AFTER BEING CLRED FOR ONE APCH WITH FMS PROGRAMMED; APCH CTLR CLRED FLC TO THE IAF FOR ANOTHER RWY APCH; BUT DIDN'T PROVIDE ANY VECTOR FOR THE FIX. THE FLC HAD TO GET OUT THE NEW APCH PLATE AND ENTER THE FIX INTO THE FMS BEFORE THEY COULD GET A HDG TO IT. BECAUSE CAPT; PF; WAS UNSURE OF HIS POS RELATIVE TO THE IAF; THE FLC WAS VERY BUSY TRYING TO GET SET UP FOR THE APCH.

Narrative

OPERATING NONSTOP JFK-LAX; MAY/XX/96. WE HAD ALREADY CAPTURED LOC FOR RWY 25L AND WERE PERFORMING THE CIVET ARR. APCH HAD CLRED US TO MAKE THE RWY 25L ILS AT ARNES. WITH NO PRIOR WARNING APCH DIRECTED US TO FLY DIRECT TO DENAY AND HE CLRED US TO MAKE THE RWY 24R ILS AND TO CROSS DENAY AT 8000 FT OR ABOVE. HE ISSUED NO VECTORS TOWARD DENAY OR TO THE RWY 25R LOC. DENAY IS NOT DEPICTED ON ANY STANDARD ARR RTE. IT IS SHOWN ONLY ON THE ILS RWY 25R APCH PLATE. BY THE TIME WE REPROGRAMMED THE FMS AND RETUNED THE LOC; WE HAD ALREADY PASSED DENAY. I HAD STOPPED THE DSCNT AT 8000 FT BECAUSE I WAS UNSURE OF MY POS RELATIVE TO DENAY (WE HAD ALREADY CAPTURED LOC FOR RWY 24R). WITH EXTRA EFFORT AND EARLY USE OF LNDG GEAR FOR ADDITIONAL DRAG; WE DID CAPTURE GS FOR ILS RWY 24R PRIOR TO OM. FOR ABOUT 30-40 SECONDS WE WERE ON NO CERTAIN HDG OR ALT. NO CONFLICTS WERE APPARENT TO US. NO UNUSUAL EVENTS WERE APPARENT; TFC WAS ONLY MODERATE AND WX WAS NOT A FACTOR (EXCEPT IT WAS HAZY). I THINK LAX APCH OFTEN TRIES TO INCREASE ARPT ACCEPTANCE RATE AT THE COST OF SAFE ORDERLY OPS. P.S. EVEN IF WE HAD REPROGRAMMED FMS FOR RWY 24R ILS; DENAY WOULD STILL NEED TO BE PROGRAMMED SEPARATELY. IT IS A PART OF THE PUBLISHED ILS APCH BUT BECAUSE IT IS NOT ON ANY STAR; IT WOULD NEED TO BE ENTERED BY SPELLING OUT THE LETTERS D-E- N-A-Y AND THE 8000 FT XING RESTR WOULD NEED TO BE ENTERED SEPARATELY; TOO.