Los Angeles LAX Airport

Terminal 3 (Virgin America Frontier Alaska Horizon). T3 is one of the older terminals at LAX and it definitely shows its age. The corridors are poorly lit there is not enough floor space or seating for the number of gates and the floors and carpeting are worn and dirty. Not enough restrooms and food/beverage/shopping is of low quality. There is however a very good view of the north runways and not as much of a walk between curbside/check-in and gate as in other LAX terminals. Security queues and TSA efficiency seem a bit better than average for US airports.

Readers may be pleased to hear that reconstruction and expansion of the Tom Bradley International Terminal began this week with a brand new state of the art concourse slated to open in 4 years. Costing over $1 billion and employing over 4000 the terminal will be brought up to standards expected at a major airport.

Arrived by United at the international terminal. Usual US farce with collecting bags then re sending them off for the next flight. Had to exit the terminal and walk around to terminal seven about a 10-15 minute walk then through security again for the domestic flight. Security and immigration was quite quick though. Allow plenty of time to connect. On the return it was great. Arrived at the United terminal seven and departed from the same location about five gates away. Very busy terminal but it has shops and restaurants and seating.

A horror of an Airport. In need of a demolition and rebuild and staff need training on how to be courteous. I travelled through here on business 5 years ago and recently decided to take the family to Disneyland and nothing had changed. We expected LAX which is a major hub to be at minimum world standard. Nowhere to sit due to over crowding no where to eat at TBIT and chaos is the only way to describe security and immigration. I think San Francisco is the way to go.

Arrived and departed on AA from / to LHR and was using T4 (AA own terminal) at LAX. Since AA only has two international flights a day from LAX (to NRT and LHR) the facilities were pretty straightforward and easy to use. However when we arrived there were only three people at immigration (2 for foreigners and 1 for US citizens) so I was glad that I ran from the plane to immigration as people who came out last had to queue quite a while to get through. I waited for approx 15 minutes but the immigration officer was pretty friendly and efficient. After immigration my luggage was waiting and I could go through customs where again only two officers were handling almost 300 pax. All in all I was at my car rental in 45minutes after touch-down which was not bad. When I departed the check-in hall was quite busy and AA has implemented the self service check-in everywhere so you could see many pax who were confused and needed help by the grumpy ground staff. TSA was quite quick and so was security. There is no immigration if you leave from T4 on an international flight and you just hand your departure card to the ground staff at the gate. Facilities are so so at T4 and consists of a few shops selling magazines etc and two mexican restaurants. Since it was before Christmas the terminal was quite full and it seemed every flight that day was overbooked. Restrooms were ok but I have seen better and cleaner ones at other airports. I think T4 is not a bad terminal to use and I found it to be quite efficient and rather modern in comparison to other terminals at LAX.

Coming into LAX from DXB a breeze. When you are leaving LAX the trouble starts - there is a major confusion at the check-in area.

I would agree that Terminal 3 is not big enough to accommodate V Australia Virgin America and Alaska Airlines and I would recommend that you eat elsewhere before heading through security. Other than that queue times were minimal I had heard horror stories but in my case I must have been lucky.

Check in was a breeze and the airline were going to take the baggage to the bizarrely elaborate TSA screening so no separate queue for us as on previous occasions. TBIT is still under construction but there are signs of progress. Security staff were noticably courteous but the processes remain frustratingly pointless. In response to previous comments there various staff members shouting out stuff but only in a very general public announcement kind of way. In addition to failing to appreciate the futility of their role they also fail to understand that shouting in English is going to miss about 80% of the audience in TBIT. There is a pinch point for a particularly slow passport and boarding card check and I am glad we were in Fast Track. TSA have completely failed to acknowledge that if they are going to be so puzzlingly meticulous they need more than two people assigned to that task.

My own recent experience with LAX is top notch. Coming from AMS on KLM with my bike in the lugage compartment of the plane everything went smooth. Passport controls quick and with good friendly touches from the customs officer and arriving into the baggage claim area - less than 20 minutes after walking off the flight I was happy to my bike was waiting for me in pristine condition. Same on return no hold ups straight through and with a very effective and happy crew at the security check. LAX was good to me - five out of five stars!

I tell it like I find it. Our latest arrival at LAX was pretty pleasant. We arrived on time on BA279 from LHR and in spite of recent Lufthansa and Korean arrivals we had no problems. The light airy immigration hall was well manned and staff were courteous (enough). It is comforting to be able to see back from the baggage carousel just in case your partner is having any problems getting through. Baggage was delivered quickly and the customs line was short. The exit areas are under heavy refurbishment and unattractive but the rental shuttle came within moments.