Six of us are flying through YVR connecting to a flight to Maui. Our domestic flight arrives in YVR at 1230 hours on a Saturday and the flight to Maui leaves the same day at 1715 hours.
We'd like to leave the secured (US) departures area to meet family for lunch for a couple of hours in the airport.
Not sure how this will work out leaving the secured area after checking in for our U.S bound flight. Will this be OK, do we check our luggage in to the U.S. flight first and then leave, and will it be a problem going through customs twice?
Easy to do.
Ignore some of the above posts.
Exit the secure area from your domestic flight, meet your family, enjoy lunch.
When you come back to YVR, go to US Departures with boarding passes, passports and completed US CBP in hand, pass through duty free, then to US INS. After INS but before US Customs, make a left turn into the US Connections baggage hall, claim your bags, then proceed through US Customs where they will take the card, drop checked bags on the belt, through security, MLL and plane.
Allow an hour to do all that. US INS and security can be very fast to get through, can also extremely slow. If fast, the whole process is 10 minutes or less.