Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky & Team,

I’m flying Austrian on an award ticket from VIE to LAX later this summer (after the LAX Terminal changes in May) with my wife and 3 yr old. I need buy a paid ticket to connect from LAX onward to SFO, which is our final destination. I know that we need to clear customs and immigration, collect our bags and then head to the baggage re-check counter. I’m assuming we will with therefore be curbside, and can’t take advantage of the new TBIT-T4 connector? So, is there a recommended airline to SFO that offers the smoothest connection from TBIT? With Delta re-locating to T3, would they be equal in terms of ease of access as American? Assume I have no status on either. Lastly, how long should I safely give myself between connections at 2pm on a Friday? Would love to hear your thougths. Thanks again!

I think the airside connectors are more useful if you’re connecting to an international flight at LAX so it wont really matter who who fly domestically, so AA and DL are both good choices.

I’d probably plan on a 3 hour connection. It really depends on what the immigration lines and bags are like, time-wise.

Agreed, T4 and T3 are both super close, so I wouldn’t give much preference to one airline or the other based on that. The only one that is actually [I]far[/I] from TBIT are the United Express gates — everything else is decently convenient.

[QUOTE=”rbafrench, post: 30415, member: 361″]Hi Lucky & Team,

I’m flying Austrian on an award ticket from VIE to LAX later this summer (after the LAX Terminal changes in May) with my wife and 3 yr old. I need buy a paid ticket to connect from LAX onward to SFO, which is our final destination. I know that we need to clear customs and immigration, collect our bags and then head to the baggage re-check counter. I’m assuming we will with therefore be curbside, and can’t take advantage of the new TBIT-T4 connector? So, is there a recommended airline to SFO that offers the smoothest connection from TBIT? With Delta re-locating to T3, would they be equal in terms of ease of access as American? Assume I have no status on either. Lastly, how long should I safely give myself between connections at 2pm on a Friday? Would love to hear your thougths. Thanks again![/QUOTE]
I agree with David. I fly to and from LAX frequently as that’s my home airport and I can tell you there is one thing you need to watch out for. Austrian is scheduled to arrive at a time when ALL of the European A380s and the ME airlines arrive too. So immigration will be VERY crowded. You are looking at an immigration line that consists of passengers from 4 A380s, and a few other heavies. I’d definitely leave a couple of hours to get through the whole process. Despite LAX having a good number of lines, that’s still a lot of passengers. With the terminal changes, Delta and American would be ideal choices.

Actually, I think AA also has a small satellite terminal for American Eagle flights. You have to take an airside shuttle from T4, if that’s where you’re departing from. That might be annoying with a 3 year old and carryons.