So we arrived from DXB into YYZ today, Xmas day, so this is perhaps not the most indicative of the Pearson experience. I don’t know. We had a connection to YUL giving us 2h15min to clear and go through.

When we landed (5:45AM) the captain informed us that the customs hall was full so passengers would have to wait on the plane, however people with connections could disembark. Customs hall was already jammed with arrivals from earlier São Paulo and Delhi flights. The automated machine section was relatively quick, but meeting with a customs agent was very long. There were only 4 or 5 agents for hundreds of people. It took a better part of an hour to get out of customs. No test was required and we were just ushered along. Most notably, no Covid docs were required of us.

We were required to pick up our checked bags. They were already waiting for us and the carousel was fully of luggage. That said, luggage was still being spit out from our flight when we got to the baggage claim an hour+ after arrival.

AC then required us to go to the domestic bag drop to re-check our baggage. I would have thought they could have accepted our bags in the connections area but this was not the case.

There was a priority line for security but there a lot of people using it (one security lane only) and so that took us almost 30 minutes to pass through. My thought was what good is the priority line if it is slower than the regular line. By the time we cleared, our flight was at final boarding call, so we needed the entire 2h15 min between flights.

For the most part the customs and security people were extra surly today.