Toronto Pearson Airport

✅ Verified Review | Toronto is the worst airport to fly into. We were traveling in Asia for the last 3 weeks and came home connecting through Toronto. We had priority luggage tags and our luggage came off last after waiting for 80 minutes for our luggage and almost missed our connection.

Flew to YYZ from Fort Myers, non stop on Air Canada. Flight was fine. Airport horrible. Departing through customs was insane. Finally made it through that and could not find where the car rental businesses were located. Signage almost non-existent. Large areas to walk through with few or no seats to sit down and catch your breath. Finally found car rental and were on our way. The return trip involved going though security clearance protocols that bordered on shear insanity. I've been in and out of a maximum security prison with fewer stages of identity proof. You'd think a passport is enough and you'd be wrong. Not only did you have to show it, but you had to take a picture of it and yourself at one of the stages. If I have to go to Toronto again, I'll fly to Buffalo, rent a car there, and drive to Toronto. May possibly be faster, and almost certainly easier.

✅ Verified Review | We have come to hate flying, as our nearest International airport is Pearson, Toronto. Issues include high airport taxes, poor gate management and poor baggage handling. Toronto doesn't deserve the high taxes charged. We are seasoned travellers. The baggage handling at Pearson in our opinion, is the worst in the world. Extremely slow, lost luggage, and damages. In January our return flight was an hour late. We were held on the Tarmac awaiting a gate. Toronto had several hours to accommodate the new flight time. It took off late from Austin. After 45 minutes waiting at the carousel indicated for our bags, an announcement said they would be arriving soon. It was us and other passengers that spotted the bags arriving on another carousel. Staff obviously didn't know where they were. It was late, past midnight and we still had a long drive ahead of us. The baggage handling, is always slow and poor. We are proud Canadians and love living in the Toronto area. We would like to see some major improvements to Pearson Airport, Toronto.

✅ Verified Review | I have just travelled via Toronto’s Pearson airport today and must say it rates as one of the worst airport experiences I’ve had! I was in transit and had just under 3 hours to make the connection. The airport was chaotic and signage poor. Got through immigration OK but arrived at the baggage collection point at terminal 3 where there were crowds of people – it was difficult to move. Wanted to use the ladies but there were only two facilities one of which was out of order. The other one had a queue going out of the door. Decided to hold on as time was against me. However, the luggage was delayed. People were sitting on the carousel which was also covered with litter. Tried to find a member of staff to ask and eventually found one who told me that there was indeed a delay and he could not tell me when the luggage would come off. He told me that I might have to go ahead of the luggage and it could be brought down to me on a different flight. Luggage eventually arrived almost an hour later. My niece (who had done the same trip a week before) had given me some tips as she too found the transfer difficult (and on her outgoing flight her bags had not arrived on the flight with her due to Air Canada staff advising her in London that they could be checked right through which was wrong information). She had told me to take my luggage to terminal 1 to check in, but it was just lucky that I asked and was told to check it in at terminal 3 which was easier. Then went to find train to get to terminal 1 which was not easy as signage poor. When finally arrived at terminal there were again no signs and very long queues. My flight was to board in 10 mins so I asked a staff member what to do and she said I would only get through if I used the self-service kiosks. However most kiosks were out of order! Eventually found one which promptly shut down and screen told me to seek assistance. Then found another and after two goes I got a boarding pass of sorts. Only it had no seat number. I then went to get through security and found the queues so long it was clear I would not get through in time. My niece told me to join a priority line which I did, but when I got to the top the staff member told me it was no longer in operation and to join another queue. Everyone was pushing in and after what seemed to be an interminable wait, I got my bags checked. I made ready to go to gate E75. This was the worst part of the experience. There was a huge crowd around gates E75 and E74 and no one seemed to know what was happening. There were announcements about zones but my pass had no zone written on it. The announcements were muffled and it was not possible to make them out. Everyone was pushing and shoving and there was no room for wheelchairs or pushchairs to get through and every few minutes the staff pushing the wheelchairs told the crowd off. People were getting irate. We just stood and stood with no one moving. Nowhere to sit down. It was exhausting and very stressful. The muffled announcer kept saying that the flights were both very large – as if this excused the chaos. It seemed to me that the space for waiting just was not large enough. Eventually, nearly an hour late the flight finally boarded. I was relieved to land in Heathrow where I am pleased to say I had a totally different experience—quick service, courtesy, order and sufficient toilets. I think I will try to avoid the Toronto Pearson airport in future.

✅ Verified Review | Horrendous. Staff are not knowledgeable, it seems that 50 people ask you for your boarding pass, most for no reason except to ask for it. The whole process of clearing US Immigration is haphazard. They funnel you to machines to (yes, scan your boarding pass!) tell you which line to enter. Then a person asks for your boarding pass again, and tells you to go into a different line. It's a mess. Wait times are not great-better leave lots of extra time. Once I arrived in the terminal I found out that the sole American lounge was shut, with no alternatives offered. And again, you've got to get to the airport early, so you're stuck in one of the dismal 1980-vintage cafes chewing on a stale bun and insipid coffee for hours on end. Wonderful. Shopping options are limited and unimpressive. No restaurants unless your idea of dinner is the Jalapeño Poppers at the sports bar. Seating is very uncomfortable and unsuitable for long waits. Power points are few and far between. As if something else needed to go wrong, the Airport WiFi simply doesn't work. I tested it on two devices and it simply failed on both devices. Nice! And there are no alternatives. That's the only WiFi that's here. Guess no one cares if it goes down.

✅ Verified Review | We arrived back from Puerto Vallarta at 9pm, Dec 15, 2017. It was midnight before any luggage was put on belt. People, children sleeping on the floor. No information, angry, tired people, almost no seating, no food avail. It felt like we were deserted. This is the worst airport for rudeness and lack of knowledge I have ever experienced and I am widely travelled. And about the highest airport charges anywhere. How can you justify this? And too much walking. I have nothing good to say about it. Shameful for Canada!

Our arrival into Toronto Pearson went very smoothly. Our departure was a nightmare. Our flight to Dublin was departing at 20.55. We arrived in plenty of time entering Terminal 1 at 18.05. On approaching check in desk 5 it was totally overcrowded. When I asked a floor attendant where we should queue, the sharp answer was "behind the glass". There were hundreds of people like us and no one knew where to queue. We joined a queue and finally reached check in desk 6 at 19.25. We were the only people in the queue for our flight, all the others were for Delhi / Mumbai / London / Munich. We were next to be checked in when the attendant shouted London and she told me that 10 people had to be checked in as the flight was closing. So we waited again. At 20.15 we were checked in and joined the security queue which took another 20 minutes. We ran for our gate with 5 minutes to spare to boarding. I have travelled all over the world and have never experienced such awful, appalling customer service in more than 30 years of travel. Worst of all is that I have to do this many more times as I now have family in Toronto. Previous reviews are just as reflective of my dreadful experience.

✅ Verified Review | We travelled from Ottawa to Toronto and then on to London Heathrow. Arrived at the Domestic terminal and followed the directions to get to the International departures. This is a 20-30 minutes route march, sometimes easier if all of the travelators are working - on this occasion, they were not! Arrived at the security gate to enter the International part of the terminal and we went to the area near the advertised gate. There was a queue, but not too long. The public lounge/waiting area is mainly fixed tables and chairs, some of which are more like cheap diner booths. All of them have iPads and credit card terminals installed, from which you can order food and check departure times and lots of other things. So much that it is very difficult to find your way around it all. If you want to use it you have to input some personal details - no doubt to be followed up by masses of unwanted advertising. We chose not to use them. We had 3.5 hours to wait between flights, and although we wanted some food, all we needed was a sandwich and a coffee, but mainly some comfortable seating in a quiet area - no chance! We eventually found the Starbucks, where the coffee was the standard price found all over Canada, but the sandwiches were at the inflated prices to be found in the rest of the International departure area. In fact, all of the pre-packaged sandwiches at all of the outlets appear to have been supplied by the same company and were at the same prices. In the Domestic departure area (we had walked through this to get to the International part) the prices were the same as you might find in any coffee bar in the city centre. More competition, more choice. The whole of the departure lounge was very busy and therefore noisy. It was also very dirty, overflowing litter bins and rubbish on the floors. There were cleaners around but they were only concerned with the toilets. There are departure boards, but not many and we did not hear any departure announcements, except for the gate near where we sat. Unfortunately, our departure gate was changed at some point during our 3.5 hour stay, and we did not hear the announcement - if there was one. We nearly missed our flight. When we eventually arrived at Heathrow, the next day, we went to luggage reclaim to get our cases, but only one of them turned up. The lost baggage enquiry desk cheerfully told us that our missing case was still in Toronto and would arrive the next day. So with a 3.5 hour gap, Toronto baggage handling was not able to get both of our cases onto the same plane. Lessons to be learned: 1) Ensure that you have at least 1.5 hours between an inbound domestic flight and an outbound international one. 2) If you have a longer time to wait, do not go directly to the International departures, you can find a more restful spot and cheaper food and drink in the Domestic area. 3) Restrict your stay in the International departure area to the minimum time so that you have more choices of food, drink, places to sit, less noise and a cleaner environment. 4) If you can manage without checked baggage, then you stand a better chance of it arriving at your destination at the same time as you do. Marks out of ten for Pearson International Airport = 2, at least the toilets were cleaned regularly.

I have come to dislike Toronto Pearson airport immensely. Because I normally fly Air Canada I am usually in terminal 1. The variety and number of food options for an airport this size is poor, and the cleanliness of the bathrooms is generally not good. There are few comfy seats to enjoy. My biggest complaint is transiting through from a domestic flight to a US flight. The US pre-clearance process is very disorganized and has lengthy waits. With recent renos at Trudeau I plan on transiting through Montreal rather than Toronto whenever I can.

✅ Verified Review | After travelling from Glasgow Scotland on 6th September flying Air Transat we arrived 15 minutes early. What happened next was horrendous we were held for 1 hour to be told there was no room in customs for us. Over a period of 1 hour Americans and Canadians then anyone with connecting flights were allowed through. I was not prepared to wait any longer so where barrier went up I pushed through. I was not prepared for the sight I saw there was hundreds of people lined up this took me 2 hours to get to customs desk. Surprise when at baggage carousel my luggage was not there number 9 I asked terminal assistant for help only to be told try 4-8 carousel not there by now I was nearly in tears wondering were my friends still waiting for me. After finding Air Transat desk was directed to my luggage just lying on the floor. Luckily my friends were still there they accrued parking charges of 30 $ and on leaving terminal because we were late got stuck in rush hour traffic. What should have been a 20 minutes drive took us 40 minutes. I have complained but surprise no answer I find this shocking.