Flight from lhr to honolulu with long connection in lax

[chelseyleigh]

Hi all!

Quick query,

we are flying to honolulu from London heathrow in October with a long stop over in LAX (and i mean LOOOOONG as in 12 hrs!) This stop over is over night so we were thinking to check into an airport hotel and get some kip! Just wanted to check we would be able to do this, I am a little confused by the indirect flight procedure when its flying into US, I no coming out its a lot more straight forward, the flight is British airways from LHR to LAX and then American Airlines from LAX to Honolulu

We are then flying onto Orlando a week later and have a 3hour 50min connection in LAX so I assume the procedure would be the same for this as above?

Thanks!

[sky13]

Not 100% sure with flights to Hawaii but am guessing it won't be far different from any other USA domestic flight. If so...

You clear immigration and customs upon landing at first port of entry, in your case LAX. The usual next step is to drop off luggage for bag check, then go through TSA screening and board next flight.

However, once you're past customs, you can go anywhere you like before going through TSA screening - they have granted you entry into the USA so you can go out then come back. So should be able to go into the airport hotel if it's outside the transit area, then go through TSA screening when you're ready.

(I flew into the USA last year with a stopover at SF of a few hours, and went out into the city during that time...)

You might want to double check that flights to Hawaii are treated like any other USA domestic flight. I guess you could also check with the airport hotel as they might be familiar with this sort of situation?

[BONZO]

We did a similar trip and wrote up a Trip report a couple of years back with no trouble on BA and American Airlines

Our routing was: -

• London City to Dublin
• Dublin to Heathrow
• Heathrow to New York JFK
• JFK to LA
• Overnight in LA
• LA to Honolulu


Shout if you need any further information.

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by sky13

Not 100% sure with flights to Hawaii but am guessing it won't be far different from any other USA domestic flight. If so...

You clear immigration and customs upon landing at first port of entry, in your case LAX. The usual next step is to drop off luggage for bag check, then go through TSA screening and board next flight.

However, once you're past customs, you can go anywhere you like before going through TSA screening - they have granted you entry into the USA so you can go out then come back. So should be able to go into the airport hotel if it's outside the transit area, then go through TSA screening when you're ready.

(I flew into the USA last year with a stopover at SF of a few hours, and went out into the city during that time...)

You might want to double check that flights to Hawaii are treated like any other USA domestic flight. I guess you could also check with the airport hotel as they might be familiar with this sort of situation?

See more...

Spot on!

[Guest]

We've done this twice at SFO - deplaned in the evening, spent the night at an airport hotel, then back to SFO the next morning for the "connecting" flight. The time change for Hawaii is a BEAST, so it's great to have a few hours sleep in an actual bed - I think it makes it easier to adjust to the new time zone.

[chelseyleigh]

Great! Thanks so much everyone!