Los Angeles LAX Airport

This airport which I have managed to avoid for several years is still staffed by the most charmless rude people I have ever encountered. It seems a bit less haphazard and chaotic than when I last used it but not much. The queues for passport control were horrendous with rows and rows of empty booths and only a few staff trying to deal with hundreds of inbound flights. Appalling.

Transferred in LAX while flying Delta HND-SFO. I do not know who is responsible for maintaining the terminal but probably the worst experience I've had on an international flight. Arriving international passengers have to walk for about 10-15 minutes along dimly lit corridors resembling either a dungeon or an underground street crossing in a poor and not-so- safe city. Clean to be fair but really ugly (and a long walk) after a 10 hour flight. Huge queue at the passport control for both citizens and non-citizens. Staff needed a gentle suggestion before they started diverting passengers with young kids to priority counters. Luggage claim signage was wrong pointing passengers to the wrong carousel. Once out of the customs area there was no clear signage on how to get to the domestic gates for boarding. Security check and domestic boarding area were alright though food selection was poor. I will definitely try avoiding LAX in the future.

Imagine JFK's awful Terminal 3 except expanded to an entire international airport. Now you're halfway to imagining the misery that is LAX. I've flown through almost every terminal here and each one seems worse than the last. Dirty outdated facilities. Surly and/or incompetent staff. Impossible transfers (options: hoping for a shuttle bus or getting run over by 8 lanes of traffic). Security is still haphazardly shoehorned into the old terminals resulting in confusing arrangements and lengthy backups and customs/immigration at the TBIT is at best slow and disorganized. The only positive thing I can venture to say about LAX is that with the wonderful southern California climate weather delays are almost unheard of!

Flew back from a recent Asian trip. TBIT was completely chaotic. The lines for US citizens were no faster than foreigner lines. And the lines through the US customs was a joke since you could not figure out where the line starts. Airport staff offered no help since this was the USCBP's problem.

Mexico to LA to Vancouver. Clearing in LA was totally ridiculous. Customs agents and staff had no idea on how to organize travelers. It took a full 2 hours to get through and we barely made our connecting flight. None of the staff seemed to notice the almost riot starting in their midst when people were shuffled around in circles with their baggage. No excuse for this at all!

I will never transit through this airport again - or probably any airport in US. We were flying LHR to New Zealand. Forced to pay 14$ for the privilege of an ESTA although we would only ever be in transit. On arrival at immigration there were hundreds of non US passengers many of whom were in transit. We had just 2 immigration officers. sometimes it was taking the officers 20 mins to deal with one person instead of referring them on to a supervisor. US travellers who were obviously dealt with far quicker had 6 immigration officers. Only when all US travellers were processed were the officers told to deal with us. We waited an hour and a half in line then had to get bags then go through security when my passport was checked again then go out of terminal up an escalator and back through security again where passport and hand luggage checked through. On the return journey we waited over an hour for immigration then gaped at the queue for getting through customs. It wound twice around the baggage carousel concourse and took yet another hour. Why not keep all transit passengers airside and process them separately to non US passengers who are staying in US. Get more immigration officers and when there is a problem pass that person over to a supervisor so as not to hold up the queue. on the return journey one person remonstrated to an officer that they were going to miss their flight. she just shrugged and said hundreds were going to miss their flights that day and there was nothing she could do. They don't care they are not interested and this airport and US systems are a disgrace.

I was in transit on NZ2 from Auckland to Heathrow. Landing at LA for refueling required all transit passengers to have an ESTA and to pass through immigration even though we were not willingly in the US and were leaving in two hours time. What a chaotic and unnecessary procedure! Upon disembarking “continuing the same flight” transit passengers were separated from other passengers and given an “Orange card” some were herded directly into a large secure lounge with an adjacent smaller lounge with refreshments (coke coffee crisps) others at random were directed to the only staffed immigration desk (one of two) for processing in the usual way (fingerprints photographs and strange questions). Then an announcement was made that all those who had not been processed had to go down to the main immigration processing centre – although we are not American Citizens we were made American Citizens for the afternoon because their line was shorter and then we were processed and stamped. At the desk we were asked “what was the purpose of our visit today” even though we had handed in an “orange I am in transit” card and a transit boarding card. Appropriately stamped and approved to be in transit we were then sent to a secure lift (a member of staff who knew code numbers was required to operate it) and escorted back to the lounge where we started out from (and where our names were crossed off a list of transit passengers who had been approved to be in transit) and we mixed again with those who had or who had not yet been processed. Although painless the process took about two hours and did not seem to serve any useful process.

No problems with the airport but why do UK travellers who are using the airport as a transit stop for New Zealand have to buy and complete an ESTA? Surely an international airport should have the facility to keep transit passengers within its system? We were checked out of one terminal through customs and security walked five minutes to another terminal to be checked in through customs and security. Hardly what you would call a visit to the USA. $14 each for that experience.

The wait times for immigration for USA citizens can be very long and slow. The waiting area is rather dismal. Pushing a trolley up from the last inspection point to the exit can be a difficult task for those with breathing problems.

LAX is possibly the worst airport I have been to - have used this airport 4 times due Delta flights. The immigration is okay customs is fast but all passenger waited 45 minutes for the first luggage from our Sydney flight. This made our connection flights even tighter. Arriving to LAX from SLC the operator couldn't operate the bridge for 30min so we all ended up using the first class area bridge and rushed to our connection flights. Terminal 5 is OK but when you arrive to 68B Terminal 6 from SYD good luck if you know which direction to go and where you can find the way to Terminal 5. You walk thru tunnels mazes. Everybody was following each other to hope that the first person knows which way to go. TSA was efficient but very unfriendly. How difficult to greet somebody with a smile?