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mcbg1 |
2 hour lay over at LAX? |
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Posts: 399 (06/16/09 17:57:10) |
I'm thinking about booking this flight to Australia and I would only have a 2 hour lay over at LAX. Is it enough time to make it to my next flight?
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Gardenridge |
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Posts: 2467 (06/16/09 19:51:10) |
I think two hours is considered enough time between flights. Will you book your flights with a travel agent, or are the two airlines connected in name or
association? If you booked the flights separately and on your own, you might not be able to get help from the second airline to get on another flight if you
run into trouble.
Okay, now I start dithering... do you know if you have to change terminals? Can you run really fast? If you do have to change terminals, any delay is going to make you frantic, esp going to Oz. Why not give yourself more time? I've watched LAX employees get power hungry and make you line up for very stupid reasons. If your airline is booked as a connecting flight, I think the airline will help you make the flight. If not, and you still try it, ask the airline steward(ess) to have one of those carts meet you for a faster connect. Directionally-challenged people might end up going in the wrong way. I'm certainly not suggesting that's you... I was thinking of me.
Last Edited By: Gardenridge
06/16/09 21:51:14.
Edited 1 times.
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 401 (06/17/09 16:56:05) |
I was thinking of booking the tickets online but I'm not sure if the airlines are connected. I would be flying from Montreal on Air Canada and then from LA
to Sydney on Qantas. There doesn't seem to be any earlier flights from MTL, except for one which arrives very early in the morning. The one I'm looking
at arrives at LAX at 8:25PM and the Qantas flight leaves at 10:30PM. There is another Qantas flight leaving an hour later but I don't think it's on the
new Airbus A380, which I would love to try. I'll have to think about this.
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Gardenridge |
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Posts: 2472 (06/17/09 17:32:10) |
Well, consider taking the flight the day before from Montreal, then you can have a day in LA to rest up for the long haul to Oz. That's a killer flight.
You'll have to go through customs in LA as well, so I'm really thinking two hours might not do it for you.
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TheRealDoctorLew |
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Posts: 752 (06/17/09 20:07:38) Member |
It's time for the "what if." What if your flight is an hour late, or if passing through US immigration/customs takes a delay, a not unheard of
eventuality. You would have to kiss goodbye to Qantas' flight. And, since you will not be on one ticket for the whole trip, Qantas would have no obligation
to you in the event of such a delay. The risk may be too high.
Spend a night in LA and have plenty of wiggle room, unless you can fly Qantas the entire trip. |
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patash2 |
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Posts: 3741 (06/17/09 20:36:23) |
I vividly recall flying to New Zealand from Florida. We had scheduled to get to LAX a day early to break up the flight. Sure enough, our flight from DFW to LAX
was well over an hour late taking off. Many people on the plane were upset as they were about to miss connections to all kind of places in Asia. We smiled
because we knew we had that extra day. It's always a smart thing in my book (not to mention, cutting the long flight way down).
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 403 (06/18/09 15:57:14) |
When I look on Expedia, it seems I can book one ticket but with two different airlines. Air Canada and Qantas. Does that make my connection time more feasible?
Qantas also has another flight to Sydney that leaves an hour later, which would leave me with 3 hours of connection time.
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 404 (06/18/09 17:22:44) |
Oh and my flight from Canada would arrive at Terminal 2 while my flight to Australia would leave the International terminal.
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y2000k |
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Posts: 1049 (06/18/09 18:08:45) Member |
Perhaps others will know this for sure, but I'm thinking that because you're coming in from Canada, even though you're only transiting in the US,
you still need to go through US immgration? If that's the case, then 2 hours is not enough.
If you can stay in the airside and NOT have to go through US immigration, then 2 hours is probably okay. |
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Gardenridge |
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Posts: 2474 (06/18/09 20:11:09) |
I'm pretty sure that if you land on US soil, you go through immigration. No getting around it.
When we came in from S America, we had to zip through, and I really don't remember how long we had, but it was stressful, esp when one of the guards or security people tried to get a bit fussy about something which just slowed everyone down. |
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y2000k |
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Posts: 1051 (06/18/09 20:43:16) Member |
There is no "sterile transit" in the US, so every pax who arrives at a US airport (even for transit) will need to go through US immigration. However,
I've read somewhere that flights from Canada to US, you actually go through US immigration at the Canadian airport, so you don't have to go through
that again at LAX. However, I'm not 100% sure if that's really the case.
If you go thru US immigration in Canada, then 2 hours for transit is enough. If you go thru US immigration in LAX, then 2 hours is not enough. |
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 406 (06/18/09 20:46:48) |
y2000k wrote: Oh interesting. I'll have to look into this. The last time I flew from Canada to the US was in August 2001. |
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OleSouthernBelle |
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Posts: 2760 (06/18/09 21:27:48) Member |
I'm not sure this helps you, but I just flew from Victoria, BC to the US & had to go through customs at Seattle,Washington. There was a cursory
'customs' questioning at the Victoria airport, but that evidently was the 'Canadian' one.
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Gardenridge |
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Posts: 2476 (06/18/09 22:04:13) |
That's what I've always understood, OSB. You go through customs on the first landing point as well as a quick customs in Canada, but this is onward
flight to another country, so I've been looking at various sites for mcgb, and am finding contradictory comments. Also found one that made the comment that
it's worth a layover for preparing for the long flight to OZ, but if mcgb doesn't care about that (super young and fit?) then maybe sleep isn't an
issue. That's still a lot of jetlag for the number of time zones crossed.
Plus the US tends to have a "glad to see you go" quick check policy, and a more thorough reentry policy. I've found one site that suggests AC arrives in one terminal and leaves for OZ in a terminal a long way away. There are a lot of factors. This is one I might go through a travel agent for, to protect myself from "what happens if" situations. |
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CliftonMEM |
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Posts: 1169 (06/18/09 22:49:18) Member |
At LAX, Air Canada uses terminal 2. Qantas doesn't. And there's no airside like there is in many airports. You have to do immigration (both ways)
because you go to the street side, out of one terminal and into another, then back through security.
Now, if you're lucky, your departure might be from T4. A couple of Qantas flights leave from there. But normally, we unfortunates get the Tom Bradley Int'l Terminal. Yay. (sarcasm, but deserved). I've seen lines here pretty quick, but just as often right out the terminal door. I wouldn't risk TBIT with 2 hours myself, personally. And I've gone through here a few times. Coming back, you will definitely arrive in TBIT and go back to T2 on the streetside. Immigration and all that. But at least it's a lot easier to get out of TBIT than in. Here's a terminal map I've used. http://www.iflylax.com/lax_map0.html ps - we're booked in November for the A380 from LAX to MEL (return from SYD if we return at all). First time for us too. I'm excited. Well, as much as possible for being shut up in a flying tin can for 16 hours. |
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y2000k |
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Posts: 1058 (06/19/09 10:12:38) Member |
Very good point by Clifton. If your Quantas flight departs from TBIT, you definitely need a lot more than 2 hours. Most trans-pacific flights from LAX to Asia
depart in the late evening. The couple of times I passed by TBIT at night, the whole terminal is a zoo. Just imagine - many 747s and other large aircrafts
departing from the same terminal with each aircraft carrying several hundreds of passengers.
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 409 (06/19/09 11:48:29) |
I just found this on Qantas' website:
A dedicated complimentary shuttle is available to connecting passengers flying on Qantas. Passengers connecting at Los Angeles to travel to Australia and New Zealand will be able to transfer from Terminal 4 (T4) to the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT). It will operate daily from 4pm to midnight from gate 44 in T4. This will eliminate having to pass through security a second time. Passengers who wish to exit the terminal will also have that option.You can also walk between terminals by following the directional signs. Tom Bradley International Terminal and Terminal 4 are adjacent to one another. Even though my first flight arrives at Terminal 2, perhaps I could walk over to Terminal 4 and take that shuttle to avoid going through security again? |
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y2000k |
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Posts: 1063 (06/19/09 12:19:53) Member |
You CANNOT get from T2 to T4 on the airside. Take a look at the link given by Clifton. T2 is on the opposite side of T4.
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mcbg1 |
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Posts: 411 (06/19/09 12:30:43) |
Thanks. I realized that after posting and looking at the map.
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