LAX LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT   Passenger Reviews and Opinions

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  12 August 2009 by R de Villa   (US)

Customer Rating :  3/5

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Terminals 1 and TBIT. Arrived on Southwest Airlines and was self-connecting to a flight on EVA Air. Bags from Southwest came out within 10 minutes. Since it was evening, walk from Terminal 1 to TBIT on departure level was easy (~10 minutes). TBIT is still undergoing renovations, but some parts are complete. After check-in, spent time at ReLAX lounge behind food court. Nice views, WiFi, and snacks. Line for security was short. Since EVA's departure was at 1 AM, I did not go through security until after midnight. Unfortunately, shops were closed. Could not buy water for the trip which was not good. Despite the renovated area, the departure gate did not have enough seats for everyone. The bathroom close by looked newly renovated, but cleaning crew did a poor job of keeping it clean. On the return, we lucked out since TBIT was not yet busy. Friendly immigration officer. Baggage carousels were awful. Although they were new, the carousels couldn't handle the volume of bags from one 744. The carousel would stop and a baggage handler would have to make room for the bags. Too bad none of his colleagues wearing the same uniform helped him. Customs/agriculture officer gave us the LAX attitude reported previously.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  10 August 2009 by A Ruiter   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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If ever there is an airport that resembles hell on earth then it must be LAX. I recently flew from Australia to Mexico with Delta/Aeromexico, connecting through LAX. Both incoming and outgoing flights were from terminal 5, so my experience is limited in that sense. Our connecting time was about 90 minutes, and later someone told me Delta should never have sold me this ticket as minimum connecting times at LAX should be 3 hours, more if you have to change terminals. But the whole ordeal lasted more than 7 hours: hours spent finding new flights, re-issuing tickets, but especially because the entire terminal area was one big and long line of people wanting to pass security. Now I have no problem with this, in fact it is a good thing that security at airports is taken seriously, but what I don't understand is why Americans do not cater for transit passengers. There is no added security to having people on an international flight pass through customs, have to collect their bags, and then have check in again; in fact, quite the opposite is true, I think the whole process adds to the security risk. And LAX is a major transit hub for flights from Asia to Latin America (I dare say the same applies to passengers from Europe to Latin America through Miami). And then there are people that check your ticket and passport to see if you are allowed to check in, then there are people that check your boarding pass and passport to see if you are allowed to stand in line for the security check, then there are the people that check your boarding pass and passport to see if you are allowed to actually pass the security check, then you pass the security check, and then there are people that check your boarding pass and passport to see if you are allowed to board the plane, and for all these checks of essentially the same thing, there are lines and lines of people and personnel with a serious attitude problem; no facilities for the elderly or families with small children, just one slow-moving line, which took about 3 hours to clear. Anyway, apart from this flaw there is also the flawed concept of the terminals: Terminal 5 deals with Delta, but there is no infrastructure for international transfers. I have heard form people who need to change terminals at LAX and that this involves extensive walking (with your baggage of course). So the whole place is based on a flawed design. And then there is the attitude: the attitude of customs officials, security officers, ticketing personnel. I can understand they hate their job, simply because the whole process is so obviously inefficient and ineffective. But hey, these people seem to actually want to go out of their way to be nasty. Next time I take this flight, I will try San Francisco, and this means I won't be flying Delta.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  31 July 2009 by S Sparkes   (Canada)

Customer Rating :  2/5

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Worst airport ever if you have a connecting flight and terminal is different! I flew a few times connecting thru LAX and I avoid it at all cost now and opt for San Francisco or other nearby airports instead. If flying US Airways and connecting with United you will have to walk to the other side of the airport, which you go out of the security zone, onto the airport streets, thru the airport parking lots (2 in total) and then into the other terminal, of which you will need to go thru security again! I had 50mins to connect and lucky for me, I made it! I was running non stop til I got there and took me 8 mins to get to the other terminal. I couldn't imagine if I went during the busy time in the day or I'd miss my plane. If your not in great shape or elderly, go for a connection that gives you at least 2 hours to be safe! Also, the airport is fairly old and is slowly in reno right now, but some terminals aren't. I wish they would demolish this airport and rebuild elsewhere, and make it more efficient like other world airports.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  5 July 2009 by J Biggs   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Recently went through TBIT on a flight from BKK. Easily the rudest airport workers ever. Fiancee (non-citizen) and I were directed by staff to an available desk for processing, only to be yelled at by the officer for intruding on his break. Then we went to another immigration desk, and I was asked to go to the "cleared" area near the baggage carousels while the fiancee gets processed. When she was done, I stepped back to the desk to remind the officer that I still wasn't processed yet, and he yelled at me for going to the "cleared" area! Then there's customs, where we check our bags through green or red channels. Since the fiancee was holding tons of bags, I handed in her customs sheets to the customs officer sitting near the scanning machines. He yelled, "D'you speak English?! Then why are you not answering me?!" When I explained that I was deaf, instead of being sympathetic, the officer took this as a challenge to his sense of authority and even yelled at my fiancee as if she was deaf by association. "You are not a child! You are a grown adult! Your fiance should not have to hold your customs sheet for you!" We're traveling together and sharing the same bags and her hands were full. Just avoid LAX like the plague. It's full of bitter workers with broken dreams who take their frustration out on passengers to make themselves feel a little bit better when they sleep at night. I will be using SFO from now on for my flights to Asia.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  3 July 2009 by Eric Crossley   (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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How to count the ways I hate LAX and especially United Airlines. Last week I made the mistake of flying out of LAX on United to DC via Chicago. For a 8:20 AM flight I was two hours early and still barely made the plane. LAX is old, dirty and 100% unable to accomodate the huge number of passengers who use it daily. United Airlines at LAX is a disaster. First of all, they have dozens of gates and a small check-in area that is overrun with hundreds of people. Inefficient, crowded, absolutely ridiculous. So, you want to use curbside check-in for your bags? How does a 45 minute wait sound? I have never seen anything like it. But the best is yet to come, the amazing TSA security fiasco for United at LAX. A long corridor, one TSA agent for first class/premier/ etc. and one agent for everyone else. I got in line with 75 minutes to go before my plane took off. It took an hour to get through the line. Not only is there only one TSA agent for the hundreds of people who are not important to United, but at times, our one lone TSA agent took people from the first class line! At one point we did not move for 15 minutes! While all this happened, an overworked United employee was going up and down the line to pull people who were going to miss their flights to the front of our Ellis Island like line. So, if you were late you were rewarded. This was the worst I have seen in awhile, tied with Logan in Boston for a total disastrous check-in "system."

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  25 June 2009 by Richard Turnley   (Australia)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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I transited at LAX from an AA domestic flight to an UA flight to Australia in late May and then again from an international UA flight to a domestic AA flight on 19 June - on both occasions I went through in record time with no fuss, no delays and with courtesy. This is in stark contrast to the problems I have always had in Tom Bradley and which according to my seat neighbour was still a nightmare - so maybe a few of the problems are fixed and is best to keep away from airlines using Tom Bradley if you have high blood pressure or do not want to develop it.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  15 June 2009 : by P McCorkle  (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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Just figuring out where you're supposed to be in this airport is a nightmare. And the staff are completely useless no matter what you're trying to do. The staff don't even know what terminal you should use. In fact, I think most of the staff at the counters are high school minimum wagers. Completely useless. How is it I've never had a single problem in countless foreign airports where few people speak English but an airport in my own country is completely nonsensical ? Cleanliness is terrible. The lines at ticket counters, security, and even the gates are terrible. I've waited at lines out the door for security. Even customs for Americans was two hours. That's longer than it takes to go through foreign customs! I've been delayed nearly every time through this airport, and the times I wasn't delayed I just got lucky. The following reasons include 2 hours at customs and 2 more hours through security (all that time spent standing in line) meant I missed a flight despite a 3 hour layover. A check-in agent for Frontier delayed 7 passengers (yes 7!!) because a single woman had a bag that was 2lbs over the limit of 50. He spent 45 minutes dealing with this woman while the rest of us were stuck and despite pleas, never once called for assistance or just moved on in the line. Finally, a shuttle broke down and got stuck in the middle of their "highway" thing going through the airport. They had to finally dispatch a patrol car to set up a road block to get us off the infernal thing - and then walk to our terminals, by which time we were all late. Brilliant!

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  9 June 2009 : by S Koenig  (Brazil)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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As large, crowded and at times confusing as LAX can be, when we recently arrived late on a weeknight, we moved through it quickly. Luggage arrived relatively quickly, and we only had to wait 5 minutes for a shuttle to our hotel (note: several shuttles serve multiple hotels, so you need to look at the electronic destination signs on the shuttle busses carefully). We rented a car the following day, but in order to avoid having to take one shuttle bus back to the airport and then another to the specific rental car company, we walked directly from the hotel to the rental car facility.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  29 May 2009 : by John Kou  (USA)

Customer Rating :  4/5

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Two years ago, security was a mess and I could see lines coming outside of TBIT. Now, things are moving more smoothly, thanks to the new matrix building which now houses the check-in baggage explosive detectors and allows tsa to do the job behind the scenes instead of passengers going to a second long line after checking in their bags. The new check-in stands look nice with the new LCD displays and orange canopies. Some parts of LAX are still dumps (T6 and T2) but the recent work on T3 and T1 make them look similar to terminal 4 (the best terminal). However, the T3 baggage claim hasn't been renovated though.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review :  26 May 2009 : by G Marek  (USA)

Customer Rating :  1/5

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The bad thing about travelling to the South Pacific from the US is that the majority of the flights originate here. I cannot emphasize enough what a horrendous place LAX is. The staff there were unspeakably rude to us. Other reviewers have it pegged: the staff seems miserable and take it out on passengers. The entire place is semi-organized chaos, and most facilities we saw were dirty and not maintained well. We have travelled a fair amount, and LAX is unquestionably, hands-down, the worst experience, and the rudest people we have ever had the misfortune to deal with in the world. Try to avoid if at all possible in your travels.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 11 May 2009 : by S Wick

Customer Rating :  1/5

Coming in from a long, delayed flight from South America (middle of the night) I had the "pleasure" of going through Immigration/Customs. The agent was one of the rudest people I have encountered. As he appeared to be extremely unhappy with his job it was evident he was going to make everyone else just as unhappy. I made the mistake of looking at his name tag too long that as I stood in line awaiting my bags in baggage claim he made a special point in coming out of his booth to scream at me for looking at him. I understand that the job these men and women have is not an easy one, however is it necessary for them to go out of their way to share their misery & discontent with the rest of us that would just like to enter the country unscathed and be on our way.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 24 April 2009 : by M Larson

Customer Rating :  2/5

Really big, disorganized, poorly thought out airport. I used to love LAX back in the day but it is now Frankenstein's monster with all the additions seemingly tacked on with little or no thought. You take your life in your hands when you need to stand on one of the concrete islands to wait for a shuttle bus. A world class city like LA deserves a better airport.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 23 April 2009 : by E Mabley

Customer Rating :  2/5

Departing the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) is a test of patience. Security lines are slow, the TSA staff are poorly trained, half the terminal is dark and dirty and the other half is under renovation with scaffolding, brooms and buckets strewn about, and food options are very limited. On the return, customs/immigration was a breeze, but again I had to navigate my luggage through a minefield of brooms, buckets, hard hats, loose planks and other construction debris.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 26 March 2009 : by Sonia Bidwell

Customer Rating :  1/5

I travelled Air New Zealand from Heathrow to Auckland and had to transit through LAX. Never again! A horrendous experience. We were all treated like undesirables - perhaps we looked like that after a long journey and arriving in the middle of the night, but even a smile would have been welcome. The staff were grim faced robots indicating the identification procedure with a suspicious attitude. I found the finger printing quite frightening. The economy passengers lounge was a disgrace and I felt sorry for those who had to endure it. I was most fortunate to be in the Premium lounge and this was good.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 20 March 2009 : by L Martin

Customer Rating :  1/5

LAX is by far, the worst, not user-friendly airport I have been to. I arrived to LAX for an international flight. You receive no instruction on how to get to a connecting flight to Japan. For a while, I was wondering what in the world TBIT was, and couldn't find any staff, so I asked a police officer who kind of explained. LAX could benefit from more signs to explain to the public how to get to certain areas. You have to exit the terminal, walk across the ever flowing traffic and get to the middle of the median to wait for a shuttle. Of course every shuttle but mine was arriving every two minutes! As I waited, solicitors (adults and children) come up to me and asked me to donate for hunger and for a trip to Magic Mountain. I am all for donating, but I don't believe these things are credible. 15 minutes later, my shuttle arrived, and I knew the worst part was over. Wrong!!! I had to listen to the kid solicitor get on the shuttle and bug everybody on it about donating. Than,TBIT is the most disorganized terminal ever and the wait to get thru security must have been an hour. If there is any airport that can benefit from a tram or monorail system, it would be LAX. On a lighter note, Seoul Incheon is a beautiful airport with great directions, and you don't feel like you're in a rat race going nowhere.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 4 March 2009 : by Markku Lipponen

Customer Rating :  4/5

Arriving to terminal 4 and departing from TBIT. I had my luggage thru checked and I had a boarding pass for my next international flight. Very fast I was an entrance of terminal 4 and an only difficulty was there. There are two separate lanes: left one lead security checkpoint and right side is a way out. Maybe it would be nicer for customers if there was a bigger sign for security checkpoint and way out. Short and easy walk to an International terminal. There were some renovation works unfinished, but terminal seems improving. A queue for a security checkpoint was only 20-30 people long and it moved fast. It took only 10-15 minutes. Before noon, at least, TBIT was not a bad terminal for departure. Arrival may be a different matter.

LOS ANGELES LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT review : 18 February 2009 : by P Bolt

Customer Rating :  2/5

Must have been a case of expecting the worst, given it's reputation, but LAX wasn't that bad. Flew in from Melbourne on QF - took a while to get through immigration (some 30 mins or so) but the staff kept moving people from queue to queue to reduce their wait time) baggage ready to be collected and staff willing and able to answer questions helpfully. I can see that it would be hell on earth when a bunch of flights arrive together, though. Long queue to drop off the bags for the next leg of the flight and a wander over to Terminal 4 for American Airlines domestic. Security at this terminal was packed and moving slowly - again more people here would have made it a bad day. Overall I had 2 hrs and 50 mins for the connection and I was at the American gate (first of three) just under 2 hours after landing. Not bad, but an appalling state of affairs for a first world major hub airport.