mate

My wife is flying PDX-LAX-HKG-BKK tonight, first leg domestic on AS and then CX for last two legs. J class award ticket from Alaska Mileage Plan, luggage checked through to BKK. This is *not* time sensitive.

At checkin at PDX they told her to get the LAX-HKG-BKK boarding passes at LAX. Upon arrival at LAX, she took the air side secure link from T6 to TBIT but then found there was no transfer desk and no way of getting a boarding pass. She asked at the Qantas lounge, and they have a printer for QF passes only. A TSA agent told her that she should go to the gate 45 minutes before boarding to get her pass. No CX employees nor agents anywhere to be seen.

This all sounded a bit fishy, so she called. I called Alaska, who were unable to help, and Cathay had a long wait time. I was amazed after a LOT of Googling to find only one official page guiding folks through this maze (Air NZ) and that seemed a little out of date (it didn't mention the airside connection to TBIT). To be safe, I checked her into CX using my mobile app and texted her the boarding passes. There was no indication she was checked in, and it seemed very possible that she might have been bumped as a no-show.

My question: what's the official method for domestic to international transfer at LAX if you need any assistance, for example, to collect a boarding pass? I'm really surprised the $150M they spent didn't include a desk to deal with this kind of thing (google pretty much any international airport code plus "international transfer" to see what I mean). Is she really expected to go in and out of security and use the land side check in desks?

We will be doing this trip as a family in the next year, so I really would like to know the official guide to what we're meant to do and if there's anything on the web describing this.

Thanks in advance.