On the only occasion (actually two as it was a return journey) that I set foot in the United States, it was in transit through the airport in Los Angeles, returning from Australia. We had bought tickets from United Airlines as they were much cheaper than other airlines, and we had to change planes half way, in the United States.
We had been warned that it would involve a LONG wait, but how long?.
We landed in Los Angeles before dawn, at about 0430 hrs local time. Our tickets said that the onward flight was at "12AM". I was unable to check what this meant and none of the airport staff outside the controlled area could help me unless I went back through security* and asked at the relevant desk (remember, it was early in the morning, and most airport staff hadn't yet arrived at work): was it 1200 hrs (i.e. at noon on the same day as we arrived), or 2359 hrs (i.e. at midnight of the same day as we arrived).
(It actually turned out to be midnight!)
* At Los Angeles airport there was no "in transit" system as practised in European airports. We had to leave the controlled area of the airport, collect all our baggage and then wait in the public area until it was time to go back into the controlled area to check in for the second part of our journey. Once you are in the controlled area, you can't get back out again with your baggage, and we couldn't check it in until 2 hours before departure. We certainly didn't want to risk spending many, many hours (9 hours? 21 hours?) waiting after security in the airless, artless tedium of the boarding gates.
