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Just a quick vent as I'm probably going to misconnect. Why do I always land at the north complex whenever my connection is tight and when I have plenty of time I'm always landing the south complex???

Just a quick vent before a walk to the customer center.

I don't fully understand the complexities of the ATC system, but I always scratch my head when we land on the North and parallell to us is a WN 737 on the South. ???

It is frustrating though. I have misconnected in LAX because of this at least once that I can think of.

If you are inbound to LAX from No. Calif., PDX, SEA, etc., you will most often be routed to the "24s" or North Complex, esp. if on the SADDE 6 standard arrival over Fillmore, down to Malibu and east over Santa Monica. This avoids SoCal Tracon having to run "squeeze plays" to weave traffic from the North over the final approach course for the South complex. It avoids conflicts with traffic set up for the South complex. SoCal may allow such crossover traffic at low-traffic volume times. Sometimes when it's busier, So. Cal will give a UA a/c the choice of flying east many miles (almost to ONT) to cross over to the So. complex approach course, or land on the North. But most often during busy times, such a/c just get sent to the N. Complex.

If you listen in to Ch. 9 when flying into LAX, you will often hear the pilot trying to talk their way into landing on 25L/R. This can happen even if the approach is over Santa Monica and turning 180 above downtown, as Ocn Vw 1K detailed. Unscientifically, based on my own recollections of SFO/SMF-LAX runs, I would say they were successful only 20 percent of the time. And when we did land on 24L/R, on more than one occasion the pilot expressed his frustration over the PA and asked us to expect delays before arriving at the gate, because the difference in the time it takes to get there is 3 minutes from 25L/R versus more than 15 minutes from 24L/R.

Twice in the last month flights into LAX. Once from HKG, landing on the 24s (north). Once from SYD, landing on the 25s (south). If your pilot is any good, he can drive that 744 across the airport to the 70s gates at a pretty good clip. I hate it when pilots "lumber" down the taxiways like they are in a parade.

Personally, I'd rather come in on the north complex (24's) and taxi straight to a staffed and waiting gate than to come in on the south (25's) and sit on the apron for what seems an eternity waiting for the jetbridge.

It gets even better when you land on 24L/R, rollout all the way to the west end of the runway, taxi past most of the parked int'l birds, before doing about 10 laps around the end of 25R (west of the CO/AA hangars). Happened to me last August after already having my first flight cancelled...my 3-hour late arrival then became a 4-hour late arrival thanks to the excessive laps. Result...gf at the time = very annoyed that I didn't get home till after midnight instead of 830, me = annoyed at all of the above. Just another instance of the cluster that LAX can eb.

Couple the inconvenient landing and taxi with having a gate in T6 connecting to a T8 gate for a UX flight. Been there, done that, and it does indeed suck. :(

So far, I've never misconnected due to that, but have had to really sprint... and T6 isn't exactly friendly for sprinting with the stairs & curvy route.

What if they are in a parade (ie lots of traffic)?

Ditto on all points. There is nothing more frustrating than coming in from SFO and having to wait an extra 15 minutes to taxi because we landed on the north runways. I have landed on the 25s very rarely but the time savings is fairly significant.

What have your experiences been with LAX-SFO or SEA? I find that those takeoffs are done on the north runways most of the time as well. But the taxi time is not as significant since the 25 aprons are further east than the 24.

Well if you're really in a rush and have the benefit of a strong offshore flow (or nighttime arrival, but you wouldnt be connecting) then landing on 7 is the way to go for a quick turn.

you guys haven't been thru JFK lately...otherwise you'd have nothing to complain about.

in the last two flights from JFK to LAX, there were at least 20-40 other a/c waiting in line to take off. landing is also another matter...having to cross over the Van Wyke.

but then again, the drive around McCarron at LAS is also pretty lengthy. i always wondered why they could not just drop us off along the strip.

You're right, I haven't been through JFK lately or ever so I have no idea what you are talking about :p

As for LAS, I've been through there once or twice. With the prevailing winds in Vegas out of the West Runway 25L is the primary landing runway. If you land there the taxi to the B, C or D gates is usually less than 5 minutes (think SFO). If you do land on 1/19 the taxi is a bit longer, but nothing like LAX where you have airplanes pushing onto active taxi ways (think gates 76-77 at each terminal) further clogging up stuff.