A reader clued me in to the strange way that Air Canada shares delay information with passengers on flights from Toronto to the U.S. that depart late in the evening. The don’t tell customers flights are delayed until 8:30 p.m. even when the information is known far in advance. And they keep this information from customers on purpose.
- He was flying Air Canada 772 from Toronto to Boston that’s scheduled to depart at 8:55 p.m. The Flighty app flagged a delay at 3 a.m. that morning. But Air Canada showed the flight operating on-time.
- In the Air Canada lounge an agent explained to him that “the flight was going to be delayed, but that it was actually policy to not post delays on late night transborder flights until 8:30 PM ET.”
Flights from Canada to the U.S. generally have immigration processed on the Canadian side, and as a result passengers land in the U.S. as if they’d gotten off of a domestic flight. But U.S. preclearance closes at 8:30 p.m. and Air Canada doesn’t want passengers to:
- know that their flight is delayed
- so wait to go through security and U.S. immigration
- only to find U.S. customs and border protection closed
As a result they withhold delay information. As soon as customs closes, they update passengers.
I’m actually not sure what the best way to handle this situation is, but it caused a fair amount of frustration here at the gate when the gate agent announced an “unposted delay”. I had not heard of an airline purposely withholding information from passengers in quite this way (like a sort of noble lie) before, so I found it interesting.
I asked Air Canada about the practice. According to the carrier,
The work schedule of USCBP at Toronto Pearson can result in customers missing their flights if they arrive at the airport after the USCBP’s end-of-day, cut-off time. In order to ensure customers have time to clear customs and make their flights, we encourage them to arrive well in advance for their scheduled flights, even in the event of possible flight delays.
It does seem to me like a better path would be to post the delay with additional information for passengers. That’s not exactly easy, since departure boards and push notifications aren’t set up for this. They’d need more IT programming, and more communication. And passengers should probably assume that Air Canada flights are delayed anyway although this summer has been better than last summer (it would have been almost impossible not to be).
Still, an interesting practice I hadn’t realized, so seemed worth passing along.
I hit this all the time (very frequently fly Toronto Boston). I’m used to it now and I understand it, but it drives me insane. Worse, USCBP is never busy at night, but no one will give you a straight answer to when they actually close! I’ve heard “usually around 8.30, sometimes earlier, depends on CBP.” That means I go through early even when I should be able to go through later.
Whys doesnt CBP stay open past 2030? Given the size and scope of YYZ airport, i would have suspected its at least to midnight….
I can sympathize with AC here. While AC could send a message informing people that their flight is delayed, but they still need to clear customs/immigration before the 8:30 pm closure time… but some people are so oblivious I can see them only reading the part about the delayed flight and end up showing up at the airport too late for border control.
Yet another reason to hate pre-clearance.
1. How do they handle late-arriving connections into Toronto connecting to a US-bound flight if said preliminary flight lands after CBP closes?
2. Is there a mechanism to shift a US-bound flight from a pre-clearance flight to one where clearance occurs on arrival to the US point of entry?
While I can see how this would be very frustrating for passengers, I can also see why AC does it. You know people (myself included) would rearrange our arrival time at the airport and then be frustrated to learn that pre-clearance has closed and I’m stuck. I’m sure some people head right to the check-in counters and set the lawn on fire.
I had an AC agent confirm this is what they do and why they do it in YYZ (and YVR) — but they also strategically delay these announcements until after alternate flights on United (or Alaskan or Delta for YVR) have departed. Cheaper to buy a hotel room than FIM a customer onto another airline (and also screw up their reservation and…)
Air Canada is the absolute worst! I have flown Air Canada for 39 years. Unfortunately, my last flight on Air Canada took place on July 17th, 2023.
My 10 year old son and I, traveling from Seattle to Toronto boarded the plane at 10:50pm for a four and a half hour red eye. As my son likes to sit in the window seat, he entered the isle first and sat down as I arranged our carry-on’s.
We landed in Toronto at approximately 6:20am. As we got up from our seats I gave way for my son to stand in the isle to stretch him legs. I looked around our seats to confirm that we had everything.
I was absolutely horrified, disgusted, nauseated and upset when I looked at my sons seat only to see the seat, seatbelt, and seatbelt hardware covered in a significant amount of dry blood.
I brought this to the attention of both the pilot and crew as we were exiting the plane. It was suggested that I speak with the Air Canada agent at the gate, but there were none. I then tried to locate customer service within in the airport, only to be told that my only option was to call the number posted online.
I did submit a complaint to their customer service department, it’s been over two weeks and I have yet to receive a response. In addition I submitted a complaint to Mr. Rousseau, only to hear back from R.A. (Al) Read, Vice President, Airports – North America. His response was disappointing at best. He stated if there were a medical incident on board the crew are trained to manage in. He also started the aircraft’s are groomed and seatbelts are crossed prior to each flight, which is absolutely false. A blood covered seat clearly proves this as inaccurate. He also said that since 10 days had past, from my email to him, it’s difficult to analyze the situation. Again, I immediately reported the blood covered sweat the both the crew and pilot, upon exiting the plane, as well as informed customer service thought their site, with no response.
There was no solution provided, or action based response. I will never fly Air Canada again, and would discourage everyone else from doing so.
I flew Air Canada for the first time this summer as did my companion.Our flights originated from different airports and we met in Toronto to fly to Rome. Five of the 6 flights were delayed, her flight to Toronto by 4 hours (no weather issues). Although I made it to the gate for my final connection despite the first leg being 2 hours, they gave my seat to another passenger and I had to spend the night on Toronto. I’ll never again fly Air Canada!!
Canada is a sneaky country that many Americans don’t know about. Did you know that Canada bans Americans from buying a house? True. A new law. Biden should bomb Trudeau to make him homeless temporarily.
Early in the pandemic, Air Canada also did not refund passengers for cancelled flights. See.
AJW,
Try flying non-stop to your destination in the future. Or, a one stop.
@SOBE ER DOC
> 2. Is there a mechanism to shift a US-bound flight from a pre-clearance flight to one where clearance occurs on arrival to the US point of entry?
Several flights go to non-international airports without a US CBP station. Washington National and La Guardia being the big ones, but also AC seems to serve a revolving door of US regional airports from YYZ. Would also mean a last-minute concourse change, and anyone who had arrived on time would have to (essentially) re-enter Canada. Shifting late flights might be a partial solution but I can see why they avoid it.
This scenario happened to me last week on a flight connection originating from CDG to YUL and then to EWR. As you stated they claimed the pilot missed the US customs by 10 minutes. They automatically rebooked me to LGA which made no sense and claimed all earlier flights for the next day were fully booked in the am. I could have gotten on a United flight, but as a reader said above they timed everything to benefit themselves.
I made 2 calls to their customer service, one at 10pm and the other at 3am which yielded a flight from YUL to YYZ and then to EWR. I had to call my boss and claim a vacation day due to this inconvenience. Really puts me off from using Air Canada more, especially since I stopped using their Aeroplan mileage account due to past faux pas. Porter Airlines is sounding better for me to use for East Coast Canada flights going forwards…..
@SOBE ER DOC
If it’s a flight to National, they would have to divert to Dulles or BWI, because National does *not* have CBP.
There’s no public transit available from Dulles, currently, after midnight on weeknights or 1am on Friday or Saturday. So either people would be stranded at Dulles or…
In other words, it’s not feasible to shift those flights. I can’t speak to NYC. But this is why pre-clearance exists in the first place, so airlines can fly from Toronto to U.S. domestic airports.
It’s not a terrible idea, but the logistics would be a nightmare for passengers. And as somebody who lives close to National, I actually appreciate the preclearance. Until my flight is late and I don’t have time to buy Canadian maple syrup in Toronto 😛 (Not that U.S. maple syrup is bad, but Canada has it down).
lol why do Americans keep flying this joke of an airline (apart of course it lures them in with cheap ex-usa fares)
47% onntime in July
7+% cancel rate (>100 flights a day)
You book AC you’re just asking for it.
Derek: your statement saying that Americans can’t buy houses in Canada is not true!
Why does AC ‘still exist’ and people keep flying them? Once AC can get the bags and pax loaded and the door closed, they run one of the finest airlines in the world. They just happen to have piss-poor systems and processes for dealing with IROPs. That and the Toronto airport and the non-AC staff need to be all need to be buried at the bottom of the ocean.
If someone doesn’t make the cut-off, they just don’t go. CBP doesn’t have unlimited hours… same as many locations within the US… they close at a certain time. Don’t arrive by then, then you’re canceled or divert. They will stay open through some programs where the airport or airline pays their overtime. They also don’t open early, and will make people sit on a plane to wait.
Changing a particular flight from pre-clear to not is not very easy. Landing rights need to be filed, security protocols are different, just isn’t easy to do.
This isn’t any different than TSA closing at many US airports. Just because a flight is delayed doesn’t mean they’re going to stay open or have to. One airline location I ran had the last departure of the day off of a concourse at a smaller airport. If it got delayed more than an hour, it went past TSA operating hours. I would beg the company to not post the delay out to customers because if they did show up late, even though the plane wasn’t there yet, no way to get on. This led to having to explain to people how the contract of carriage, and delay notices, do advise to be at the airport on time even if departure is delayed.
@Lori. True The ban started. this year and is for 2 years but may be extended. See https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64082923
YYZ gets my vote for worst airport in North America and is a great reason to avoid Air Canada, that being said I have a hard time blaming the airline per se.
Connecting passengers require between 0 and 2 customs screenings (US and/or Canadian), and between 0 and 1 security screening, depending on the flight they arrive on, and more or less all combinations are possible. I’m sure it’s a logistical nightmare to run and it sure feels like it.
Say what you will about the American procedures, but requiring every intl. connection to go through Customs and Security sure streamlines things.
YYZ continually gets my vote as worst big airport as well. It was designed as an O&D facility (and a cruddy one at that.) Massively fails as a hub. Mix that with AC’s poor customer handling ability and it’s a total hot mess. (And the instigator of this article.)
My wife and I had the same problem after landing in Toronto on June 5, 2023, from Calgary. We arrived at 6:30 pm only to find a delay message for our 11:00 pm flight to São Paulo Brazil. The delay was extended to 2:am the following morning and then before 2:00 am was cancelled. Everyone stayed in a hotel and returned to the airport early in the afternoon (you have to check out of the hotel by 11:00 am) the next day to catch the next day 11:00 pm flight – only to find that flight delayed to 2:00 am as well. We waited after another delay to 3:00 am then to 3:30 am, then to 4:00 am and flew out at 4:15 am on June 7.
I made a complaint to Air Canada under the Canadian Transportation Agency regulations (that entitles $1,000 for delays over 9 hours) and Air Canada responded and offered me a $300 voucher instead of what the regulations entitled me to receive. They said the delay was out of their control (without any further explanation despite my requests.)
My wife and I will never fly out of Toronto and will never use Air Canada again – AND WE ARE CANADIANS.
Meee tooo. If only they had told us before we walked away from the Canada side arrivals gate and passed the point of no return to find USCBP closed, we could have exited in Canada for the night instead of having to wait 3 hours to go through immigration.
Avoid Air Canada at all costs. Short of an evacuation flight out of a war zone I will not set foot in an Air Canada flight
We had a terrible experience with air canada as our main airline.we book our ticket from TRIP.COM after we paid we realized that our country of origin and destination accidentally switch,we immidiately cancelled like 10 or 20mins but we did not received any amount of refund that cost us more than USD 2,400.we work hard and tirelessly for that amount to attend my class but unfortunately they took everything from us.
This is actually common practice for all the carriers (including US carriers) at all Canadian pre-clearance airports. I’ve seen it happen countless times in YUL flying DL or AA. Flight will show delayed until 20:30 and at 20:30 it will actually update to the actual ETD.
Air Canada is horrible. Air Canada never seems to have a flight depart on time in my experience. Nothing I read in this surprises me even a little
flightradar24.com stops all the fraud and cheating and lies from those woke recalcitrant fools at AC. We have the power.