landing at Pearson with connecting flight

[gamechef]

hi all, does anyone have experience landing at Toronto Pearson before making a connecting flight? the letter that came with my CoPR asks that i "allow sufficient time before any connecting flight" during the landing process, but does not hint at how much time should be sufficient.

the flight i'm thinking of booking is through air canada, arrives on a friday evening, and has a planned layover of 3 hours and 50 minutes. does that seem like enough time? should i expect to pay exorbitant change fees if landing causes me to miss the connecting flight?

 

[Hurlabrick]

hi all, does anyone have experience landing at Toronto Pearson before making a connecting flight? the letter that came with my CoPR asks that i "allow sufficient time before any connecting flight" during the landing process, but does not hint at how much time should be sufficient.

the flight i'm thinking of booking is through air canada, arrives on a friday evening, and has a planned layover of 3 hours and 50 minutes. does that seem like enough time? should i expect to pay exorbitant change fees if landing causes me to miss the connecting flight?

Landing information below, including a couple of threads about Pearson.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Landing_as_PR-Canada

I assume you mean 3hrs 50 mins between your scheduled landing time and scheduled take off time of the connecting flight? In which case you may get lucky but more likely than not you won't and would miss the connecting flight - there are no guarantees on how long the process will take as it depends on how many people ahead of you, how many officers on, how complex etc. - could be 30 minutes, could be 3 - 4 hours.

Personally I wouldn't chance it, but your call.

 

[TANMEX]

hi all, does anyone have experience landing at Toronto Pearson before making a connecting flight? the letter that came with my CoPR asks that i "allow sufficient time before any connecting flight" during the landing process, but does not hint at how much time should be sufficient.

the flight i'm thinking of booking is through air canada, arrives on a friday evening, and has a planned layover of 3 hours and 50 minutes. does that seem like enough time? should i expect to pay exorbitant change fees if landing causes me to miss the connecting flight?

3hr 50mins is very sufficient time , unless you are planing to take a nap there LOL

 

[scylla]

3hr 50mins is very sufficient time , unless you are planing to take a nap there LOL

I agree. Four hours should be plenty unless something goes very wrong (i.e. your arrival flight is late).

 

[gamechef]

thanks for the tips!

anyone familiar with air canada or westjet's policies for missed connections?

 

[trikiliki]

I should think either airline would only be responsible for your missed connection if they were at fault for a delay that made it impossible to catch your connection in normal circumstances, but certainly not in the event that your landing process makes you miss your plane. You would probably have to buy another ticket yourself. You could get travel insurance that covers missed flights, then you would have nothing to worry about.

 

[Galano1213]

Unless the airline is the reason for the delay it is not covered unless you have insurance issued by the airline. A long wait at immigration would not be covered.

 

[scylla]

thanks for the tips!

anyone familiar with air canada or westjet's policies for missed connections?

As long as your entire trip is booked through one airline - they should just book you on the next flight. If you book two separate flights - any delays will likely be on you and your wallet.

 

[MrLucky]

My wife did her landing at Pearson last Thursday on the 23rd. She arrived early evening on an Air Canada flight from China with a connecting flight 3 hours later. Immigration was extremely busy. She queued for nearly 2 hours. The landing process was about 10 minutes and very efficient. However waiting to get to that point was the bottleneck.

If I were you, I would bolt off the plane and run to get a prime spot in the queue.

Best of luck!

 

[trikiliki]

My wife did her landing at Pearson last Thursday on the 23rd. She arrived early evening on an Air Canada flight from China with a connecting flight 3 hours later. Immigration was extremely busy. She queued for nearly 2 hours. The landing process was about 10 minutes and very efficient. However waiting to get to that point was the bottleneck.

If I were you, I would bolt off the plane and run to get a prime spot in the queue.

Best of luck!

Something I always do when I go to visit my husband is at check in, request an aisle seat as close as possible to the front of the plane for my second flight so I can get up and off fast without having to wait for the whole plane to disembark before me and then scurry to customs as quickly as possible before the herd. Try that, since many airlines don't officially designate seating til check in or are open to switches, it can save you some precious time.

 

[Galano1213]

There is a special line for new immigrants at the airport so it is quick if all the papers are in order.

 

[TANMEX]

There is a special line for new immigrants at the airport so it is quick if all the papers are in order.

it's quick if it's not jam packed with new immigrants LOL

 

[MrLucky]

She was in the New Immigrant line for 2 hours.