MEL LHR

I'm currently organising a trip to the USA from Australia, and weighing up my options from MEL to LAX of which there are several. I think I have decided on United, using their latest 789 aircraft. However, the best deals on the dates I have planned are all via SYD. The early morning arrival into LAX of the UA flights is perfect for my plans (I have a connection to the east coast).


As a Star Alliance Gold member, flying UA makes plenty of sense also. However, when looking at booking the flights through the UA website, they only provide the MEL-SYD leg on QF, which of course is not connected with Star Alliance. With this option, booking through the UA website, would I be required to collect and re check my luggage in SYD, or would they be checked through to LAX?


If they are checked through to LAX, would QF acknowledge my star alliance gold status and provide me with the normal priority baggage and boarding? The baggage is rather important and I am strapped for time once landing in LAX.


I can book the internal flight via an agent with VA (who do recognise Star Alliance), but the VA flight only gives me 2hrs to connect in SYD, which I know is tight in the morning during peak time.


Any information or answers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

LondonElite

Your bags will be interlined all the way to LAX. I do not know whether the QF leg from MEL to SYD is a UA code-share (I doubt it) so I don't think that you'll have priority baggage handling (which of course doesn't really work in 95% of cases, so you're not missing much.)

I think your bigger problem is your 'connecting' flight. Not to dwell on semantics, but this is not actually a connection, but rather a completely new flight. You don't give details as to when you are scheduled to arrive at LAX or when your next flight departs, nor do you give the airline involved, but two hours in the morning at LAX is very tight. You will need to clear immigration, collect your luggage, possibly change terminals, and check in again. Doing all of this in two or even three hours can be tight, especially if the Pacific flight is late. You should assume that if you miss your flight to the east coast, you'll have to buy a completely new return ticket, as the itinerary will be cancelled. You may find a sympathetic agent you will rebook you on a later flight at no or low cost, but I wouldn't count on it.

Either book the whole thing as one ticket or leave yourself four or five hours for this.

MEL LHR

I actually find priority baggage to have been good in my previous experiences around the world, but I do take on board what you're saying.


On the flight I'm looking at I'd be landing at 0630, my new flight will be operated by AA to Charlotte at 0830, and then onward to LEX.


It's almost impossible to book one ticket all the way from MEL to LEX without either insane expense and/or ridiculous layovers. My experience of pacific flights is that they tend to land early, even if leaving late from AUS.


Luckily with UA, given my status, I'll be given fast track clearance at customs. I'd just prefer to be on the safe side of having my luggage arriving as quickly as possible. Considering the link with VA to Star Alliance, I find it strange that on the UA website they use QF rather than VA.

JerryFF

Neither my wife nor I have elite status but we recently cashed in some extra miles a flew in 1st from SFO to MSY. We checked one bag each way, which was tagged "Priority". When we arrived in MSY, our bag was the 3rd one onto the carousel and coming back in SFO, it was the 4th or 5th bag. I guess we just got lucky.

Kiwi Flyer

2h for domestic to international connection at SYD on one ticket is okay - it is the other direction which is risky.

LondonElite

What is your appetite/tolerance for risk?

There is no way I would book this as separate tickets. There are better LAX expert on here but I think you'll have a struggle on your hands. Even if everything goes perfectly, you've got to get through customs and then get your bags. From wheels-down that can easily be well over one hour. Then a terminal change and check-in for your AA flight.... And if your incoming flight is only 30 minutes delayed, you're toast (meaning a new LAX-LEX v/v ticket). Leave yourself some room and book a 1030 flight or thereabouts.

Mwenenzi

Booking separate domestic flights each end, with a short time between, just so you can use a Star Alliance airline on the long haul is high risk. If it goes pear shaped it will be far more than insanely expensive and with ridiculous time between your newly purchased flights. (you will not have layovers).

AA now fly SYD LAX. Have you looked at buying direct from AA?

If you buy QF/UA from UA its UA(QF)'s problem if you do not make the UA flight it their problem

I would be looking for a new route, even it means driving the last 100or ??? miles to LEX. This is what talking walking breathing travel agents are good for (not some computer/IT programmer in a 3rd world country).
If you buy separate tickets IMHO you need a lot more time between flights. Fly 1 or 2 days before.
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...016-06-19;tt=o

Route: http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=M...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

MEL LHR

Unfortunately, connections from LAX to LEX are few and far between. Most either leave LAX at 0630-0700 or then not until much much later, not getting me to LEX until around midnight. Hence why 2hrs in LAX was the happy medium.

I looked into purchasing this as one ticket, but timings of the options were horrible.

Maybe I'll leave the day before I was planning and overnight in LAX, but, to me that equals a waste of a day.

I'm pretty happy to risk flights, I've had some close calls previously, but YET to miss one. First time for everything though I guess.

bhomburg

AA has a check-in deadline of 45 minutes prior to departure (for domestic flights), that means you need to pass immigrations and customs at TBIT , then walk over to T4 (ten minutes) where AA is located and present yourself for check-in at an AA counter by 7:45. The AA counters @ LAX are quite busy at 7-8am, so factor in some wait time, especially with no status and flying in economy.
With Priority baggage delivery working, expect your bags come off the belt some 20 to 30 minutes after landing. However, presuming you hold a non-US passport and don't participate in Global Entry, you'll likely be waiting in line at the immigration visitor lanes by this time. There's approx. half a dozen widebodies landing at TBIT around this time: QF 11 and QF 93 from SYD/MEL - both A380s with around 500 passengers on board - plus the Australia services from UA, AA and DL. And the GRU AA flight. The bottleneck is immigration and customs at TBIT.
I would do this only if you have Global Entry.
Otherwise - either book the flight to LEX on UA, book the transpacific flight on AA or QF (AA has an official policy of protecting passengers in case of missed oneworld connections even on separate tickets) or plan for at least a three-hour layover.

Mwenenzi

QF flys SYD-DFW
Not booking all this on one ticket/PNR is asking for trouble. Or at least SYD-xxx-LEX on one ticket/PNR.

LondonElite

I think you should find out what a last-minute LAX-LEX flight costs and expect to pay that when you miss what you are planning on booking. Your insistence that you've never missed anything isn't relevant given what you've been told about timings here. To take bhombug's point further, consider this:

830 AA flight means you need to check in by 745, meaning you need to be at the counter queue at 730. This means you need to be finished with immigration and have your bags by 715. Assuming your flight lands dead on time at 630, you won't be at your gate until 635 and you won't be off the plane until 645. So do you really believe that you can get through immigration and collect your bags in 30 minutes when there will be hundreds of people ahead of you?

I've checked, and today's walk-up fare is about $750. That's what I would expect to be out of pocket. Is the single ticket price lower? Then buy that.