I'm looking at some flight prices and the ones with the best deals have a layover in the U.S. for an hour (Washington (Dulles) one way, Cleveland the other). Do you have to go through U.S. customs when stopping for a layover to Mexico? Is an hour long enough even if you don't need to go through customs? I've had short layovers before at Atlanta, but that was flying within the States and the gates were basically beside each other. I imagine Cleveland is a small airport, but I don't know about Washington. ETA: I'd be flying out of Toronto, so would I just clear U.S. customs there?
You definitely have to clear customs when entering the US, even in transit. Some airports like YVR have US Customs at the airport, so you are pre-cleared upon entering the US. We often fly through the US when travelling to the Caribbean and we've had a couple of close calls, once in Houston and another in Charlotte that would have been a disaster had we not been in front of the line as about 6 flights all came in at once. An hour between connections these days doesn't seem like the guarantee that it used to be.
I have a layover in Dallas myself on this trip and have had layovers in the US on other trips. Going through Toronto on the way out you'll clear customs at Pearson (I clear US customs in Calgary myself). So that part isn't too bad. On the way back you'll clear US customs at whatever American airport you land in. Hopefully you have enough time between flights to get through and off to the next gate!
If you are departing from Toronto(YYZ), you will actually clear US Immigration and Customs right in the Toronto airport so going south bound via Washington (Dulles) will not be a problem with connection times. Home bound out of the Cancun airport is a different story however - you will have to clear US Immigration and Customs at your stop in Cleveland - you have to retrieve you luggage, then clear US Immigration and Customs, then recheck your luggage for the final leg back to Toronto(YYZ) Cleveland is not a really busy airport but one hour to do all of that plus probably change gates and maybe a different terminal building is, IMHO, really really tight - it would be better to allow at least 90min or more in Cleveland.
Calgary is the same, any flights landing in the US require you to clear US customs but that happens right in the Calgary airport. Might want to allow a little more time for that.
If you clear customs in Toronto, then you won't have any issues. If you're using the same airline for both flights, you can check your bags all the way through. Otherwise, you probably won't have enough time to collect your bags and recheck them with the other airline.
Not true ! If you are traveling back from Cancun to Canada and have a stop on the way back in the US even with the same airline you will have to get your bags, then clear US customs and immigration and then recheck your bags. The airlines do make is a bit simpler for you by having in transit baggage claim and recheck right at or near US customs and immigration
Also not true....lol. If you've ever flown back to YVR through Houston, you know that they no longer require you to claim your bags. This is one of the issues that annoys us in respect to purchasing duty free in Cancun when flying United (Continental).
We've done both direct flights and those with layovers in the US (Denver / Dallas). After a couple close encounters due to lineups we pay the extra couple bucks now to fly direct from Vancouver... Can't say much about Cleveland, but I'd guess that Washington could be 'interesting'.
I believe it was a royal pain the ass, both directions last time. Clearing customs was only part of it, delayed flights, broken planes, over weight planes and 11hours to get to cancun. Ten to get home. We only book direct now. Also lost a day cause A Nero an airlines cancelled the flight without telling us.
