I am flying into LAX on a BA flight (so, into TBIA) and then have a 6 hour stopover before I take an AA commuter flight to San Diego (from Terminal 6). Can I use an AA (or another) lounge - maybe the Admirals lounge at T4? Are you able to access an LAX terminal from which you won't be flying? I am a BA Silver/Sapphire executive club member - so presume that if I can access a lounge I can bring a guest? Thank you in advance for your help!

It's probably too late and I'm sure there are extenuating circumstances, but you're waiting six hours at LAX after a long flight to get somewhere you could drive in two?

You should be able to access the QF Business Lounge in TBIT.

Hi,

There is also an Admirals Club at the Eagle's nest ( where the San diego flights leave from) so you could try all three

There is a TSA check point just after customs and the TBIT, T4 and T6 are all connected airside ( you will need to take a bus to the Eagles nest)

Regards

TBS

If this is your last sequenced flight on your ticket I would skip it and rent a car or arrange otherwise to skip your layover for such a period of time as the travel from Los Angeles to San Diego is so much shorter. If you have baggage you will have to reclaim it at customs anyways but if you have a return ticket do not skip the sequence. Instead take a cab/uber to something and/or in & out burger.

Even if this is not the last segment on your ticket, mini micro-hops (time in the air can be as little as 15 minutes) are ones which almost any AA agent will cancel out for you at LAX and preserve the remainder of your ticket.

If you call and ask, you will get the entire speech about paying the change fee + fare difference, but ask at an AC or counter and almost any agent will do this for you. If you hit the one stickler, ask another. In the end, you are no worse for having tried.

Rent a car, take a bus, taxi, Uber or whatever. It will take you <2 hours and you will be in San Diego 4 hours before your onward flight even departs LAX. As others note, you must claim your luggage at Customs at LAX anyway.

AA cancelled the flight we had originally booked (which was only 2 hour stop) so this is the best option they offered....

Thank you all - so looks like my options are to use alternative means of transport or I can access several lounges after luggage collection/customs/TSA are all done

Welcome to FlyerTalk, TonyShock.

As a OW Sapphire, you're entitled to lounge access any day you're traveling internationally.

The OW lounge (that QF uses, but I don't think belongs to QF) in TBIT is by far the nicest of all of them. And the food is all free there at a nice buffet, while AA has a mix of free food (like soup and snacks) and paid food.


Btw, don't believe the people who tell you that you can drive it in two hours. That's "in the middle of the night" timing. Anywhere close to rush hour and/or shopping time and/or other reasons for people to be up and about, it's all too common for the trip to take 3 or 4 hours by car (sometimes even more). I drive (the first half) of that route every week and it often enough takes me 1.5 hours or more just from the exit for LAX to the exit for SNA in Irvine (which is less than halfway to SAN), depending on what time I leave.

OW Sapphire has lounge access to oneworld lounges when travelling on oneworld marketed and operated flights, whether domestic or international. It is only AAdvantage status passengers that do not have lounge access on domestic US itineraries.

That is an additional fact which you did not include in your OP and which changes the situation.

With the cancellation causing a 4-hour delay, you are entitled to a reroute which would include cancelling the segment without penalty. It won't likely result in a refund of much if anything, but you can't be charged anything.

Neither I nor others here are joking. It is <2 hours drive time to SAN and perhaps less depending on where you are headed (presuming not the airport). Depending on your means and your preferences, use a land transfer and you will be in SAN 2 hours after departing LAX rather than having 4 more hours in a rotten lounge waiting for a rotten micro-haul aircraft to sit on the ground for a 15-20 minute flight.

It is absolutely not true that SAN is < 2 hours drive to LAX no matter what the time of day or day of week or traffic. Yes, in perfect traffic that's how long it takes, but SoCal traffic is so rarely perfect.

The OP has not explained at which hour they're arriving. I can assure you from frequent personal experience that if the OP is arriving early- to mid-afternoon, by the time they would pick up a rental car, the drive will take way way longer than 2 hours, because there are daily long slow backups around the South Bay curve (starting just south of the 105, which is very soon after you leave LAX), usually continuing off and on to one degree or another through Long Beach at least. (Unlike some other cities, "rush hour" is spread over a much longer time in SoCal that you might expect.)

Check a traffic map on www.sigalert.com at various times of day if you don't believe me.

I don't have much experience with traffic south of SNA -- Orange County Airport -- because that's where my typical journey south on the 405 ends -- but the trip from LAX to passing SNA is no more than half of the trip to SAN, and this first part can easily take 1.5+ hours alone at the time of day I just mentioned (as well as many other times of day, including often on weekends too).

South of SNA is usually fine until San Clemente, which ALWAYS has traffic.

Middle of the day or middle of the night- 2 hours no problem. Any other time it's a crap shoot.

I've done SAN-LAX leaving at noon on a Wednesday and arrived at the Hilton LAX under 2 hours.