Overnight connection in YYZ
 

Good afternoon,
A little bit confused about the meaning of this on Travel.gc.ca:

Transit to another country by air

You may be permitted to transit through Canada to reach another country.

Prepare for your arrival

You must:

• make your travel arrangements well in advance if you are transiting through Canada
  • plan your travel so you arrive and depart from the same Canadian airport within 24 hours. Domestic transfers are not permitted
  • make sure your baggage is checked through to a destination outside of Canada
  • connections must occur on the same day at all Canadian airports except Toronto Pearson (YYZ)
  • Overnight connections are not possible at:
    • Montréal-Trudeau (YUL)
    • Calgary International (YYC)
    • Vancouver International (YVR)

How are overnight connections different (and allowed) at YYZ but not the other airports? I guess (and only guess here as can't find any clarifications anywhere even with AC Conciege) that I could stay in T1 E terminal all night? Will not do that as I have already booked Sheraton Gateway and will submit to the arrival testing if selected as not really critical as leaving 21hrs after to LHR (BGI-YYZ-LHR).

Thanks for your input

The paragraph you quote refers to airside transfer, i.e. without entering Canada and therefore without needing to fulfill the entry requirements for Canada. This is possible at all major Candian airports, but only the YYZ intl. terminal is open overnight, hence it is the only place where overnight connections are allowed. Note that this would mean spending the night inside the terminal building.

If your plan is to spend the night at the Sheraton Gateway, then you are entering Canada and thus must fulfill all the requirements to do so (documents / ArriveCAN / tests etc.). As you have written, you are free to leave the country on your next flight before the results from your on-arrival PCR test are in.

Thank you Airoli for confirming what I thought was the case but my doubt came from the fact I did not know you could spend the whole night in terminal E! Don't care if I am selected for their arrival testing but prefer to sleep in a real bed!!
I guess from BGI they do not check through the baggage to LHR as we are spending the night?
Cheers

All is fine. The check-in agent wanted to check our luggages all the way to LHR but we ask to pick them up as we need to have them check to LIS on a separate PNR and they can't if the flight on the other PNR is departing more than 24 hours in the future.

Thanks for your info. Well noted for the future.

cheers

Sorry to jump on this thread, first post. You might have cleared something up for me also. So, we are due to go to Toronto next Tuesday (3 nights Toronto then 4 in New York). As the restrictions mean we can’t do anything we are looking to just get a flight to New York straight away. Problem is we would have to get a delta flight and AA/BA don’t transfer baggage into their flights so we would need to go through border control, risk the random testing etc just to collect our baggage. But it seems from what you are saying that we would still be able to fly onto the US without having to wait for the result? This is new to me and would make things a lot easier.

Good evening Stormo,
If I were you, I would not change my original plan. Nobody will bother you from the government if you stay 3 nights in Toronto then head to NY. You will pretty sure get selected (if tests are still in place as the rumour goes they will scrap it in the coming days or weeks) but it only delayed me for about 20 mins after exiting baggage claim. Results came in 36 hours after but did not care as i had left the country. but if i would have stayed for a few days, it would not have worried me. I did not even confirm to PHAC I had arrived at my place of quarantine (hotel room Sheraton Gateway). to be clear once more, you don't have to wait for the results to leave the country. Cheers

thanks for the reply. Much appreciated. Thing that’s putting me off is being chosen for a test and then having to stay in the hotel room until it’s confirmed as negative, I’ve read this could be a couple of days. Im only there two full days.

I would not worry about staying in my room. I did not. my connecting flight was the next day but late at night so I went shopping during the day. Although I have supported most measures until now, this one (arrival testing) is just a waste of taxpayers' money and done for political reason...no science behind it and everybody knows it. So 2 days in Toronto I would not hesitate. You tested positive before the flight, you will wear your mask and disinfect your hands often...nobody will check upon you. Have a good trip

Totally agree with you on that one. I'm ok with on-arrival testing (and of course, I'd prefer to go without!), but the turnaround time has to be reasonable.

Transborder?
 

Is a YYZ overnight transborder connection still within the secure area & open overnight? Read somewhere that the Int’l area is open, would I just stay in the Intl arriving terminal until morning then go to the pre-clearance area? I forget how its set-up/changed, or do I need to be able to enter CA?

The long layover and morning flight out of Europe means only have time for rapid antigen test a couple hours before the flight as required for US 1-day test entry.

Could get a PCR days before and then the antigen, but would really rather not.

Arriving into YYZ from Europe and departing the next morning for US.

In case anyone else is wondering about the above - after some experimental research to find out the answer to the question, the answer is: NO.

But dont worry, you will be allowed to board your flights with just the antigen test needed to enter the US, because they have info saying you can stay in transit and then be told you cant stay in the transit area or transborder/US area once you arrive and sent towards customs. Be prepared to be able to find absolutely no one (not AC employees, airport info, airport security or Canadian customs) that has any idea about anything - that is on the government website - allowing overnight transit at YYZ without also having to qualify for entry in CA.

Advice for Overnight YYZ Connection During Covid
 

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.

I'd choose Option 2.

IMO I don't find the requirement to get a PCR test that onerous (cost aside). My experience in London was extremely easy and straight forward for testing...which also goes for the on arrival testing in YYZ.

Also note that if you're checking baggage, they probably won't through check it overnight anyway.

You're right that PCR testing is widely accessible and relatively affordable in London. And if for some reason I can't change my flight, I'm also leaning towards Option 2.

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.