We arrived Wednesday night back home in Toronto, landing about 2000, right on scehudle. The flight was like a long night as we chased the sunset west as we fly.
The flight was about 8 hours long as we were heading into headwinds. One nice thing was the inflight information system that allowed us to track where we were and get a real time view of the flight and arrival times.
BA was located in Terminal 3, and the gate, as usual was right at the end of one of the wings of terminal 3, so it was a very long walk to the custom halls.
When we got there, there was a new procedure for Customs check in. We had to to an automated border machine, called a Primary Inspection Kiosk that was supposed to read our passports, take our pciture and the pass us on to the immigration officers
This is a new initiative that the Canada Border Services Agency is implemnting, accoing this article…
The Kiosk did not work at all well for us.
In spite of our fancy e-Passports with encoded data and digital imaging on the passport itself. the machine could not read them properly and we had to get assisstance from one of the staff. We finally had to go to another machine to get it to work. The card that we filled out so carefully on board the flight was actually not needed at all.
We got a code “12” on our delaration form, printed out from the kiosk, then headed to the line indicated for Canadian passports. Luckily for us, holding a Canadian passport allowed us to skip chatting with a Customs/Immigrations Officer altogether and we headed into the baggage hall to collect our bags.
As we were not travelling in Business Class this leg, we had to wait a while to get all the luggage. Eventually it all arrived safe and sound and we headed out to collect a limo.
45 minutes later, we were opening the front door with the key that I had carried with us the last 2 1/2 weeks and we were home!
Campbell Family Travels 