Toronto - Quito via Cleveland and Houston, do I check in for every flight?

Question

I am a bit confused... I am an Ecuadorian citizen and I hold a US tourist Visa and a Canadian temporary residency visa...

I bought a ticket from Toronto to Quito on United's website...

My intinerary starts on Toronto goes to Cleveland, after three hours goes to Houston and after 3 hours goes to Ecuador.

Even though I bought the ticket on united the first flight from Toronto to Cleveland is operated by Air Canada Jazz...

My question is: do I have to go through customs in Cleveland or is it enough to do it in Toronto? (I understand you do it at Pearson)...

And also, I how do I check in for my flights? I only got one confirmation number and this takes me to the Air Canada website but is this enough? Do I check in for every flight on that website?

Finally, what about my luggage? Do I need to worry about checking it in, out on every American connection? Or there is no need...

Answer 1

As you have one number for your entire reservation, your baggage will be checked in once.

You will also get boarding passes for all your flights when you initially check-in at Pearson.

The only glitch in the process is that US has their own immigration/customs policy which applies to all passengers, even those in transit. You have to go through immigration and passport control. Thankfully, you can do this process directly at Pearson (here are the details); effectively making you a domestic passenger once you land in the US.

Now all that's left is the waiting :)