Originally Posted by
TechnoTourist
Neither have an airside terrace, nor is there much but concrete and cars outside.
If they can enter Canada they can pass immigration and head to the exit before re-clearing security and US pre-clearance. Nexus will make it faster, but priority security from a business class boarding pass will avoid most of the security lines. A couple hour layover would be plenty if (this can be a big if with AC) things are on-time. I would recommend checking the security wait times on the airport websites before making the decision to go landside.
Thanks for the info. I've never connected in Canada myself so I'm not sure how preclearance works when arriving from a third country and therefore when in the process it would be possible to go landside. I read that there's some process for having checked bags available for US customs to recall - so is going landside done after it's been determined that US customs doesn't need to look at the bags,or is it actually only possible before going through preclearance?