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| - This airport is just a bit on the odd side with a lot of inconsistency in the quality of the experience you can expect to have.
For departures it will all depend on which terminal (or even which part of which terminal) you end up in. As I travel a great deal in the US I've largely spent time in the international areas. So far I have encountered two completely different international terminals. One of these terminals is used by Air Canada and a few other Canadian airlines along with their partners. That terminal is absolutely awesome. Lots of food, a booster juice, shopping, an awesome new duty free, and sufficient, comfy, seating while you wait on your flight at the gates. Then there is, what I assume to be, the old international area. This area has very little in the way of food, shopping, or anything else. It's always overcrowded with people sitting on the floor along the walls. This terminal is not very enjoyable and it's where you end up with Delta, United, and many others most of the time on the way to the US. It basically looks like the airport stopped updating in the early 90s and decided to forget this section of the airport exists.
One tip I can give is that regardless of where you pass through security at Pearson you will be given a chance to use special lines for Nexus/Global Entry that are essentially the airline crew security lines. This program is fairly cheap, easy to join (if you have a clean criminal background), and lasts for a number of years. When you join Nexus you automatically get US Global Entry. The beauty of this is that you'll sail through every time without major delay or hastle. On the way back into Canada your Nexus card also gets you around the sometime lengthy line to speak with a border agent as you enter the customs area.
Another very cool thing to note is that all flights to the US from Pearson are "pre-clearance" which means that once you make the secure area of the terminal you are fully cleared by US Customs. You will never have to pass customs on the US destination. This comes in very handy for making connecting flights. It is also awesome in that you will never have to sit on a plane at your destination waiting for a gate to open up that is correctly setup for funneling international travels to the local airport customs area. It lastly means that flights from Toronto can land in airports too small to maintain their own customs agents and facilities.
Arrivals are, in my opinion, the greatest failing of this airport at least for international flights that must pass Canadian customs. The problem is that there is only one customs area in the entire airport. Regardless of which terminal you fly in on you will ultimately end up funneled along seldom used, deserted, hallways that are segregated from the main terminal until you end up in the same subterranean room. Once in a great while you might get lucky and get a gate that is very close to this room. I have seen that happen one time. More often, especially if you are on a small regional jet, you will end up starting out at the very end of the wrong terminal. If this happens you have what I believe to be a 1.5-2 kilometer walk ahead of you. To add insult to injury I have yet to visit this airport when at least one of the escalators wasn't broken in these customs hallways. Sometimes there is a functional elevator, and sometimes you have to find a way to drag your bag up two flights worth of broken steel escalator. It's obvious this is the result of a less seen/used part of the airport being seen as the maintenance bottom of the priority list. The only problem is you are at your most tired and beaten down after returning from a long trip, and it isn't the time to put people under yet more stress, and add to their fatigue. I have yet to see a functional, moving, golf cart anywhere in these forlorn hallways. I can only assume the airlines, after having milked you for as much money as they can, are content to abandon you to the labyrinth with only your two aching feet to convey you however far you might end up needing to traverse. The airport should force the airlines to do more to ensure the comfort of their passengers on this final leg of their trip. It wouldn't take much to vastly improve the situation.
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