Originally Posted by
bzcat
You should seriously consider not checking any bags. I'm pretty sure Westjet can issue a boarding pass but they won't check your bags to ATL (Westjet and Delta do not interline even if you are on a code share flight).
Flights from YVR has pre-clearance so the arrival procedure is basically that of a domestic flight. If you don't have checked bags, you just proceed to the gate of your connecting flight. Most LAX-ATL flights depart from T2 so you don't even need to leave the terminal.
If you check a bag, you have to exit the secured area, go to luggage claim, and then go back upstairs and clear security.
This will turn an easy painless 5 minute walk from one gate to another into a 1.5 hour painful ordeal.
I have no choice but to bring along a checked bag. I'm spending two days in Vancouver (starting tomorrow), followed by five days in Atlanta.
I have a 3.5-hour layover at LAX. That should (perhaps) give me ample time to reclaim my luggage at the baggage claim downstairs, and then re-clear TSA security back upstairs.
The last time I connected at LAX, it was at the end of an international flight from AUK to EWR. My checked luggage was
tagged to EWR, but I had to reclaim it at the baggage claim. However, I just placed my luggage onto a "transfer (conveyer) belt" before re-clearing TSA screening for my domestic flight to the East Coast. I didn't have to re-check my bags.
Doesn't the same process apply for deplaning passengers arriving from Canada and connecting at LAX?