AA book baggage through SYD/LAX/NY

[nightfill]

Hi all. My first post. My daughter flies to New York next month on American with connection through LAX from Sydney. After posing the question of booking her luggage to end destination her TA is unsure if its possible or not. LAX not a stopover just connecting to next flight to NY. All in one itinerary, no separate tickets. Anybody out there have an answer or experience of this ? Also will there be change of terminals for the transfer ?
Thanks

 

[TomVexille]

Hi nightfill,

Is your daughter on AA 72? Assuming so, AA will check her bags through to her final destination. However she is required to collect her bags at her point of entry to the USA (in this case LAX), and clear immigration and customs. There is a bag drop immediately after customs to re-deposit her bags. Also assuming that AA72 arrives at TBIT, she will likely have to transfer to T4, which is a short walk away either outside on the curb or airside via the connector.

Hope that helps.

 

[Snoopydoo]

I've asked the same question and was told that she will need to clear customs in LAX which means bags must be picked up and rechecked in.

 

[Quickstatus]

Bags don't have to be rechecked. Just dropped off at bag drop just after customs so long as bag tags say final destination NYC/JFK/LGA

So:
Checkin SYD
Say to checkin agent "final destination NYC"
Bag tags will be printed with 2 sectors LAX and NYC as final destination
Get boarding pass to LAX and NYC
Fly to LAX. Land at LAX
Clear immigration passport control
Pick up bags from luggage carousel - yes pick up bags even if final destination is somewhere else other than LAX. All bags irrespective of where it's tagged to will appear here. No exceptions. If you don't pick up bags here it will not travel to its next sector.
Go through customs with bags
Come to bag drop area
Attendants will check bag tags
They accept bags
Proceed to Terminal 4
Go through security to your gate.

If the SYD-LAX sector is delayed and you miss the LAX-NYC sector, the bag drop attendants will not accept the bags. So Then proceed to T4 with bags and let the airline retag bags for another flight

 

[Snoopydoo]

Thanks for the clarification Quickstatus. Sorry to go OT, is there anyway to save your post so I can look at it again closer to my own travel dates?

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks for the clarification Quickstatus. Sorry to go OT, is there anyway to save your post so I can look at it again closer to my own travel dates?

Just copy it and paste into email and email to yourself

on a Mac right click, drag the cursor so the box covers the txt to be copied then "control" right click to copy the selection

or do a screen shot:
command shift 4 (press buttons together) then move crosshairs to one corner of txt to be copied the press touchpad while dragging crosshairs to opposite corner then release to take screenshot. The file will be wherever you save your stuff - desktop or downloads or documents

 

[Quickstatus]

Now the return is different: e.g. NYC(or any where else)-LAX-OZ
All sectors on one ticket

Checkin at original destination
Tell agent final destination Sydney Australia, melbourne Australia etc

(A bit of trivia - there is a Sydney airport in Nova scotia Canada and there is a Melbourne airport in Florida, so always add in the Australia bit so there is no confusion)

They will tag the bags with LAX sector then Australian final destination
Get 2 boarding passes - to LAX and then to OZ

Get on the plane to LAX
You do not have to pick up bags in LAX if leaving the US.
There is no passport control in LAX if leaving the US
just go to gate or lounge.

The story is same really for Australia as well. Pick up bags at 1st port of entry. Don't have to pick up bags at last port of departure.

 

[g-lock]

As regards the return trip, here's a trap for young players: despite the fact that the first leg of your return trip is NYC-LAX, it is not a domestic flight for baggage purposes. This means your bags must be dropped no later than 2 hours before departure from NYC, as opposed to 30 minutes on a domestic NYC-LAX flight.

(I might have found this out the hard way in Chicago last year...)