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#935306 by Tonst744
17 May 2017, 22:41
Hi everyone.
In October we are flying LHR to LAX on Virgin Atlantic landing at T2 at 13.20 then transferring to a Delta flight LAX to HNL due to take off at 14.55.
I was worried that this is too tight as I previously assumed that the Delta flight goes from T5 but I have just read that Delta are transferring to T2 effective from today.
I assume that we will still have to clear immigration at LAX and the LAX to HNL will be a domestic flight.
This was booked by Virgin Holidays so I hope they know what they are doing!
Any opinions from people who have done similar, We have queued for over an hour to clear immigration in NYC, Atlanta and MCO. (There is another Delta flight an hour later though).

TIA
Tony
#935308 by tontybear
18 May 2017, 01:17
Yes you will have to clear US immegration and customs at LAX and then drop your bags off before switching terminals and re-clearing security.

Now most US airports have the automatic machines the whole CBP process is a lot quicker than it used to be.

As you are on a single booking you will be protected and rebooked onto the next available flight should you miss the flight to HNL to to immegration delays
#935319 by Smid
18 May 2017, 08:30
Tonst744 wrote:Hi everyone.
In October we are flying LHR to LAX on Virgin Atlantic landing at T2 at 13.20 then transferring to a Delta flight LAX to HNL due to take off at 14.55.
I was worried that this is too tight as I previously assumed that the Delta flight goes from T5 but I have just read that Delta are transferring to T2 effective from today.
I assume that we will still have to clear immigration at LAX and the LAX to HNL will be a domestic flight.
This was booked by Virgin Holidays so I hope they know what they are doing!
Any opinions from people who have done similar, We have queued for over an hour to clear immigration in NYC, Atlanta and MCO. (There is another Delta flight an hour later though).



Maybe someone else can comment on Virgin specifically, we did come into LAX on VS around 5 years ago, and can't remember it being particularly long. That is, however, T2 and doing it once is not representative, because other flights could have been late that day and we did come in on the later flight which I believe is often quieter with less people needing to connect.

Compare that to TBIT LAX, where we arrived last year on BA, and the 2.5 hours wait in immigration. The problem? We arrived around 1pm which is when a lot of other airlines with onward connections arrive. I also got the X on my automated ticket, so there we were with a 3.5 hours connection time to HNL with Air everyothercountryintheworld in the queue. We ended up running for our flight in Terminal 4 next door, we did make it, but it was so close that a decision was made to avoid LAX in the future unless we overnight, but that was mitigated by us getting Global Entry.

If the tickets are on the same PNR, then it should be ok to be booked onto a later one. However, I'd say there's a good chance you'll miss your onwards connection purely because baggage delivery and through the next bit will take at least 30 minutes, and I'd give 30 minutes to get checked in again and through security. And that is without delays.
#935331 by cymba
18 May 2017, 16:14
no guarantee, but, for what its worth, I have transferred twice from the vs flight to delta(including the t2 to t5 walk) with connecting bags and without any problems for a 90 minute transfer time. DL terminal relocation will cut 15-20mins from the time to transfer IMHO.
#935335 by FLYERZ
18 May 2017, 20:26
Admittedly same terminal going from Virgin to Hawaiian, but we also got through back collection and security within 90mins. Same comments as above, DL will be aware of your connection so may be on standby should delays happen on the vs side and would in the case of missing the connection, would sort you out with new flights. Good luck and enjoy Hawaii, definitely one of our favourite holidays. Mahalo
#935337 by Tonst744
19 May 2017, 01:34
Thanks for the replies, very useful. I do presume that we will have to clear immigration at T2 then "re-enter" the terminal to connect as the LAX to HNL Delta flight will then be domestic. At Atlanta it was almost a formality, literally wheeling them through customs after immigration then handing them to porters before boarding the transfer train. (It turned out our worries were needless as when we arrived at the gate for our transfer to Toronto, the pilot was on his mobile complaining teat he didn't actually have an aircraft to fly! even then it was overbooked and they needed three pax to take the offload)
90 mins does seem little too tight though, but don't want to rebook for the later flight as it all make work out and Virgin have booked it originally
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