Los Angeles LAX Airport

For a busy transportation hub Los Angeles Airport itself is in poor condition. The terminals are very outdated and not well taken care of. Many of the different airlines are placed too close together making one or two desks responsible for several flights boarding all at once. The food services are minimal and popular ones are dirty and extremely expensive. The layout can be misleading and confusing especially in the complicated Terminal 3. Wait times for security checks were horrendous Unfortunately the only alternative is Long Beach which does not offer much improvements.

Arrived on a BA flight from London at 1500hrs into TBIT and was transferring onto an AA flight departing 1735hrs from T4. We were ushered into the immigration hall which was already extremely busy although several processing desks remained unmanned while several immigration officers congregated chatting in groups. Joined a queue which moved unbelievably slowly indeed three people ahead of us were held aside and then escorted away for secondary screening. When we finally made it to the top of the queue (after standing for 55mins) the immigration officer was unbelievably rude and discourteous. If anybody was on a power-trip this guy was. Although my visa-waiver form was completed he claimed he couldn't read the telephone number I had supplied and told me to rewrite it. When I asked to borrow his pen he snorted that he didn't give out his pen and told me to go ask another passenger to loan me one. What is it with US Immigration? - Do they deliberately employ a certain number of people who have never had a decent upbringing? After finally leaving immigration I collected my luggage only to have to join a queue about 75 people long that snaked through the luggage hall in order to clear customs. I then had to recheck my luggage (which thankfully can be done in TBIT) before heading the few hundred yards stroll to T4. Thankfully I made my connecting flight - but I was glad I had the 2.5hr connecting window. All in all a horrendous experience. I shall avoid LAX at all cost in future.

Arrived on Southwest at Terminal 1 and found it quite ok to get to baggage claim and the bags where out after around 5 minutes. Was out after around 20 minutes after deplaning. Terminal is old but seems to work still fine however a face lift would be appreciated. Left through T5 on Delta. There was a line for the baggage drop but it moved quickly. Security was fast and efficient. Officers on duty where not rude as you expect them to be at LAX which was a nice surprise. Facilities at T5 are not very exciting with a McDonald California Pizza Kitchen take away and one or two small shops. Since it was breakfast time I opted for McDonald as you don't get anything on Delta domestic. The terminal had some natural light and did not feel dark or dingy. Arrived back at T5 at night and the terminal did not have many flights arriving. However it took around 40 minutes to get the bags which was extremely annoying. Also there was no ground staff available when a big suit case blocked the other bags to come out. Luckily a passenger took care of this which earned him a round of applause. The signage once you are outside is pretty clear where you have to wait for which shuttle. Next day left through TBIT to Heathrow and found the facilities have improved since my last visit to TBIT. They have done a face lift and are still working on it. Security took a while though and there is nothing actually after security. So eat and do your duty free shopping before security. All in all for the size of this airport it is not that bad actually if you know the tricks around it. However there is a lot of room for improvement.

Your experience at LAX will depend a lot upon when you are there. On our return trip from Sydney we arrived at Terminal 5 at around 07:00 AM. We then had an extremely long walk from gate 58A to the customs/immigration area. Customs/immigration was slow but that didn't make any difference because baggage had not even started to arrive when we got to the carousels. When luggage finally started to arrive it took a very long time for our bags to appear. We once we actually had our bags we went through the customs process quite quickly and rechecked our bags without any problem. Then it was back upstairs to go back through security. This time there was a long line which moved very slowly - and didn't move at all for about 10-15 minutes while TSA tried to decide what to do about 3 persons in wheelchairs. Meanwhile I counted 13 uniformed TSA employees standing around talking to each other. The total time to get back through security was about 30 minutes - -which I guess is fast by LAX standards. Much yelling by unhappy TSA employees. Overall a poor experience.

TBIT terminal is a real joke upon arrival. Getting through immigration takes up too much time - as baggage gets jammed on the carousel. I was one of the first through immigration and could witness the jam. Then getting through customs was another long wait. I noticed very rude staff when a visitor from Russia had simple questions on what to do at the customs line docments etc. Totally uncalled for.

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.