YYZ - RTB - does luggage go straight through?

[Ministryofgiraffes]

indeed....we now have to drag our kids and a shocking amount of luggage to a hotel in miami for the evening, pay for 2 rooms and then get up at the crack of dawn and schlep everything back to the airport to catch a flight back to toronto.

The thing that annoyed me the most is that i asked them if we could spend 72 hours in miami...they are inconveniencing us, so would they be open to moving us to a flight back to Toronto from miami 2 days later so at least we could get some value out of the hotel we are paying for in miami...American response "absolutely no way, you must take the next flight to Toronto or we will bill you $500 a ticket for you to fly back 72 hours later"

Maddening.......especially because they can't move the flight to an early slot departing from bonaire so that everyone can catch the original connecting flight to Toronto...apparently...even though the 6 flights before the american one are all flying to curacao....

The whole thing it just a pain in the butt.

 

[Altamira]

Flying non-stop is always best regardless of the origin/destination. Unfortunately we don't always have that option, so insuring you know the baggage flow through and customs/immigration procedures can save a lot of frustration and headaches.

 

[Dogbowl]

indeed....we now have to drag our kids and a shocking amount of luggage to a hotel in miami for the evening, pay for 2 rooms and then get up at the crack of dawn and schlep everything back to the airport to catch a flight back to toronto.

The thing that annoyed me the most is that i asked them if we could spend 72 hours in miami...they are inconveniencing us, so would they be open to moving us to a flight back to Toronto from miami 2 days later so at least we could get some value out of the hotel we are paying for in miami...American response "absolutely no way, you must take the next flight to Toronto or we will bill you $500 a ticket for you to fly back 72 hours later"

Maddening.......especially because they can't move the flight to an early slot departing from bonaire...apparently...even though the 6 flights before the american one are all flying to curacao....

The whole thing it just a pain in the butt.

I feel your pain.

 

[Dogbowl]

Flying non-stop is always best regardless of the origin/destination. Unfortunately we don't always have that option, so insuring you know the baggage flow through and customs/immigration procedures can save a lot of frustration and headaches.

Agreed. When we went to Raja Ampat, we had to fly into Hong Kong (stayed a few days), then flew to Jakarta, then to Sorong. On the way back, we flew Sorong to Makassar to Jakarta to Hong Kong (stayed a few more days) and then flew back to Toronto. No choice. That was the way it had to be done. We literally crossed our fingers and hoped for the best that the luggage arrived with us.

Although I must admit I'm never as concerned about customs/immigration in other countries as I am about the US. The US customs people have left a very poor impression on a lot of travellers.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

my buddy has his flight to Hong Kong cancelled today... he will most likely be missing his Raja boat...

All 'rich/white' people problems of course...but still a pain int he butt

 

[Dogbowl]

my buddy has his flight to Hong Kong cancelled today... he will most likely be missing his Raja boat...

All 'rich/white' people problems of course...but still a pain int he butt

Dang, that must hurt!

 

[Altamira]

my buddy has his flight to Hong Kong cancelled today... he will most likely be missing his Raja boat...

All 'rich/white' people problems of course...but still a pain int he butt

Hopefully your friend bought trip insurance because I imagine it would be difficult, if not impossible, to rejoin the LOB. Without trip insurance, I imagine that type of dive trip would be a serious hit to the wallet. One of the few benefits of being old and retired is the ability to fly to a destination a few days early to hopefully avoid those kinds of problems.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

He does and yes there is no chance of joining if he is late..

 

[Dogbowl]

He does and yes there is no chance of joining if he is late..

Just to offer my useless CAD$0.02 here...when we did Raja last year, our boat did lots of dives in the Dampier Strait near Waisai before heading south to Misool later on in the week. If the boat is amenable to it, and if the itinerary hangs out at Dampier Strait for a couple of days at the beginning, there's a possibility that if your buddy can make his way to Waisai (I believe there's a ferry from Sorong), then it's possible to meet up with the boat.

Someone on our boat got banged up a bit and our cruise director brought her to the hospital in Waisai to get it checked out. This was a few days into our itinerary and it wasn't even a detour. We were literally just next door, so to speak. And the crew were all using their cell phones throughout the beginning of our itinerary so it's not as remote as I had originally thought it was.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

..no it doesn't.... you 100% do not have to pick up your luggage on the way there from YYZ unless you have an overnight transit, and you 100% do have to pick up your luggage on the way back as all luggage has to clear customs at first point into the USA...

flying direct is very advisable...

The rules may be more complex/simple than this?

We were told that same airline / same ticket is a bonus situation.

We have flown yyz via iah to several different Caribbean destinations (Bonaire, roatan, Belize) via United. Our bags were checked through to final destination both ways. We never touched them in IAH, either way.