Driving to YUL and catching flight back to U.S.
 

I am flying to Las Vegas for a short trip next month. For a variety of reasons, it made more sense for me to book flights out of YUL and drive up there from Burlington, Vt., rather than booking out of my home airport. I will be departing YUL around 8PM on a Thursday and arriving back around 9PM on a Sunday.

If anybody has insight on the following issues, I would appreciate hearing what you have to share:

1. Since I'll be clearing Canada Customs on the drive up, just to clear U.S. Customs at the airport a couple of hours later (and doing the same thing vice-versa on the way home) is this travel plan liable to raise any red flags with either country's customs officials?

2. If I want to buy a bottle of duty-free booze at YUL for my trip, must I do so before going through U.S. pre-clearance or is there an opportunity to do so afterwards? If before, am I required to pack it in checked luggage?

3. What is traffic like heading from the U.S. border (either Champlain or Highgate Springs checkpoint) to YUL on a Thursday late afternoon/early evening? What about security/customs wait times at YUL?

Thanks for your help!

The flight via YUL should be much more expensive and the extra customs visits make it a hasle - were you awake when you made this decision? The travel pattern is unusual but there should be no problem with officials - tell the truth and have your travel information and documents. You normally can buy from a duty free shop for delivery to the door of the aircraft and if not there may be a shop past security but I don't know the deal at YUL. You can't bring a liquid through security so in any case, your acquisition of the actual bottle must be after clearing the US immigration and then security (in that order). Border crossing depends not only on traffic but how many wickets are open. Thursdays are not normally busy. There are lots of other crossings. The one at Rouses Point is very empty on most occasions but the big one on the interstate is equipped for lots of traffic.

As a matter of fact, I was awake, and it's a good thing I was. By some fluke, I hit upon a short-lived fare that was $200 cheaper than anything I had been seeing at BTV, while offering me a non-stop evening flight on the way out Thursday and letting me avoid a red-eye on the way back. The scheduling was perfect and the fare was well under what I initially though I would have to pay to take this trip, so agreeing to make the drive up to YUL and deal with the customs clearances was a no-brainer.

Is that with Sunwing?

You can buy Duty Free after US Customs at YUL.... In fact, the exit from customs dumps you directly inside the duty free shop

Nope -- AC on the way out, CO via CLE on the way back.

Thanks. So that begs the question -- if you can shop duty-free after clearing U.S. Customs, how do they know whether you've exceeded your allowance? As someone who will have been in Canada for a grand total of two hours that day, I will only be entitled to bring 150 mL of alcohol back into the United States, rather than the normal 1 L allowance. If I try to buy a full-size bottle of liquor at the YUL duty-free, will I be barred or forced to pay duty on it?

At YVR I have very occasionally seen US customs inspectors wandering about the 'transborder' area performing inspections of people's duty-free bags. I assume the same happens at YUL, but it's probably rare.

All that being said, liquor in Canada is rarely a deal. Why don't you just pick up a bottle in Vegas? You'll probably pay the same, or less.

WOW... I had no idea AC added an extra direct flight.
Cool

That's what I was thinking too. I imagine any party store in Vegas will be cheaper than an airport duty free shop. Unless there is a specific brand perhaps not availble at the party store.

Heck, I would bet that liquor store on the strip is cheaper than a Canadian duty free store.

Just completed my trip and I want to close the loop for anyone who comes upon this thread in the future.

No problems whatsoever with either US or Canada customs at any point in the journey. No need to even produce documentation that I was entering the country just to leave it soon thereafter. If anything, the questioning was a bit lighter than usual.

As another poster pointed out, U.S. pre-clearance dumps you directly into the duty-free shop, which is airside. So no need to pack liquor into your checked luggage. The shop had signs saying that if you bought more than two bottles, they would pay your U.S. taxes for you, which I'd imagine they remit directly to U.S. CBP, since passengers wouldn't normally interact with them any more during that point of the trip. I ended up not buying any liquor, since the prices at the duty-free were about the same as what I'd expect at a liquor store on the strip, and the group of people I was meeting up with were more beer drinkers anyway.

I ended up using the Rouses Point checkpoint immediately after the bridge from Vermont into New York. I cleared customs around 5:30PM and there was only one car in front of me with no wait to speak of. The U.S. departure area (both security and customs) was practically deserted -- it basically took me more time to fill out my declaration form than to get through the whole process.

Hope that helps any other crazy people who decide to make the same journey!