travelrules

Dear fellow travellers,

I have not posted many times, but I read flyertalk on an almost daily basis, and have gained considerably from it, so I thank you all.

Here is my tale of horror:

I fly on an almost weekly basis, for work, mostly on Delta, and El Al. However, I have not had the "pleasure" of flying out of Canada, since Dec 23, 2009, and then again last week, as I have been travelling in Europe.

I have purchased within the last 5 months, a new and excellent Tumi carry on, and I have travelled with it, on approximately, 90 flights since that period (I am getting my newly minted Diamond status on Delta, and I am a platinum on El Al)

Since this time, I have not had one instance, where I had an issue with the size of my bag, and on all flights no one has blinked twice about it. However, coming out of Toronto, this past Tuesday, heading to DTW, connecting to AMS, low and behold, this rent a cop moron, prior to entering, the customs area tells me that my bag is too big. I said to her that I have never had an issue about the size of the bag, and it is within the dimensions as approved by Delta, (and in fact the checkin agent, tagged it with a red delta, approved carry on bag tag.)

However, rent a moron, decided to create her own rules, and claiming that they were transport Canada's and had me fit my bag into the bag sizer. Now this bag sizer was not the same as the one at check in, bc I easily fit that bag in, bc I had been reading up on this on this board, and was worried about what was about to happen.

I manage to squeeze my bag in, and everything fit except, for the wheels, and she said no its not allowed. At this point, I pointed to the red sticker that this was approved, and she said, its not delta's rules, its my rules.

At this point a police officer walks by and she explains to him what I am trying to do, and then I explain everything to him, and he said to her, I dont see what the issue is, bc its an approved carry on. She says no it doesnt fit, and proceeds to have me refit it into the bin. Same thing, and he says to her to let it go. And she said rules are rules, I have my job to do. The police officer shrugged his shoulders and apploigized to me and said, sry their is nothing i can do.

So I go bck to the check in agent, and she is baffled to see me, and I explain what happened, and she apoligized, and I said to her, its not your fault. Anyhow, my bag is tagged, and i check it in, and as i am going thru to security, they ask me if i have a laptop, and I said, no i dont have one in the bag (I hate carrying them nowadays) and I said i have a cpap machine. The security screener, says, thats not an approved device, I tell him, sir, I believe it is according to your own website, so he says, that i have to check it, and i tell him 100% no. I then asked for a supervisor, and he said that I am the boss, and it is not going, so I said back to him, clearly u are nothing near the boss, and I demand to speak to a supervisor, he repeats that he is the boss, and I know that he isnt bc the supervisors have a stripe, on the side of their uniform.

Seeing that I am getting nowhere, I go and look and I see a supervisor, passed the xray machine, and i called for the supervisor in a loud voice. The supervisor, comes over, and I explain to him, the situation, and he says to me, whats a cpap machine, I ask him, is this a joke, I then hand him the print out from Transport Canada's website, and he says to hold on a minute, and goes and makes a call, and then comes back and says, yes, you could bring it this time, making it that he is doing me a favor.

I was fuming at this point, I go passed security, with no problems(not setting off the machine etc) and I ask this supervisor, for his boss, and he asks me what for, and then I told him, that u as a supervisor, should be well aware of what is an approved device, and if ur not trained well, it is no surprise, that your employees, are not.

So he grudgingly gets his supervisor, and I explain to him the whole situation, and he doesnt even have the decency to apoligize, and says that he will make them aware.

I cannot begin to say how frustrated I am with the idiots that are running the security at YYZ terminal 3. I have never had any issues at any airport, like I have had at YYZ.

Thanks for listening, and plse excuse my spelling.

thnks

global happy traveller

sorry to hear abt ur experience, but most users in this discussion are AC users who fly out of YYZ T1.

of all the trips i had flying out of YYZ, i never had any problems... everything is a breeze....

Crampedin13A

I've never had any problems going through Terminal 1 or 3 at YYZ with my Tumi as carryon. However it's a 20" that I bought because of the security types at LHR. Everything about going through security at YYZ is a breeze compared to Heathrow. You probably would have been arrested there for daring to question (totally within reason I might add) the security jobsworth.

tylorcl

I aslo have the same question: did OP fly Delta or AC?

LeSabre74

CATSA are morons and YYZ is a hellhole. Nuff said.

Crampedin13A

Don't want to prick your balloon but JD Power rate YYZ and YVR about the same.

http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/ne...spx?ID=2010015

CorSter

Flew through T3 Domestic this morning, actually had a very pleasant CATSA agent for once - was very impressed.

Spot planes

Completely agree.

Lat week I have the pleasure transfering at YYZ to BNA. The CATSA was not friendly and went through EVERYTHING in my carry on. Even shake my megazines. Swiped at least 6 samples. Total 20 minutes. In contrast, my return from BNA was a 5 second walk through the "electronic gate".

Uncle Sam sneeze, Beavers jump !

Rejuvenated

I've flown out of T3 & T1 countlessly since early 2007 and very seldomly do I have issues with the CATSA. Once in a while I'll run into a sour personality of one it's employees, but I have never had my carryon belongings to be rejected.

QNX

I frequently fly from YYZ, usually I don't have any problems other than once in while a thorough inspection by CATSA.

I don't see how the OP statment "sucks in every way" is justified for one bad experience with a staff.

HeavierThanAir

The only people who can reliably comment on YYZ security are those who have flown through YYZ hundreds of times and have experienced the good days and the bad days. If you have a sample size of only a handful of transits, saying "Flying out of YYZ sucks in every way" is completely ill-founded. You had a bad experience at YYZ, OP, and that does suck. It doesn't mean YYZ sucks in general.

I've flown out of YYZ T1 35-40 times in the past few years and have never had a problem, but I'll defer to Rejuvenated, an SE who has flown out of YYZ T1 and T3 countlessly in recent years and has had few problems.

Agreed.

yyzgigi

Sorry to burst the YYZ defenders bubbles, but I'd have to agree that out of T1 to the USA has been a CATSA disaster since the new rules are in place. I live in fear of the baggage size queen, empty every stick of paper and pens from my laptop bag, and feel the need to travel with a print out of the rules to be ready to defend myself against people who don't know the rules.

The OP may have had a particularly bad experience, but I wouldn't describe going through YYZ to the US as anything close to a good experience of late.

stinger

YYZ is my home airport which I utilize at least once a week. Sure it's by no means perfect in many ways, however, one thing that I find very consistent is security. Whether domestic, US or International. Sorry to hear about the OP issues but it seems like this is not the norm. I should also state that all of my experience has been out of T1 which might be the difference.

Maybe some of you should have been in YEG thursday morning to see the ridiculous security line, thank god for the fly thru and J class access to that line. One must remember though, the grass is always greener.

j_the_p

^ I use YYZ every week and never have security issues.

You mean the YEG fly through line that has a guard at the entrance checking every boarding pass and then nobody enforcing the use of the line after that?

B1

My friend and I went through security and US customs at T1 last week. There was a huge crowd outside that they held until flight times were called then it was a breeze. The CATSA guy pulled us for extra security and gave us a choice of the body scan or going for a visit to the basement. His name was Mikhail and he was incredibly nice and funny about it. He swabbed everything and inspected but was quick. I think we were picked because we had NEXUS and passed quickly through immigration where there was a huge line. So we had an hour whereas others were rushed. We had no arguments and he explained the body scan would not violate my privacy or my privates. Returning from the US there are no scans, no extra rules and absolutely no waiting. It makes no sense that Canada has to do all this stuff and within the US it's like the old days.