First time travelling with a Platinum card but the trip was booked on a family members Visa - would Amex still provide a QR code at the kiosk?

Amex website doesn't seem to point at a requirement for the itinerary to be booked on the card, but I could be missing something.

It's owning the card, not using the card to pay for the flight, that gets you the code. So you should be fine.

For the question about if CATSA's website is accurate; "kinda". It does depend on the volume.

I believe CATSA measures the time from when you show your boarding pass at the beginning of the line cordon all the way through to when you scan it before putting your luggage on the rack. Therefore, if the line is stretching around the airport terminal, it doesn't take into account for that portion, just until you get up to the CATSA agent at the line cordon that tells you which line to go into. So the time leading up to the front of the line could be 2h, and 10m from front of line to the boarding pass/security scanning and CATSA's website would only say "around 10m"

(I could be wrong, so feel free to correct me if anyone else has a better sense).

You are not wrong. The double-scan of the boarding pass is exactly how CATSA determines the wait time. So any waiting in line before the first scan of the pass is not taken into account.

I guess neither is the waiting time for them to swab the pens in your briefcase taken into account...

I don't have a briefcase.

Hi All

Went through yesterday and it was all really easy. The booth is at the top of the escalator at the end of the terminal that has the Priority check in for AC. If you are coming from the garages or the tram go right as you enter the terminal, after the bridge, and up those escalators and it's at the top. The scan code is on a business card they give you and it says "one time code" so I'm guessing it can't be re-used. It was simple to get, I showed them my Aeroplan Express card and they handed me one - so no need to have booked on the card, just have one in your possession.

Since this is so casual I wonder if you couldn't grab one from them on arrival when they are open and use it the next day or a few days later when you are leaving, it may solve the problem of them not being open early in the morning. You may even be able to talk them into giving you a few in advance.

As it turned out there was no great line anywhere, the regular line was basically empty from the first agent to the second agent at the security area. This was on a Wednesday at about 3:00PM though.

Hi all, just have a quick question in regards to the US security line in T3.

So, the past few times I went through YYZ T3 to get to the US, it was either really early in the morning or in the afternoon. When it was really early in the morning, the queue for security and immigration was really long and it took nearly 1.5 hours while in the afternoon, it took 5-10 minutes to get through security and immigration. I have theoretically 1.5 hours this time around from my international flight to US flight where I land at about 10 am and my next flight boarding at 11:35 am as it's a 12 pm flight. Will I make my flight based on the wait times that time of day?

Obviously no one can say definitively, but I think you're likely to be okay. That's not the busiest time of day, so the lineups shouldn't be too bad. And connections are being prioritized even for planes that can't offload all of their passengers right away. Also, your connection is 2 hours, not 1.5, since it's measured from landing to departure, not landing to boarding.

To make a 6:00 am Monday morning T3 flight to the US, what time should I get to the airport?
thx

Via Twitter, Pearson is consistently recommending 2 hours for domestic and 3 for international. I’d assume they’d consider transborder the same as international. 6 AM tends to be a particularly busy time since a lot of flights depart around then.

T3 transborder is less busy than T1.
Keep in mind US customs dont open until 4:30am

If it were me it would be 4am with checked luggage, 4:30 with my boarding pass printed at home and carry-on only.

Thursday.

Just for reference for the early am flights, the Amex T1 booth closer to Can departure gates (at top of right escalator) opens at 6 am but there is also a booth at the top of the left escalator which opens at 5:30 am.

Had to get some passes for family members and was waiting until 6 am but as I was walking back from the US check-in - saw the second booth.