Originally Posted by capedreamer

I'm flying LHR-YYZ-PHX on Feb 14/15, with AC855 LHR-YYZ arriving at 14:00 on Feb 14 and AC1287 YYZ-PHX departing at 7:50 on Feb 15.

When I booked this a couple months ago, I was hoping that the testing requirements for vaccinated travelers would be loosened by then (no more post-arrival testing, and perhaps also no more pre-departure testing or allowance of antigen tests). But alas, it doesn't look like anything will change by my travel dates.

If you were in this situation, would you rather:

1. Not leave the transit area, and therefore travel on only the antigen test required for entry to the US, or
2. Spend the night in a real bed, which requires getting a PCR test both in LHR and YYZ?

Edit: When I made this booking, I could swear this was the above was the best routing available. It now appears there is an AC1289 YYZ-PHX at 19:30 on Feb 14, eliminating the need for the overnight layover. Will try to change my flight with tomorrow. This was a Latitude fare so hopefully the cost to change won't be too significant.

Originally Posted by random.parts

Option 1 is not a valid option. Either you get a PCR and enter Canada or you end up with possibly being banned from Canada.

I literally just tried Option 1 (couple days ago) and posted above. Overnight at YYZ then to SFO in the morning. Its not possible, unless I somehow have terrible luck and every single person I talked to was incompetent (highly doubtful).

You will arrive and have three options in the �transit� area at the end of the long hallway. 1. Downstairs to Border/Customs 2. Middle/Left connections to Canada/Intl 3. Right US Connections

There is no other area, this is just a mostly empty room funneling people down the correct hall.

Security wont let you stay in this area overnight, there are also no toilets/water/food in this area. You wont be be able to walk down the Canada/Intl connection hallway. You wont be able to go through the US security side without a Same-Day US boarding pass/Connection. The only option is to go down stairs and talk to a border agent. Trying to explain that you are only trying to stay in transit and Not enter Canada will get you sent to secondary Border screening. When you let them know you are not trying to enter CA and only trying to transit per the Canada Gov website saying you can, they: **will. not. care.** Then will proceed to ask increasingly personal questions, (ones that I have never myself been asked by border agents, getting a Chinese visa as an American was far less invasive) It felt very much like I was being interrogated as a criminal and at no time did they care about my explaining what I was trying to do, stay in a transit area until my flight to the US, per the Canadian entry website. Finally, I told them that I did have a PCR neg test along with my antigen I took to enter the US but that I did not want to enter CA and only stay in transit, which is why I didnt have pre-submitted paper work to enter CA - and things became instantly less hostile on their end, eventually leading to a 2 day transit pass into Canada. I also had to take another PCR afterwards.

I was able to board each of my flights with just an antigen test-at no point did anyone ask about paperwork to enter Canada after I told them I would be staying in transit with my US antigen test.

The only reason I even had a PCR was because I have learned from previous Covid era travel to not assume any posted rules are complete as written and to cover as many bases as possible - this has led to me taking PCR test that were never looked at or asked about-it also prevented me from possibly being banned from Canada. (I asked the agent what would have happened if I didnt get the PCR and tried to stay in transit to the US on an antigen-the reply was that I would have a very big problem and would earn a negative travel admission/record with Canada.)

Flying AC(or other *A), they will check your bag through, overnight, to the final destination. Border agent asked about checked bags, I had one only because I didnt want to carry it around overnight in the terminal - when I retrieved my bag, my TSA approved lock was missing, had no TSA or other security check card in the bag (per usual when they have to search a checked bag), but still had an iPad, Magic Keyboard, expensive hdmi & hdmi/usb-c cables, premium chocolate bars and my 2 bags of dirty clothes still inside- however it very much looked like it had been rummaged through. My guess is CBSA - nothing was stolen and airport security has keys for those locks(my guess was it was broken) and places a card letting you know it was checked. Other zippers/compartments that I use twist ties for were opened.