atmnet

Hi,
We(Myself, Wife and 2 year old) will be moving to Edmonton from Germany during last week of Dec. I am looking for some advice regarding the selection of flights.
We have the following options
1. Lufthansa : Munich to London, Air Canada :London to Edmonton
2. Air Canada: Munich to Toronto, Toronto to Edmonton
Option 1 is slightly more expensive and read some feedback about lost luggage during transit in LHR
For Option 2, Do we have to take our luggage in Toronto for Custom clearance and manually transfer for the onward flight to Edmonton. Any advice based on your experience will be very valuable.

dbd33

Yes. For this reason I'd take the other option.

leecyndisanders

We are doing the same (wife plus 2 kids), however we are going from Paderborn to Gatwick then Gatwick to Calgary. The 10 Dec is the only flight we can still get for £1400 a day either side then it's at least another £5-700 on top.

atmnet

Thanks for the reply. Just to get it right.
We already have the PR card. Therefore we dont have to do the landing formalities. Will it still be a major hassle to transit in Toronto to Edmonton ?

dbd33

You will have to collect your bags from the carousel, queue up with many confused people who don't understand the formalities, clear customs, recheck your bags and clear security. A major hassle? Depends on your tolerance for your fellow humans. I'd say so.

ADAMC

The transfer is not too bad as long as they give you sufficient time. Last time I came back from the UK to Winnipeg I only had a 90 minute transfer time between landing in Toronto and my connecting internal flight. Even though my London - Toronto flight was on time by the time I'd cleared customs, picked up my luggage (last bag onto the carousel - sod's law!), I'd missed my connection and had to sit around for 6 hours trying to get onto another flight on standby.

I'm doing the same trip next month and had originally booked the connections with a 2.5 hr gap, but since AC have re-jigged their timetables in light of the recent airline cutbacks, they've re-scheduled me 3 times and now I'll need a hurculean effort to get my connection - and take hand-luggage only.

Best bet to take the first option.

Lychee

I'd choose option 1, if not for the reason that flying directly from London to Edmonton saves more time than flying from Munich to Toronto and then Toronto to Edmonton. Toronto to Edmonton is a 3 hour flight, at least.

leecyndisanders

Hey, why not take the train (via rail), we did it in '96 and it was an awesome experience.