CX->AA @ LAX
 

Good Morning Folks! Happy Friday!

Myself and fiance are arriving in LAX on CX 882 in J Class with checked bags (although should have priority tags).

What is the minimum time gap we need to keep for an onward AA flight (in Economy, on a separate ticket)? Looking at options before we book.

A quick search on the forum didn't really turn up anything - what is the procedure upon arrival for check-in in to the AA flight? do we have to lug our luggage to T4 from TBIT?

If it helps, I am a CX DM and the fiance is SL. We're not US citizens.

Thanks a bunch!

You will be able to check your bags all the way through to the final destination. After you clear immigration, collect your bags, clear customs, then drop off your bags for the connection. You can do this even if the connection is on another PNR. Just make sure you give both PNRs when you check in.

TBIT is right next door to the AA terminal (T-4). Depending on your arrival time, plan a minimum of 1.5 hours, which is risky. I'd go more like 2.5. If you have to fly AE, add 20 minutes more to get to the satellite terminal.

I'll try to add a little more here, don't do 1.5 hr minimum if your not a US citizen, way too risky.
What is your connection? Some places like SAN or DFW have like hourly flight while others 1x a day like ROW

Plan your connection depending on how many connecting flights are available ex-LAX.
At worst, your sitting in LAX Flagship lounge.

According to AA forum, AA priority check-in moved from being closer to TBIT to closer to T5

You should be able to get both boarding passes in HKG as well. This is unless your name is on some kind of blacklist or something and you're "randomly" selected for special screening. Yes, it's happened to me. Then CX will not be able to issue your onward BP (but will still tag bags thru).

Just remember that you MUST collect your bags in LAX and put clear customs and put them on the transfer belt. This is even if your bags are tagged through.

Thanks for the replies, folks!

Connections - well headed to Hawaii in a month and still planning intend to cover 2 of the islands, so have some flexibility.. I did note that CX882 been getting in early of late.

Looking to connect to AA161 @ 1630 to OGG. Could do AA267 @ 1815 to HNL if the OGG connection is too tight

If you were doing Oahu and Maui and doesn't matter the order, then I would go HNL. But if you have to do Maui first? 1 hr 55 min is a coin-toss, I've had weird experience with US lately, some crossing can be 10 mins while others are 1 hr 30. I've had some long wait this year in ORD and JFK. I'm going to leave that question to someone else since I dont do LAX too often.

Well I`d say the minimum is 1 hour, but I like to leave about 2 hours just in case.

LAX immigration is pretty unpredictable. It is worse in summer than during wintertime. As a non US citizen it usualy takes between 30 and 60 minutes between landing and exiting thru customs, but it has taken me over 90 min a few times.
It all depends of what happens when you miss you next flight. If you are on the last flight of the day on a nonrefundable non changeable seperate ticket i would least 150 min, possibly even more If you are on one ticket or have a flexible tickets and there are later flights you have a good chance to make a 80-90 min connection.

When my wife and came back from TPE in June. the CX flight landed 30 minutes early. I thought I would be able to get through customs early. The punchline is that 3 other 747 came in "early". The US citizen was full of "guest" of the USA. They were getting photoed and finger printed. It was a nightmare. Someone was waving their AA EXP boarding pass and screaming my flight is an hour away.

The TSA pulled him to the front of the line.

Good luck.

Yes, it is very unpredictable. I cannot say if summer is worse. My sister and brother-in-law spent 2.5 hours in immigration alone around Christmas a few years back. It depends on the day and time.

Depending on the day of departure, it may be worthwhile to consider CX884 and spend 2-3 hours in the lounge.

Yes, precisely. This is the beauty of the Tom Bradley Supermax Prison (I'm borrowing someone else's terminology on here from years back, but I think it's fitting). Absolute disaster. And once you breath a sigh of relief that you're actually through immigration, there's the ridiculous snaking customs lines that make their ways around the baggage carousels. Always plan for the worst with that place.

The minimum CX-AA Int'l-Dom connection time at LAX is 120 min., and based on my experience it is sufficient. Since OP is travelling in J and can get off before Y PAX, I would consider 2 hours to be enough.

Minimum Connection Time for all CX connections are posted here:

http://www.cxagentsusa.com/GeneralIn...p?SectionID=13

As noted MCT for LAX INTL-DOM is 120 mins

Perfect example was two days' ago CX882...I was on it, and it was another LAX disaster. 120 minutes would have been very close - there's a legitimate chance you would'ved missed your connection.

We (were) pulled onto the gate, but as the seatbelt sign came off the pilot announced we'd have to wait an additional 10 minutes on board due to "excessive crowding in the immigration facilities". Wonderful. Once we deplaned 10 minutes later, sure enough the immigration facility was PACKED...moreso than I've ever seen. The line for US citizens was stretched to immigration queue #17 or 18, which is at least 75 meters from where US citizens actually go into a more proper line with ropes (usually around #5 or 6). It took me about 45 minutes to clear immigration as a US citizen (I was travelling in F), I pity those who didn't have a US passport or were in Y. Then, after immigration there was the typical wrap-around-the-carousel customs line that added another 10 minutes.

All in, it took me just under 75 minutes from the onboard "immigration facility delay" to when I was clear of customs.

I know some people on here speak of good luck with LAX....but I haven't seen it, arriving many times both this year and in years previous on 880 and 882. If I were connecting in the US I wouldn't risk it with a 120 minute connection or less at LAX. Personally I have a much higher incidence of immigration/customs waits in excess of 30 minutes LAX than with SFO or JFK.

If you are looking to fly from HKG to HNL/Hawaii you should look at the new CX codeshare with JL, routing via Japan. The total journey time is estimated to be around 11h30mins on the way to 16 hours on the way back, so is much faster than HKG-LAX (Stressful connection) then backtracking to Hawaii.

You can fly CX to NGO/NRT/KIX and then connect with JL to Hawaii.