stuart1980

Hello everybody! I seem to have booked myself a flight that is causing me some serious anxiety and im looking for some advice on A. if its possible to make this connection and B. any tips during my transition at LAX that might just shave of some time to give me a chance.

Its too late to cancel and change the flight and the company i booked with I think will do nothing if i miss it. So here are the details I am flying in tomorrow :

outbound Oct 10 17:00 3h 3min Puerto Vallarta (PVR)
inbound Oct 10 18:03 Los Angeles (LAX)
Airline: Alaska Airlines

Arriving at terminal 6.


outbound Oct 10 20:30 10h 30min Los Angeles (LAX)
inbound Oct 11 15:00 London (LGW)
Airline: Norwegian

leaving me 2:27 to get through immigration > pick up bags > get to internatinal term and recheck/get through security.

I'm British with an esta. What are my chances? Thank you in advance for any informaiton at all!

WineCountryUA

Welcome to FT!, stuart1980

As the arriving flight is AS, this is probably better placed in the AS forum (and not the UA forum) -- so will move it there where there are other similar threads.

A question that would be helpful to answer your concern, are these separate tickets or were they ticketed together?

Is there a reason you are not checking the bags all the way thru?


WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

stuart1980

Apologies for putting it in the wrong place and thank you for putting it in a helpful area. I am not 100% sure with the ticketing and the booking company have been really poor in assisting with any enquiries. I just worked on the worst case as its a budget ticket and the airlines are notthe same! If i can get the bag ticketed to LGW would there be a spot after i pass through customs in terminal 6 to recheck? That would obviously make me a lot more comfortable time wise.

PV_Premier

chances are not great. if you are able to through check bags that would help, but I don't know if DY and AS have an agreement that would allow this to happen. others here might know.

who did you book your flight through (what company that you say won't help you)? did either flight have a schedule change from what you originally booked?

does anyone here have access on MCT data if it is even published for AS-DY? this might be an illegal connection in which case the company doesn't have a choice but to help you. note this only applies if you booked them on the same ticket, or if the travel agent/company gave you the impression that the "connection" was legal.

as an aside, DY is a low cost carrier and isn't going to offer to do much to help you. there are other flights to London, but they are on carriers w/ which DY has no agreement (eg, BA, AA, etc).

you will have to go from Terminal 6 to the TBIT, clearing US customs at T6 and reclearing TSA security at TBIT. depending on how much baggage you have and how fast you walk with it, it will take min 10 minutes just to walk between the terminals.

stuart1980

Hi! Literally 5 minutes ago i recieved a phone call from the company (kiwi) apologising profusely for the bad information my first contact had given me ( that agent was not even aware travellers needed to go through immigration even with a visa in the US) and making it crystal clear that if i miss the connection due to immigration/not getting to it in time I would be found another ticket to LGW.

I would still like to than you all for the responses, I was def freaking out a little!

Eastbay1K

(1) Do you have this "crystal" clarity in writing? If not, don't expect anything if you miss your LAX connection.

(2) I was near the DY check-in counters @LAX a couple weeks ago. Wow. They have 4 flights leaving all within a couple of hours. The line extended almost to the entry of the terminal, and they had the back portion of a ticket counter bank. I was flying a different airline that was using the middle portion of said ticket counter bank, and to get to it meant cutting through the DY line.

stuart1980

(1) I do not but it is a booking that is single ticket, although my understanding of that could be off. I booked both parts on their site at the same time.

(2) Sounds pretty awful, what time was that?

I'm not really sure there is much more I can do at this point than show up and hustle. I have friends in LA if i have to stay overnight and the same flight the next day if they dont sort me out I can afford/pursue on arrival at home. I understand the reticence to trust a phone agent but my vibe from it was good for whatever that means.

rustykettel

EF says 2:00 MCT for AS-DY international-international. No baggage interline listed between the two.

stuart1980

Apologies i am useless with acronyms but very much appreciate the help. Is that saying that making that transfer 'should' take 2 hours?

rustykettel

Sorry! MCT is the minimum connection time, which is the shortest time allowed when booking a connecting flight for a "legal" connection. Usually you can't book less than that on a single ticket but due to schedule changes, it may sometimes drop below at which point you can have the airline(s) change flights to legal connections.

Another way to look at is it's the shortest time that the airlines think will allow you to make a connection. So 2:20 is an additional twenty minutes which is not a whole lot of time but still slightly over the minimum.

jinglish

And these MCTs are determined based on through ticketing, not flying on separate airlines without even a baggage interlining relationship.

OP, if it's at all possible, fly with only a carry-on. You'll avoid the wait to get the bags off the plane if you get through immigration first, and if you can check in for the DY flight online you'll be able to skip the check-in line as well and just reclear security. In that ideal scenario, you can make your onward flight even with a bit of a delay. Otherwise, things could get hairy--but at least the ticket issuer will protect that connection.

VibeGuy

Over the last 62 flights, it’s only been late 6 times. More importantly, over the last two weeks, it’s been 8 minutes to 40 minutes early. Not a lot of extra margin, but it’s some comfort.

channa

No, it leaves you 1:27. Norwegian checkin closes 1 hour before departure.

Norwegian interlines with only a couple carriers (not AS). So the agency that built this bought you two tickets not connected to each other. When this is all said and done, you need to not use that agency again.

If you can shave any minutes off of this by either 1) not checking a bag; 2) sitting as far to the front as possible on AS; and 3) checking in for Norwegian online (don't think they offer this for non-Europe flights, but they might), it may help you.

Also plan your transfer. If you're able bodied, walking is usually faster than waiting for and taking a bus between terminals. AS will arrive Terminal 6, and Norwegian appears to be out of the Tom Bradley terminal.

Good luck!

jrl767

since you’ll have to clear customs and immigration (and collect any checked bags) at T6, the simplest route is to go back up the escalator to the Departures level at T6 and then walk along the outside sidewalk to TBIT (as noted, ~5-8 min if you’re reasonably able-bodied) ... the lower level tends to be much more chaotic with two lanes of vehicle traffic and the multitude of pickup points for hotel/parking/rental car shuttles

stuart1980

Just wanted to quickly drop in that I amazed how easy this was. I was through immigration within 5 minutes of landing. Had my baggage within 20 and am now sat eating a burger waiting to board.

Also huge kudos to Alaskan, checking In at pv I mentioned my co verbs and they upgraded me to get me closer to the door. Will always look to use them when poss in the future! Thanks to all for the comments