Transferring terminals in LAX
 

Hi I will be arriving in LAX rom Narita at 9:10am with northwest and will continue to Vancouver at 1:10pm with Alaska airlines. I know Alaska airlines is in terminal 3 but would anyone know which terminal will NWA be arriving? and if it is just in terminal 2 or 4 could I just would to through the terminals with their free trolleys since i hav a couple of luggages with me? Thanks!

Northwest currently is still in Terminal 2. You will go through immigration and customs, and then you need to go over to Terminal 3 by yourself. The two terminals are adjacent, on the same side of the airport, so the best way is to just walk over. There is no electric trolley to take you over. The other option is to take the shuttle bus, but for just one terminal, it's not worth the wait and getting on/off the bus.

This is a simple trick that works most of the time.

Go to NWA's web site and look for their gate and times. Put in, your choice, tomorrow's date for arrival of the flight you plan to take.

It tells you what gate / terminal that the plane is probably going to land in. From there, you can get an idea where it might land on your flight. Try it a couple of times to validate what you find.

The only time you will see a major change is if you're flying into that airline's major hub.

I fly AA a lot, and ORD and DFW can, and will, land you all over the place.

LAX isn't a major hub for NWA so you're only going to be up / down a few gates, but in the same terminal.

It doesn't matter which gate the NW flight uses. The OP will come out through US immigration and customs at T2 anyways. But if the OP absolutely needs to know, NW2 basically always uses Gate 28, one of those at the end of the terminal because it's a 747 and won't come into the gates on the side.

I don't know if the luggage trolleys from the T2 customs area can be taken to T2, but if so, it's a short walk.

However if you're on a NW codeshare on AS (and there are many) you might be able to re-check your luggage right in T2, with no need to schlep it to Alaska's (horrible) T3 terminal.

Oops - no edit/preview function :( - don't know if the T2 trolleys can be taken to <b>T3.</b>

Thanks guys! better to walk and exercise those legs after along flight. but i'm just worried bout the luggages, I just hope they have a cart to put all those 3 big bags. i even called NWA to help me in bringing the bags or recheck it in T2 since im flying business and have elite status but to no avail... oh well..

Are those free trolleys actually free?

I don't think there is anything/anyone to stop you from rolling one down to another terminal.

I'll try to remember to look into this on Friday.

Wow that sounds great mrwunrfl! thanks so much!

IIRC (based on AA international arrivals, not NW) the trolleys in the customs areas are free and can be taken out into the world and left at other terminals, even though they're "Smart Cart" trolleys that you pay for everywhere else - must be an exception for international arrivals pax. What I don't know is if they're also free from the NW international arrivals terminal. I'd expect they are, though.