Early morning flight out of YHZ, customs ques

[CaperTiff]

we are flying with delta next week out of Halifax. Delta wants us there 3 hrs prior (3am ) but according to yhz website , customs doesn't open until 5am. I can't remember this being an issue when we flew out 2 yrs ago.

Any insight?

 

[badiggio]

I think its general anywhere though;3 hrs before.Here in Ottawa,we had a 6 am departure for Aruba via Newark,last January.Customs didn't open until 5,and there wasn't anyone at the airline counters until 4 or 4:30.On the other hand if you are there early,at least you'll be one of the first in line to go through security and do customs.Sometimes that line{customs}can be very long,and seem a lot longer when you have a plane to catch.

 

[ottawamom]

I think its general anywhere though;3 hrs before.Here in Ottawa,we had a 6 am departure for Aruba via Newark,last January.Customs didn't open until 5,and there wasn't anyone at the airline counters until 4 or 4:30.On the other hand if you are there early,at least you'll be one of the first in line to go through security and do customs.Sometimes that line{customs}can be very long,and seem a lot longer when you have a plane to catch.

Good to know. I have a flight in December at 7:20am. Really don't want to be there at 4:30am. I asked the security people a few weeks back and she said so long as we showed up by 6:00am there shouldn't be an issue. We just have carry-on so no luggage to check. We got to the airport way too early for our flight a few weeks back (2hrs for domestic flight). Breezed though security in no time and sat a the gate forever.

 

[Tinks#2Fan]

We fly out Saturday at the same time. Last year we arrived at the recommended hour... No delta check in staff, no customs staff and when they finally arrived the customs computers went down. We were at the front of the line with 200 or so behind us. We ran to board at 6PM ... then waited patiently for the rest of our passengers ;-)

We were thinking on arriving closer to 4:30 to check bags. I'm a rule follower by nature but really don't want to sit waiting for staff to arrive again.

 

[Minniemoo15]

We flew out of YhZ at Spring Break last year on a 6am flight.

We headed to the airport for 4am. The Us Airways ticket counter had just opened. We then went through security quickly, we were at customs by 4:30am. It didn't open until 5:00am so we waited. There were SO many 6:00am flights, right at March Break, that the line was growing crazy. I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't open earlier.

We got through customs by 5:40, ran to our gate and our flight was boarding.

So moral of the story, it doesn't matter how early you get there - your bottleneck will be at customs waiting for it to open at 5am