Pearson airport

[cey]

After dropping my son and his girlfriend off at Pearson (Terminal 3) yesterday for their year long trip first to Fiji and then to Brisbane Australia, I remembered all the reasons I fly from Syracuse! First of all on a Saturday, the day after the storm, 2 ticket agents open at AA departures. Lucky for us we only spent 1 hr in the line-up! Some passengers still hadn't made it to the roped in area, when we left! Then the disappointment of having to say good-bye after they received their boarding passes. I sooooo like the other system of checking your bagage and then not having to immediately go through customs and security to the gates! The most ridiculous part was having to pay $20 for parking when we were there 2 hours tops! My DH and I just thank our lucky stars we live close to the border and can fly from SYR to MCO rather than put up with the total inconvenience and expense of flying from Canada.

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Cheryl

 

[wee-haggis]

After dropping my son and his girlfriend off at Pearson (Terminal 3) yesterday for their year long trip first to Fiji and then to Brisbane Australia, I remembered all the reasons I fly from Syracuse! First of all on a Saturday, the day after the storm, 2 ticket agents open at AA departures. Lucky for us we only spent 1 hr in the line-up! Some passengers still hadn't made it to the roped in area, when we left! Then the disappointment of having to say good-bye after they received their boarding passes. I sooooo like the other system of checking your bagage and then not having to immediately go through customs and security to the gates! The most ridiculous part was having to pay $20 for parking when we were there 2 hours tops! My DH and I just thank our lucky stars we live close to the border and can fly from SYR to MCO rather than put up with the total inconvenience and expense of flying from Canada. Cheryl

Its absolutely true.Even on agood day Pearson is a disaster (any terminal!).
I've used Buffalo 3 times and will be flying from there this August for 1/3 of the cost of flying out of Pearson. Even if I onlyn saved $200 or so, I would still endure the 2-1/2 hr drive (as opposed to 45 mins to YYZ).
Its so worth it in many ways. The parking is cheaper. The drop off (up to 2 hours) is free......the terminal is a breeze to deal with check-in plus there is no customs to deal with (already done at Peace Bridge...which is also a breeze0

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[shoppgirl]

I am also discovering the joys of flying out of the US rather than YYZ! We're flying from Buffalo to MCO and it is saving us over $1700 for the four of us!

It's totally ridiculous the prices people pay to fly out of YYZ. Plus the planes they use on Jet Blue as so much nicer and more comfortable than some of those old AC planes they still tend to use. Our experiences at the Queenston Lewiston and Rainbow bridges have been really good and just as easy as the airport customs.

 

[SaraMc]

I cant stand flying out of pearson. Everything is over priced. On our honeymoon ( before we even knew about flying out of BUF) two cokes and two bagels were 10.00! Craziness. The last two trips and my upcoming trip to WDW have all been through Jet Blue and Buf and we have save thousands. In a heartbeat I would drive to Buffalo in a snowstorm rather than deal with Pearson.

 

[photomama]

I completely agree, I would rather drive a couple of hours than fly from Pearson

 

[willise]

Why on earth would anyone choose to fly from Canada if they had a choice, especially Pearson? I am in NB, and I never fly from here. I always drive to Maine. As an example, four tickets Moncton to Orlando $3200, but from Portland $1070. All for a 5 hour drive! It's outrageous. Plus I get to avoid that disaster that is YYZ!

 

[damo]

I really don't mind Pearson at all. I've never had any more issues there than anywhere else.

I'd rather pay a bit more to go out of Pearson in the winter than drive to Buffalo and have to worry about border crossing times, traffic tie ups, weather, etc. But, hey, that's just me. I just make sure that I've booked way in advance and taken advantage of seat sales.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Why on earth would anyone choose to fly from Canada if they had a choice, especially Pearson?

My family and I are flying with Air Canada this December out of Pearson because my Dad was able to get 3 tickets using his Aeroplan points and the only cost there was the Airport taxes and etc.

 

[busterblue]

Bet your airport taxes etc.. on the three tickets is equal to or more than the cost of three tickets out of Buffalo (all in including taxes). I was looking at doing this exact same thing and it was cheaper to go out of Buffalo.

That said, our flight out of Buffalo got canceled due to the ice storm on Feb 1 and the soonest we could get all 4 of us out again was Sunday morning. At least at Pearson you have lots of crews and planes and they pick up the pieces a lot quicker than Buffalo does. I will fly out of Buffalo again as long as there is no time critical aspect to my trip (connection/conference etc).

The drive and border crossing could not have been smoother. Coming back both times we were the ONLY car in line at the Canadian customs booth.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Bet your airport taxes etc.. on the three tickets is equal to or more than the cost of three tickets out of Buffalo (all in including taxes). I was looking at doing this exact same thing and it was cheaper to go out of Buffalo.

I asked my Dad about that right after he made the reservations and he said it's cheaper to fly out of Toronto. I don't remember how he said it but I do remember he said something about the Canadian Dollar doing a lot better being a reason why.

Normally I would agree that when you compare flying out of Toronto and Buffalo when airline points are not being used, it's cheaper to fly out of Buffalo. However when you compare both cities using airline points then Toronto is the better deal. Plus for some who like the spend the night in Bufflao and fly out the next morning, your forgetting the cost of the Hotel. I know it's a seperate cost but it still ads up in your total vacation cost.