LAX Customs Procedures
 

Flying into LAX for 1st time on QF 107 soon and have heard it's an involved process completing procedures..photos, fingerprinting etc.

If I get in on time at 0640 what time can I expect to be walking out of the terminal? (I'm J pax if that help's i.e. fast tracking?)

Thanks for any information here.

CJ

not that much more involved than anywhere else. depends on the queues, more likely will depend on the baggage carousel

It's not as bad as people make it out to be - it takes a fraction longer than everywhere else. Being in J you'll be through customs within about 5-10 minutes and collecting your bags shortly there after - bags are usually of pretty quick for J and F but they have their moments. Usually J and F class passengers are leaving the terminal about the same time I leave (as crew) so providing everything is normal, you could be out within 30 minutes.

See this much earlier post (in fact the whole thread, if you have time to read it).

YMMV: I've been through both TBIT and T4 in less than 5 minutes from arriving at immigration through to kerbside, and on bad days 2 hours...

And if you have an Apec card you can use the crew line, which is at the far left hand side.

Last half a dozen times has been in the 20-30 minute timeframe . Be aware that J and F class baggage comes off a different carousel to the Y tagged passengers.

No Apec card; but I do have a passport full of Saudi and Arabian Gulf country visas! - hope that won't be cause for any delays.

Thanks everyone for the info. Seem's not be too much of a concern at all.

CJ^

When I flew this in June (and just about every time I flew this flight), there were no other flights being processed at Immigration and Customs. Immigration took 5-10 minutes and luggage took about 10-15...

As you're in J, it should save you a lot of queuing time at Immigration...

Just make sure you fill in the Immigration card correctly and completely. I've seen many times that those who failed to fill in the card correctly got sent to the back of the queue, i.e., when the queue got huge when the economy passengers join in...

Last October we hit LAX at TBIT with at least 2 other big flights and took about 40-50 mins to get through. They had people organising the immigration queues and helping people who may have had connecting flights.

The OP is using QF107 so will be use Terminal 4 and not TBIT. At 7am, Terminal 4 immigration is quiet as there are no scheduled AA international arrivals at that time. So little chance of having multiple concurrent arrivals to queue the immigration process.

HA! The benefits of flying into T4

And there are some good reasons to fly out from Terminal 4 as well :cool:.

I wonder if they will continue operating from both terminals after the TBIT lounge is completed? I know QF stumped up a lot of dosh to show AA how to build a reasonable lounge that is T4 but will they simply "move on" to better things?

It wouldn't be unprecedented having seen what happened in SYD to the F lounge changes.

Its not just a lounge issue. Its also one of gate availability at the morning arrivals peak time. But T4 will not be getting A380-capable gates any time soon, so A380 services will be TBIT or remote stands and busses.

NM, you're on thin ice talking about buses :).

Taking your point though, I suppose we can assume there will be no A380 services between SYD and LAX unless QF cut the amount of a/c arriving into LAX to accommodate such. Or, arriving SYD pax will have to do the long march through the tunnel to T4 immigration from TBIT.

Its not just one of available gates at T4, its about A380-capable gates. There are none at T4 and as far as know, there are no plans to convert any T4 gates to A380-capable. The two gates used by 747s are not suitable for A380.

I doubt this will stop QF operating SYD-LAX with the A380. They will just make the necessary terminal changes when they are ready to operate the mission. So there may be a little more confusion regarding arrival and departure terminals when they do operate SYD-LAX with the A380.

They would need a lot of big b*sses if using a remote stand. There are plenty of places that regularly use remote stands for 747 aircraft, including LAX and LHR. So I guess an extra 50 passengers does not make it impossible to use a remote stand. And LAX has some purpose build remote stands with areobridges and long ramps down to the awaiting b*sses, which is better than mobile stairs as used at places like LHR.