orangetravelcat

Have a 5pm flight LAX to Kona, HI, in the fall. Now have to book my flight to LAX and plan to use Southwest. How much time do I need to get from Southwest to American? I probably will not be checking any luggage with Southwest.

TedTurner

Best case scenario answer: you could do it in 30 minutes if you had to and there were no delays.
Real world answer: there are often delays getting through security and you'll have to re-check with American, which could also mean another line and wait, which could easily add 45 minutes to an hour, more on bad days.
Take home message: you'd in a major bind if you missed your flight to Kona, and many traffic/security factors cannot be predicted in advance. I'd allow a minimum of 2 hours between SWA's arrival and your AA flight.

orangetravelcat

Thanks. I will go by the worst case scenario. Definitely do not want to miss the flight to Kona. Would rather hang out at the airport and read a book to make sure we don't miss our flight.

BeachBoi

You CANNOT check luggage on Southwest to any other carrier.....the true beauty of the law fare carriers....so,no option there.

vivi

I have flown American to Hawaii from LAX about 6 times this year. I breezed right thru the lines the first 5 times, all in under 10 minutes.

HOWEVER!!!!! WARNING! I flew last week (June 17)
on a Tuesday which is usually the lightest travel day of the week and it took me 110 minutes to check luggage, have luggage screened, and go thru security! It was really awful, the security lines went out the door and down the block. (SOuthwest will not transfer your bags.)

American has just consolidated all their operations into Terminal 4 (they used to use Terms 3 AND 4 at LAX) so that may be the problem.

You may breeze thru like I usually do or you may have a major stress headache like I did last week!

Southwest is Terminal 1, American Terminal 4. With a luggage cart it's about a 10 minute walk. Or you can heft everything on and off the shuttle (I prefer to walk.)

RachelG

Since you are travelling on 2 different tickets, if there is any delay in your SW flight, you are in big trouble. Therefore, I would allow at minimum 3 hours between flights. If you were all on one ticket, it wouldn't be such an issue--if you missed your connection, they would put you on the next flight--inconvenient but not terrible. If you miss your AA flight this way, it's probably going to be very expensive to rebook.

TedTurner

...except there probably is no 'next flight' for AA to Kona if orangetravel misses the 5 PM.

MikeT

Why not just fly American to LAX?

orangetravelcat

AA doesn't fly from Phx to Lax. My choices are Southwest, American West (a definite thumbs down), or United. I have some unused Southwest tickets so was planning to use those. I know Southwest doesn't transfer luggage to any other airline. I mentioned I wasn't checking luggage so anyone offering advice would know I didn't have to collect the luggage from Southwest and then transfer it over to AA.

Cali

I would definitely plan on about two hours even without luggage. The Southwest Terminal isn't close to American Airlines and I have had several times at LAx (various Airlines) where it has taken quite some time. I'd never count on 45 minutes.