Assistance - First Journey through T1 YYZ
January 5th, 2009I've been lurking on this site for a while now, really got into flying after the Welcome Aboard pass. Recently graduated and decided I want to be an elite member of AC after my frequent flying in Jan-March.
This Friday, I'm flying out to LGA via YYZ from YEG. Leaving YEG at 17:25, Arriving in YYZ at 23:00 and leaving YYZ at 06:30 the next day. I have booked the Sheraton Gateway Toronto Airport as a place to get a nap before my flight in the morning (I don't want to sleep at the airport). I was wondering if you guys could tell me how much time I should budget to go through customs, without a NEXUS card... basically, what time should I leave the hotel in the morning to make it through customs to make it at the boarding gate 30 mins before my flight.
Also, I have checked baggage... I was wondering how that'll work. Will AC send that to US customs where I'll have to pick it up, or will it be checked through til YYZ, where I can take it to the hotel, and check it the next morning. It would be easier for me if they routed it through customs, so I could just leave the bag there on Friday and pick it up the next morning.
Staying @ the Sheraton Laguardia East in NYC, my first trip to the Eastern part of North America.
Thanks in advance for your input. :)
Take care.
IIRC, the Sheraton LaGuardia East is practically on top of the Main St. station in Flushing, NY (end station for the 7 subway line). Not bad at all for heading to midtown Manhattan (incl. Rockefeller Center, Times Square, etc.), especially if you get an express.
First off, since you arrive late and depart first thing in the morning, when you check in at YEG tell them to tag your bag just to YYZ so you can collect it at the normal luggage area. Once you collect your bag, go upstairs and follow the signs to the monorail -- well actual it's a cable car -- that takes you to T3 as the Sheraton is at that terminal. (Also, if your bag has a connecting tag on it, it is transferred to the preclearance area, and comes up at a location you cannot get to as domestic-to-transborder transfers take a separate walkway and end up at a separate set of immigration desks where your bags will also arrive. If you had a "normal" connection, you'd follow this pathway and procedure.)
Next morning, take the monorail back to T1 and head for the central area where AC checks in its transborder customers. You may already have a boarding pass issued at YEG from the night before, so go to the kiosk check-in area and look for the signs that lead you to the luggage tagging desks where an agent will put on a new luggage tag. You then proceed through US pre-clearance with your bag...don't forget to fill in the blue customs declaration form (you can probably get one from the YEG agent at check-in).
As for time to allow, lineups are always very unpredictable. With a 6:30a departure I would suggest leaving the hotel no later than 5a. You should arrive at T1 by 5:15/20a and will likely get through baggage tagging and pre-clearance in about a half-hour. AC does go through the lines and bring forward people who are on flights soon to depart, so don't panic if the line is really long...they'll start calling for people about a half-hour before flight is to depart.
Check out the GTAA web site for any other details, but this should get you onto your flight.
BTW what do you plan to do in NYC? The hotel you've chosen is not very convenient to getting to anywhere you'd like want to visit in NYC. However, check the LGA web site for local area transit. The NYC bus system runs a good service that gets you from LGA to the Lexington Avenue subway lines in about a half-hour, and it runs every 20-minutes through the day. Think it is the M60 bus, but check this out. You can buy a Day Pass for about $7 at the Hudson News kiosk in the terminal building. Also pick up a Queens and Manhattan transit map from the tourism brochure racks you'll see as you head to the luggage collection area at LGA. This way you can determine the best bus to take from your hotel to get to Manhattan, or at least to a nearby subway line to take you into the city.
I stand corrected if this is the case. I do see the terminus of the #7 line at Roosevelt and Main, which hits Manhattan at 41st St/United Nations, as well as the Long Island RR which will go into Penn Station IIRC. Also did notice this is a good deal using SPG points and $s, so you'll be okay. For a first-time you've pretty much identified the major spots. I suggest on the first full day to take the subway to Grand Central and from there walk up Park Avenue to 47th, then over to Rockefeller Center. New York is pretty much street oriented, so just wander the streets and gawk at the sights. From RC head further west to Broadway and then head down to 42nd and Times Square.
You may also want to make your way north along Broadway to the Columbus Circus area where the new Time-Warner building is, and up through the westside and Central Park. Then cross the Park to 5th Avenue and head back south.
There's also the lower end of Manhatten, the Village, Chinatown/Little Italy, SOHO, etc. Again all this is street oriented as you pass from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.
Thanks for your help in figuring how to navigate my itinerary through the terminal. Since it's my first visit to NYC, I plan on visiting the bigger attractions, such as the library, Rockafeller Center, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty (maybe) and Times Square. The vast majority of hotels seem to be sold out in Manhattan on April 28, while the 29th and 30th aren't so bad. I figure that staying in one hotel in Queens for all three nights would be a smaller inconvenience than switching hotels halfway through my stay. I'm using a cash + points stay on one of the nights and got an AAA rate of 179 for two nights to manage my costs.
Based on your detailed information regarding the LGA terminal, I'm guessing you've been to NYC recently. Any recommendations on places to see/go while I'm there?
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