Flying out of Buffalo in January a few days before inauguration

[archdandy]

Has anyone crossed the border or flown out of the U.S. closed to an inauguration day before? We are crossing the border on January 16 and flying out on January 17 from Buffalo and I'm a little nervous. Does the security go up or does it take longer? Any input would be greatly appreciated to help alleviate my stress!

 

[Donald - my hero]

Flying out of Pearson same day! Which means we will be on American soil before we board the plane, so i'm curious to any input as well.

We better be careful that we don't get shut down because this is deemed "political" -- just asking a valid question I *think*?

 

[archdandy]

Flying out of Pearson same day! Which means we will be on American soil before we board the plane, so i'm curious to any input as well.

We better be careful that we don't get shut down because this is deemed "political" -- just asking a valid question I *think*?

I think we should be okay. I don't care to discuss politics with anyone I just want to know if I should be adding on to the time I'm estimating spending at the airport or border. I've heard they sometimes up the security level and it can mean longer waits. I might try and do some googling if no one here has any experience with this.

 

[C&B Young]

I suspect it'll be business as usual at the border & airports. If you were travelling to Washington DC it might be a different story!

 

[Lesverts]

Flying out of Pearson same day! Which means we will be on American soil before we board the plane, so i'm curious to any input as well.

We better be careful that we don't get shut down because this is deemed "political" -- just asking a valid question I *think*?

You are not on American soil. You have just been pre-cleared to travel to the US. Canadian law, Canadian law enforcement. CBA agents do not have the same authority or powers as one at the boarder or for international flights in the USA.

 

[Donald - my hero]

You are not on American soil. You have just been pre-cleared to travel to the US. Canadian law, Canadian law enforcement. CBA agents do not have the same authority or powers as one at the boarder or for international flights in the USA.

True, I was over simplifying the process and perhaps used the wrong phrase.

 

[Lesverts]

Have you been to through the new process at Pearson? It is a little unnerving.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Have you been to through the new process at Pearson? It is a little unnerving.

Yes, we have flown out of Pearson twice since they installed the fancy passport readers and actually didn't mind it much. Mind you i had scoured their site and found some videos to watch that showed how the process works. If i had tried to head out without watching those I KNOW i would have been freaking out.

 

[Lesverts]

It has changed since that as well. New luggage procedures and a lot less visible security/customs.

 

[starvenger]

I just want to know if the process is faster, because when I went to the US last May on business it was pretty bad.

Not for me, mind you (I have Nexus and thus Global Entry) but my colleagues were stuck for 60-90 minutes waiting to get through.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I just want to know if the process is faster, because when I went to the US last May on business it was pretty bad.

Not for me, mind you (I have Nexus and thus Global Entry) but my colleagues were stuck for 60-90 minutes waiting to get through.

I would say that since they've added this to their website that wait-times aren't much better! Last time we traveled they were filtering people thru the Nexus line to speed the process up.

 

[archdandy]

I haven't flown out of Pearson since 2012. What different passport and luggage procedures do they have?

 

[starvenger]

It is mostly about the order of operations that has changed.

Prior to this year, the procedure has been: check in, get tracking tags, go through Customs, drop bags, go through security and done.

Now, they've switched the order around for the last three so that you drop bags, go through security and finally go through Customs. I think the bottleneck is at security now, but I'm not certain. Terminal 3 has not been great for US departures for as long as I've flown out of there.