Originally Posted by
MikeMpls
What is like these days to deal with CATSA vs. TSA? Especially CATSA in Toronto & Thunder Bay? Note that this questions pertains only to flights between Canada & Europe or entirely within Canada.
In December I am due to lead an FT DO in Athens, and my wife & I originally had planned to head to Frankfurt & Köln afterwards. Due to a schedule change, I might be able to force the ticket to be canceled & refunded, although I would have a prepaid LH itin on the line for ATH-FRA.
I am considering rebooking it as an award ticket originating in Thunder Bay via Toronto.
Would we be much happier dealing with CATSA than TSA?
YYZ is my home airport and most of my travel is domestic or international - I've sworn off US travel. In relative terms ... CATSA is a joy to deal with. No shoe carnival, belts on, and with the odd exception, friendly and polite.
CATSA in US departures is a more polite clone of the TSA ... they kowtow to the TSA regulations, but at least don't bark at you.
Never flown through Thunder Bay, but a domestic flight originating in a small Canadian town is generally the "have a good flight, sir" type of security.
Originally Posted by
okazon69
They do have NOS at YYZ, but so far I do not think there is any obligation to use it. I don't know about what happens if you opt out.
See the Airports with NoS thread ... Friendly Skies has kept it current as far as I know it. (I have no experience with Terminal 3 as I always fly Air Canada).
In T1, my opt out experience has been friendly 3 out of 4 times ... the clerk I had in October was very professional (even if she was following TSA protocol). "I will put on new gloves now", "I will feel inside your belt area now", "I need to pat down your back now" ... with the appropriate pause for me to interject before she actually acted. She allowed me to move to where I could see my bags, and she stopped the moat dragon from moving them any further.
That being said ... it's also the place where I had my full-grope opt-out experience ...