OskiBear

Thanks - I like spotting from Imperial Hill

FlyMusic

I am ending a drive down the coast with 2 nights in the LA area. We will be staying a Friday night near the airport for an early Saturday transcon back to NY. The Westin, Sheraton, Four Points, Hilton and Embassy Suites (both of them) are all priced pretty close to each other for the night we would be there.

I should also have 50 Starwood nights by the time I get to LA which gets me 10 Suite Night Awards but I am not sure if they credit immediately or after the year ends.

Given I have top tier status in both Starwood and HHonors, does one hotel jump out as a better bet than the other both in terms of amenities as well as views of the runways? From reading prior posts, it seems most of these hotels would be ok but I wasnt sure if the status and potential to possibly get a better room changes that equation.

Addition: Probably should also mention that I would also be willing to book suites outright as they seem to be under $300 for some of the properties but would rather save the money if an upgrade is likely.

Thanks!

mr27

Hilton has good views of the runways from higher floors. Their executive lounge can be crowded but offers similar views. I have received a junior suite upgrade as a Diamond but on a slow night. Can't speak for SPG properties but seems like most prefer the Sheraton over Westin. Hope this helps.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Is there an updated schedule, or how can I find this information on the LAWA home page?

amolkold

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/qf11

Replace QF11 with QF93, SQ12, KE17, AF66 ... all flown with A380s (most days)

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Thanks. I ended up going to the LAWA flight schedule and finding incoming flights from certain cities, which I believed to have A380 service. They are basically the ones you've listed.

MonThruThurs

You can add China Southern to the list as well.

25R was closed for repairs on Tues/Weds so I assume all the 380s are now using 24L?

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Yup. CZ arrives around 5pm in the afternoons.

amolkold

Of course, how could I forget? I posted about it in this thread (and am booked on it for later!)

lhrsfo

Every time I've landed at LAX recently it's been on the northerly runways and each time we have taxied past at least one Qantas A380 on our way to a UA gate.

MonThruThurs

If you're there in the morning (say 9:30) and land on the North runaways, KE and QF usually have a 380 on the ground. I think SQ gets in a little later around like 10:30 or so.

I saw QF 11 do a go around about a month ago when we were held on the taxiway by the UA hangars. Pretty cool to see and very unexpected.

milesk

Was on the CZ327/328 A380 in Jan. and we took off and landed on the northern runways. Spent a night at the Sheraton and had a great view of planes landing. Only A380 I saw was from SQ.

Wally Bird

Not to say it doesn't happen, but I've never seen A380s use the S. runways. Might change when the 'new' TBIT is finished.

bzcat

Early on when QF started A380 service, I would say they used north and south for landing about equally. However, since SQ started, I think LAX has standardized the A380 landing using the north runway (24R) as the default and the south runways (25R/L) only as backup. 24R has a shorter taxi to the TBIT A380 gates and it minimizes ground traffic disruptions.

If you look at Airliners.net photos, AF, KE, and CZ A380 have only landed at LAX using 24R. Most of the A380 photos on south runway 25L are takeoff photos. There is only a few hits for QF and SQ landings on 25R/L.

MonThruThurs

From what I've seen this is fairly accurate. On Saturday afternoon, I saw AF land on 24R and then SQ leave on 25L right in front of us.

As an aside, why does the 380 on use the number 2,3 engines for reverse thrusters? Is it because 1,4 would suck up too much FOD?