Pearson Airport is more effed up than before...

[Hand]

Gad, wotta hole that place is. Fly in from out of town to make an international connection, and what happens?????

You arrive at the great new butt-ugly Terminal 1 and promptly have to get on a shuttle (which you have to find with with help of the usual non-existent signage, needless to say).

The said shuttle then drives out on the RUNWAY and takes you to the old terminal where the wait in the customs line is now 1.5 hr. Of course, they've increased the staffing--they now have several people whose sole responsibility is to tell you to stay behind the red line.

Also some ghastly little man who sorts out everyone who needs to cut to the head of the line or miss their flight, since it's already boarding and they've been standing in line for an hour already--with all their bags, of course; there's no such thing as "checked through" in any meaningful sense. The afrementioned ghastly little man is jocular, optimistic, and deserving of the slowest and most painful death imaginable.

Other helpful staff include the non-verbal types who I gather are supposed to show you where to place your bags during the security check. Since they neither speak nor gesture, they're ideally suited for the job.

As I recall, Toronto spent some billions of dollars to achieve this level of dysfunction. I must say that I'm impressed; you can't manage this big an eff-up without careful planning and design.

The only saving grace is that the wait staff in the smoking restaurant couldn't care less if you conform to the requirement of spending money or not, so after enduring all the previously mentioned horrors, one can at least have a quiet smoke. Sometimes it helps that no one gives a shite...

:mad: :puke: :crazy: :thumbsdown:

[LeftistGorilla]

1. I've never had a problem with Pearson....

but that's just me....

[yvr girl]

2. I hate flying through Toronto

Clearing customs is a right, royal pain in the ass. Never been through that area when it wasn't teeming with humanity. (Really annoyed humanity.)

I always have to change terminals too. It is such a haul. Don't get me started on dealing with the luggage.

Besides, I'm spoiled. Vancouver has such a pretty airport, all others suck by comparison.

To be fair though, I once spent the night in JFK - not so much fun. The city may never sleep, but the airport sure does. I was hard pressed to find some refreshments.

[displacedyankeedem]

3. Well, there's also the mile long walk at Montreal/Trudeau

if you're flying in from the US. I hate the walk.

[fudge stripe cookays]

4. I flew through for the first time last October...

and that whole "having to take a shuttle out to the old terminal out on the field" thing seemed nutty.

Coming in from Calgary wasn't bad, but leaving to get to Dallas sucked.

Plus, it started puring down raining right before we were ready to take off, and our pilot couldn't go above a certain altitude, so we were being tossed around like a rag doll up there. reprehensor had never sen me freak out that badly before. I was cying I was so upset. And I used to be a fearless flyer.

My first experience with Pearson and it's surrounding airspace was not a pleasant one.

FSC

[hermetic]

5. Oh dear

I will be flying through there, Toronto, in a couple of weeks. I will have an hour (hopefully) to get to my connecting flight. Now you guys have got me all stressed. Any helpful hints or suggestions?

[Hand]

6. If you're coming in...

It's probably not too dreadful; you'll just have to wait a while for Canadian customs to wave you through ("Coming from the US? Did you bring lots of money to spend? Welcome to Canada!"). You'll still have to hump your bags to the outgoing baggage conveyor, however. It's very well concealed, although they do have two VERY helpful ladies there whose job is to yell "WHEELS UP!! WHEELS UP!!!" at you...

Going out to the US is the nightmarish part, described in detail above. In fairness, a major cause of the delay is that only about a third of the US Customs stations were actually staffed. I think that's a corollary of Chimpy's Starve the Beast approach to governing.

Oh, and don't lose your boarding pass, either. I did once and was essentially told "Sucks to be you" at the gate. Managed to find the damn thing back at the security checkpoint. They'f been paging me, but needless to say you can't hear the loudspeakers either...

Feh. One of Chimpy's worst deeds was to divert Canadian animus away from our true enemy--Toronto.

:evilgrin:

[hermetic]

7. You may be on to something there

but far be it from me to get in that imbroglio. I am confused tho about the baggage thing. If I board a plane in Chicago and fly to Toronto where I will then board another plane to go farther north, I have to get my own luggage and transfer it from plane to plane? Air Canada won't do that for me? Or are you just referring to carry-on luggage? Because I'm thinking, the heck with that, I just won't do check thru luggage, I'll wear everything I'm taking.

[yvr girl]

8. You have to pick up your checked luggage

and go through customs. Then you drop off your luggage at a conveyer belt and it is taken to your next flight. This is how it happens when you fly south anyway. I can't remember what it's like to go north. I usually arrange my flights so that I clear customs in Vancouver, which is quite painless.

[Hand]

9. Same routine going north...

...and it's a long, mystifying hike from the incoming baggage area to the secret conveyor belt where you drop it off. Well, you don't drop it off--you LIFT it onto the conveyor belt, which is three feet up from the floor. That's where the "WHEELS UP!!! WHEELS UP!!!" hags harass you.

After that you can go to your gate. The corridor for continuing flights is better concealed than the secret conveyor belt; just make sure that you don't accidentally wind up in the check-in line. You can't miss that--it's VERY long and never moves, and occasionally some of the famously non-speaking airport staff walk by and ignore everyone. They're paid to do this.

I took some people out to the Halifax airport this morning and found that now all US-bound baggage is x-rayed before being cleared. No doubt the morans who run Pearson will have a field day and spend some hundreds of millions figuring out how to make that experience as wretched as possible.

Really, though, they're true geniuses. It requires inspired imagination to eff things up that thoroughly. I don't think they've missed a detail yet.

:mad: