Boarding Passes with separate tickets

Having separate tickets does not matter. You can check in 48 hours before the flight online on Olympic and print the boarding pass at home. But you know this is risky because the flight to Athens may not arrive on time to catch the flight to Crete. I have not been through Athens airport but I am thinking that you would go through to passport control and security in Athens first anyway instead of Crete if this was all one ticket. Someone will clarify that.

The other thing to consider if you have a flight on a separate tickets is delays. If your flight to Athens is delayed and you miss the Crete connection, you are not protected. You would have to buy another ticket for a new flight.

I presume you are not checking luggage. If you are, be advised that there is no way to check it through from Seattle all the way to Crete. You will have to retrieve it in Athens and recheck it.

So, your SEA-YYZ flight has to be on time---- the YYZ-ATH flight has to be on time, to make your flight to Crete.

I would not buy a r/t ticket from ATH to Crete. I would buy one way tickets.

If you have r/t ticket and miss the outbound flight, your return ticket is cancelled and you need to buy a new return ticket.

Your plan can work if all works perfectly. I would give myself a bit more fudge factor

My $0.02

Adding to the chorus - your itinerary has way too many connections for it to be reliable enough to make that final flight. You might consider a quick overnight at the Athens airport - Sofitel - which is right outside the terminal. That way you would be able to catch the first flight of the day to Crete rather than the last one.

I think 3 hours is too tight given the number of variables that you cannot control. If you could push it to five hours it would be better. We have done that a number of times and it worked till last year. It finally caught up with us when our original flight from the US was simply cancelled. Took two days to get re-booked and, obviously, the second flight was lost. While international flights are generally on time there is still a possibility that something can happen so you need a plan B or a good acceptance that the second flight could be a throw away. Just as long as you understand and accept the risk.

You will have to go through both immigration and customs in Athens, and then security for the flight to Crete. That is a huge variability of time. Who knows how long?

You don't say what time of year you will be traveling. If it's winter, you could be stuck in Toronto due to weather thereby missing your separate flight from Athens to Crete.

So the question is boarding passes - since it’s a separate ticket can
we get out boarding passes electronically or in advance OR will we
have to plan to go get it when we arrive in Athens, thus having to go
through customs & security between flights? Welcoming any advice!!

Being able to check in 24 hours in advance depends on the mobile technology of the airline you choose to fly between Athens and Crete. You will still have to go through immigration when you arrive at Athens, check in your bags at the airline ticket windows unless you fly with carryons only, and wait on the security lines. If you are not traveling in winter, allow 4 hours to catch a separate airline to Crete or fly to Crete the next day to be on the safe side. That also means you might want to return to Athens for your flight home the night before instead of the same day.