I was on UA 935 (LHR-LAX) today, and had the usual bus to TBIT for immigration and customs clearance. While waiting for the luggage to show up, I chatted with the UA concierge for GS and FC about the hassles of international arrival at LAX. She told me that it's not just UA that has to bus all of their international arrivals after 10 am to TBIT. Apparently all of the remote immigrations and customs stations are closed after 10 am, with exception of 1 group of 3 or 4 international arrivals in Terminal 2. And those T2 passengers are bussed to TBIT as well if their flight is late.
What's interesting is that the UA rep told me that all of this bussing costs UA a lot more money than to keep the T6 arrival hall open, especially since T6 now has Delta and Continental's international arrivals as well. UA has offered to pay the government 2X what it pays now to keep T6 arrival hall open throughout the day. She implied that Delta and Continental also offered to pay more. But the government turned down the offers saying that they don't have enough manpower to do this regardless of money. So we are all stuck with getting bussed to the zoo that is TBIT arrival hall, at least until the summer.
Government services at its finest...
