Jan 5, 2017, 3:29 pm
Last edit by: chrisl137
2023 - 2024 LAX Connections and Transfers Thread
Connecting passengers who are arriving at LAX on international flights will also find useful information in the following thread:
FAQ:
Does LAX have Automated Passport Control available for tourist visa holders?
Yes.
Does the US have international transfer desks?
No.
How can I obtain a boarding pass at Tom Bradley International Terminal?
- The first way is the most obvious: check in online via your phone.
- The second way is to use the automated kiosk. There are several located airside throughout TBIT and in the T4 - TBIT connector.
- The third way is to show up at the gate or the check-in counters and get a paper boarding pass (this is not suggested for those with time constraints)
Do you have to go through security when going from one terminal to another?
Terminals 4 through 8 and Tom Bradley International Terminal are connected airside. There are Delta Air Lines shuttle buses connecting T2, T3 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal. To go to or from T1, you will need to exit and re-enter security. Please consult this link for more information.
How long will security take at Tom Bradley International Terminal?
Plan on at least 30 minutes.
________________________________________
Resources
Los Angeles International Airport website.
How to enter LAX/Parking Map.
LAX Terminal Maps.
Inter-Terminal Connections.
How Do I Connect from Terminal B through Terminal 8? Follow the Yellow Dots.
All terminals at LAX are connected airside (above ground hallways between terminals 1 and T4, and T6, T7 and T8, and tunnels between terminals 4, 5 and 6). There are occasional airside shuttles elsewhere, but are subject to change (e.g. AA to American Eagle). Airport policy allows you to access any LAX terminal, even if your flight departs from another, with a same day boarding pass for a flight departing from LAX.
LAX also now has an interactive map that will give detailed instructions between any two name-able points in the terminals (e.g. gates, restaurants, lounges, etc): Interactive Map
Tom Bradley International Terminal serves most, but not all, foreign airlines.
In most instances, international arrivals require processing USDHS-CBP (immigration, recovering baggage and processing customs); if you are going on in your travels, there is a baggage recheck counter as you exit customs. This can be fairly rapid if you have Global Entry or are arriving at a slack period, but it can take 60-90 minutes if you are arriving during a busy arrivals period.
After clearing customs and immigration, you must exit to landside and proceed to your next terminal. It is now possible to connect from T1 to T2, T3, TBIT, T4, T5, T6, T7 and T8 through the secured airside area - link to map above - after clearing TSA security on the arrival level of TBIT at the exit from the Federal Inspections Services facility. Alternatively, you may take the free shuttle busses, which only proceed anti / counter clockwise direction (In Order: 1-2-3-TBIT-4-5-6-7-8), or you can walk. At ground level you will be sheltered by the overhead departures-serving roadway, but be exposed to vehicle fumes and cigarette smoke; on the departures level, you will be exposed to the weather. It should take no more than 5 minutes to walk from one adjacent terminal to another, but it can take significantly longer to walk between distant terminals - as long as 15 - 20 minutes.
The prior threads on this topic, 2012 - "Consolidated Questions About Connecting at LAX" thread, 2013 Consolidated LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread, 2014 Consolidated LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread, 2015 Consolidated LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread, 2016 LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread, 2017 LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread and 2018 - 2022 LAX Connecting / Connection / Connections thread contain relevant information, however, to keep them from getting too long they have been archived and the 2022/23 updates are in this thread.
2023 - 2024 LAX Connections and Transfers Thread
Dec 16, 2023, 6:12 pm
#151
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 59
Since no one has shared their experiences, let me share my thoughts.
LAX is my home airport; I have never connected or repositioned here.
This appears to be a trip on separate tickets or PNRs. I assume that for a family trip to Europe, you will be checking bags. Keep in mind that at LAX, it often takes as long as half an hour for checked bags to show up on the luggage carousels.
Once you have your bags, it will take you 5-10 minutes to get from T3 (DL) or 15-20 minutes to get from T1 (WN) to the check-in counters at TBIT. While you did not identify the airline that you are flying to Europe, just about every airline has a 60 minutes cutoff for checking bags for international flights.
You didn't write whether you and your family have TSA PreCheck. Figure on 5-15 to clear security with PreCheck and up to 20-30 minutes without; however, that can be done in the time between checking your bags for the international flight and the start of boarding time, generally 30-40 minutes prior to departure time.
Should your flight depart from the West Gates concourse (200's) add 15-20 minutes to get there. That cuts your self-transfer time to approximately a hour or less. You will have no margin for error in case that your flight from Sacramento is delayed. I would not feel comfortable with only three hours for a self-transfer to an international flight at LAX.
LAX is my home airport; I have never connected or repositioned here.
This appears to be a trip on separate tickets or PNRs. I assume that for a family trip to Europe, you will be checking bags. Keep in mind that at LAX, it often takes as long as half an hour for checked bags to show up on the luggage carousels.
Once you have your bags, it will take you 5-10 minutes to get from T3 (DL) or 15-20 minutes to get from T1 (WN) to the check-in counters at TBIT. While you did not identify the airline that you are flying to Europe, just about every airline has a 60 minutes cutoff for checking bags for international flights.
You didn't write whether you and your family have TSA PreCheck. Figure on 5-15 to clear security with PreCheck and up to 20-30 minutes without; however, that can be done in the time between checking your bags for the international flight and the start of boarding time, generally 30-40 minutes prior to departure time.
Should your flight depart from the West Gates concourse (200's) add 15-20 minutes to get there. That cuts your self-transfer time to approximately a hour or less. You will have no margin for error in case that your flight from Sacramento is delayed. I would not feel comfortable with only three hours for a self-transfer to an international flight at LAX.
Regarding the travel time from T1 or T3, I'm assuming that's the walk outside of the terminals?
Our family does have Precheck so I feel a bit better but even then just to be safe I might end up doing the first flight out of SMF.
Dec 16, 2023, 8:21 pm
#152
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,634
Dec 18, 2023, 7:48 am
#153
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 37
Due to several schedule changes, our transfertime at LAX has become a bit tight.. At the end of January we have a 1hr and 20m layover.
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
Dec 18, 2023, 8:15 am
#154
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,634
Due to several schedule changes, our transfertime at LAX has become a bit tight.. At the end of January we have a 1hr and 20m layover.
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
At the most, T3 is a five minutes walk from TBIT.
With checked bags, it can easily take 30 minutes or even longer for the bags to show up on the luggage carousels. I have no idea how long the wait is to drop off the tagged bags at the recheck counter. Assuming that your inbound is on time, it is still probably doable.
Lastly, the last few days, KLM's flight from AMS has arrived late at LAX. I am not familiar with Delta's policy about protecting passengers who missed their connection due to flight delays. Will they guarantee you a seat on the next flight or just place you on the standby list?
Dec 18, 2023, 8:44 am
#155
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 37
The last few days, Amsterdam Airport had a lot of trouble with the weather. Last week they had fog and wind.
Yesterday, the flight had a delay of almost 3 hours ( I guess a malfunction of the plane or something like that..)
Rechecking my bags have never take me longer than 1 minute and I have been to a lot of airports in the U.S.
Lets hope for the best. I will post my experience here when we are at our destination.
Yesterday, the flight had a delay of almost 3 hours ( I guess a malfunction of the plane or something like that..)
Rechecking my bags have never take me longer than 1 minute and I have been to a lot of airports in the U.S.
Lets hope for the best. I will post my experience here when we are at our destination.
Dec 18, 2023, 9:23 am
#156
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Over the Bay Bridge, CA
Programs: Jumbo mas
Posts: 38,631
With GE and without checked bags it has never taken me more than 15 minutes to get from plane to curb at TBIT and often less than that. That has always been when arriving at a gate on the main concourse (100s gates). I know that Air France now operates from the West Gates concourse (200s gates); I don't know if KLM also moved there. That can add as many as 15 minutes to get to the Federal Inspection Facility and the curb.
At the most, T3 is a five minutes walk from TBIT.
With checked bags, it can easily take 30 minutes or even longer for the bags to show up on the luggage carousels. I have no idea how long the wait is to drop off the tagged bags at the recheck counter. Assuming that your inbound is on time, it is still probably doable.
Lastly, the last few days, KLM's flight from AMS has arrived late at LAX. I am not familiar with Delta's policy about protecting passengers who missed their connection due to flight delays. Will they guarantee you a seat on the next flight or just place you on the standby list?
At the most, T3 is a five minutes walk from TBIT.
With checked bags, it can easily take 30 minutes or even longer for the bags to show up on the luggage carousels. I have no idea how long the wait is to drop off the tagged bags at the recheck counter. Assuming that your inbound is on time, it is still probably doable.
Lastly, the last few days, KLM's flight from AMS has arrived late at LAX. I am not familiar with Delta's policy about protecting passengers who missed their connection due to flight delays. Will they guarantee you a seat on the next flight or just place you on the standby list?
Dec 18, 2023, 9:44 am
#157
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,634
I've got near zero experience with checking bags. Except when going on ski trips, I've been traveling with only carry on bags for over 30 years. The only isolated exceptions have been when being forced to gate check a roll-a-board while flying standby. Fortunately, even in those situations, I have never had to recheck a bag. I haven't arrived at TBIT with checked bags since the mid 80s.
Dec 18, 2023, 3:26 pm
#158
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Over the Bay Bridge, CA
Programs: Jumbo mas
Posts: 38,631
I've got near zero experience with checking bags. Except when going on ski trips, I've been traveling with only carry on bags for over 30 years. The only isolated exceptions have been when being forced to gate check a roll-a-board while flying standby. Fortunately, even in those situations, I have never had to recheck a bag. I haven't arrived at TBIT with checked bags since the mid 80s.
Jan 2, 2024, 5:23 am
#159
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 7
Connection in LAX in less then 03:00 hours?
May I ask the frequent flyers in this group who are familiar with LAX airport for their judgement 
:
We are flying VIE - LHR - LAX - HNL (Vienna – London Heathrow – Los Angeles – Honolulu) on a Saturday in April. So far, the connection time including entry into the US with an ESTA in LAX was about 3:30 hrs. Due to flight schedule changes, the time has been reduced to 02:45 hrs.
Is this realistic? We are flying British Airways Business Class with checked-in luggage all tickets are booked in one PNR. We are Austrian citizens and therefore cannot apply for Global Entry. We are both traveling to the US with a new ESTA. Previous entries were with a different ESTA and with an older passport. Arrival time is around 03:00 p.m. LAX time.
Unfortunately, we cannot simply take an earlier flight but would have to travel to London the night before and plan an overnight stay in an airport hotel.
Thanks a lot for your help !
:We are flying VIE - LHR - LAX - HNL (Vienna – London Heathrow – Los Angeles – Honolulu) on a Saturday in April. So far, the connection time including entry into the US with an ESTA in LAX was about 3:30 hrs. Due to flight schedule changes, the time has been reduced to 02:45 hrs.
Is this realistic? We are flying British Airways Business Class with checked-in luggage all tickets are booked in one PNR. We are Austrian citizens and therefore cannot apply for Global Entry. We are both traveling to the US with a new ESTA. Previous entries were with a different ESTA and with an older passport. Arrival time is around 03:00 p.m. LAX time.
Unfortunately, we cannot simply take an earlier flight but would have to travel to London the night before and plan an overnight stay in an airport hotel.
Thanks a lot for your help !
Jan 2, 2024, 9:25 am
#160
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,634
May I ask the frequent flyers in this group who are familiar with LAX airport for their judgement :
We are flying VIE - LHR - LAX - HNL (Vienna – London Heathrow – Los Angeles – Honolulu) on a Saturday in April. So far, the connection time including entry into the US with an ESTA in LAX was about 3:30 hrs. Due to flight schedule changes, the time has been reduced to 02:45 hrs.
Is this realistic? We are flying British Airways Business Class with checked-in luggage all tickets are booked in one PNR. We are Austrian citizens and therefore cannot apply for Global Entry. We are both traveling to the US with a new ESTA. Previous entries were with a different ESTA and with an older passport. Arrival time is around 03:00 p.m. LAX time.
Unfortunately, we cannot simply take an earlier flight but would have to travel to London the night before and plan an overnight stay in an airport hotel.
Thanks a lot for your help !
:We are flying VIE - LHR - LAX - HNL (Vienna – London Heathrow – Los Angeles – Honolulu) on a Saturday in April. So far, the connection time including entry into the US with an ESTA in LAX was about 3:30 hrs. Due to flight schedule changes, the time has been reduced to 02:45 hrs.
Is this realistic? We are flying British Airways Business Class with checked-in luggage all tickets are booked in one PNR. We are Austrian citizens and therefore cannot apply for Global Entry. We are both traveling to the US with a new ESTA. Previous entries were with a different ESTA and with an older passport. Arrival time is around 03:00 p.m. LAX time.
Unfortunately, we cannot simply take an earlier flight but would have to travel to London the night before and plan an overnight stay in an airport hotel.
Thanks a lot for your help !
Assuming that your flight to HNL is on American and your bags are checked through, you should be fine. Should your flight from LHR arrive late, you will be met at the exit from the plane by an agent who will provide you with a bright orange oneworld "Express Connection" card or ticket jacket. That will give you priority clearing immigration and customs inspections, dropping your bags off at the transfer desks at the exit from the Federal Inspection Services Facility and going through the TSA security checkpoint. AA flights to HNL generally depart from T5, approximately a 6-10 minutes walk from TBIT. Sometimes those depart from T4 (3-5 minutes walk) or TBIT.
Last edited by TWA884; Jan 2, 2024 at 10:18 am
Jan 3, 2024, 2:59 am
#161
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 7
Welcome to FlyerTalk NiHo!
Assuming that your flight to HNL is on American and your bags are checked through, you should be fine. Should your flight from LHR arrive late, you will be met at the exit from the plane by an agent who will provide you with a bright orange oneworld "Express Connection" card or ticket jacket. That will give you priority clearing immigration and customs inspections, dropping your bags off at the transfer desks at the exit from the Federal Inspection Services Facility and going through the TSA security checkpoint. AA flights to HNL generally depart from T5, approximately a 6-10 minutes walk from TBIT. Sometimes those depart from T4 (3-5 minutes walk) or TBIT.
Assuming that your flight to HNL is on American and your bags are checked through, you should be fine. Should your flight from LHR arrive late, you will be met at the exit from the plane by an agent who will provide you with a bright orange oneworld "Express Connection" card or ticket jacket. That will give you priority clearing immigration and customs inspections, dropping your bags off at the transfer desks at the exit from the Federal Inspection Services Facility and going through the TSA security checkpoint. AA flights to HNL generally depart from T5, approximately a 6-10 minutes walk from TBIT. Sometimes those depart from T4 (3-5 minutes walk) or TBIT.
Jan 3, 2024, 12:14 pm
#162
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,141
Thanks!
Last edited by TWA884; Jan 3, 2024 at 12:19 pm Reason: Formatting
Jan 3, 2024, 12:27 pm
#163
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,634
Somewhere on FlyerTalk there are photos showing the path, I'll post a link if and when I find those.
Jan 26, 2024, 11:05 pm
#164
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 37
Due to several schedule changes, our transfertime at LAX has become a bit tight.. At the end of January we have a 1hr and 20m layover.
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
We are arriving in TBIT and departing from T3. We both have GE, Tsa Pre and Sky priority. All on 1 ticket. (KLM/Delta). What do you guys think? There is only1 flight later that day but this one leaves 5 hours later..
Well, we made it.
Our KLM flight had landed 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Global entry took us just 10 seconds. Had to wait 10 minutes for our checked bags. Overal it took us 45 minutes from disembarking to arriving at gate 31 in Terminal 3 for our Delta connecting flight
Feb 7, 2024, 7:26 am
#165
Join Date: Feb 2024
Posts: 4
Hello everyone ! New on this site.
I'll be travelling on APR18th on the following route: AF76: CDG - LAX (Landing at 21h45), with connection on flight DL1897 LAX - GUA (Terminal 3), taking off at 11h59.
Overall I have 2h14min to make the entire transfer process, including luggage. Do you believe is it doable ?
Thnks
I'll be travelling on APR18th on the following route: AF76: CDG - LAX (Landing at 21h45), with connection on flight DL1897 LAX - GUA (Terminal 3), taking off at 11h59.
Overall I have 2h14min to make the entire transfer process, including luggage. Do you believe is it doable ?
I have skypriority, but I'll be travelling in Y
Thnks