LAX Terminal Connector in 19 Seconds

On Wednesday, I flew into Terminal 4 at LAX and had to connect to the “TBIT,” otherwise known as the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The TBIT is where most of American’s OneWorld partner carriers depart from, so the ability to walk from a domestic flight that lands at Terminal 4 straight to the TBIT is a huge improvement. It also allows one to explore the shops, lounges, and restaurants in TBIT.

I crossed the connector three times, just because I loved it so much. Here is how quick it is, captured in 19 seconds!

Okay, so it doesn’t really take 19 seconds, but I did time it and my average pace took 4 minutes and 21 seconds. This was also going at a decently brisk pace, but also didn’t include me walking on escalators or using the moving walkways, either.

a large airport terminal with people walking around — You get to see the lines queuing for security at the TBIT. There is also no TSA PreCheck during the late hours at TBIT, so if that is important to you, this could be a way to circumvent it.

a large clock in a large building — You can also check out the gorgeous artwork at the TBIT.

One thing I will say is that I really enjoyed a lot of the American Airlines advertising space. The “battle” for California is going strong among virtually all of the major carriers, except for Hawaiian, JetBlue and the ULCCs: American, Delta, United, Southwest, and Alaska all have a huge presence at LAX airport and advertising real estate can be a really powerful tool to market to the thousands of people passing through each corridor and connector by the hour.

Here are some of the advertisements that I saw:

an escalator with a sign on it — Premium Economy on American’s LAX international long-haul routes will continue to be available to more and more routes, such as London, Auckland, Sao Paulo, Sydney, Honolulu, and Tokyo.

a screens with information on it — Common-use FIS screens display the American-operated flights along with code-share and OneWorld partner flights out of LAX, among others.

a poster on the wall — Tokyo advertisement, although I would say that AA should promote that they operate to both Haneda AND Narita

a poster of a city and a bridge — Sydney, which is a huge part of American’s plan to re-apply for a JV with Qantas. It was also the impetus for starting a nonstop route to Auckland, although that runs seasonally now.

a large poster on a wall — Shanghai, which will soon be joined by Beijing as a list of mainland Chinese cities with connections to LAX on AA. American also flies nonstop to Hong Kong from LAX.

Overall, I’m so thrilled by the connector at LAX. It is a huge part of the modernization project at the airport, and really represents the commitment by LAWA to make the airport a much more transit-friendly place.

Here are some other testimonials on the International Terminal Connector by other prominent bloggers.

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About Rohan Anand