Justcol

I missed a lufthansa connection in frankfurt a couple of years ago due to being held up at the baggage scan from one flight
I was just put straight on to the next flight, no hassle. cant say that will happen for you the yanks are dicks, but good luck.
Check with your insurance and also contact the airline you connecting to to see what they say

Somersettochristchurch

I've just come back from a trip to the UK (flew out 17th July) on the same flights. Firstly make sure you fill out the passenger arrival card (write "in transit" for stay duration) Cabin crew told me I didn't need to do this but believe me you do -I found out when I went to border control and was told off very rudely, they take your fingerprints and a photo, next you collect your checked baggage (you can actually see the carousel from the border control) then you queue up and show your passenger arrival card (again) then drop off your baggage at the drop point (all this is within a couple mins walk) hardest part for me was trying to find where the hell to catch the next flight! Take the lift to level 3 (If I remember correctly) this is for all departures, you will show your passport another million times and go through security, after this check your flight on the boards for the gate number. As I was travelling on my own (1st time and also 1st time in LA) I was pretty anxious but in hindsight it actually wasn't that difficult -just worrying not knowing how big the terminal was or where to go and staff were not particularly helpful or friendly!! It's actually quite a small terminal (feels quite grubby as there is building work going on) and in theory the whole process is straightforward and should be swift it just depends how many border staff they have to process passengers arriving on the day. You'll be fine, if I can do it so can you :-)

Pollyana

Good description

Anyone who is transitting the USA needs to be aware that they need to be eligible to transit the US. So, if you are holders of British passports, for example, you need to eligible to use the visa waiver programme. For anyone with convictions ( for instance) things could be more complicated as you are effectively briefly entering the US. The US forum can provide more details and info.

kitti

We flew from Leeds to London Heathrow then LHR to Auckland. We had to collect our luggage in London and check it in again due to a mistake. We had 2.5 hours and two children in tow. I have never run so fast in my life. Possible, but hard and risky.

janeyk

Yes you do have to do what air NZ says we booked this way when we came so we did not have to be licked in the room however our flight was delayed they let nz5 go and we had to collect our luggage re check in to get back on nx1 never again as it wad quite a stroll we were given 1 hour from memory

physeptone

Collecting your bags is standard when flying into the US.

Flying from UK to Evansville IN, we always had to collect luggage in Chicago before the internal flight.

This is the same flying UK to NZ via the US.

However is is painless as you just put them back into the system at the nearest rechecking point. Easy at both O'Hare and SFO.

Collecting luggage is nothing compared to the standard ball ache that is US Homeland security check queues............. they are the bitch

sparky66789

We had the exact same thing with our luggage, but they never told us to collect it.

This was Uk to Wellington via Bangkok and bags ended up staying in Bangkok as we never knew, bags were safely returned the next day though which was pretty damn fast.

all you got to do is check you baggage tag for destinations.

Persephone

That's normal when transiting through the USA. I've had to do it a couple of times when going onto other countries. The times I did it [LAX, Miami] the bag drop was just on the other side of customs. It's a pain but not too difficult.


The only times I haven't picked up my bags is when transiting on NZ1/2 going all the way through. You get back on the same plane though, still go through immigration and get fingerprinted etc but are then placed into a room that you cannot leave except to get back on the plane. You don't see your bags until Auckland or Heathrow depending on the direction.


The main issue could be how long it takes to go through immigration-having once had a 4 hour gap between flights and only just making it, I am very wary now of how long it could take.

JPA

Air NZ have special arrangements with LAX for NZ1 / NZ2 only whereby you don't have to collect your bags as described. More recently you are now allowed out of the gate holding area into the terminal and are free to roam. The inconvenience of the nz1/2 to nz5/6 transfer is the transit process in LA not a fault of air new Zealand.