Originally Posted by BrooklynDave

I've been to LAX many times, but it was always my destination; never had to transfer.

In October we'll be traveling JFK - SYD via LAX. Flights 133 and 73 outbound and 72 and 2 back home.

For today and tomorrow at least, aa.com is showing all flights departing and arriving at T4, not TBIT. Is that typical? Do 72 and 73 ever use TBIT?

aa.com also shows 72 as arriving T4, but "baggage: TBIT."

So what are the procedures? I'm assuming that outbound, AA checks bags through all the way to Sydney and we don't have to retrieve them at LAX, yes? So it's just essentially a "regular" connection and we don't have to do another security run at LAX even though we're leaving the US from there, as long as we stay airside. Is that right?

On returning, what is the procedure? Do we clear immigration at T4 and then go to TBIT to get the checked bags? Or do we do all the necessaries at TBIT?

Once we get the bags, is there a bag drop at TBIT? And then we proceed back to T4 for the flight to JFK?