flying from London, thru Canada, to USA...Customs Question

[rosiep]

As posted in title, we have a returning flight from London, plane change in Canada and then onto Portland Oregon. Will we need to go through customs twice? Do airlines account for this when offering routes? The plane change from Canada to Portland is a little over and hour and 15....

Thanks for the help.

 

[nacho113]

Depending on your arrival airport and the airline that you are flying on, you will likely have to clear customs twice.
Incoming on the International side and outbound to the US on the US side of the airport.
You will have to clear Canada Customs when you arrive in Canada, then US customs to continue onto the USA.
You will also be required to collect your luggage to clear Customs, then check it through to your US location (usually just a bag drop after Customs inspection)
Unfortunately at this point you will have to move over to the USA departures area (usually in another terminal - but not always). You will have to go through Security screening again at this point before entering into the gate area for your US departure

Depending on the airport that you arrive in Canada at, you can have quite a hike from the International terminal over to the US terminal.
ie: in Toronto you will probably arrive in Terminal 1 and depart from Terminal 3
In Montreal all areas are in 1 very large terminal, however, arriving in one area (International in your case) would require you to collect your luggage at Customs and then clear Customs for Canada. Bag drop for connecting flights is just before you exit Customs. Once you exit Customs, you will be in the Public area, from here you will travel across the airport to the Transborder area were you will pass through US Customs, and Security Screening to enter the gate area for your flight to the USA

You will want a couple of hour layover (at least) to make this as smooth as possible.

 

[minnie mum]

Agree with Nacho. I really don't think you'll have enough time to make your connecting flight. If your flight arrives at all late, and/or at the same time as another international flight (the scenario I went through last week ) you're sunk.

 

[Starwind]

Depending on your airline and airport, e.g. if you are flying Air Canada and transiting in Toronto, it appears you MAY not have to clear Canada Customs.

Here is the Air Canada page about an international flight connecting to the US via Toronto pearson airport: http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/yyz_intl_us.html

I checked the Pearson Airport connection guide and it has the same info for an Air Canada flight from an international destination connecting to a USA destination:
http://www.torontopearson.com/Connecting.aspx#

If you are connecting in another airport or with another airline, and even if it is AC in Pearson, I highly suggest contacting your airline and finding out from them what the process will be.

That said: clearing US customs can take a long time sometimes, dpending on lots of factors like time of day, which airport, etc. Two times ago when I connected in Toronto (from Canada connecting to USA), the line for US Customs was over 1 hour long -- they literally had two lines with one US CBP person for each line (?!!!!) -- made no sense, and what a line it was... I do not know if there is a process for them to expedite people through who have short connects. I do know that when we finally got on our US-bound flight, the flight attendand noted that they were still waiting for 3 people, who were clearing US Customs, and the only question was whether the people would make it to the plane before their luggage was removed from the plane; in this case, they made it onto the plane.

SW

 

[spdGT]

If you are flying Air Canada through Toronto, it should be fairly easy. I would think other airlines would be similar in Toronto. My wife and I flew from the US to Toronto to Paris and back a few months ago. On the way back to the US, we landed in Toronto and we were sent directly to US customs. After clearing customs, we had to go through security again. We never saw our checked bags during the process. It went fairly smooth. We didn't have to go through Canadian customs and since you already cleared US customs in Toronto, you can just leave the airport when you arrive in the US.

On the way to Paris, it was even easier. In Toronto, we just had to show our passports and boarding passes and we were on our way to the international terminal. We didn't have to go through security or claim bags. Our bags were checked through to Paris automatically.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We flew from iceland to Toronto and on to Chicsgo last year. Went thru Canadian customs in Toronto and then again did US customs in Toronto and didn't have to do it again in Chicago but it took forever. It probably took us two hours to get thru the Canadian customs, claim our bags, go through uS customs, recheck bags and then get to gate. We had a three hour layover which my husband was complaining about and we ended up being glad we had that much time.

 

[rosiep]

Flying through Vancouver. I don't think that Airport is quite as large....someone told me there are kiosks, making the process quicker. Fingers crossed. At least coming home I'm not worried about missing my cruise!

 

[minnie mum]

Flying through Vancouver. I don't think that Airport is quite as large....someone told me there are kiosks, making the process quicker. Fingers crossed. At least coming home I'm not worried about missing my cruise!

I came through Vancouver on my last trip, too. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. If you go to the airports website, you can find a description of the process for clearing Customs and getting to connecting flights.