Originally Posted by
anabolism
I'm pleased to report that the last 4-5 times I entered at LAX T4 (starting about late November or thereabouts), it is now much improved.
The right kiosk (there are only two) seems to be permanently out of order, and there is still a sign at the kiosks instructing GE people to see the first agent. A couple of times, the first agent was busy, but saw me waiting with a GE receipt, and waved me through.
The customs exit now has a clearly marked diplomatic and GE sign, with an agent keeping guard. This is a major improvement.
I just arrived at LAX a few days ago (HKG-LAX on CX882) and it was a total breeze. I had a semi-tight connection to an AA flight, so when I got off the plane there were CX staff handing out those neon orange "Connection Express" envelopes with my AA boarding pass inside.
When I got to immigration they saw the CE envelope and tried to direct me to an agent but there was already quite a line. I opted to walk all the way to the far end to use GE. IIRC they had 4 machines and they all worked fine, no line or waiting.
Got to the baggage carousel just as my bag was coming out (elapsed time since leaving the plane about 5 minutes, hehe). Got the bag and headed for the "middle" exit lane. It had a sign saying it was closed but when the guard saw my orange CE card she shuffled me through. I'm not sure if they would have done that if I didn't have that CE or not. No way to test it out now.
Anyway, I went straight to the front of the (very long) exit line, no wait.