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Vancouver Flight to Seattle & Connection - Passport Question


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Need advice. We're U.S. citizens, scheduled to disembark a cruise in Vancouver. When we fly back home, we will likely fly Vancouver to Seattle and connect in Seattle to a flight home (Washington DC area on Alaska). Will we have to clear immigration and customs at the Vancouver airport, in Seattle, DC, all 3, or what? I need to figure out how long a connection time I will need in Seattle airport. What's a decent amount of time to allow? If it matters, this will be on a Saturday.

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Need advice. We're U.S. citizens, scheduled to disembark a cruise in Vancouver. When we fly back home, we will likely fly Vancouver to Seattle and connect in Seattle to a flight home (Washington DC area on Alaska). Will we have to clear immigration and customs at the Vancouver airport, in Seattle, DC, all 3, or what? I need to figure out how long a connection time I will need in Seattle airport. What's a decent amount of time to allow? If it matters, this will be on a Saturday.

 

 

 

You will clear Canada customs/immigration at the pier, then US Customs/immigration at the Vancouver airport at the pre-clearance facility. You will fly into Sea essentially as a domestic flight and connection to DC

 

 

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You will clear Canada customs/immigration at the pier, then US Customs/immigration at the Vancouver airport at the pre-clearance facility. You will fly into Sea essentially as a domestic flight and connection to DC

 

 

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Well, that sounds hopeful. Hooray for Canada and U.S. for having a pre-clearance facility. Have you ever connected there? Would you be able to give me a guess as to how long connecting usually takes, or who I should call to ask for - Alaska Airlines? Seattle airport?

 

Thank you!

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Well, that sounds hopeful. Hooray for Canada and U.S. for having a pre-clearance facility. Have you ever connected there? Would you be able to give me a guess as to how long connecting usually takes, or who I should call to ask for - Alaska Airlines? Seattle airport?

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

I haven't done pre-clearance to US in Vancouver in several years, but I would expect that it wouldn't be unreasonably long. Show up 90-120 mins before your flight is plenty sufficient in my view. Usually the biggest lines are for early morning flights out of most Canadian gateway cities. The biggest benefit of pre-clearance is not having to pick up your bags and doing it in Seattle.

 

 

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The punch cards

Recently Princess stopped allowing cards to be used on a subsequent cruise.

Up until this new rule, I have always taken them to the next cruise. It is just another money grabber, as if you only use 10 and there are 12 it is money in the cruise line ledger.

I also disagree with the beverage rule that everyone in the cabin must purchase the plan. My DH does not drink alcohol ?

 

 

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Need advice. We're U.S. citizens, scheduled to disembark a cruise in Vancouver. When we fly back home, we will likely fly Vancouver to Seattle and connect in Seattle to a flight home (Washington DC area on Alaska). Will we have to clear immigration and customs at the Vancouver airport, in Seattle, DC, all 3, or what? I need to figure out how long a connection time I will need in Seattle airport. What's a decent amount of time to allow? If it matters, this will be on a Saturday.

 

 

 

Yes you would clear customs at Vancouver international airport because you come into Canada at Canada Place then leave Canada at the airport . No you do not have to clear in Seattle or DC

 

 

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I assume you will travel all legs of your trip with one airline? You are considered to be a domestic flight arriving in Seattle. You do not have to collect your luggage as you were pre-cleared in Vancouver. You should be in the same terminal so just go to your gate. My advice is to stay in the secured area - do not leave the terminal as security lines in Seattle can be very long.

 

http://www.portseattle.org/Sea-Tac/Pages/default.aspx

.

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Process works like this.

 

Check in at the Vancouver ticket counter.

 

Walk over with your checked luggage to a nearby area to turn in the luggage.

 

Go through Airport Security.

 

Go to the kiosks for immigration check in.

 

Go though immigration.

 

Go to your gate.

 

Allow sufficient time for this.

 

I would book a flight sometime after 12:00 Noon.

 

Keith

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As to connection time error on extra time.

 

Why?

 

Because things go wrong and there could be a delay of the flight.

 

But you will not have to worry about going though immigration as that would be done in Vancouver.

 

Keith

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One other item.

 

If there is more then one ship in Vancouver when you disembark and worse yet three getting a taxi can be a challenge because they only let a certain number into the port at once.

 

If this happens walk next door to the Pan Pacific Hotel or across the street to the Fairmont where it will be easier to get a taxi.

 

Keith

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Your flight from Vancouver will arrive into either gates D 1-5, Any C Gate, or any N gate.

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Seattle has an underground tram to get you from The C and D gates to the N gates. Entrances to the tram are by gate D2/security entrance 5, the far end of C Concourse, and the N gates.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Process works like this.

 

Check in at the Vancouver ticket counter.

 

Walk over with your checked luggage to a nearby area to turn in the luggage.

 

Go through Airport Security.

 

Go to the kiosks for immigration check in.

 

Go though immigration.

 

Go to your gate.

 

Allow sufficient time for this.

 

I would book a flight sometime after 12:00 Noon.

 

Keith

 

 

Good stuff. Thanks Keith.

 

Dumb question. Seems as if I hand my checked luggage over before proceeding through Canadian TSA and then later US Immigration check-in. So I gather that the checked bag passes immigration separately from me behind the scenes. Been awhile since I flew internationally but I seem to recall getting my checked bag back in the US after the customs officer passed us with our carry-on and paperwork.

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Good stuff. Thanks Keith.

 

Dumb question. Seems as if I hand my checked luggage over before proceeding through Canadian TSA and then later US Immigration check-in. So I gather that the checked bag passes immigration separately from me behind the scenes. Been awhile since I flew internationally but I seem to recall getting my checked bag back in the US after the customs officer passed us with our carry-on and paperwork.

you've hit on a real problem with pre screening.

 

By the time you talk ti ICE your baggage has already disappeared into the bowels of the airport.

IF you are unfortunate enough to be selected for secondary, your baggage has to be retrieved. This often leads to missed flights and or llate baggage

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you've hit on a real problem with pre screening.

 

By the time you talk ti ICE your baggage has already disappeared into the bowels of the airport.

IF you are unfortunate enough to be selected for secondary, your baggage has to be retrieved. This often leads to missed flights and or llate baggage

 

I understand. Guess we'll simply bank on the fact that we'll be able to demonstrate that our total time in Canada will have been a couple of hours! They deal with this every single day. I doubt we'll be flagged in any way.

 

What they oughta do is build a plexiglass 'Merican tunnel from the ship to the airport! Darn Jones act! ;p

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I understand. Guess we'll simply bank on the fact that we'll be able to demonstrate that our total time in Canada will have been a couple of hours! They deal with this every single day. I doubt we'll be flagged in any way.

 

What they oughta do is build a plexiglass 'Merican tunnel from the ship to the airport! Darn Jones act! ;p

 

I would not be worried about it. They use to operate with a system where at the check-in counter the airline tagged your bags, you walk through US customers, then drop off the bags. The current setup, the US customs agent scans you boarding pass and on the computer is displays a photo of your bags. Once they are happy they hit a key on the computer and it releases to the aircraft.

 

You should book your trip as one ticket. So book Vancouver to DC. Alaska, Delta and Air Canada all fly between Vancouver and Seattle with multiple flights through the day.

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I would not be worried about it. They use to operate with a system where at the check-in counter the airline tagged your bags, you walk through US customers, then drop off the bags. The current setup, the US customs agent scans you boarding pass and on the computer is displays a photo of your bags. Once they are happy they hit a key on the computer and it releases to the aircraft.

 

You should book your trip as one ticket. So book Vancouver to DC. Alaska, Delta and Air Canada all fly between Vancouver and Seattle with multiple flights through the day.

 

Different poster is headed to DC. But agree. Our tix is Vancouver to Chicago with a plane change in Seattle. Going to be a morning of hard work but we'll be fine after all the great input here.

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Well, that sounds hopeful. Hooray for Canada and U.S. for having a pre-clearance facility. Have you ever connected there? Would you be able to give me a guess as to how long connecting usually takes, or who I should call to ask for - Alaska Airlines? Seattle airport?

 

Thank you!

 

 

I have done 35-minute connections (not recommended) in SEA (Alaska to Alaska), while it is a large Airport as long as you are staying on the same air Carrier you should do well with a 60-minute connection. Longer is usually better if you are changing airlines or terminals. Edit: SEA-TAC recommends at least 40 minutes for connections.

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