Thanks everyone -- glad to hear that things are likely as I thought they were -- no problem with checking earlier than four hours.
As far as doing something more interesting than hanging out at the AC, my problem is that the timing on returning a car to Hertz means that I'll pay another day -- roughly $100 because it's a drop off at LAX from another location -- not worth it for a few hours of sightseeing in a town I know really well!
Sometimes booooring isn't that bad -- maybe I'll find something new on the menu -- now that would be exciting :-)
Eleven hours may be the hard cutoff for this as well. But I'd head to the one world Business Lounge in TBIT as opposed to the very crowded, under refurbishment and somewhat hackneyed Admirals Club.