International itinerary followed by a separate domestic itinerary at LAX, do I need to go through security again?
I fly out of Beijing and land at LAX in one itinerary on Air China. I had to book a separate domestic itinerary From LAX to go to DFW on American Airline. Once I clear the custom and immigration at LAX,
- I believe I have to pick up checked bags at the baggage claim in Terminal B, is this correct?
- Do I need to carry all my bags to check in at a domestic terminal (likely T4 or T5) and check the bags? Do they have shuttle or train? Or can I use the overground tunnel?
- Do I have to go through security line again for the domestic itinerary?
- How much time I should reserve for this connection from landing in LAX to the LAX-DFW departure? I have to go through the non-citizen line at the Custom and Immigration.
Thank you.
Best Answer
As these are flights booked separately (a “self-connection”), you will:
- Go through immigration (passport control)
- Wait for your bags
- Go through customs
- Arrive in the public area (“landside”)
- Need to go to the departures area of your departure terminal
- Check-in your bags before the check-in deadline (45 minutes before departure)
- Go through security
- Go to your gate
TBIT to Terminal 4 is about 150 meters (one tenth of a mile), terminal 5 a little bit further. You’ll need to get from arrivals (lower level) to departures (top), exit the terminal, and follow the pavement.
You can’t use the TBIT to Terminal 4 connector as you need to check-in first.
Since AA has flights departing from TBIT (including flights to DFW, but those depart probably way to early for you to be able to use them), it may be possible to check-in there, though I doubt it (and AA check-in in TBIT is actually closed at this time).
Since you are self-connecting, if for any reason you miss the check-in deadline for your LAX-DFW, you’ll be considered a no-show, and your ticket will most likely be cancelled. You’ll have to book and pay for a new flight, at last-minute prices, which can be very expensive.
That’s why you should have quite a lot of buffer between the flights. 4 hours is the rule of thumb here (with the second flight being a domestic flight, quite frequent, and with hopefully reasonable prices), but the longer the better.
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