Vancouver Airport & US Customs

[TangoCruz]

Flew out of Vancouver Monday, June 21 after cruise aboard Serenade of the Seas. We had a 7:05 AM flight to Dallas. Stayed at the Fairmont. Great hotel and great location. Sits directly above the U.S. departures terminal. Be sure to fill out Customs Form before getting in line for your airline check-in (they're available all over the terminal). Once you are ticketed and your luggage is tagged, you and all your luggage proceed to the U.S Customs area. This is not a problem during most of the day. However, if you have an early flight allow yourself extra time for processing. Reason: there are 15 flights that are scheduled for departure between 6:45 AM and 7:40 AM. You can do the math. That's a lot of passengers being funneled into one area for Customs (where there are three queues: U. S. citizens with U.S. Passports, U.S. citizens with other forms of identification, and others). The Customs Agents open their windows at 5:00 AM. We checked out of the hotel at 4:45 AM, cleared Customs at 5:20 AM and were at our flight gate at 5:30 AM. Two other couples in our traveling group (on a 7:30 AM flight) arrived at the airport at 5:30 AM and were in line at Customs for 1 hour and 40 minutes. They arrived at their flight gate at 7:20 AM. Because of the volume of flights in such a small time frame, the later you arrive the more congestion at curbside and check-in you will encounter. And then there's Customs waiting for you!