Sorry Classmate, but this was just ridiculous...
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/743081---absolute-bedlam-on-pearson-s-busiest-day?bn=1#articleMy wife and I were dropping our daughter off at the airport for her flight back to LA today. She was home for Christmas, but had to get back to work.
We arrived in the short term parking garage at 07:00 this morning. We usually park, then accompany her through baggage check, and say good bye when she enters US customs.
Her flight was for 09:25 this morning, and we left her lining up for US customs @ 16:30 this afternoon. Leaving the short term parking cost us $87.00. I just got a test message from her saying she was finally on board.
The Star article is pretty accurate for what we saw today. It was absolute chaos!
Part of the article appears incorrect, though. Looks like Air Canada is being diplomatic when they wouldn’t say the delays were due to the new US restrictions. Every Air Canada person we talked to told us that was the ONLY reason for the massive delays. There were normal delays for domestic and International flights, but those were due to this particular day. The busiest day of the year for the airport.
The one carry on bag had to be a purse, laptop, or diaper bag. Normal carry on bags with wheels had to be checked. So, imagine people trying to re-pack things they needed to take on the plane. This was going on all over terminal one.
Had US customs not demanded the ridiculous checking, there would have been normal delays for US flights.
If this was happening in Toronto, it must be happening in all airports all over the world. I really can’t think how many people managed to get into the US today. Must be very few.
All this security for one nut bar. Seems to me to be a huge overkill by the US.