Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Does YVR-JFK offer US immigration pre-clearance?

I have to get from the PacNW to South America next week on OW, the itineraries were terrible and all pretty much required a night on a plane. Rather than try to deal with getting no sleep on some crappy US F cabin, I was able to route ex-YVR and get YVR-JFK on CX to connect up to my next AA segment ex-JFK.
I use YVR a lot and know that for many (all?) of the US bound flights, you pre-clear US immigration in YVR and then get deposited at the domestic terminal in your US arrrival city. I'm not sure if everyone gets off this plane in YVR while it stops there, so I don't know if this this true for this flight that you can pre-clear? It would be pretty nice to avoid JFK immigration if possible!

IIRC, you will clear immigration at JFK.

Sadly you'll go thru immigration at JFK T7. Move quickly - when I took this flight last year, it arrived at the same time as the non-stop HKG-JFK, along with a BA747, so it was a nightmare. IIRC, timings may have shifted, so you may be a bit more fortunate. It is a nice service that CX offer on board, however. In F, we got the works - lovely meal, pjs, amenity kits - even Krug made an appearance!

Sadly you'll go thru immigration at JFK T7. Move quickly - when I took this flight last year, it arrived at the same time as the non-stop HKG-JFK, along with a BA747, so it was a nightmare. IIRC, timings may have shifted, so you may be a bit more fortunate. It is a nice service that CX offer on board, however. In F, we got the works - lovely meal, pjs, amenity kits - even Krug made an appearance!

T7 is horrific. Once a plane or two delays 30 minutes to one hour then you have overlapping planes, and T7 immigration booths are never full, and thus you usually have gigantic lines. Plus, the immigration officers will not call you when they are free, they expect the person in front to get people line up, but he/she doesn't always do that well, and you end up with many people shifting lanes, cutting in lines, etc.

I took the CX flight a couple weeks ago and it arrived at JFK at 630am and was the only international flight then (way before BA, IB, etc.) so very fast. Customs and Immigrations are at JFK.

I take this flight pretty regularly now and it tends to arrive 30+ mins early into JFK almost every time. And as elitetraveler said at that time there's no other flights arriving. So just move quickly off the plane and you'll be out in no time.

A few weeks ago we landed at around 6.25am and I was landside by 6.45am (no bags). And caught the 7.01am LIRR to Manhattan. I think the flight is scheduled to arrive at 7.05am?

Thanks for the information. According to my ticket it arrives at 6AM sharp (probably as a result of the NA time change last week), that sounds like it's a good thing in that immigration is better the earlier you arrive.
I take this flight pretty regularly now and it tends to arrive 30+ mins early into JFK almost every time. And as elitetraveler said at that time there's no other flights arriving. So just move quickly off the plane and you'll be out in no time.

A few weeks ago we landed at around 6.25am and I was landside by 6.45am (no bags). And caught the 7.01am LIRR to Manhattan. I think the flight is scheduled to arrive at 7.05am?

Thanks for the information. According to my ticket it arrives at 6AM sharp (probably as a result of the NA time change last week), that sounds like it's a good thing in that immigration is better the earlier you arrive.

Beware tho that if the flt arrives before 6AM, you'd actually need to seat on the plane until 6. You are not allowed to leave before 6AM.

A couple of interesting things...

I took the flight because it was either SEA-YVR-JFK-MIA-BOG (getting to fly on the CX 77A for the overnight) or SEA-DFW (AA redeye)-MIA-BOG. Both less than optimal, but AA F on an overnight is torture. I thought I'd get more sleep on the CX flight, but wheels up to descent for landing is pretty short. I've done AA SFO-JFK in real F and could swear I slept longer. Overall it was the start of a killer BA TP run, so no biggie on one short night of sleep. Absolutely no lines at JFK (in fact there wasnt an arrival for another hour+) and the nice shiny new AA terminal was just next door.

The interesting thing was SEA-YVR and immigration in Canada. I hop up to YVR a bit, later EU flights out of there, so I know the US-int'l connection immigration is open until 8pm (and it's key to avoid going into Canada immigration when the CI and BR flights arrive at the same time). The CX flight is not listed as one they are allowed to let through. The very polite guy said "you're right, it's leaving out of these gates and you will need to clear US immigration in JFK, but it's not on our list." He made a call and nobody objected and since he could see my gate sign down the stairs he let me go through. Luggage made it to BOG too, so that was nice!

the last time I went via YVR I cleared US Immigration downstairs There was one Immigration official there and the domestic carrier counters behind him. You then arrive in US domestic terminals.
Not so for the 'seamless' oneworld connections.
I went Atlanta / Fort Worth / Lax on American Airlines connecting to CX to HKG.
You have to exit LAX termninal 4 with your bag and walk to Tom Bradley terminal, checkin again, go through the security etc etc. How is it then that oneworld Qantas passengers getting off the same American Airlines flight get a shuttle bus airside to Tom Bradley and do not have to endure the same shambles above ? Obviously Qantas pays for the service and CX does not - then you see the Qantas pax standing in the same lounge as you later - I say 'standing' because the lounge is of an insufficient size to handle the oneworld load.

the last time I went via YVR I cleared US Immigration downstairs There was one Immigration official there and the domestic carrier counters behind him. You then arrive in US domestic terminals.

Not if you took CX888. Pre-clearance is done for all (AFAIK) other US-bound flights except this one, as noted above.

You have to exit LAX termninal 4 with your bag and walk to Tom Bradley terminal, checkin again, go through the security etc etc.

The bags should be through-checked when you leave the US. You would only need to re-check your bags when you enter the US. AA is usually capable to gave you the boarding passes for your CX segments as well (provided that you are on the same ticket, of course), though I know sometimes inexperience agents have problems doing that.

Not if you took CX888. Pre-clearance is done for all (AFAIK) other US-bound flights except this one, as noted above.

The PR flight that runs MNL-YVR-LAS probably doesn't preclear either. In general, only most Canadian and all U.S. airlines preclear in Canada where available.

The PR flight that runs MNL-YVR-LAS probably doesn't preclear either. In general, only most Canadian and all U.S. airlines preclear in Canada where available.

Yes, you're right.. Totally forgot about that flight, I even pass it every time I go to the CX gate..

Correct on the MNL-YVR-LAS. I take that one often from YVR-LAS and you clear customs in LAS.

If you're inspected (sent for secondary) at JFK the fear is that you could face a very long wait.