Layover Time Enough? Customs Question

Hello!

This December I will be embarking on my first overseas trip. My fiance and I are traveling to Japan to get married, so I'm very excited, but also exacerbated by Delta's constant switching of my flights. It makes me quite nervous.

I'm traveling from Atlanta to Haneda, Japan with a layover in LAX. After having had it switched for the third time, our flight is now scheduled as such:

Atlanta-LAX 1:40-3:42
LAX-HAN 3:34-5:10 -- This gives us a 1 hour 28 min layover.

So... The question is, when exactly do we go through customs/immigration? Because I can handle an hour and a half layover if we just switch planes. But as I have never flown abroad before, I am not sure what will happen when I get to LAX and try to depart for Japan. Do we go through customs and immigration in Japan? Or do we have to run the circuit before we are allowed to go through to Japan. If this is the case, I highly doubt a hour and a half layover will work.

Also, Delta WILL NOT let me change flights. The first time we had an ample 6 hours layover. They changed it to a 3 hour layover, and we were OK with that./ Then they changed it to 2 hours, and said any flight changes within 90 min is not covered by them, and we'd have to pay penalties. Now, It's down to an hour and a half, and there's nothing we can do about it.


Thank you SO much for the information!

You go thru custom when you arrive in Japan, there are no Japanese customs staff at LAX. Your luggage will be booked thru to Japan and will be transfered at LAX, you will not handle it. 1.5 hours is plenty of time, don't worry.

The customs and immigration people in Japan are very nice and polite. Not to many questions will be asked.
The hard part will be in the USA , both going and coming back.

Going will be no problem. There are no immigration or customs checks for outbound passengers leaving the US. Security may be another story, but that depends a lot on which airports you are flying through.

On the Japan side, the lines are generally short and the checks rather superficial. There are immigration checks in both directions but customs checks only when arriving.

You will have to go through immigration and customs when returning to the US though. Although its not that big a deal, those checkpoints will be the longest of the ones you'll encounter on your journey.

Are you getting some kind of special fare through a travel agent?
I've flown to Tokyo from the U.S dozens of times and never have had an airline make changes like that.
Delta has a non-stop flight, DL281, to Narita (Tokyo) leaving Atlanta at 11:15AM, arriving in Tokyo at 3:55PM the next day.

Thanks everyone. This was extremely helpful.

I'm not getting any special rates. Well, kind of. Our ticket cost was almost half what they cost now. I did book the trip over 6 months in advance. The entire route that we originally booked is no longer being used by Delta. So, that was the first change we went through.

Having a 90 minute layover in LAX might be OK. As it was mentioned, there is no customs/immigration at LAX for you and I believe that there will be no additional screening required since you should have already been screened in Atlanta.

However coming back via LAX, you will have to go through customs and immigration and recheck your bags back to Atlanta.

Hope this helps

I've had Delta change schedules on me more times than I can remember. They seem to do it almost every time I fly with them. Sometimes multiple times.

Call me old-fashioned, but when I have a choice, I prefer to have a 2 to 3 hour layover to connect to an international flight, just in case my domestic flight is late arriving at the connecting airport. I just like to have that extra safety margin. However, the 90 minutes in LAX is more than enough time as long as your flight arrives more or less on time from Atlanta. I do recommend that you study the airport map in advance and know what gates you are likely arriving at and departing from. Be prepared in case you have to move quickly.

The problem will be if you get into LAX quite late. Then it could be a real scramble getting to your Haneda flight in time. If you miss it, and the delay was Delta's fault (as opposed to weather), you should be able to get vouchers for a hotel and meals in LA, although that is small consolation for missing a whole day of your trip.

This unfortunately happened to me the last time I flew to Japan, and I was glad that I had the contact information for my first night's hotel in Japan readily available so that I could phone them. Although it was less than a 24-hour cancellation and according to my reservation terms they could have charged me, they were nice about it and did not. But that was only because I called to let them know.