It’s a mad rush from my WestJet flight, which arrived 20 minutes early only to wait 40 minutes for a gate, from Terminal 2 to Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport. Its the last flight of the night departing at 11:00pm. I don’t want to get stuck, sure the airline may pay for my accommodation, but the drama involved with getting that and I have already paid for the night in San Fran, so I really don’t want to miss this flight. So it’s a frantic dash between terminals. Read about my WestJet flight from Calgary to Los Angeles here.
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The flights are whats known in the industry as married segments – meaning they are a valid connection. Calgary – Los Angeles – San Francisco with 1hr 30mins in Los Angeles, sure I was going through US Customs and Immigration in Canada, so I thought it would be off one plane and onto another, I didn’t even think to research what gates each ariline arrives and departs from. Strangely though, working in the industry, I would never suggest anyone take a flight via Los Angeles with such a short connection…Urrgghh, what have I done.
It took asking quite a few ground staff where to go and while I was first directed to Terminal 4, I then realised it was not the right AA terminal and was directed to terminal 5. It’s here where I politely ask those ahead of me if I could jump the queue for security, showing them my boarding pass indicating I have 20 minutes till departure. All were very helpful. Never underestimate the power of being polite rather than queue jumping. Of course my aircraft is departing from the most farthest gate in the terminal, so I run. “You’re lucky, I was just closing the gate” Says the gate agent as I gasp my way to the aerobridge. Didn’t you think I’d make the flight? Well derr, I wouldn’t be writing this review…
As its such a rush I don’t catch the registration of the aircraft – and my pictures are a little blurry – but the Embraer E75 feels new although slightly plastic. The seats, in a 2-2 configuration, feel roomy with 18.25″ of width compared to the industry standard of 17″ and the pitch is decent at around 31″.
There is a snack service on board consisting of a choice of soft drink, pretzels and a biscoff. I’m needing the coke after my dash from Terminal 2 and the pretzels are crunchy and tasty. I save the biscoff for later.
There is no entertainment on board this E75 so I flick through the onboard magazine. It’s got a few interesting articles but I put it back in the seat pocket after a few minutes.
We land on time at 12:30am. I head to the baggage carousel and wait and wait till all bags are taken but no sight of mine. While it may seem I have made it here, my bag hasn’t and it’s still in Los Angeles. I report it and head off to my hotel arriving at around 3am where everything is closed and that biscoff and sandwich from WestJet comes in handy. The next afternoon my bag is delivered so all is good and I’m set to explore San Francisco, it’s been 20 years since I’ve been here.
Have you ever been the last to board a flight? Have you had your bags go missing?
FreakyFlier paid for his flights independently.
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Matty Somewhere 
Thank goodness you made it, good to hear your bag arrived next day without further problems.
Oh my! You were so lucky to get there on time. Short connections are no fun at all are they!