The US is fun and cheap at the moment with the favorable exchange rate.
Qantas should issue you boarding passes for your flight to LAX and the AA flight to Chicago if connecting straight through. Your bag will be tagged all the way to ORD(Chicago) but you will need to collect it in LAX. (there are no exceptions)
You have a 13 hour flight where you will get a meal about 1 hour after departure; then after that is done you will be handed a snack pack with chips/biscuits and a bottle of water. 2 hours before landing into LAX you will be served breakfast. They should have menus distributed before the lunch is served which will tell you what is available and what drinks are available. It will look like
this.
Always worth while to read the movie guide before you flight, I hope you haven't been to the movies in a few months.
Fly - Onboard - Entertainment - International
Your flight QF107 will arrive into TBIT where you will clear passport control and collect your bags.
Passport control will take anywhere from 1hr to 2 hours, as you are arriving on an early flight you may get lucky and it might take less than an hour but be aware it can take ages.
Once you have gone to landside there are belts to drop your bag for your connecting flight. You then head outside and head right to American Airlines T4, its the big building on the right. You go up the escalator to arrivals once inside the departure area you then go up another set of escalators and then head around to the right to go through security.
Security liquids out, laptops out, shoes off, belt off, jacket off, phone, and keys out of your pockets and anything else that will set off the alarm. The TSA will announce this a few times as well in case you forget.
The departure boards on the right just after security show the gate info; the information is in city order, and there are a lot of cities listed on the board. If you have more than an hour then you could go to the AA lounge in T4. If you do go in then you will notice how good QF lounges are.
The lounge is near gate 40/41; its on the right you then go up a set of stairs or a lift to the lounge level. The AA agents will give you 2 drink chits, for this early flight then you could use the drink chits to get a bottle of water, as it usually costs $2.00. If your flight shows canceled the agents in the lounge can help you with a new booking, usually the one checking you into the lounge won't be able to find you a new flight but one of the others will be able to do that.
Tea/coffee is free and there is usually some fruit and pretzels, or nuts available. If you are using a drink chit then you are meant to tip the bartender. The chit is paying for your drink not for the service. So always good to have some $1.00 US bills with you. The cheap beer on tap is free and the house wines are free but you are still supposed to tip, well being Australian they won't hate you too much if you forget.
On your flight from LAX to ORD in the AC lounge in LAX you won't get wifi; well you could pay for it, there is a few computers on the right hand side of the bar area, if you want to check your emails, update facebook or read AFF.
You need to go to the gate with 30 minutes to departure, even earlier is ok; the lounge staff won't usually call the flight, they might if it has a QF flight number but not usually. You have to head to the gate 30 minutes before the flight as you don't want to miss overhead bin space. The boarding is done in groups, not sure if the QF boarding numbers will show this so I would try and board once the First class and status passengers board. Boarding goes in groups from 1 to 6 or higher sometimes.
You will be surprised how much baggage people take on board and you will then realise why you need to board so early.
The flight to ORD if a 737/767 will have some Audio sometimes video; you will need your own headset for this. If you have an MD80 schedule its a bus with wings, no IFE. The FAs will provide a drink and a pretzel mix in the main cabin. Food is available for purchase like on Virgin Blue or Jetstar.
On arrival into ORD the FAs will announce the carousel number and connecting flight info.
Delta is similar to AA but without the QF miles. On some fare classes flying Delta you can earn Virgin Blue miles. :idea:
Most of the flights longer than an hour you will receive a drink and a snack mix.
If you are arriving back into LAX on an AA flight then you can use the Admirals Club in T4 before catching the shuttle bus to TBIT, the shuttle bus goes every hour and every half hour between 8:30 and 9:30pm even if they don't announce it. The AC lounge in T4 is ok; but the TBIT lounge is worse. The only redeeming fact of the TBIT you pour your own drinks so you don't have to tip. I don't mind having to tip the bar tender it seems so much better than doing it yourself in TBIT.
At the AC T4 lounge before your flight back to Australia you can also get a wifi pass, well its a card with a long number on it. You will be provided with 2 drink chits, if you need more you can go back and ask for more, or you might find a stack lying around the AC lounge.
The TBIT lounge has free wifi but it wasn't very good last time I was there.
Worth a read my trip report from June 2010.
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....king-a-run-for-platinum-25536.html#post360290
I hope that helps.
, this trip was booked via work. I was hoping to go to New York on a weekend but the trip is booked full.
