Los Angeles Travel Forum

Hi all.
I am flying from LAX on an international flight and need to book a flight from Seattle to connect with it. I depart LA at 10:30pm on NZ. I just can't decide what flight to book! My options are as follows.
AS flight arriving LAX 5:45pm or one arriving at 6:40pm or UA flight arriving LAX at 6:20pm.
It is my understanding that AS will arrive to terminal 3, NZ departs from terminal 2. This looks close and I would be happy to walk, but I will have luggage. Alaska don't seem to have a baggage agreement with NZ.
UA do have a baggage agreement but I'm not sure if I can check my luggage through or not because of international customs. The dissadvantage of UA is it arrives in to Terminal 7 - much further away.
I would appreciate any advice. I realise all of these flights should technically give me enough time but I'm concerned that if there are delays I will forfeit my international flight. I have been through LAX before and found not much to do... so on the other hand I don't want to long sitting around. HELP???

I always opt for the longest layover - especially with all the flight cancellations. If there's a problem you have more of a chance to get another flight - I would definitely take the 5:45 flight.

Are you not able to book the international flight from Seattle, or is this already purchased?

I do not know about customs on departing flights - I just would not feel comfortable trusting my luggage to one of the baggage agreements. There is an inter-terminal shuttle ... or in a desperate situation you could hop into any of the car rental shuttles and ask to get off (I am a Hertz member and did this once).

You probably have this already, but here it is:
http://www.lawa.org/lax/ ... there's a map, and this is where I confirmed the inter-terminal shuttle. I know, it will be trouble to load it in and out - but I'd rather go thru a little trouble, knowing that you personally checked your bags to your international flight.

Most international flights go out of the Bradley Int'l section of LAX. That terminal is actually very nice and you have a bite to eat or shop at the duty free stores. I have to agree with the previous post - right now the airline industry is getting hit hard and these FAA plane inspections are really inconvenient with their cancellations of flights. If you book your flight from Seattle, I would obtain some flight insurance (make sure it covers the miss connection) because that would be ashame to miss your connection flight out.