They call this place an airport??!! (Los Angeles International Airport (LAX))

Member Name: jaylad

Product:	Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Date:	26/05/03 (564 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well served by many airlines, Good gateway to the pacific region

Disadvantages: Too busy, long queues, Very badly designed, crazy taxi charges, Lack of any sort of information

It is no surprise that Los Angeles International airport is regularly voted one the worst airports in the world. Old, over-crowded and so noisy you can’t hear yourself think.
We arrived at Los Angeles airport (LAX) to be greeted by complete chaos just like the other 400 people off the same flight, and there is not much to be said about the place other than constant nightmares!

We arrived on a Virgin Atlantic flight, who use the crumbling and ‘compact’ terminal 2 which I was later told one of the nicer terminals, (poor people who have to use the others) and were met with the longest queue for immigration Ive ever seen. Basically, one Virgin flight arrival seems to bring the entire terminal to a complete standstill and the staff simply cannot cope.
There were only three immigration desks open and one was for US citizens which was even longer than the tourist ones! Infact many US citizens were in the tourist queue simply for the fact it was quicker!

Of course you have to fill in about three forms now for the US (which your given on the plane) and people come round in the queue and tell your if its filled in correctly, and of course many people haven’t so there’s people on the floor and all over the place filling out another.
Bearing in mind the immigration hall is about the size of a tennis court there really isn’t much room. We queued for about an hour, and we were one of the first off the plane!
Secondly this area is not air-conditioned, not that I’am fussy, but after getting off an 11 hour flight, you could imagine how tired, exhausted and hot I was (was very hot on the plane) not to mention it was a mild 34 degrees outside!

Once through immigration and into the baggage hall, we were met with hundreds of bags literally falling off a completely inadequate baggage carousel. There were actually two carousels dispensing the bags for our flight but only one was signed so it was a guessi
ng game as to which one yours were on.
Baggage trolleys are free, amazingly. That would have been the final insult!, but I do hear that in other terminals you have to pay 2 dollars!!!!!

Once you have passed another desk where they question your luggage and you give them more forms, you can leave. The arrivals area where meeting people wait is just complete chaos and the arrivals hall is about the size of your local post office. Of course there are literally hundreds of people waiting and you must push your way through the crowd to get outside (where even more people are waiting!) and if your as tired as I was, you’ll certainly be woken up with the noise of so many people and constant announcements that seem to be in every language other than English.

After getting my breath back, and trying to keep awake, I nearly walked right out onto what is a six-lane carriageway that goes straight past the terminal! I am surprised they allow such a fast road right outside the building!?? So we agreed to just sit down outside for ten minutes and have a drink, only to be met by one of several fanatics trying to give you books and herbal remedies and then want lots of money for them!!

I went back into the terminal, and after fighting the crowds I finally found a closed information desk (There are no signs anywhere). Myself wanting to know how to get to downtown, I asked some airport cleaners about trains to the centre. Not only will most people dispute the fact they have ever heard of a train here, but most locals will even contest there is any sort of public transport in LA and some find it amusing that you’ve even asked!
Not one car hire desk was open or manned (and this was during the day) so I thought ‘never mind’, lets save money and take the bus! (Oh what fun)

Well, you don’t need to speak to many people from Los Angeles to realise that this is the most difficult way of getting about!!!
After wai
ting for about half an hour for any sort of bus (which never came) we decided that a taxi was the only option. After speaking Spanish to the taxi attendant (yes Spanish) we finally got a taxi to our hotel which initially ‘didn’t exist’ but the driver finally managed to locate after lots of me again speaking Spanish to him even though I can barely manage the word ‘please’ in the language! The taxi was fifty dollars, yes fifty dollars and I said we could of probably flown to Las Vegas for that.

We thought when returning to the airport at the end of our holiday, it couldn’t be as bad. Wrong.
We got to check-in six hours before the flight, to find a closed Virgin check-in area. Understandably closed, we were early, but when they only opened it 3 hours before the departure time it totally defeated the object of getting their early (and boy, you want to get here early..!) Only three desks were ever opened for a full flight (I know this isn’t the airports fault, more like Virgins)
Now the queue to get through security was huge, basically like the worst queue you’ve experienced at Disney, multiplied by ten, hence the reason why you gotta get here very, very early!!!!
Even air-crew have to queue with the passengers in the same queue for some strange reason. The only exception seemed to be Air New Zealand passengers who got whisked straight through either because they were late or because they seem to have more flights from this terminal than anybody else! What going on there??!!
Once past security, you may want to look at the shops, or shop. For an airport the size of this would expect better choice, but one shop (I believe another has now opened) is silly. There are two or three places to eat though.
In the lounge there is very little to do other than stare out the window. Bad considering you haven’t even started the awful flight yet. We met some Australians who said they had never been to s
uch a terrible airport!

The last thing you must do is board your flight. Well, nothing wrong there then, wrong. If you had bought duty-free like us, then you are only allowed to collect it when boarding the plane. So just before you step on-board, there are loads of white bags all thrown on the floor (and you are not allowed to locate yours until they actually start boarding). There is a huge scramble whilst everyone tries to find there duty free and its just crazy! Flight wasn’t delayed though, just as well!

Summary: