Arriving LAX TBIT, departing Terminal 4 or 5

I have received such good advice before, and I'm hoping for more now. We will be coming in to Tom Bradley International Terminal with Qantas at 6:10 am (hopefully). I want to book a flight home with AA. It will be a separate ticket from the QF flight. Can we use the tunnel from TBIT to Terminal 5? If so, how would I then check in for the AA flight and drop our bags? Or would it just be easier to go outside and re-enter at Terminal 5?

We are flying business, have global entry, TSA Precheck and will be flying home first class. Do you think we could possibly make a 9:36 am flight? The next one isn't until 3:25 pm and I detest hanging around an airport for that many hours if I don't have to.

Thanks in advance.

The tunnel is post security. So to check in bags you would need to walk over to T-4 outside, which is a pretty easy walk. 3-hours should be enough, but on separate tickets I would want more time. AA and QF are partners though so I would look into some possibility of having a re-check after customs and immigration instead of having to check in completely new again.

 

But with separate tickets one delay on the Qantas flight and it will be much harder to make that flight.

AA and QF are partners though so I would look into some possibility of having a re-check after customs and immigration instead of having to check in completely new again.

 

But with separate tickets one delay on the Qantas flight and it will be much harder to make that flight.

AIUI, QF policy is not to through-check bags if the second flight is on a separate ticket. So while you would always have to collect your bags and clear them through customs at LAX anyway, you can't simply drop them on the same through-checked tag. Unless AA has a check-in facility at the bag drop point at TBIT, I would be expecting to have to take the bags to T4 by a landside route and check in again there.

 

As for whether 3:26 is enough time for this on separate tickets, having Global Entry will help enormously with what is usually the biggest variable, which is the time needed to clear immigration. But you still need to ask yourself what are the consequences if the QF flight is one hour late, two hours late, or three hours late. Can you live with those, bearing in mind that as far as AA would be concerned, your journey starts at LAX and you simply failed to show up for your flight?

 

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you have arrived on QF in business class, then there is a possibility that you may be allowed access to a lounge while you wait. On a technical reading of the oneworld rules, the answer should arguably be no (because you are not connecting and your next flight is therefore a "solely domestic flight"), but as you will be holding a boarding pass for an inbound QF flight in business class and an outbound domestic flight on AA, it is possible that they might get you in.