Air New Zealand Route Map to the Americas

[Oceans&Rivers]

Several people on one of the boards mentioned difficulty getting back to the East Coast via LAX stopovers on New Zealand, so here is a route map that should prove helpful:

 

[6rugrats]

Were they talking about not being able to fly on Air New Zealand itself? Or problems finding codeshare flights?

[FlyerTalker]

The comments, made on the Crystal board, tended to be about the difficulty of the physical connection. I didn't perceive it to be about the lack of domestic interline connections out of LAX.

 

NZ arrives into T2 at LAX. If connecting to their Star partner UA, you'd have to make a landside connect over to T7. I think that is the issue at hand.

[ab0si]

The comments, made on the Crystal board, tended to be about the difficulty of the physical connection. I didn't perceive it to be about the lack of domestic interline connections out of LAX.

 

NZ arrives into T2 at LAX. If connecting to their Star partner UA, you'd have to make a landside connect over to T7. I think that is the issue at hand.

 

for those who have not had the opportunity for personal growth and development an inter-terminal connection at LAX provides, this is a time consuming, less than pleasant experience. The positive is that it does not involve the Bradley terminal (which would be the best terminal in the country if the country were Mali). The downside is everything else.

[Oceans&Rivers]

for those who have not had the opportunity for personal growth and development an inter-terminal connection at LAX provides, this is a time consuming, less than pleasant experience. The positive is that it does not involve the Bradley terminal (which would be the best terminal in the country if the country were Mali). The downside is everything else.

 

LOL. :)

 

The route map shows that there are other gateways, such as San Francisco and Vancouver. One of the posters on the Crystal board is from Baltimore, and the route map shows a connection between New Zealand and San Francisco and between San Francisco and Baltimore, the same as LAX in that Air New Zealand is (if chosen) the carrier to both SFO and LAX and then codeshare partners the rest of the way.

[Globaliser]

Several people on one of the boards mentioned difficulty getting back to the East Coast via LAX stopovers on New Zealand ...

Don't forget that similar arrangements are available if you fly on Qantas, with one important addition: Qantas operates its own flight from Los Angeles to New York, which is probably the best way of flying across the country, in every cabin.

[NHBob]

for those who have not had the opportunity for personal growth and development an inter-terminal connection at LAX provides, this is a time consuming, less than pleasant experience. The positive is that it does not involve the Bradley terminal (which would be the best terminal in the country if the country were Mali). The downside is everything else.

 

Well said!

 

I’m afraid that I’m guilty of precipitating this discussion with my remark on the Crystal Boards about deciding to cancel my booking for the LA-Tahiti-Auckland legs of Crystal’s 2011 World Cruise and book the Cape Town-Dover segment instead. I really didn’t intend to start a discussion of the pros and cons of LAX, alternative routings etc!

 

I was already having second thoughts about LA-Auckland so soon after my December 2010 transatlantic, and my latest frustration with an LAX connection involving a terminal change tipped the scales in favor of the Cape Town-Dover alternative.

 

My family and I have been flying the Pacific fairly regularly for over 35 years now, dating back to the Pan Am days, so I keep pretty much aware of who flies when and where in the region. The map furnished the OP is interesting, but in actual fact, non-stop flights from AKL to the U.S. west coast are few and far between, and the only onward direct connections to Boston are via SFO and LAX. Last time I checked there was one daily AKL-SFO non-stop, a UA/NZ code share operated by ANZ. Los Angeles doesn’t offer much more – an AA/QF code share operated by Qantas and two UA/CO/NZ flights operated by NZ.

 

I was further constrained by my wish to book award travel with either UA or AAdvantage miles. The SFO connection would have been ideal but unfortunately United, unlike American, will only book 1-way award travel on flights operated by UA or United Express, no code shares or Star Alliance partners. So that left me with the AA/QF connection through LAX.

 

I won’t bore readers with a litany of my frustrations of transferring between the Tom Bradley International Terminal and domestic terminals or vice versa, other than to say that my elapsed time from stepping of the QF flight to clearing security at AA was just over three hours!

 

I know that various LAX maps and discussions in this forum a while back indicate that there is an air-side shuttle from TBIT to AA. Try to find it – I’m a fairly savvy traveler, but I couldn’t, and terminal staff insisted on pointing me to the terminal exit outside security. I probably should have pressed the matter further, but didn’t because I had lots of time – little did I know that I would face an almost 2-hour wait at AA security! So here’s a question for LAX frequent international fliers: You arrive at TBIT, clear Immigration and Customs, and re-check your luggage upon leaving Customs. Is it possible to get to the air-side shuttle from that point; does it still exist?

 

In summary, my family and I seem to have experienced an inordinate number of problems at LAX over the years, and therefore avoided LAX when practical. However, I haven’t had significant recent problems with domestic flights or with domestic/international transfers that didn’t involve a change of terminals.

 

Bob

[ab0si]

 

 

 

I know that various LAX maps and discussions in this forum a while back indicate that there is an air-side shuttle from TBIT to AA. Try to find it – I’m a fairly savvy traveler, but I couldn’t, and terminal staff insisted on pointing me to the terminal exit outside security. I probably should have pressed the matter further, but didn’t because I had lots of time – little did I know that I would face an almost 2-hour wait at AA security! So here’s a question for LAX frequent international fliers: You arrive at TBIT, clear Immigration and Customs, and re-check your luggage upon leaving Customs. Is it possible to get to the air-side shuttle from that point; does it still exist?

 

In summary, my family and I seem to have experienced an inordinate number of problems at LAX over the years, and therefore avoided LAX when practical. However, I haven’t had significant recent problems with domestic flights or with domestic/international transfers that didn’t involve a change of terminals.

 

Bob

 

 

No, there is no airside connection. As much as I'd like to, this can not be blamed on LAX. Since you have access to your checked luggage, TSA security regulation require that you be re-screened. You need to be re-screened even if staying within the same terminal. This is true for all U.S. airports.

[NHBob]

No, there is no airside connection. As much as I'd like to, this can not be blamed on LAX. Since you have access to your checked luggage, TSA security regulation require that you be re-screened. You need to be re-screened even if staying within the same terminal. This is true for all U.S. airports.

 

Thanks - this does make sense from the security standpoint.

 

Just checked American's LAX terminal map http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/whereWeFly/terminals/terminal_LAX.jsp more carefully and see that the air-side shuttle shown there only connects Terminals 3, 4 and American Eagle remote terminal - no connection to Tom Bradley. At least I feel a bit less dumb about not being able to find the shuttle in Bradley! Guess I'll continue to try to avoid LAX connections that require a terminal change.

 

Bob

[kenish]

There is an airside shuttle from T4 to TBIT. It leaves T4 around Gate 42 IIRC and only runs in the evening hours. The purpose is to transfer passengers from AA to QF, and also allow F and J passengers to access lounges in either terminal (One World or Admiral's Club). As explained it doesn't work out for arriving passengers.

 

NZ has a rather unique and odd (for the US) "transit" lounge for passengers continuing from LAX onward to LHR. They cordon off an area where passengers are cleared by US authorities and then wait to board the LHR leg of the flight. I hear it's pretty bad, not much in the way of food or amenities in the waiting area.

 

Several recent travel articles- CO will be the first US airline to fly the 787 Dreamliner. The inaugural route in Nov. 2011 will be IAH-AKL. The reason there aren't a lot of flights already is the difficulty in filling aircraft that have the range. The 787 will take care of the problem- a smaller plane with long range. The other article commented that LAX would be the nation's best airport....if it were in Mali ! :)

[FlyerTalker]

The other article commented that LAX would be the nation's best airport....if it were in Mali ! :)

Either ab0si is a travel writer or the author reads CC (note post #4 in this thread).

[ab0si]

Either ab0si is a travel writer or the author reads CC (note post #4 in this thread).

 

Well, if a magazine/newspaper travel writer is cribbing from here rather than the usual PR releases, it would be an improvement. <grin>