haddon90

i've walked from T8 to whatever terminal DL is in...is that 5? there is an underground walkway there.

i haven't tried it at LAX, but i've been able to gain access to different terminals at other airports (DCA and SFO come to mind). my thinking is, as long as you have a boarding pass, you're OK.

fizzydp

Yes, LAX is the most embarrassing international airport in the U.S. and also ranks at bottom among locals too. We apologize and hope that one day there will be better options for food/bev, layovers, immigration that is not constantly under construction, etc.

azepine00

LAX is rather dumpy but pretty much every single point mentioned by OP can be applied to almost any other large airport in US so it's hard to single out LAX on those metrics.

LAX real issues are aging facility with limited space and access both inside and outside, poor baggage handling setup, lack of food options, no public transport, awful traffic etc.

diamond404

LAX is a black hole, yes...I get anxiety just thinking about going there. I wish there were more options from BUR!

haddon90

you must not have used UA in/out of IAD before. sure, the B concourse is great, but the rest of the airport?

Ancien Maestro

Just finished our 11 night stint arriving and leaving LAX..

Arriving was brutal as we were whisked on a bus 15 minutes to Customs and took 3 hours to clear.. brutal..

Leaving.. smoother than I though.. was expecting a really bad experience.. but was actually quite expeditious.. with help from Executive check in of course with Aeroplat flying AC

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Yeah. LAX customs is not well-known for being fast. When I went through LAX customs in 2005, we were held up (separated because wife was on the no-fly list, or someone with the same name) and waited for a very very long time. I had no idea what was going on and they wouldn't let me wait. So I cleared, went to the terminal, and slept.

bloodyeyeballs

At the end of the day, LAX is a ghetto airport. Is is a shamefull example of the gateway to one of the greatest metropolitan areas of the United States. I live here and had the opportunity to come into terminal 2 immigration and was appalled that this is the first place that new visitors to the US see.

That said, I have also been to the monuments built as airports elsewhere and realize that our government simply does not have the money to match that without confiscating it from its citizens to merely erect a monument.

However, I am happy for some of the advantages of LAX:

Almost all gates are close to the street, meaning you do not have to walk forever or take a shuttle merely to get to baggage claim when arriving. I recall landing at DIA and walking forever only to get to a monorail and it seemed to take forever to get to the street.

LAX is close to downtown and Beverly Hills, Century City, Santa Monica and the main business centers in LA. It takes 12 minutes to get to my home in Brentwood and about 20 minutes to get to my office in Beverly Hills. Good luck with that at O'Hare and don't even think about what the affluent New Yorker's in Westchester deal with coming out of LGA.

alcathiax

I live near the western end of the runway, but all I see is the construction that is going on to expand TBIT.

The black hole that you speak of, that's located in one of the empty office tower buildings on World Way West! (I know, as I practice riding my motorcycle on that street).

But if you find yourself at LAX on a weekday between 6am and 1pm, just head out to "The Daily Grill" on the ground floor of the Theme Building (the one building that looks like a space ship).

I personally go to The Daily Grill for lunch when I get the chance...and in two instances, managed to hook up with female FA's (one from AF and other from KLM) on two different nights.

These FA's, they do get lonely sometimes.

Ancien Maestro

How horrible.. your experience was probably magnified 5 times, just because it happened at LAX

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Yeah. That's why we both got Global Entry, so she was screened and they wouldn't confuse her with someone else. It was painful waiting for such a long time not knowing why she was detained.

But LAX is my home airport, and I love it, but it really is a dump compared to the other major airports of the world. I have a lot of Korean friends and I wonder sometimes how they must feel when they come here after seeing ICN and how modern that airport is.

Ancien Maestro

I need to get something similar.. like Nexus..

Would Global entry save a ton of time?

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Yes. It does. You just walk up to the kiosk and put in your passport and let the scanner scan your fingerprints. You answer a bunch of questions (usually NO to declaring animals or plants) and it prints out a sticker. You walk straight to the exit and flash the card. CBP officer waves you through. Out.

It takes a few minutes, literally, to get out of customs.

I've never used it at LAX, but have used it at DFW, ORD, and JFK, and all have been very fast.

Ancien Maestro

I wonder if its that simple with LAX.. I mean 3 hours in the customs lines..

I would even go through the trouble of getting the card as a foreigner (if allowed) the next time I have to fly to LAX under the same circumstances..

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

I don't know about LAX, but I'll find out in a few weeks. I'll be flying international and coming in to LAX.

GE is open to Canadians, and on the website, it says to Nexus members. I don't know if that means you need to apply for Nexus first.

I feel bad about LAX and its dilapidated state, but I also understand that it is one of the world's major airports, and it's not that easy to just shut it down for remodeling.