OP here. When booking, I, too, made this erroneous assumption. As a Canadian citizen, I’m allowed to enter the US. In fact, I just flew to LGA a few weeks ago. So when the most convenient and reasonably priced option came up as AMS-EWR-YYZ, I didn’t blink and was actually looking forward to flying United Polaris on a totally new type for me: the 787-10.

Only when I wasn’t able to complete online check-in at T-24 (after submitting all my vaccination, negative PCR, and ArriveCAN records), did I get the inkling that something might be wrong. The United app just said something along the lines of “unable to complete online check-in; please see an agent at the airport”. That’s when I got increasingly worried that I might be denied boarding if I waited to try the airport the next day. As later confirmed by others, that would have indeed been the case.

Thankfully, I was able to switch to this AMS-FRA-YUL-YYZ routing. Now here comes the fun part:

The FRA connection was going to be tight (LH1003 lands at 9:10 and AC845 departs at 10:10). We ended up landing at FRA 15 minutes late due to a medical emergency on another flight. Then we went to a remote stand (of course), and the stairs at the front didn’t work initially so they deplaned from the back first. J passengers ended up on the second bus, which had to wait for everyone else. Got to the terminal at 9:40, when AC845 started boarding at 9:25. FRA Concierge tried to call me a couple times to direct me to the departure gate, but between the line dropping and passport control getting annoyed with me for being on the phone, that was probably less helpful than intended. Ended up making it to gate B43 by 9:50 after absolutely racing through that ridiculous tunnel between the A and B concourses. I’ve made this sprint a few times before, but never with a mask! The Concierge agent was waiting for me at the gate and quite surprised I made it. Sitting onboard in seat 4A now and catching my breath.

Safe travels, everyone. It’s a whole new adventure during covid times…