Originally Posted by
canadiancow
I would expect to be able to immediately recheck on the outbound, given you can just follow the connection path, recheck them, then go through the big doors to the left of the elevator in order to exit into the main terminal area.
On the return, no chance of an overnight check.
Now that the trip is over, I thought I should circle back on this.
Your advice at YVR is spot on. There's a dedicated re-check "counter" consisting of a man standing in front of a conveyor belt where one can drop bags off after customs inspection somewhere along the connections corridor. You can't miss it.
On the return (recap: YYC-YYZ-PVG, with an overnight layover at YYZ 11pm to noon, i.e. approx 13 hours) I thought, what the heck, no harm asking. The agent checked one bag through to PVG (and short checked two others, as requested) without batting an eyelid. All the bags were routed as promised, although AC managed to break a wheel on my Rimowa on the outbound, and another on the inbound, but that's a story for another day...