Pearson Departure

[gmbhardy]

Flying from YYZ to FLL on Ait Transat next Sunday morning for a cruise on the Norwegian Encore. Our departure time is 8:45 am. How far in advance should we get to Pearson. We have Nexus.cards.

[GeriatricNurse]

46 minutes ago, gmbhardy said:

Flying from YYZ to FLL on Ait Transat next Sunday morning for a cruise on the Norwegian Encore. Our departure time is 8:45 am. How far in advance should we get to Pearson. We have Nexus.cards.

Three Hours!

[Fouremco]

Yes, "at least three hours in advance" is the recommendation from the airport: https://www.torontopearson.com/en/corporate/media/press-releases/2021-08-05

[edrussell]

At least 3 hours.  We have flown internationally twice through Pearson since September and while we encountered no lines whatsoever either time the potential is ALWAYS there.  Why rush it?  We tend to arrive about 3.5 hours before our flight when we park at Park N fly to allow time for shuttles etc.  There is nothing like being at the gate early for us.  We grab a book and read and get in vacation mode right at the gate.

[lakelivin2]

16 hours ago, gmbhardy said:

Flying from YYZ to FLL on Ait Transat next Sunday morning for a cruise on the Norwegian Encore. Our departure time is 8:45 am. How far in advance should we get to Pearson. We have Nexus.cards.

Please let us know how it goes.  We've got a similar flight through Air Transat in April.  Thanks!

[lots-of-km2]

Three hours for sure. Have flown internationally out of Pearson two times since September, once from Terminal 1 and once from Terminal 3 -- and both times before 9 am.  The lines were very long. And I have NEXUS too.   YMMV, but better to play it safe.

Edited November 22, 2021 by lots-of-km2

[gnome12]

It can take longer for a cross-border flight than for an international one, because in addition to security you are going through US customs and immigration.

[TaxiSquad]

We flew YYZ to Fort Myers on Oct 30.  Process had recently  changed…Not sure if still in place, but I had read that they were implementing new process. 

 

We arrived at Terminal 1 for AC flight just over 3 hours before departure.  We had checked in online and got our baggage tags at kiosk.  We went to put our luggage on belt to be taken for security/loading.  However, the machine would not take them until 2 hours before flight.  
 

We discovered that the  process is to wait in separate area (far left end of terminal) 

and wait there for your flight to be called.  Passengers from all flights that morning were waiting in that area.  You were not allowed into the customs/security area until your flight was called, in the waiting area.  
 

At the 2 hour mark, we got rid of our luggage, but we were still not allowed go thru customs.   Our flight was 11am and around 10, we were called to line up in the waiting area and were then led to Customs and security area.   By the time we got thru that,  powdered our noses, and walked to gate, they were boarding people.  
 

I think the concept is this will streamline customs, where you don’t have people at end of line saying their plane leaves in 10 minutes etc.  
 

We’ve always been hurry up and wait people, but IF this in fact is the new/ongoing process,  you could get there at 2 hours before flight and wait to be called. 
 

 

 

[matamanoa]

We needed the full three hours that is recommended, just to get through security and all the paperwork.  We do have Nexus but the waits were still long to get to our departure gate.

[ak1004]

So what's the current recommendation? For 10am flight to Miami on Sunday, is it okay to arrive to Pearson at 7am? We have Nexus and doing check in at home and Covid test on Saturday.

[broberts]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

So what's the current recommendation? For 10am flight to Miami on Sunday, is it okay to arrive to Pearson at 7am? We have Nexus and doing check in at home and Covid test on Saturday.

 

AC is recommending 3 hours, especially if the flight is before 10 am. https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/plan/check-in-information/check-in-and-boarding-times.html#/home:

 

Westjet is suggesting at least 150 minutes for international flights.

[Princess Fi]

We had a 6:15 am on American Airlines on November 5. We arrived early but hit a bottleneck as Security didn’t open until 4:45 am. We were in a huge line just waiting for security to open. After security the rest was smooth.  

[ak1004]

Just finished the process at Pearson. We arrived at 7am and at 7:40 were already in Duty Free. We have Nexus so it probably was a bit faster but still. So far nobody asked for proof of vaccination or negative test. 

[Magicat]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Just finished the process at Pearson. We arrived at 7am and at 7:40 were already in Duty Free. We have Nexus so it probably was a bit faster but still. So far nobody asked for proof of vaccination or negative test. 

I was going to mention this.  My friend recently flew out of Pearson on his way to Mexico.  He was upset that he spent $40 at SDM to get an antigen test (flying through the US) and no one asked to look at it.  Not at the check in counter, not at US immigration, not anywhere along the line.  

[xcell]

It's holiday time so I would expect things to be busier than normal but 3 hours seems a good enough time (knock on wood).

[gmbhardy]

Just a follow up as I am the OP and this was my experience. We actually had to go through security and customs and immigration twice on two consecutive days as our original Transat  flight was delayed and we missed our embarkation in Miami. Going back through Canadian border security was a real treat as we hadn’t gone anywhere. You would think the airline rep would have alerted security but they didn’t. Anyway going through security the first time was a breeze. A Nexus lane was open at security and there was no one in line at American customs and immigration. We were at our gate in 20 minutes, however we had to wait about an hour to pull away from the gate waiting for other passengers to clear security, so there was clearly an issue closer to departure time. It took a bit longer to clear security the second time as our flight was earlier and security wasn’t opened yet and there was no Nexus line. From check in to gate maybe one hour.

[ak1004]

9 hours ago, Magicat said:

I was going to mention this.  My friend recently flew out of Pearson on his way to Mexico.  He was upset that he spent $40 at SDM to get an antigen test (flying through the US) and no one asked to look at it.  Not at the check in counter, not at US immigration, not anywhere along the line.  

For the full disclosure, I have to mention that during the online checkin we uploaded our vaccine certificate and the negative test. My guess is that they had them in the system, and this is the reason why they didn’t ask for it. It is even possible that the boarding pass has some kind of comment that indicates that both documents have been uploaded.