Flying QF JFK-LAX - How avoid customs??
 

Not sure if this is the right board, but I am planning a AA/QF business award trip and have the option of flying AA nonstop from BDL to LAX on a737-800 or AA to JFK and pickup a nice QF 747-400 to LAX. Either option, I want to overnight at LAX and fly to AKL the next day.

If we fly QF from JFK to LAX, I assume the a/c will arrive at the International Terminal, so for pax leaving at LAX, how is the whole mess of getting our bags and avoiding customs/immigration avoided? A few years ago I flew QF from HNL where I originated (overnighted from SYD) to SFO and had to go thru customs, even though I was a "domestic pax"!

How is this avoided at LAX? I would rather not fly the BDL-LAX nonstop (I have done it before), if I can fly upper deck of the 744.

Thanks

Qantas Flight 108 which leaves JFK at 19:00 only allows for international online connections and stopover traffic at LAX. I would take this to mean when arriving in LA, you will be in a sterile environment.

While this could be a minor irritant it is offset but what should be great service cross country in business class. I'd venture a guess it will blow away AA's domestic business service,


[This message has been edited by Craig6z (edited 10-23-2000).]

Are you allowed to fly QF within the U.S.? I thought that would the cabotage/"8th Freedom" which isn't permitted in the U.S..

You can fly QF between JFK and LAX as a separate flight. However you MUST be ticketed from JFK through to Australia. Online stopover traffic means that you can stopover as long as you continue internationally on the same airline.

If you choose to use QF to LAX you will probbaly have to clear customs as I dont think the Bradley terminal has a baggage claim outside of customs??

I don't know how this flight is treated. But I know Bradley does have baggage claims outside of customs -- I used it back in 1993 flying Canadian from YVR (before they moved terminals). (In YVR, you clear US customs/immigration.) Basically, we were discharged to the departure gate (rather than the arrivals hall) and led to a baggage claim.

Also, when Tower Air was flying, they used the Bradley terminal for LAX-JFK flights.

So I would guess that you would not need to clear customs.

Thanks for the info. If I go with the QF flight, yes, it would be part of an international ticket to AKL or SYD, so I would be able to take it and get off and continue the next day.

Phone calls to QF seem to be shaky on the subject. I have to weigh the benefit of a cramped BDL-LAX nonstop (even if F), or risk a connection at JFK on an unreliable Eagle fight (2 hour layover) and fly the QF 744 with the possibility of a customs clearance. I forgot that Tower used the Bradley terminal, so it looks as if QF would use the separate baggage claim for "local" pax.

Thanks!

Mike

what's the issue with the customs clearance anyway? what EXACTLY are you planning to do down under, hmm? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Ionman,

Customs is bad enough as it is when you are coming off a long international flight, especially my recent experience at ORD with the "inspector in training" taking 10 mins. a person! Being forced to go through customs after a domestic flight is not needed obviously, and wastes time getting out of the airport.

Besides, the quicker I can get to my friends in WeHo the better!

When Qantas used to (have to, before the 743's could go nonstop LAX-SYD) fly LAX-HNL-SYD, you could do Stopovers in HNL. I always used to do a 3-4 day stopover in HNL coming SYD-HNL-LAX with my parents. This was years ago (early/mid 80's). This was fine as long as it was ticketed international end-to-end.

I believe in some of the original QF promo material about the SYD-LAX-JFK run, they did say that part of the deal was you could do stopovers in LA. If my memory serves me right, back in those days we had some kind of sticker/card that ID'ed you as a domestic passenger, bypassing customs/immigration in LAX since we already cleared in HNL. You might want to try to get a hold of someone in LAX with QF.

And yes, if you could do a domestic LAX-JFK run on QF, the domestic's would probably see a large drop in their premimum traffic! 744 coast to coast, true international service, flat sleeper beds in F. Brings tears to my eyes!

[This message has been edited by SNA_Flyer (edited 10-24-2000).]