Sorry about the confusion. OSS is for both passengers and baggage. So far from multiple FTers, baggage has only been checked through; connecting passengers at YYZ still have to exit the secure area and go through security on floor 2. I was wondering, since you said that OSS did work on your YYZ segment, where the separate airside corridor is located (if there is one)....

OSS is for passengers (one security checkpoint required for eligible INTL/TB-DOM/INTL itineraries).

ITD is for baggage (where you don't have to pickup your bag at Customs and redrop it off for your connection for eligible INTL/TB-DOM connection flights).

Bottom line: OSS at this point is just a notation on the boarding pass. Nothing more.

Its just a big tease right now!

Works great for bags, love it

BUT for people, same old wasted, useless, silly routine :mad:

YVR doesn't seem to segregate passengers, and I was permitted to bypass security, on a US-YVR-Int'l itinerary. There was an airport employee checking BPs after the transfer immigration, who seemed to be responsible for directing people to security if needed. But it seems int'l passengers from elsewhere would have been in the same area, and then put through security after immigration.

That's not new. YYZ also does not require you to go through security for international (including US) to international connections.

The OSS initiative is supposed to allow international to domestic connections without having to go through security.

If you have access to your checked luggage at any point during your connection process, you need to be re-screened. As far as I know, you can check your luggage through to Canadian final destinations from some foreign origins, but not all. Unless they can make it such that bags are checked all the way through, making pax go through another security screening is the only option.

A written clarification from AC on OSS designation on boarding pass
 

See below (regarding Pearson airport) :

"OSS on a boarding pass is used when you arrive from the USA or international station, and are connecting to an international flight. When doing a connection of this nature, you must first see Canada customs officers and then a GTAA agent. Depending on if the boarding pass has OSS, the GTAA agent will direct you to a security check point, or to continue onwards to the gate area in international.



You will always go through security when connecting to a US or Canadian destination ..."

I wonder why I get OSS on a regular basis when connecting in YYZ to YOW (coming from US or International)?? I am clearly not connecting to an International flight. Nobody (I mean nobody) I have asked in the airport knows what it is for.

Same here. Last few flights from Europe, LHR & FCO, I have asked about OSS and no one knew what it was.

At this point it's just three extra letters on your BP with no speciaL additional meaning. Yet.

Agreed. I knew what it was, thanks to FT. I wanted to see if anyone at YYZ knew what it was ;)

It's more complicated than that. If you have access to ANYONE'S checked luggage (i.e. if you go through the baggage claim area), you need to be rescreened.

There was no security for my US to international connections at YVR and YYZ long before OSS started showing up on my boarding pass.

Attachment 16029

Apparently to facilitate OSS at YYZ, everyone connecting except passengers from the US of A and Europe has to go through security when making international connections...

http://apps.torontopearson.com/toron...sp?fileid=2102

I checked in for a flight tomorrow and found OSS on my connecting flight within Canada.

I at first thought it was the dreaded SSSS but thanks to Google came across this thread.

So as I understand things OSS means NADA, ZIP, ZILCH, right now, but in the future means that I could avoid having to be screamed by CATSA as plain old TSA screened me already in the States, is that correct?

Correct.

That's interesting because for international arrivals at YYZ, everyone is mixed together on the upper floor on the walk to CBSA, regardless of origin. How will they know you haven't interacted with someone that arrived from a non-OSS compliant country during the walk to CBSA?

I had OSS on my boarding pass at YUL earlier this week, while I was connecting from EWR en route to YOW. At the bottom of the escalator in front of customs I asked an airport "info" person if OSS was up and running. She said yes, absolutely, head to the left and see a customs agent. There are indeed dedicated customs desks set up for OSS, and in behind them I could see the magical door that leads out into the airside section of the airport without an intermediary security stop. Customs agent was quite chatty and told me that they're pretty much ready to go with implementing OSS but are waiting until the summer busy-mess is over so they can do a slow roll out to check for any bugs. So...no such luck for me. He said they would start this fall with certain AC routes and slowly expand it. Nice chat and interesting info...though at that point I was sorry I hadn't just gone to the nexus terminal to breeze through!

ZRH-YYZ-YYC today. OSS on YYZ-YYC BP. Is OSS up and running yet or is it still just meaningless letters on the paper?

Still meaningless - What time are you in YYZ as i will be coming in from Dubai!


Edit - just saw your other post - you are ahead of me by 12 hours so i will miss you in YYZ & YYC

New way to connect in YYZ (USA-to-Canada)? Wow!!
 

Wow what the heck just happened. I was just thru YYZ (SAN-YYZ-YHZ) 72hours ago and went thru the usual disembark - walk a mile - customs/Nexus - up 1-2 floors and walk a bit - security into domestic Canada.

But just now on the SAN-YYZ flight I disembarked, they had 2 custom booths setup on the USA offloading gangway (where connections to E/F gates usually is) and had all USA-to-Canada connecting passengers go thru there and then onto a shuttle bus. Bus didn't wait to fill (seems to leave on a regular schedule) and boom suddenly we are in D-gates without having to go thru security.

At first I thought I was going to lose time having to wait for non-Nexus passengers on the bus, but this is indeed way faster. Anyone know if this is the new norm (that would be great) or if this is just an occasional one-off that happens sometimes? Never experienced this before. Love not having to go thru domestic security.

OSS has finally arrived? On a bus?

Yes, I'm still a bit in shock sitting here in the domestic lounge. I've never been able to get from plane-seat on a SAN-YYZ US flight into domestic lounge in less than 10mins even with Nexus and huffing it, but here I am. Mind you, there was no line-up at the 2 US customs booths setup in the hallway (and I was sitting up front) so this could be a nuisance if the line gets super long (for Nexus passengers where it might be faster to just go down thru regular nexus/customs/resecurity).

If this is the new 'way', then someone at Pearson definitely has the smarts. This makes Pearson so much more attractive now than connecting via EWR/ORD/YUL etc.

Wow. I have a DFW-YYZ-YOW flight tomorrow and I hope this will work out for me. I saw the two customs booths on Monday when inbound from MUC and wondered what they were.

Strange they need a bus to get to D gates vs. just directing through the building hallways in some way, but I'll take it!

My guess is that it's a temporary solution. Someone must have decided that everything had been in place long enough except the airport getting a bypass ready. Hence the bus?

OP- did you have checked baggage? Or carry-on only??

I will post an update to this soon, but I do notice that my YYZ-YYC flight has OSS on the bp, for the first time ever (I have done at least half a dozen connections in YYZ from US airports in the last 2 months; the latest just last week and I have never seen OSS before). I am arriving in YYZ from the USA on AC. I am interested in whether there will be Nexus terminals available with the new process, and if having checked luggage makes a difference.

This sounds promising - fingers crossed!

Interesting. I've had at least a dozen connections from the US through YVR and YYC in the past 12 months and I can't remember a single one in which the continuing flight BP didn't show OSS. Of course OSS is completely meaningless.

I thought there might be a glimmer of hope arriving at the new YYC terminal last week. No such luck.

OSS has been showing up on my connecting boarding passes for several months now, with some regularity.

I asked a call center concierge about this new development today and she hadn't heard. (But she noted that she wouldn't be the first to know...)

Just connected in YYZ from US to Canada, and I did the process described by the OP. Two custom booths up the stairs, no security check, bus ride to the D gates, and here I am at DOM lounge... the whole process took less than 15 minutes... Nice way of ending the week...

Which is pretty funny because by 7:45 pm it was back to business as usual. Airport employees knew nothing (I asked). CBSA agent said "soon" until her coworker said "we are told nothing". So YMMV.

Funny indeed. I passed through at 18:45...

I came through at 6pm and there was no sign of this. I recall seeing these new customs stations along the hallway between international/US escalators down k customs, and the domestic side, closer to the escalators. There didn't seem to be a path from the US arrivals flow to that area.

For those who experienced it, how did you get there?

An agent looked at my BP and directed me to the two custom booths. There were other agents along the way to the bus. There were two of us heading to different destinations in Canada.

Maybe they only work until 5 pm. :)

How do they separate US arrivals (already secure) from any other arrival from Int'l E (might be secure, might not)?

Does this mean we can't take the super-moving-sidewalk any more?

I would assume by boarding pass. You have to show a BP for your US arrival departure, and a BP for your onward destination in Canada. They already use this approach for the separate transit area for pax with security and customs.

That completely defeats the purpose of OSS.

If Alice from Chicago and Bob from Shanghai are walking down the same hallway, he can slip something in her pocket/bag/whatever.

Then she doesn't clear security, and he does. Then she gives it back to him.

Correct. Which may explain the inconsistency in some of the reports in this thread. Maybe those who didn't get the bus ride arrived while other non-OSS eligible pax were transiting at the same time. Who knows...