Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026: Day 4 – Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK)

By Nige on January 21, 2026 at 11:00 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: AA | American Airlines | JFK | LAX | Los Angeles | New York

Gate 148 was the best Gate to arrive at, without question. It did take a bit of time for the air bridge to be attached, but I was first off from door 2L and from there, I headed down two escalators and I was in the Border Control hall.

Global Entry was directly opposite the escalator, with minimal queue, no engagement with a Border Control agent and I was just ushered through on to US soil!

Thats the fastest I’ve ever done it. From walking off the aircraft, I was walking out of the terminal in less than a couple of mins.

I walked around World Way from TBIT to T4 and the refurbishment of T4 looked like it was almost complete from the outside. It felt brand new and a plush new Security facility had been installed in a slightly different location.

TSA Pre-Check was quick and I soon got my bearings with the new configuration. Luckily, the AA Flagship Lounge hadn’t moved.

The big news though was that a new Starbucks had been opened directly opposite the AA Flagship Lounge! I couldn’t have wished for anything better! No more hacking over to TBIT or T6 to get my caffeine injection!

Unfortunately, it was way too late for a coffee for me today, but next time I’m coming through…

Other than that, I found T4 gutted of the majority of its gates. There’s just one or two gates left on the old T4 concourse. There are some new T4 gates (46-49) in a new location, co-located with the shuttle bus to the Eagle’s Nest.

The other major change I noticed was the missing walkway between T4 and T5. In fact T5 no longer exists! The walkway has been replaced with shuttle buses that take passengers from T4 to T6.

They are building a new T4/T5 AA hub, nicely named T4.5.

I caught up with Vick who was up earlier than normal. The cats were fed and the Vickster had her coffee, so all was good with the world.

My flight was due to leave from one of the new gates: Gate 48C. I headed down there about an hour before scheduled departure and the gate area was calm.

Boarding commenced exactly 45 mins before we were due to leave and I was in Boarding Group 2.

I was soon on into my preferred seat 06F, where I promptly settled down and closed my eyes. This was only flight number 5 of 34 and I was already knackered.

I was committed to ignoring all offers of food and drink, so that I could try and catch up on some much-needed shut-eye.

The flight passed as a bit of a blur. I’m not sure I really slept per se, but I certainly rested my eyes and my mind.

We arrived into Gate 39 and as with all AA arrivals, the air bridge was connected without delay and we were off.

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Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026