Dumb Customs Question

[Jax]

Hello,

Usually when I fly to Orlando I go from Calgary and my first stop is always in the US (Denver, Phoenix, etc) so we have always gone through Customs in Calgary.

On this trip our flights will be going from Calgary to Toronto and then to Orlando.

On the trip to Orlando where do we do customs? I belive it will be in Toronto but I am not sure. How does this work? We will be the whole way with Westjet, but would we need to pickup our luggage in Toronto?

What about on the way back. I know for sure that we need to do customs in Toronto as it is the first Canadian city. We will need to collect our luggage, go through customs and then recheck in this is right? How much time would be need, would 2 hours be enough?

Any help you could provide would be greatly apprecited.

 

[bavaria]

Flying to the US you would preclear in YYZ. You retrieve your luggage at YYZ, clear Customs/Immigration, return the luggage to the belt, usually clear security again and fly onwards.

I can't comment on the amount of time required as I use the Nexus/CanPass preclearance option, elite security lines, and have priority luggage tags, which takes minutes. My longest wait is for luggage

I prefer to fly from a Canadian city to a US city and connect in the US, as it avoids having to handle luggage part way through the trip.

 

[sympatico]

We usually fly Halifax - Toronto - Orlando and two hours is enough but I wouldn't lollygag. You will be in the same terminal, just have to go to the US connections area where your luggage will be, pick it up and go through customs and immig. then put luggage back on conveyor and go through security.

 

[Jax]

Thanks for your help.

That was along the lines of what I was thinking I just wanted to make sure.

 

[Jaime]

We did it in 50 minutes out of Toronto in 2001 and they even misplaced our luggage...we just told they lady in the customs line we had a tight connection and we were put in a shorter line.

On our last trip to Orlando in 2005 we connected in Ottawa with Air Transat and the flight crew actually brought us all to get our luggage and helped us through customs and back to the plane...it was great.

Have a great trip.

 

[brooker]

Hello,

Usually when I fly to Orlando I go from Calgary and my first stop is always in the US (Denver, Phoenix, etc) so we have always gone through Customs in Calgary.

On this trip our flights will be going from Calgary to Toronto and then to Orlando.

On the trip to Orlando where do we do customs? I belive it will be in Toronto but I am not sure. How does this work? We will be the whole way with Westjet, but would we need to pickup our luggage in Toronto?

What about on the way back. I know for sure that we need to do customs in Toronto as it is the first Canadian city. We will need to collect our luggage, go through customs and then recheck in this is right? How much time would be need, would 2 hours be enough?

Any help you could provide would be greatly apprecited.

We went through Toronto a few weeks ago with Westjet. The customs line was very long, it took us probably 30-40 minutes to get through customs. Just make sure when you pick up your luggage to go to customs you don't go down over the escalator like we did. The directions are not really clear when you are trying to find your luggage again. We still had lots of time to catch our connecting flight though. We had a 2 hour stopover between flights.