mevlannen

Meh. I **wish** I had the option of travel through a nearby transborder town, but most of the time I do not, as one leg of my transcontinental route must either use a slow coastal ferry (from the island where I live) or a somewhat dicey hop from YQQ to YVR in a Beechcraft commuter-box. The logistics of "fly to YVR, rentacar-crossborder, then fly again onward from SEA" just don't work out.

On the other hand, whoever it was that reminded us all of the southward transborder connections passageway at YYZ deserves a saint's medal. Really.

I'm headed up through YYZ from Nameless New England Airport on Sunday, and back down again on Wednesday. I <i>shall</i> keep notes of my adventures in one-bag travel (complete with fan-folded paperwork in my brassiere, as usual).

Hmm, I wonder if a neck-loop passport-case eats up the One Bag Limit all by itself? Guess I will find out; have already decided that my favourite purse has to stay grounded until the current hysteria ends, as I surely would hate to have to pull a Kathryn and toss it into the trash at the CATSA chicane.

---- I wonder how Amtrak are doing for load factor transcontinentally, these days? ----

InTheAirGuy

Blame Canada: The Travel Detective on New Security Rules

http://www.petergreenberg.com/2010/0...ecurity-rules/

wendystation

Thank you Academic... I had read that our bags would be booked through to our final destination, and only we personally would have to go through US customs/immigration. (In other words, our bags would be pre-cleared in Vancouver.)

SitAlot

On Mon, 11Jan, I flew from Winnipeg thru Toronto, enroute to Newark, NJ, in the evening: I arrived in Toronto at 720pm. Based on who I spoke to that night (RCMP officers, AC Lounge-lady), travelling outside the two major rush-timeframes seems to be the best way to avoid missing your US-bound connecting flight due to getting delayed at one or more of the security-stations. These people told me that from 5am until 10am-ish, and again from 2pm until 5pm-ish, is the busiest in YYZ, which is when a lineup at a security-station can be 1 hour or more.

I had two hours and 11 mins between arriving in Toronto, and then departing from Toronto. This was lots of time because there was virtually no one at any of the security-stations during the time I was there.

Although I said goodbye to my roller-bag as checked-luggage in Winnipeg -- thinking I had no choice but to do so -- when I got to the Luggage-counter in the area where you pick up your arriving-domestic luggage (so you can then take it thru to the next security-station with you -- that's a requirement), I asked the AC Luggage-guy at the AC-counter in that area if I could have taken my roller-bag onboard with me from Winnipeg-to-Toronto and then picked up a luggage-tag from him in that luggage area, thereby saving me the 25mins I had to wait for my checked-in-Winnipeg roller-bag to emerge onto the luggage-carousel so I could retrieve it before going on my way to the next security-station. He said yes, I could have done that. He said particularly if you're travelling when it's NOT busy, ie. if you're travelling outside those two busy-time windows I mentioned above when there's so few people at the security-stations, getting a luggage-tag on your roller-bag at that point would be fine. He said his station has to be equipped, in fact, to check luggage for people who normally wouldn't check luggage because so many people learn, at the final security/pat-down station, that they can't take items onto a US-bound flight so they have to bring said-items back to the Luggage-guy's desk to get tagged as checked-baggage.

Having said the above, as you read thru the postings in this forum, you'll surmise there's only one thing that's consistent: The inconsistency in how the CATSA/TC rules are implemented. But my suggestion is: Travel between noon and 2pm or after 6pm and you'll have a good chance of getting thru the security-stations in two hours, and you can even take your roller-bag onto your domestic flight with you -- knowing you can get it tagged at the Luggage-guy's desk as discussed above.

drsusan

I'm flying YOW-YYC-IAH on Thurs Feb 4, and have 1h15min to connect in YYC (between 10:30AM-11:45AM).

Can someone who has connected to the US via YYC recently tell me if this is likely to be enough time? I connected in YYZ this morning on the way to MCO, and 2 hrs was barely enough connection time.

Thanks!

Q Shoe Guy

Wow, all that hassle and wasted clients money on going via BUF.....just for a suitcase with wheels !

SE until 2009-02-28 only

My wife and I flew YVR / SAN this morning on AC.
Arrived at YVR at 620 and in the MLL at 710 (fast track helped a lot).
Checked 3 bags and had laptop carry on bag that included my Bose head phones. No issues at security. Did not have to turn on computer. Only hand swab at security and no secondary search or pat down. No sign of any police presence. Much better than expected.
And to top off the good travel day our bags were numbers 1, 3 and 4 out of the baggage claim!

KathrynInCanada

Not.just.for.a.suitcase.with.wheels.

To avoid being a part of a ridiculous charade that forces someone to toss a purse and then carry the contents on board the plane stuffed in pockets.

Or, on some other day, to avoid being forced to check the laptop case you took on the week before under the 'new' rules since some other drone has interpreted the rules in another way.

And most importantly, to avoid your business tools being lost or damaged when the delicate items are checked because, although everything that we need to carry onboard a plane fits into a single 20x15x9" bag (which btw is not designed to be checked), the rule is NO CARRY ON. Despite the fact every other nation flying to the US and the US itself do not require NO CARRY ON.

The items in my carry-on are necessary for my business trips and are legal to carry-on under the rules of each nation I've ever flown through. I can manage if my checked bag is lost (clothes and toiletries are easily replaced.) I can't manage if my carry-on bag contents are lost or damaged. That's why I carry them through airports, burdening myself.

Our client has us teaching a group of 25 people today, some of who were flown in to take this class. Had the tools to deliver that course not arrived because the airline lost the checked bag, a lot more than money would have been wasted by our client.

So, avoiding cross-border flights isn't an automatic waste of money.

tomh009

No -- it's more like a personal value judgement call.

I find current regulations annoying and frustrating. However, I have yet to be denied my laptop bag.

If I were to fly BUF-EWR-BUF (rather than YYZ-EWR-YYZ), I would ...

• Avoid the carry-on restrictions, but ...
• Have a longer drive
• Have to leave even earlier in the morning (or spend another night away from home)
• Take the risk of snow issues on the QEW (worse than the 401)
• Fly a jungle jet (or Q400) rather than an E175
• Give up the chance of an occasional op-up
• Fly into the super-busy Terminal C at EWR rather than the quiet Terminal A

For me, it doesn't make sense. At least for now, I'll grin and bear it at YYZ.

yule_boy

Thanks to Academic and SitAlot for the info on connecting in YYZ. Sounds like a good idea to plan flights during the "non-rush-hour" periods if possible.

arf04

I am with you. We are right now looking at relocating future events that we organize out of Canada as 90% of our clients are either U.S. based or international and ultimately fly through the U.S. to get to us in any case. We figure one of our events puts about $75k into the local economy (our events are small, but still a small amount of local business is important to any economy). At the moment, we are committed to doing one more event in Canada at which point we will be able to assess whether or not the restrictions are having an effect on people's willingness to travel to this country. It may be better for us to set up shop in U.S. locations or over in Europe and deal only with the hassle of having to move ourselves. We really cannot risk losing our clients over real or perceived travel hassles.

tomh009

Your clients will still go through extra security hassles flying from Europe (or Canada!) into the US (though not the severe carry-on restrictions), not to mention joys of visas and fingerprinting. Organizing the events in Europe or Asia-Pacific and avoiding the US altogether would minimize the security and travel hassles.

yyzprincess

The extra time for driving is actually Pearson to Buffalo is 1 hr 15 mins.
By not having to pick up the bags at the other end at 30 mins ,out only 45 mins. Ver Very Small price for ensuring my business documents & tools are with me.
And the stress-free travel ,not having to worry if my baggage will make it.
As all my flights EX: BUF in JAN & FEB to Europe & Australia, havimg my carry-on with me I have access to personal items which will make my long haul flights more comfortable.

The risk of snow issue is the same for Pearson. If the weather is awful on day of travel be it travel to Pearson or to Buffalo.

Actually all my flights from Buffalo are E70 with permium cabin^

Already in Premium cabin so no need to be hoping for ocassional op-up.

The additional cost of the car service is cancelled by the savings in taxes that one does not incure EX: BUF.

BTW, for my bussiness associates who do YYZ-NYC or BOS or ORD, I point out it is not worth going via BUF, better off taking Porter , odds of baggage not makking it are far far lower than on AC or UA or AA or US flights because Porter has less volume of baggage compared to these carriers.

Please to note they are taking my advise. .

Q Shoe Guy

All you will be doing is charging clients extra for your own personal convenience!

tomh009

It's still a personal judgement call. Looks like BUF works for you, but it doesn't work as well for me.

Waiting for bags? At EWR Terminal A, by the time I've picked up my Starbucks, the bag is there, so little time lost there (for me).

Flying to Europe or Australia, you will be connecting from BUF, whereas YYZ can be direct. Of course this can generate more miles, so you may prefer these.

While your company may pay for J, mine doesn't. And even if they did, CO flies from BUF only with jungle jets and Q400s.

As for Porter, it can work well if you are starting from downtown TO. If you are west of the city (like I am), YYZ is much closer.

As I said before, it depends on your individual situation. Glad you are happy flying from BUF, but don't assume it'll work equally well for everyone else.