If you arrive on AA then LAX is an excellent airport for a shower on arrival as long as you have access to the Admirals Club ^

The UA RCC does not have a shower. TBIT you arrive in the customs hall and not the concourse so the lounges there fall off. There is a new facility though which is called "The Louge" IIRC right in TBIT. Not sure if they have showers though.

Also you are saying you depart LAX as well so "on arrival" is not the right terminology. You should ask for a shower "while in transit" since then you abviously have access to the gate area and lounge of your respective airline.

Food... well that depends what you are into. 6.5 hours are enough to me to even stroll around 3rd St in Santa Monica instead of hanging out at the airport all this time.

Hope that helps !

Thanks, the Santa Monica option is looking more and more attractive as I think about it.

If you know how to get around a rental car might be worth it. It might add about 20 Minutes extra effort per way but you could save some $$$ !

Being a member of the Rental Programms is key at LAX (especially at Budget) as the lines can be horrid !

2/28 MR
 

Thanks to everyone in this thread who posted suggestions for long layovers at LAX. I was on a MR yesterday and ended up with a 9 hour layover at LAX since I booked the ticket with ThankYou points. There were lots of quick turns available, but TYN/Expedia refused to book me on a flight with less than 6 hours between them. Thanks to the information in this thread, I had a great LA experience.

I started off by catching the "3" Big Blue Bus to Santa Monica and spending most of the day at the beach/pier. It was relatively painless getting the shuttle to Arrivals/Lot C and walking over to the city bus station. I also made it just as the bus was arriving thanks to the convenient planning tool at: http://socaltransport.org/tm_pub_start.php. It is only 75 cents each way and is a viable alternative to paying for a car/cab if you have extra time. The return trip goes right past In N Out near LAX so I stopped by for my first ever visit. After a LONG active day, I must say the number 1 hit the spot.

Anyone had luck/recommendations with this on a "leisure traveler's budget"--i.e. I don't want to spend a fortune? I need something on a Monday in May. (Check in around 7am and checkout around 7pm) Free shuttle a must and free wi-fi highly desirable ;)

You might check out this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/los-a...light=day-rate

But I still think it's likely that Priceline or Hotwire will be your friend.

The other thing to check is kayak.com Search for 5 mile proximty of LAX and then sort by cost. You will find some very cheap ones. Cross-check them on TripAdvisor and then decide how much "ugh" factor you can tolerate. ;)

Normally I am a big fan of the priceline bidding product but am a bit concerned about the early checkin time and how that might be a problem with a priceline hotel. Anyone have any experience with this and priceline?

This is really helpful.
I've been to LAX many times before but never took the non taxi option.

I am actually transiting in LAX in a few weeks time and wanted to try this. I arrive at 7pm and leave at 2pm the next day.

Will Santa monica/Venice Beach area be a better place (I've been to Beverley Hills/Hollywood/Downtown before - so no biggy if I don't go there - Also I assume it will be too rush to go there?) I've stayed at Santa Monica once before and quite like that area

I have booked an airport hotel - Renaissance Montura Hotel Los Angeles Airport.

How do I get the bus from the hotel and what times doe they operate?

I was recommended the followign place, but don't know how close is it to the airport hotel/venice beach?

The Otherroom (Abbot Kinney Boulevard)
Axe (Also the same)
The Venice Canals
Beacon (Helms Avenue)

I saw the following homepage and it seems this is the official public transport of LA?

However where is the LAX City Bus Centre?

I can't seem to find that Blue Bus to Santa Monica?

There is a R3 service? Is that a train or bus service

Nine hours to kill at LAX today
 

landing at lax at noon. flight to BOS leaves at 10:15 tonight. any suggestions? i'll have my carryon with me. give me an itinerary and i'll do it! can get a rental car if needed. not looking to spend a ton of money though.

Just see this... how did it go ? Did you fly AA buy any chance ? I often leave my luggage in the lounge with a tag and phone number on it... Never much valuable stuff in there anyway and never had something stolen.

www.metro.net

??? The LAX bus center is a shuttle bus ride away from the terminals in Parking Lot 3. Tell the shuttle driver to take you to the bus center, and don't let him/her get away with, "it's just across the parking lot" since they are SUPPOSED to take you there...

It also leaves from the LAX bus center in parking lot 3.
Here's their web page.

See the link to the Big Blue Bus above.

Long layover in LAX. What to do?
 

Hello,

Me and Mrs Anselmi are traveling August 13 from MEX to LAX on MX. The flight arrives at 10 am. Our flight to LHR departs at 5.35 pm and MX and BA flights are on separate PNRs. We have quite many hours to kill at LAX. Only requirement is we want to spend a while in OW lounge, take a shower etc. We haven't ever been to Los Angeles. So couple of questions:

- What could we do near LAX?
- How early are we able to check in to our BA flight? BA says check in opens 3,5 hours before but there is an earlier BA flight so CI agents must be there. It would be great to check our bags in first and then do something else.
- How long an immigration takes after our MX flight?
- Is there any place where we can store our hand luggage for a while?
- As we are Los Angeles virgins all other advices for couple of hours visit are welcome. :)

Thanks!

I would suggest going to Santa Monica !

Roughly 5 hours are perfect for that, coming from Mexico I doubt you will need more beaches like Venice etc.

Is that the first BA flight out of LAX ? IIRC BA staff is on site pretty early.

There are no lockers for carry on at LAX :(

In regards of how long immigration takes, that pretty much depends on how many other flights arrive together with yours !

Cheers,
S

Thanks Mods for merging my thread.

Thanks S for your advices. Reading previous posts I got an impression it is cheaper to rent a car than take a taxi to Santa Monica for 5 hours trip. Am I right? Sounds weird.

We are taking the second BA flight out of LAX so I hope they will check us in early. But I'm still asking for any advice where to store carry ons? Wouldn't like to drag them around Santa Monica. Any hotels integrated/near to TBIT where I could use luggage storage?

6hr layover LAX
 

I've got an almost 6 hour layover at LAX coming from SYD via UA. My partner and I are both travelling economy and, although I have mileage plus membership, I am only a premier member. Is there any lounge we can access? Is there some place we can freshen up? Any other suggestions of what to do? Thanks in advance!!