Toronto Airport Early Morning Flight Arrival Time

[Jo-Anne]

We have a 6:20am flight on United on Saturday Aug 29 from Pearson. What time do ticket counters open and will Customs be a breeze at that time? I can't imagine everything open at 4:20am!?

 

[LittleFlounder]

I'm wondering the same thing. I have a 6:30am flight out of Toronto for my November trip.

 

[disneynuts777]

The GTAA website states that you need to be there a minimum of two hours before your flight.
We flew a charter out of Pearson a couple of years ago to Orlando and the counter was open when I arrived at 4am. If I remember correctly security was opened as well and U.S customs opened at 5a.m.
It was the longest day of my life and I vowed I would never do it again

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

We were always told be to the airport 3 hrs before your flight. So all our early flights we were there around 330am for a 630 flight.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We had an 8 a.m. flight out of Pearson in January. Like another PP mentioned, we were advised to be there 3 hours in advance because it was an international flight.

Customs was just opening at 5 a.m. when we arrived. We breezed through with no issues....there weren't that many people at the airport at that hour.

6:20 a.m. is one early flight!! I honestly don't think I could do it. When we left in January on the 8 a.m. charter, we were dead tired that evening.

 

[crashbb]

It depends on the day/airline.

I've flown on really early charter flights and had long lines. It wasn't that there were so many people (though there were a number of charter flights leaving at similar times) it was more that they didn't have many agents working (both airline and US pre-clearance) so, it took a while for the people who were checking-in/going through pre-clearance to get through.

Early morning non-charter flights on Mondays can be a really busy time at the airport.

 

[Eeyore's the Best]

We always go three hours early. We always breeze right there everything, you get the best choice of seats if you are first in line!! The only downfall is that your luggage is usually last off the plane. You can never really predict lines or customs so I don't leave things to chance. I'd rather kill an extra hour or so waiting at the gate instead of panicking in a line. We always just go in, once through customs, we find our gate, walk around have some breakfast, head back to the gate and by then there is usually an hour or so to have to wait to board.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

We always go three hours early. We always breeze right there everything, you get the best choice of seats if you are first in line!! The only downfall is that your luggage is usually last off the plane. .

Funny you should talk about luggage. We were first in line for our trip to Mexico last year and when we got there my wifes luggage was the first one on the convayor. Mine was the very last. Gotta love that huh.

 

[Northstar]

We always go three hours early. We always breeze right there everything, you get the best choice of seats if you are first in line!! The only downfall is that your luggage is usually last off the plane. You can never really predict lines or customs so I don't leave things to chance. I'd rather kill an extra hour or so waiting at the gate instead of panicking in a line. We always just go in, once through customs, we find our gate, walk around have some breakfast, head back to the gate and by then there is usually an hour or so to have to wait to board.

3 hours early is fine if you know that there will be someone there to check you in... but it stinks to arrive at 3:20 for a 6:20 am flight and find that there is no one staffing the luggage drop, the security areas, or the customs and immi preclearance. Yeah, I've done that, because nobody you can reach by phone (airport or airline numbers) seems to know when the counters will open, so they just parrot that "3 hours for an international flight" rule.

That's why the OP wanted to know others' experience with the early morning flights. Forget 3 hours early, you want to arrive just a few minutes before the Tim Horton's opens!