Did I screw up with my flight from Vancouver

I booked our return flights from Vancouver without thinking about it being an international flight. According to the YVR website, "YVR is a pre-clearance airport for most airlines flying to the United States. This means you will clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) before leaving Vancouver, eliminating the need to do so when you arrive at your destination." We have a 50 minute layover in Chicago before getting our East Coast flight. Does this mean we will not have to claim our luggage in Chicago to go through Customs before boarding our next flight?

Thank you.

I booked our return flights from Vancouver without thinking about it being an international flight. According to the YVR website' date=' "YVR is a pre-clearance airport for most airlines flying to the United States. This means you will clear U.S. Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) before leaving Vancouver, eliminating the need to do so when you arrive at your destination." We have a 50 minute layover in Chicago before getting our East Coast flight. Does this mean we will not have to claim our luggage in Chicago to go through Customs before boarding our next flight?

Thank you.[/quote']

Yes, that's what it means. You won't see your bags until your final destination; the connection at O'Hare will be a domestic - to - domestic one.

Don't understand your title, how have you screwed up your flight?

I was imagining having to go to baggage claim to take our bags through customs, then recheck them and getting to our next flight, all within a 50 minute time frame. But, thank you, Gardyloo, for clarifying this for me.

Normally an airline will not allow you to book connections that are too tight and do not meet their minimum connection time. So if they let you book a connecting flight and did miss the connection due to a late arrival or something on their end, it would be on them to get you on the next available flight onward. They would rather have you make your original flight you booked on as it's not only a hassle for you, but for them as well to put you on another flight.

If you had to clear customs in Chicago they would probably not allow 50 min between flights, their minimum connection time would probably 90min or more.

just an observation from a previous airline employee:: 50 min is still a tight connection, and its a good thing that you do customs in YVR. If you take into consideration that arrival time is when the plane is theoretically landing... by the time you taxi to the gate, and get off the plane, find your next gate ... the next flight may in fact be in the boarding process when you get to that new gate. Most airlines start boarding 30min before departure time. Especially if you're seated in the back 1/2 of the plane, it takes 10-15 min from the time they open the cabin door to actually get off the plane these days...

Safe travels,

Tutu

This is an older thread, but I was wondering if the information is still accurate.

Since the flight arrives from YVR as a domestic flight, is your luggage checked through to final US destination, or do you recheck at airport?

It's a domestic to domestic check.

Some airlines do not get this right in their computer systems, especially if they operate from both preclearance and non-preclearance airports in Canada (I'm looking at you, Alaska). But if the computer lets you book it as a single ticket, relax and enjoy your flight. Preclearance at YVR is smooth and efficient.

If you flying within Canada say from YVR to Toronto then a change of planes in Toronto to say NY then you will not go thru CBP clearance until arrive Toronto before you go onto NY. If you are flying directly from YVR to any any US city you will clear CBP at YVR.

Thank you for the responses!

I am thankful for the pre-clearance in YVR. I was concerned that we needed to recheck our bags in Chicago with only a hour connection time. :D