Originally Posted by
canadiancow
Landside.
CBP is fine at YVR in my opinion, but security is only reasonable if you have a NEXUS card on you.
CBP at YVR are basically the worst in Canada. They force even people with no checked bags to talk to someone, and they ask the same harassing garbage they ask people at regular booths.
Originally Posted by
Bohemian1
Totally agree, Nexus works pretty much everywhere and almost guarantees you TSA Pre. In YYZ, the Nexus and Visa Privilege lines dump you into the same place. At my base (YVR), they even have effectively the same protocol as TSA-P most of the time.
Having said that the Nexus lane is not always open first thing in the morning here or during the mid day doldrums. And there are shocking number of families with kids using the Nexus lane now. That's okay, but they take forever to actually clear the Immigration agents. Whine, whine, snivel, snivel.
Since when does YYZ give you any priority for Visa? They do for various high end AMEX cards, but I've not seen Visa. Also, YYZ T1 and T3 transborder Nexus lines are Nexus only.
Originally Posted by
Bohemian1
It gets better - most of the time at least two of those terminals are non-functional. There's about the same number of Nexus machines in YVR arrivals as well, with about the same reliability. I figure they could almost double the number of machines on both sides but that would require spending money.
Either that or it's a union shop and they only want to process a certain number of PAX per hour.
The anti-union snark aside, I have noticed how bad YVR is about Nexus kiosk maintenance. They have probably 16 or so machines, but a bunch are frequently broken.