This is a bit of a hyperlocal story, but the LA Times today writes about the horror of flying in and out of LAX:
Alexa Woodward arrived in California for the first time and was immediately lost. Outside Los Angeles International Airport, she and a friend tried unsuccessfully to order an Uber. The hum of jackhammers added to the anxiety, and except for the smell of weed in the air, this wasn’t the introduction she had expected.
“It’s not super clean, there’s lots of construction, and we don’t know where to go,” the North Carolinian said, before a Times reporter led her to the shuttle for the designated taxi and ride-share lot.
For decades, the trip in and out of LAX has been one of the most challenging parts of a journey. The serenity of the Pacific Ocean is only two miles away, but that can be difficult to remember as travelers spend an hour on the nightmarish horseshoe loop known as 1 World Way.
I've read about a thousand different versions of this story, and it's true that LAX is no fun. That horseshoe loop gets pretty crowded.
But I've flown in and out of LAX dozens of times, as well as plenty of other airports. It's not that bad. I don't know why Alexa Woodward was "immediately lost" since there are all the usual signs pointing you to rental car lots, long-term parking, hotel shuttles, and so forth. Nor does it take an hour to navigate the loop. I suppose it might at absolutely peak times during the holidays, but in my entire life it's never taken more than ten minutes to make a complete loop. I'll grant that it seems longer, but it's not. And exiting from the central parking lot has always been pretty quick.
The appearance of LAX can be daunting. That loop really is crowded. And yes, there's a lot of construction at the moment. But you basically get in and out the same way as any other airport, and it doesn't really take much longer than it does in any big city.
The only real problem with LAX is that it doesn't have any convenient way of getting from terminal to terminal. That would be a bigger problem if LAX were a popular connecting airport like O'Hare or DFW, but it's not.
So why the hate?
Just connected from Terminal B to Terminal 2 yesterday. Been to the airport a number of times and was still confused as heck. Had to ask - there were zero signs about where to go ... and then you had to go outside and walk along in the fumes ...
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My only recent experiences with LAX have been connecting (both times returning to ABQ). The first from Austin was incredibly easy, since we didn't have to change terminals, but the second (from Mexico) was a fucking mess, having to schlep our luggage outside from one terminal to another about a half mile.
I'm with Kevin on this one, but with the caveat that he and I have been in and out of LAX all our lives, so don't have a newcomer's perspective.
Can't be a bigger hell hole than JFK. I usually avoid LAX like the plague, and haven't flown their in almost 2 decades.
The last time I flew there was over three decades ago. It was awful. Santa Ana, Burbank, Ontario—virtually any alternative is better.
I also fly to Oakland rather than SFO.
"Why the hate?" is a rhetorical flourish, right? I mean, you know the reason.
People, especially conservatives, love to dunk on California, and trash talk it. It is probably fed by the facts that 1) It's clearly engaged in liberal governance and 2) It's clearly prosperous. One of the most prosperous states.
Of course, this ruins a narrative about "keeping taxes low is good for the economy". We have empirical evidence to the contrary.
And while LAX may have a lot of construction and dirt, I will note that that the streets in CA are generally better constructed, with more infrastructure and amenities than equivalent streets in Texas, where I spend a lot of time. Possibly better maintained, too.
I mean things like sidewalks, good curbs, center dividers, left turn lanes, lane width, etc. All seem a bit better in CA. There are a few things I really like about how they do streets/highways in Texas, so I don't think these people are dumb. They are just tightwads. Which is really kind of ok.
But they want their fiscal approach to be God's Truth. And California disrupts that. So they MUST trash talk it.
Of course, there's also the jealousy.
I’m liberal. I love visiting Southern California. LAX is awful.
Ditto.
When I had a transfer there, DFW had a subway that made it very easy. Is that still there or did Abbott trash it? Subways aren't very red state.
I was recently at LAX, and, as usual, it was under construction. It was very active visually, but you don't go to LA for serenity. The last time it was this bad was in 1983/1984 getting ready for the Olympics.
I was also recently at JFK. JFK was worse. It's just a hodge podge of terminals. My parents used to take me there when it was Idlewild to see the jets and watch customs agents tromp on people's alcohol filled chocolates. It was a bit of a mess back then, but it was the future. The future, as we have seen, was a mess.
The airport itself isn't all that bad from my perspective, though I'm not an airport aficionado, and don't really care all that much about how good the clubs are, or what food options I have. The biggest problem lately for us has been the rental car return process. I'm not sure if all of the rental companies are doing this, but even with the big brands, they seem to only service the lower arrivals level, which is to say they drop off and pick up on that level, which is fine if you're being picked up. This is particularly a problem for us (YMMV) because we have two small kids (which means wagon, car seats, suitcases, and backpacks) and we fly United (terminal 7). So A), it takes forever to get to the gate, and we have to arrive an hour earlier than we normally would, and B), by the time we get to terminal 7 to get off, the bus absolutely packed with a ton of people who now all need to get out of the way so we can get our stuff off.
They'd probably spend less time making a departure loop and an arrival loop than they do now by sitting at every terminal waiting for people get off, then get back on. Any rental car company that made this promise would immediately get our business forever.
As someone who grew up with Washington National as the local airport, I think LAX is a surprisingly easy airport to deal with and figure out considering the size of the city. The layout is totally logical and simple to understand.
I grant that in recent years, for some reason I don't get (subway construction maybe?), there is a ton of traffic at very weird and unpredictable times.
It's surprisingly easy to park near the terminals, though I also admit that has gotten somewhat more difficult in recent years.
DCA is far simpler to deal with than LAX and has the benefit of being right on 2 metro lines. LAX sucks to connect at (which a lot of Asian flights require from the east coast) and, even if not connecting, the gigantic cul-de-sac that all the terminals empty out onto is prone to gridlock if even one accident or major holiday or whatever happens. LAX also seems to be dumpier than other US airports, especially the walkways between terminals.
Which version of DCA? The one with the original Main Terminal and sixties-era (guess) “new” terminal, or the one with the long “new new” terminal from the 90s maybe?
What's your gripe with DCA? I find it one of the easiest and most conveniently located airports I know. When I fly into it, I usually have got my checked luggage and am outside for a taxi or metro within 10-15 minutes of touchdown.
Part of the reason for its efficiency may be that it is a domestic only airport, so no international arrivals section with all the additional bureaucracy and security that entails.
Not an expert on airport design either, but although the loop is designed for arrivals on one level and departures on the other, it seems, say, compared to Madrid for example, that LAX is just physically too small.
That manifests in whatever, five one way lanes, always crowded, plus the inner lanes, and if you don't know the airport well (or even if you do) figuring out what lane to be in depending on the terminal, or figuring out where exactly to drop off or pick up is stressful from a lane selection point of view.
Imagine if the loop was twice as big?
And its not as if LAX is not working on trying stuff. I note that a week or so ago at Terminal 2 they now have LED signs for the 15 different airlines which go through that terminal. The fact that the LEDs change, of course, improves accuracy but also adds to stress as you try to figure out where to pull over/drop off.
By comparison, Madrid seems gigantic and spacious. More walking to be sure, but walking seems less stressful than the whole navigation situation.
Well looking at google maps of both LAX and Madrid provides no answer, LAX has 65 Mil passengers a year to Madrid's 50M, but they seem about the same size.
Madrid, of course, has busses and subway directly at the airport. Maybe that alone is it.
I can say that Madrid feels like twice as big when inside it.
The loop and getting to the loop is what keeps our family from flying out of LAX. We'll spend the extra $$ to go down to Santa Ana so we can drop off and pick up without the nightmare of the loop. A couple of years ago it took me 45 minutes from the off ramp on the 105 to the terminal to pick up my husband. That was the last time we booked a flight out of LAX.
All airports are confusing. Except PDX. I mean, it's a very small, simple, but exquisite airport, so it's impossible to be confused or get lost. PDX is quite lax, almost relaxing, with a short film theater, well-known Portland area restaurants, and moving walkways down each concourse.
The only problem with PDX is the main concourse and half the international and the short haul concourses have been closed for construction for like, years.
And some genius decided all foot traffic out needs to cross all foot traffic in to get to luggage (the new exit is literally on the departures level).
And the MAX should have looped under the airport to the city instead taking the scenic route.
People complain about LAX because they’ve never been to EWR (Newark).
I'll take EWR any day over JFK.
Haha!
I visited that one in a flood, it was amazing and... disjointed.
I was surprised to learn that (in 2019) 88% of LAX passengers are beginning or ending their trips there, and only 12% are connecting. I would have figured more would be connecting because of LAX's importance as an international airport.
I wonder if that has changed now that you can get a long-haul flight to Asia even from the east coast.
(the only times I have been to LAX was connecting from domestic to international, and vice-versa)
At one point, the LAX website claimed that it is the busiest airport in the world, in terms of the number of passengers beginning or ending their trips there. Not sure if it true. But I am definitely sure it was not originally designed for that.
Catching an Uber at LAX IS bad - it's not obvious where to go to meet your Uber. Especially so if you're coming from another country and don't have cellular connectivity.
BUT
This is hardly an LAX specific thing! Most large airports now segregate Uber/Lyft to a separate area, most of them make finding that area vastly less obvious than finding the taxi rack, and most of them don't have a helpful story for how to handle connectivity once you go beyond airport WiFi. Not just US airports, but worldwide.
However landing at Burbank or Ontario is definitely a lot easier if your airline does that, and if you don't want/need to be land as close as possible to downtown.
The big problem with LAX is that (like JFK, but not as bad) it looks awful. The interior of Tom Bradley is nice (now...), but the area before security still looks dowdy. And the domestic terminals all look so sad. Compared to say Atlanta or Phoenix or Vegas it just doesn't look so nice. The downside of dating from what, the 50s? the 40s? as opposed to from the 80s.
Haven't been to LAX in a while but picked up some people at Austin Bergstrom recently at 11:30PM and it was amazing crowded.
Wow! The thing you've done "dozens of times" as a CA native proves difficult for an out-of-stater encountering it for the first time -- and you're surprised!
That said, I have probably been through LAX at least once, but it would have been decades ago, so even if I could remember the experience, it would be irrelevant by now.
Indeed. Kevin already “knows” LAX…
Driver as in car service, or driver as in the rather more pedestrian Uber/Lyft?
I don't know exactly why, but the signage/communication that you have to take the bus to get to the Uber/Taxi area is not well done, and I am likewise never sure where to get it, or if I can walk to the Uber/Taxi area. I've been using LAX for 40 years, so the confusion is real.
Other than that I think people need to settle down. it's not really that bad.
Some airports have terrible exit signage. One problem is that there are a lot of options - baggage claim, parking, shuttles, city buses, taxis, Ubers, other terminals, pick up and so on. We usually start following one trail or another, but then they leave out one of the options on a sign and it's confusing. Was there a missed turn? Is there a hard to see sign one should follow? This could be improved, perhaps using icons for each option, but that would require everyone agreeing on the icons and "educating" people starting at the arrival gate. This is a challenge to the people who came up with rectangular person + triangular person + sink = toilet.
Everyone likes to complain about airports. Everyone seems to hate ATL, but for me it's logical and efficient.
I fly to LAX every few years. And I've had to make a connecting flight through LAX a few times (small plane to elsewhere in CA). One time I had an hour and a half for my layover and just barely made it in time! I really don't like LAX. I think it's my least favorite airport, even compared to Newark.
Atlanta can be more crowded, but it's much more straight-forward. Never had problems at Dulles or Reagan. For most of my life I had no idea what O'Hare was really like, because every flight I ever took there was late, so I had to run through it to get my connection (but it was easy to navigate, even at running speed).
I have high standards. When your local airport is Minneapolis-St Paul, which routinely ranks at the top, you get used to good airports.
I once had two hours to make a connection at Charles de Gaulle, and didn't make it.
Personally, I'll take LAX over DFW any day. DFW is a mall through which I am invariably forced to race from one end to the other on a time limit.
Of course this article is just rube-bait, written to give people who like to hate cities something to hate on.
The last time I was at LAX we had to make a death march to get to our connecting flight because our flight from Mexico was an hour late. I ended up with a fracture in a tibia. Other times we had massive crowds as multiple 747's from Asia had arrived. International customs has improved since.
Back in the late 1960's I commuted from San Jose to a job at TRW. TRW had a parking lot at the Tishman building where I could park. A car rental agency was in the building so I rode their bus to my terminal.
I bought my ticket on my first flight out of San Jose in the WW2 Quonset hut.
San Jose terminal C was great, if only because one actually walked outside to get to the airplane.
You ever interact with TRW folks from McClean?
That's like the old Eastern airlines shuttle. It was a ramshackle building at the edge of the field. You got to walk out on the tarmac to get to the plane. One day, there were flight delays, so they set up folding chairs in a hanger for us. You paid on the plane. The signage was minimal. My girlfriend once flew to DC from NY instead of to Boston. It's a long story, but then she had to take two shuttles home.
On a business trip the crew had a layover at DFW. We passed the time riding the shuttle tram from terminal to terminal drinking at each bar. LAX needs a tram loop and bars.
Now do Charles de Gaulle airport.
+10
I could see how for the inexperienced and/or unprepared traveler it can appear daunting, as usually it's pretty apparent how to get to rideshare at most airports, but a quick Google search would tell you about the shuttle to get to the rideshare area, and it's coming through every 5-10 minutes (from several terminals it's an easy walk too).
The plus side of LAX is you can walk on and off pretty easily onto a major road (PCH) with frequent bus service and with a couple hotel lobbies and bars across the street, so I often walk out to avoid the airport premium Uber and get a drink or hop on a bus towards Manhattan and Hermosa Beach.
Yeah, but they took down the Live-Nude-Bowling sign when the live nude bowling alley closed. That was always proof that one had landed in LA and not some other city.
I think Kevin Drum has picked up on and is feeding into the trend of pieces that are "That Thing You're Worried About? It Doesn't Bother Me, Kevin Drum".
LAX is OK, not great but not terrible. It has two strikes against it, it is old and serves a huge number of people. It maybe worked well 40 years ago when traffic was much lighter. Now many more people are trying to get through the same space. SFO has a similar design and similar problems. With a single entry point you get traffic jams no matter which terminal people are going to. Both LAX and SFO would be much better if there were separate loops for cars and buses to access each terminal.
I believe you can actually walk indoors from terminal to terminal. I had time last year and walked between several terminals looking for a certain shop.
They are stuck with a design that seemed modern years ago. Now we have much more information about handling large numbers of people and much more information about how people want to use an airport. Compare the new Delta terminal at DTW compared to the old terminal (now gone). The ceilings are high, the windows huge, lots of shops and it is clean.
Rental cars at LAX are easy to get to. The rental car situation in Texas (I forget if it was Houston or Dallas) was nuts. It was a really long bus ride from the rental car building to the terminals. Denver is similar.
Generally, newer and smaller airports are nicer.
There's also the increased security since 9/11. A lot of airports took forever to remodel with unified secure and insecure areas.
Living in Atlanta I’m familiar with large airport fun. Finding the Uber/Lyft area somewhere in the middle of perpetual construction happens here too
That said, I have, twice, had the uniquely LAX experience of completely unannounced gate changes
The big issue is making a connection through LAX and having to get from the domestic to the international terminal or vice versa. It's a long hike and means reentering security. Yes, there are shuttles, but most of them seem to be hauling LAX workers to and from parking lots. It took us over an hour to take a shuttle that runs "every 20 minutes". It took us the long way around the loop, if we had realized we could have saved a lot of time and just walked the opposite short way.
I thought LAX was OK earlier this year. Sort of nasty bathroom down near baggage claim, then could not easily find the Flyaway bus stop to Union station. But it was all fine. No free lounge in LAX with my Chase Visa card is a bummer.
Paris CDG in November was wacky when not having much time to get to my Berlin connecting flight. You need three hours at least between flights there if you are clearing border control, other wise too much stress!
At least it isn't LaGuardia. That's like taking a bus to Mexico.
"Our driver" ?
That photo is not from the Uber/Lift area, which is almost a mile away from that location. So did you have limo service? Might not be the typical experience.
I am a New Yorker and I hate pretty much everything about LA. Any place you need a car to get around is NOT a city.
But LAX is.... fine.