The Sunday after Labor Day is when travel stops pretending it is leisure

A Sunday six days after Labor Day should be calmer than the holiday crush. It is not always. Festival traffic is still moving through Toronto. Football cities fill and empty on the same afternoon. The people who stretched a weekend into a week are now competing with the people who have to be at a desk on Monday. The terminal does not care which story anyone is in.

Score the day as weather. Longer security lines than the calendar implies. A connection that looks fine on a phone and tight in a concourse. The useful move is dull: earlier, fewer bags, a plan that assumes the holiday is still leaking into the week. Travel writing that calls this a vibe is selling the wrong ticket.

Expect the hangover, not the postcard. Build slack into the connection.