will be to ensure all 4 of us test negative 3 days later to board our cruise.
I am considering getting the tests that can be proctored in the hotel room. Does anyone remember how we can register our at home test kits to be proctored?
I am thinking if we arrive in the airport for 6:30 am for a 10:10 flight to MCO we should be pretty safe?? I am flying via west jet and chose Premium seats for 2 of us, and our boys are only a few rows behind us so we should get on and off the plane fairly fast

I would suggest no further comments or discussion specific to tests or vaccine requirements. All the other threads on that subject have been closed. It breaks some Dis rule.


Things could be very different by October. A good general rule for YYZ is 3 hours ahead a little longer if you don’t know the airport or are not a savvy traveller.

 

[hdrolfe]

So happy the testing requirement to fly INTO the USA is gone noW That alleviates some worry for our YEG to Toronto to Orlando in October! We chose a 1 pm flight leaving Edmonton, and decided to stay the night in the Gateway Sheraton in Toronto. I am wondering what time I should have us all down to the airport checkin for our 10:10 am flight?? Our biggest worry now will be to ensure all 4 of us test negative 3 days later to board our cruise.
I am considering getting the tests that can be proctored in the hotel room. Does anyone remember how we can register our at home test kits to be proctored?
I am thinking if we arrive in the airport for 6:30 am for a 10:10 flight to MCO we should be pretty safe?? I am flying via west jet and chose Premium seats for 2 of us, and our boys are only a few rows behind us so we should get on and off the plane fairly fast

I'd suggest you check the pinned post at the top of this (Canadian) board for information.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We arrived back home Saturday night....a little later than scheduled. A pretty wicked storm hit MCO about 1.5 hrs before our flight. A lot of planes were held back from landing including ours. We were approx an hour late departing...so not too bad. However, YYZ was a bigger problem. We landed on one of the very back runways (which is pretty far from the terminal) and were held there as the gate was occupied. We sat for 40 minutes before starting a very slow roll to the gate. CBSA was not bad...busy but no real line up. Only problem was that there was no order to getting a kiosk. You basically had to stalk people and there were people that would just jump right in front of you when you were next. It's usually more civil. We were probably through there in 15 minutes. They really should be using the eDeclaration it would streamline things, in particular for those that don't know how to use the kiosk or those that take more time to do it. Side note....I have always found it pretty gross that hundreds of people are touching the kisoks...no one is cleaning them and there is no hand sanitizer.

LOL...baggage was typical of T1. Multiple flights dumped on one carousel and bags falling over the side. Timing wise though, I would say it might have been a little faster than normal.

Overall, really no better or worse than any other time.

 

[Susan2771]

We arrived back home Saturday night....a little later than scheduled. A pretty wicked storm hit MCO about 1.5 hrs before our flight. A lot of planes were held back from landing including ours. We were approx an hour late departing...so not too bad. However, YYZ was a bigger problem. We landed on one of the very back runways (which is pretty far from the terminal) and were held there as the gate was occupied. We sat for 40 minutes before starting a very slow roll to the gate. CBSA was not bad...busy but no real line up. Only problem was that there was no order to getting a kiosk. You basically had to stalk people and there were people that would just jump right in front of you when you were next. It's usually more civil. We were probably through there in 15 minutes. They really should be using the eDeclaration it would streamline things, in particular for those that don't know how to use the kiosk or those that take more time to do it. Side note....I have always found it pretty gross that hundreds of people are touching the kisoks...no one is cleaning them and there is no hand sanitizer.

LOL...baggage was typical of T1. Multiple flights dumped on one carousel and bags falling over the side. Timing wise though, I would say it might have been a little faster than normal.

Overall, really no better or worse than any other time.

My parents also flew back Saturday afternoon from Florida to YYZ. They were required to wait on the plane 90 minutes at the gate before being able to disembark. They mentioned as well that it was chaos to get a kiosk at immigration. My mom's nerves were pretty frayed by the time they got out of the airport.

 

[Gorechick]

Following this thread as I’m taking my first overseas trip to the UK and flying Detroit via Toronto to Manchester. I’ve been reading the horror stories on social media and had a sleepless night last night almost crying about my Air Canada flight next month. I’m concerned about how much luggage to take, checked bag, carryon and personal item or carryon and personal item only, as well as, the delays. Right now I’ve got a 5 hour layover from Detroit to Toronto and an evening/overnight flight to Manchester. Any updates of experiences appreciated. TIA!