Time needed for transfer at LAX?

[athena863]

I would love to get advice on how long I need between arriving early morning on Qantas at LAX late September,and connecting to Air Canada for a flight to Montreal or Toronto. My agent says the 2hr 25 min she has alloted me is enough. Reading older posts here, It does not sound enough.
I would appreciate hearing of any recent experiences that are relevant to this

 

[Steady]

Welcome aboard athena863, I don't know the answer to your question but hopefully someone will chime in. If you don't get an answer in the next day you should re-post the question in the open discussion section

Open Discussion

A general discussion forum for the Australian Frequent Flyer online community. Travel-related discussion and questions that do not fit elsewhere are welcome here.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[athena863]

hi - has anyone had recent experiences of transiting in LAX? I am arriving 6.20am on Qantas from Sydney, and at the moment my agent has me on 8.45 am flight to Canada -Is this enough time? I have read horrendous stories but from some years back.
. Apparently this is within current guidelines but I wonder about the reality.

 

[athena863]

I am coming in from Sydney on Qantas at 6.20 am and the agent suggests I fly out on Air Canada at 8.45 am. But is this a realistic time frame? I get the impression it may not be.
I would appreciate anyone's advice based on recent experiences

 

[NM]

While the time noted may be a "legal" connection, there is never an absolute guarantee that things will run smoothly. I would suggest that 9 times out of 10, that connection would work. But if your inbound flight is delayed or there is a holdup at US immigration, US customs or outbound security screening, you might not make it. But if it is a legal connection, and booked as a connection on a single ticket, then you are "protected" and the airline will get you to your destination on the next available flight.

Personally, if there was another slightly later LAX departure option I would probably opt for it. But if the later flight was say 11am or later, I would take the offered connection and rely on being protected if I missed it due to late arrival of teh inbound LAX flight. Even with a 4-hour connection, if the inbound flight is 3 hours late then you are going to miss it. So how long is long enough? You cannot predict of your inbound flight will be on time.

 

[athena863]

thank you, I appreciate it. Qantas is pretty good but who knows? And there have been a few disruptions in and around LA recently. ( earthquakes!)
Unfortunately the choice is 8.45 or after 11 but that might be OK if I can figure out a way to spend time in the Qantas Lounge. ( on Business this trip, yay!)

 

[Hvr]

The most important thing here is whether or not the flights are both on the same ticket (PNR).

If so you'll be protected and you'll have a flight found for you to fly on.

If on separate tickets then you'll probably be out of luck.

 

[Himeno]

A little over 2 hours is enough time at LAX TBIT, provided there are no delays either from Qantas or CBP.

I've seen processing through TBIT take anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours.

My last entry at LAX TBIT was from an evening AA flight from London. The flight was delayed out of London, and arrived an hour late, followed by some flights from east and south Asia, which had a heap of people arrive and push in line waiting for the ESTA kiosks (even when they weren't able to use those kiosks) and generally cause the entire process to slow down because the new arrivals didn't speak English and refused to listen to anyone telling them where to go. It took 2 hours from aircraft exit to ground side.

The prior arrival was QF93 from Melbourne. About the same amount of people in the CBP area, took about 30 minutes from aircraft exit to ground side.

 

[Quickstatus]

You should be OK if QF93 arrives on time.

 

[Toula92122]

I think it's so random how long it can take for immigration through LAX. Last time I came through I arrived at 6 am, and I took off on a connecting flight, after changing terminals by 7 am. However, I was particularly lucky as I sprinted to immigration and got in front of the onslaught Then when I transferred to Delta there was no one in front of me at TSA. I was not scheduled to depart on the connecting domestic flight until 8.30 but having got through so quickly I was able to jump on the flight that was about to depart which is an advantage of only having carry on.

 

[albatross710]

I'm going to throw in a random here. AC departs Terminal 6. When I was in LAX in March I used the tunnel to move between Terminals 6 &5.

Is it possible that the OP can choose which terminal has the faster security on the day, if T5 looks clear, enter T5 then go through the tunnel to T6.

When I was departing USA, my flight from LAX arrived T5 and then I used the tunnels to get to TBIT.

 

[Quickstatus]

The tunnels between 4,5,6 and walkway between 4 and TBIT are “airside” which means only accessible after the formalities of checkin and security.

Likely the bags will have to be checked in at T6 (AC) unless on the one ticket. Which means having to go from TBIT to T6 kerbside.

 

[RooFlyer]

@athena863 can you tell us if your 2 flights are on the same, or different PNRs? That will determine which of the various suggestions here are applicable.

Even if on one PNR, I'm not a fan of the 'you will be protected' line of thought. The next available flight for you may not be the next one, or even same day.

I'd approach it from the point of view of how important is your arrival time in Toronto? If you really need to be there same day, then I would try to open out the connection time to 3 or more hours. If its not important, then stay with your existing connection IF on the same PNR. but if separate flights, then go for a 4 hour connection.

 

[rocketboy]

If the Air Canada flight is on the same ticket as QF93, then take the earliest flight your agent recommends. Air Canada will rebook you if you miss the connection. If the tickets are separate then I would recommend booking later to allow extra time to cover delays between flights. Unfortunately you won’t be able to enter QF Lounge after clearing Immigration and exiting TBIT.
My recent experience was the opposite to yours. I was booked on an American flight to ORD at 13:00 after arriving on time on QF93. When I rechecked my bag in TBIT the agent put me on standby for the 9:00 flight. The waitlist cleared at the gate and I was away 3 hours earlier. So booking later to be on the safe side and then standing by on an earlier flight is another option.

 

[DC3]

My rule-of-thumb has been about four hours for international to USA domestic connections, at LAX, DFW or SFO. Usually not on the same PNR as the international sectors are booked as far out as possible. Later on, at about 2 months to go, I book the domestic flights.

That arrangement suits me. Maybe not for everyone.

Edit: Have not done AU-USA-CAN yet, but maybe coming up next year. Will do the usual 4 hour connection I expect.

 

[jb747]

I’ve got a flight on the 93 coming up, which has an AA connection about 2 hours 20 later. To be honest, I’m uncomfortable about it, but that’s the way the QF booking engine threw it up, and as it’s on the same ticket PNR, it will be QF’s problem if it doesn’t work. I guess I’ll get to test whether the advice we’ve been giving our passengers actually works.

 

[DC3]

Unfortunate that the booking engine sometimes produces limited options to choose from.

EF has QF93 MEL-LAX at 68% on-time reliability, with an average delay of 58 minutes over the past 2 months. However, you may know more about this than most of us.

 

[Kremmen]

hi - has anyone had recent experiences of transiting in LAX? I am arriving 6.20am on Qantas from Sydney, and at the moment my agent has me on 8.45 am flight to Canada -Is this enough time?

Do you feel lucky and are you fast? And are you in economy?

There are a pile of flights just from Australia that arrive at TBIT between 6 and 6:30am. (QF, DL, VA and AA from SYD, QF from MEL, QF from BNE.) Last time I arrived on one of those, nobody was allowed to disembark any of those flights until 6:30am. That's a couple of thousand people at one time. If your plane is on time (mine was) and you are up the front of the plane and you walk fast, you can be through customs and immigration in a flash. Miss the front of that wave and that's a different matter.

Similarly, the TSA area to get back into TBIT and/or the airside walkways to T6, etc, can fill up fast, so it can add 5 mins if you're one of the first and 45 mins if you're not.

However, if it's on the same ticket, don't worry about it. Go with the flight that makes sense and they'll switch you to a later one of you don't make it. Also, if your flight is late and the connection is tight, there will be staff waiting to accelerate your processing. (If it's a separate ticket, none of that will happen.)

 

[Quickstatus]

My rule of thumb is if KE17 the blue A380 arrived before the AU flights the immigration and customs line will be longer for a variety of reasons

Luckily KE17 and the Air China 787 has been rescheduled to 0900-0930

The only flight earlier than the arrivals from AU is the one from TLV.

 

[auflier]

Airport Wait Times
May be helpful to find out avg wait times in us immi