Anyone flown AC from London to Orlando via Toronto??

[Doodles]

In January we're flying from London to Orlando with a changeover in Toronto. A little nervous since we land at Terminal One in Toronto, and our flight to Orlando leaves from Terminal Two only an hour later. Apparently they shuttle us through a tunnel from Terminal one to Terminal two to get our connecting flight (according to TA). Has anyone done this? Was there any problem with your luggage making it onto the plane to Orlando? Did you still clear US customs at Pearson?
I guess they probably do this all the time, but still a little wary of the time factor.

 

[mbb]

We're flying Hfx to Toronto on the 18... don't forget your green ribbons!

Your connection is tight, but you should be ok...airport agents regularly check the lines to move those with connections ahead faster...tell everyone you see that you have a connection, and don't be afraid to speak up when you see someone official with a clipboard or a scanner! Our kids love the moving sidewalks

 

[KLondon]

Doodles..... Being fellow Londoners, we've done this trip a few times now (with 2 young kids). You should have no problems at all. A few things to keep in mind:

• keep your carry-on luggage light to make your terminal-to-terminal journey easy
• Pearson seems to be in a constant state of renovation, so the trail between terminals is often different from trip to trip. Don't be afraid to ask for directions if you think you need them
• we have NEVER lost luggage doing this trip - relax!
• your biggest headache will be clearing US Customs at Pearson just because there's always a line-up. To make this easier, make sure you have your US Customs card filled out in full and your ID ready-and-waiting. Assuming you're flying Air Canada, you're likely to find various AC reps hanging around Customs with clipboards. They are there to make sure folks heading for connecting flights get thru Customs. If the line is slow and you're nervous about making the flight, just grab one of these AC folks and let them know your connecting flight number, etc. They'll make sure you get through okay.

Above all...relax! We've never had ANY problems with this route to Orlando. You'll be fine, too. Any other questions, just ask me!

 

[jersey shark]

Great advice from KLondon...one other caution to be aware of is that upon landing in Toronto, you may have to re-claim checked baggage and then carry it thru US Customs (and then upon clearance with customs, effectively re-check it). I needed to this a few years ago and it was horribly confusing/time-consuming.

I would double-check with the Air Can agents in London when you leave exactly how to choreograph your moves at Toronto Airport with checked bags, shuttles, customs etc...

I would add that the chaos in Toronto Airport is terrible....hopefully all the reconstruction they're doing will help, but my gut feeling was "Maybe they should have started from scratch and built a whole new airport at a different site...Pittsburgh did this and it's such a pleasure to experience connecting thru Pittsburgh Airport! Back to Toronto, I landed at Terminal 3 last month and forced hordes of crowds in the terminal and right outside the terminal...traffic of shuttle buses/airport drop-offs was horribly choked....there literally wasn't enough room to safely do your thing to get away from the airport....I was told later that this was the "new" terminal!!! Yikes!

Suggestion: In the future, try Buffalo Airport or Detroit Metro Airport....they're both new (Detroit's brand-spanking new!) and they're very user-friendly....plus you avoid the airport customs crunch this way!

 

[Cruisin]

I know it won't help on this trip but in the future maybe you should check out the prices at Detroit. The drive might be worth the hassle savings you might have doing London - Toronto-Orlando. Fly non-stop from Detroit 2hrs 45 min approx. Depending on where you are from it might be the easier choice.

 

[MikeJ]

... or from Flint. We flew Air Tran from Flint-Orlando non-stop back in the summer. It's a 2 hr drive from London, you clear customs at the Bluewater bridge, the Flint airport is a great place to fly from, and Air Tran has very good prices and a fairly new fleet.

- Mike

 

[KLondon]

Great points on flying out of the States, folks! Back when USAir flew out of London, I always used them just for the convenience and the easy connections in Pittsburgh. Now we try to use Northwest to get the connection thru Detroit (just seems easier than Toronto somehow).

We're actually doing the drive-to-Detroit-and-fly-to-Orlando route this Xmas, but I'd never considered Flint before. Have to consider that one in the future!

 

[wtg2000]

You can also fly London-Detroit-Orlando on Northwest.

It's too bad Air Canada scuttled plans for direct flights from London to Orlando every Monday. There was no explanation. They just dropped the entire program although they still fly to Cuba and Domincan. The news had said that was one of the new services we'd be getting with our lovely new airport expansion. Guess not.

 

[mom_rules]

Not to be negative, but when are you going? Watch busy times-March break for instance-just conjestion could cause problems.
Also my DD flew from YYZ to EWR a couple of weeks ago when we had that storm. Her connecting flight was supposed to leave two hours after her arrival in EWR. The YYZ flight was delayed two hours and she had to put her foot in the door to make the next flight (only 10 gates apart). If she hadn't have made it she would have been stranded at EWR at her expense, for 24 hours (they don't cover delays that they have no control over ie. weather).