Flighting out of Vancouver (YVR)

We will be flying out of Vancouver on a Monday morning. Our flight leaves at 7am. We will have to catch a cab from our hotel to the airport and then go through customs. When do we NEED to be at the airport? If we planned on arriving there at about 5:30 would that be plenty of time or do we need to be there earlier? Thanks.

We will be flying out of Vancouver on a Monday morning. Our flight leaves at 7am. We will have to catch a cab from our hotel to the airport and then go through customs. When do we NEED to be at the airport? If we planned on arriving there at about 5:30 would that be plenty of time or do we need to be there earlier? Thanks.

Normally for an international flight, which this is, you need to be at the airport 3 hrs before. You will go thru US customs and immigration at the airport and thru security screening. I have always found the lines at Vancouver to be extraordinarily long and slow. Because you are leaving so early in the am your lines might not be as long. What does your airline recommend for arrival? I would go with that.

I hope you have some time to enjoy Vancouver. It is one of my favourite cities.

UGH!! 3 hours! This will be the longest day because we don't even get to our home airport until 10pm and then a 45 minute drive from there AND we have a 7 hour layover in Houston. This is the ONE day of the whole trip I am already dreading. BTW, we are spending two full days in Vancouver after our cruise before heading home. I am really looking forward to those two day. Vancouver looks like an amazing place to visit!

I would go with two hours, but no less than that.

2hrs;

If I remember correctly, US Customs doesn't even open until 05:30, so I'd probably plan to be there around then.

2hrs;

If I remember correctly, US Customs doesn't even open until 05:30, so I'd probably plan to be there around then.

If they don't open until 5:30 and it takes that long (3 hours) to go through everything how in the world do you make a 7am flight?

I found a customs form online so if I have that filled out it will save some time and we will check in online at the hotel the day before but it still seems like it is quite the process.

I would say shoot for 5am at the curb. You will first need to check-in with any checked baggage at the counter (no curb-side baggage) to be tagged by the airline and possibly weighed if you're close to the limit. You will then take your bags to a centralized security point for drop-off and you will then go through airport security. You will then proceed to USCBP. You will not need the custom form becuase of the self-service kiosks there where all that information is asked on-screen. You will hand the forms produced by the kiosk for reviw by a CBP agent and you can go to the gate.

Although your flight is early there are normally a number of flight around 7am departing for the US and could result in a line. I routinely take these early morning flights and I find that 2 hours gets me through the process and leaves time for a snack at Tim Horton's.

If they don't open until 5:30 and it takes that long (3 hours) to go through everything how in the world do you make a 7am flight?

 

I found a customs form online so if I have that filled out it will save some time and we will check in online at the hotel the day before but it still seems like it is quite the process.

Because if you get there at 0530 hrs, there might already be a line an hour long waiting for them to open.

I guess we will plan on being there at 5am or earlier. I sure do not want to miss that flight! Thank you all for the information.

We have a 6:00 AM flight out of Vancouver to Boston. Princess was have our transportation pick us up at the Fairmont Waterfront at 4:00 AM. We need to have the TA contact them on this that seems to close for comfort.

Thank you for this post everybody. Looking forward to spending a day before and after our cruise in wonderful Vancouver (once was not enough :) )

If the information I found yesterday is correct the customs area opens at 4:30am so for our 7am flight I think we will be there standing in line at 5am or maybe a little earlier.

I believe 4:30am is the start time for US Customs staff at all the major Canadian airports they operate in (it's definitely the case at Toronto/YYZ and Vancouver/YVR).

Latebloomer - security queue will be light, there are very few flights that early. Your Princess transfer is probably the most sensible time as they'll be dropping you at YVR for 4:30 when the US customs queue is just beginning to flow. If it's a shared vehicle though you may have other stops to make so ask them for a 3:30am pickup.

I find it interesting that "there are very few flights" that early in the morning out of Vancouver. In Calgary there are more flights going to the US between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. then the entire rest of the day.

There are 16 flights leaving Vancouver the morning we fly home that leave between 6AM and 11AM. That is just flights with United Airline! I think I counted over 30 flights total for that time period. That's a Monday so I don't how that compares to a Tuesday or Saturday or any other day. That's a LOT of flights!

There are 16 flights leaving Vancouver the morning we fly home that leave between 6AM and 11AM. That is just flights with United Airline! I think I counted over 30 flights total for that time period. That's a Monday so I don't how that compares to a Tuesday or Saturday or any other day. That's a LOT of flights!

I agree that is a lot of flights; not sure where those folks saying there aren't many early morning flights were getting their information from.

For total clarity since it's apparently not obvious from the context, when I said "very few flights" it was in regards to flights early enough that passengers are likely to overlap with when the poster wants to be using the security & customs lines.

Let's assume that EVERY passenger actually abides by the 3 hour recommendation, AND that we're talking about 5am rather than 4:30am, when US customs opens. Further, let's even assume that NOBODY turns up before 5am - so every person with a flight to ANYWHERE at 8am or earlier all show up for 5am...

Tomorrow's flight schedule, cut & pasted right off YVR website departure info a few minutes ago in case anyone wants to check my math, gives us a grand total of 39 flights.

Considering that there are 85 flights in the three hour block 11am-2pm - which is of course the usual time frame that we talk about here for cruisers since it's the earliest you can reliably find a flight when disembarking, I feel pretty durn confident in reiterating my "very few" comment.

Especially considering that many flights are not US-bound, with more Domestic (only a 2 hour recommended lead time and no impact on US customs queues), and that queues are actively managed by staff when they do get large to ensure people with the closest departure times are prioritized.

As to your ludicrous statement about Calgary airport CYYC - I suggest you do a little fact-checking yourself, as there are 13 US-bound flights listed today on the YYC website versus 26 the rest of the day...

Sorry but I'm not getting into an argument with you martincath. As someone who has stood for two hours in both Vancouver and Calgary trying to go through US Customs in the early morning, I stand by my advice to be there two hours prior a flight (especially in the early morning).

Sorry but I'm not getting into an argument with you martincath. As someone who has stood for two hours in both Vancouver and Calgary trying to go through US Customs in the early morning, I stand by my advice to be there two hours prior a flight (especially in the early morning).

Simply showing you where I got my information from and correcting your misinformation re: your local airport.

If wanting to go directly from ship to Airport (YVR) for flight to US, would a

1pm flight be ok?

We would love to stay in Vancouver a couple days, we've done it before, but just can't on this trip. This is the first time flying home from YVR instead of Seattle.

If wanting to go directly from ship to Airport (YVR) for flight to US, would a

1pm flight be ok?

 

We would love to stay in Vancouver a couple days, we've done it before, but just can't on this trip. This is the first time flying home from YVR instead of Seattle.

Yes - anything after Noon should give enough padding that you will have no stress getting to your flight, even with US Customs/border control occurring at YVR. Even if you're last off the ship you should have time for lunch before boarding with a 1pm departure.

There are 16 flights leaving Vancouver the morning we fly home that leave between 6AM and 11AM. That is just flights with United Airline! I think I counted over 30 flights total for that time period. That's a Monday so I don't how that compares to a Tuesday or Saturday or any other day. That's a LOT of flights!

Not certain which airline your on. The following link is the recommendations for Air Canada.

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/checkin.html

The airline recommends 120 minutes with a cut-off of 60 minutes.