Originally Posted by
Aspen
I have for over twenty years preferred SFO over LAX because of the later departure ex SYD and the past 10 or 15 because of the Arrivals Lounge in SFO - however this year I have flown on 840 to LAX three times, once physically driving the rental car out of Hertz at 6.32am (32 minutes after being allowed to disembark from the aeroplane at LAX after landing at around 5.45 and docking at the furthest gate (what's up with that furthest gate at TBIT nonsense when we were one of the first land ? 3 times now furthest gate, it must be cheaper for UAL ! ) and twice being in the ANZ Star Alliance Lounge in under 60 minutes from landing - so I do not understand the level of hate aimed at TBIT. Even if one were to clear USCIS beneath Terminal 7 one still must re-clear security. (Both my visits to the ANZ Star Alliance Lounge were after I had cleared PreCheck in T4)
On Thanksgiving day I had same experience flying MEL-LAX on UA, in the Hertz Car rental in 30 min. after the arrival time. I most troublesome thing for my Taiwanese co worker was extra security at MEL. I think now TBIT is better than arrival into SFO at the same times (TPE-SFO arrives also about 630am) in my recent experience, and renovated TBIT and lounge is great. Its interesting since maybe TBIT has more arrivals at 6-7am, 3 from MEL at least, 3-4 SYD, and few from BNE.