Hey there,

I am soon flying to Chicago but making a 1 day stopover in LAX.
Can I check some of my luggage already through to ORD? And if yes, anyone has experience that the Airport/CX/AA is able to handle this without my luggage being lost, i.e. my through checked luggage being forgotten/lost @ LAX?

Thanks for the advise :-)

No, you must pick up your luggage for customs before dropping off to AA.

As cxfan1960 says, you can never through check luggage from an inbound international flight to the US - you must always collect your bags and take them through customs at the point of entry.

sorry I wasn't clear enough, I know that I need to pick up my luggage @ LAX and bring it over to the AA counter but can I do it on the same day? It's just that I don't want to carry all my luggage to the hotel in LAX when I am leaving on the next day anyway......

To answer the OP question (I think the previous replies may be a little confusing), the answer is YES, you can check your bags through to ORD.

The small caveat is that when you arrive at LAX you need to collect your bags after immigration, clear customs, and then drop them off on another belt before leaving the terminal so that they get put onto your next flight.

So the bags are checked all the way through, but you clear customs at LAX and have to deal with the bags shortly there.

Another question I think you are asking is if some bags can be tagged to LAX and others to ORD. On that point I don't have a definitive answer but I suspect that the answer is no.

EDIT: I hit submit after the OP clarified his question, but leaving the post here anyway.

To answer the next part of the question, as long as the bags are tagged all the way through to ORD, and the connection is less than 24 hours, I think you should be able to drop your bags off on the connecting belt for a next day connection.

You can tag them all to ORD (technically if the layover in LAX is <24 hours, but in fact it would be better if it is <12 hours, per oneworld's website http://www.oneworld.com/ow/airports-...for-travellers). When you arrive in LAX, take the one(s) that you need to the hotel, and drop the other one(s) to the belt right after clearing customs in TBIT. If CX were able to issue you the boarding pass for the AA segment, all you need to do is to drop the one(s) you take to the hotel in T4 when you take your AA flight. If CX weren't able to issue you the boarding pass for the AA segment, remember to show all the baggage identification tag (including the one(s) you drop in TBIT) to the AAgent to ensure that they have the information in their system.

On another note, bags do get lost! This risk always exists. However, if the bag is tagged to ORD, and you've taken them in TBIT and either dropped them in TBIT after customs or in T4, then AA (the final segment's operator) would take all the responsibilities per IATA rules. Of course, if any of your bags didn't appear when you were in LAX, let a CX representative know.

A related question. What happens if you have luggage checked for HKG-LAX-ORD. You arrive in LAX and your luggage does not show up on the belt there.
Would it be delivered to your destination? How do you clear customs? Do you need to fill out a form? Do you have to go to a customs facility to pick it up? How does this work?

I see how people get prepared for the worst. In most countries, the luggage will clear customs in your absence and be delivered straight to your destination. It happened to my friend on a KA flight to PVG. The luggage arrived later and was delivered to his hotel in Suzhou that night.

It used to be like this in the US too, but the last time I lost my luggage was more than 30 years ago. It was lost on an international flight and was delivered to my US home. There was no Homeland Security Department. Things may have changed. The rules in US are always kind of unique.

so @ HKG one of my bags was checked (tagged) through to my final destination, I even got the boarding pass already for the AA flight, however, when I arrived @ LAX and after clearing my luggage the guys @ AA did not accept my bag because the layover was > 12 hours :-(((

It's LAX. You don't want to leave your bags there, inside, for an extended period of time. People in schemes had been arrested in the past. Trust me.