xenole

Flying tomorrow from YVR (Vancouver) to DFW (Dallas Fort Worth). and then I've an onward conbectiom to another US city.
Was planning on checking my bag in as i don't want to be reaching it around.but I'm not sure if I have to collect my bag and re-check it as it's international (I have to if flying into the US from say London, and they mentioned the same thing if you were connecting after entering Canada).
My connection isn't that long so the lack of a bag would help.

GNRMatt

Vancouver (YVR) has US Pre-Clearance. This means, once you go through pre-clearance, you've cleared US Customs. Thus, when you land in the US, you do not need to re-check bags or re-clear security. You are treated as though you just landed via a domestic flight.

dave_261

One additional point for those reading this down the road, YVR pre-clearance isn't open for redeyes.

For tomorrow (in December) there's no AA redeye so you'll definitely pre-clear in Vancouver. But in the summer when AA offers redeyes to ORD and DFW, you would not pre-clear in Canada and need to go through the standard intl. arrival procedures once landing in the US.

JDiver

Though US border Pre-clearance isn’t necessarily open for all flights due to the hours it’s open, the following Canadian airports operate U.S. preclearance facilities:

• Calgary International Airport / YYC
• Edmonton International Airport / YEG
• Halifax Stanfield International Airport / YHZ
• Montréal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport / YUL
• Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport / YOW
• Toronto Pearson International Airport / YYZ
• Vancouver International Airport / YVR
• Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport / YWG

Practically, this means allowing sufficient time to complete immigration and customs formalities before you fly. Though checked baggage generally isn’t required to be present, USCBP has photos, etc. of your baggage and you do process customs.

When your flight arrives in the US, it will generally arrive as a domestic flight and passengers and their checked baggage arrive as domestic.

ashill

JDiver

They could, but: prior to the NYC WTC terror attack, they used to offer transit facilities to international to international passengers (you can occasionally see unused or repurposed transit lounges when walking from international arrival gates to USCBP in airports like DFW), but the last vestiges today are international to International (ITI) baggage through-checking for many ITI passengers transiting MIA and DFW.

But all passengers transiting the USA must still process immigration under ITI and are deposited in the customs hall (without having to retrieve baggage and re-check it) to process security to get back airside to connect.

Canada isn’t the only country with airports with US Pre-clearance. The primary airports in Abu Dhabi, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda and Ireland also offer USCBP pre-clearance.