How To Travel at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

Is Los Angeles International Airport The Utter Nightmare People Think It Is?

If you’re traveling to Southern California, there’s a very good chance you’ll fly into Los Angeles International Airport, the notoriously busy airport in SoCal that sits right along the coastline. International travelers in particular will often need to fly into LAX because of its huge international terminal. I’ve found that traveling internationally from Los Angeles (unless you’re going to Mexico) requires a trip to LAX because the smaller airports in the region are usually more expensive when you’re looking at international tickets.

Actually, the other airports in the region are almost always more expensive even when you’re flying domestically. I’ve flown to Colorado a few times now, and I would have enjoyed flying out of Burbank Airport due to its excellent proximity to where I live, but using that airport would have cost me hundreds of dollars more versus flying out of Los Angeles International Airport on the other side of town.

Having lived in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, I’ve been to the airport loads of times as a traveler for domestic and international flights, as well as a driver to pick up friends and family. As such, I feel like I’ve learned how to navigate the airport much better than someone who’s never flown into Southern California before. I’ve also experienced some quite hellish airports around the United States, and I don’t think LAX deserves its terrible reputation.

Honestly, the airport is very simply laid out, and each of the terminals are ridiculously easy to get to in a car. There are even loads of buses you can use when you rent a car and drop it off a mile away from the airport in the rental car pickup zone. If you compare LAX to an airport like Logan in Boston (worst airport in the United States if you’re picking someone up!), it’s just so much easier to get in and out of the airport without getting ridiculously confused about how to get there and get to your flight.

Now, I’m not here to say that LAX is a harmonious and peaceful place to fly, because there are some SERIOUS traffic issues at the airport. However, as long as you account for the time it will take you to get in or out of the airport and get your luggage, the overall process is really straightforward, and there are even a few tricks I can share with you to make your travel in and out of the airport a little easier.

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How Early to Arrive at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)?

If you follow the general advice of arriving at LAX two hours early for domestic flights and three hours early for international flights, you shouldn’t have any problems making your flight, even if the lines are long. The only time when the lines may get exceptionally and exorbitantly long is during Thanksgiving, which is a holiday in the fourth week of November (Thanksgiving is always on the fourth Thursday of the month).

Thanksgiving is the time in the United States that sees more travel than any other time of the year – even Christmas. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is usually one of the busiest travel days of the year, and the following Sunday is another. If you fly on either of those days, the lines can get quite incredibly long, and you may need every ounce of time to reach your flight.

In all the years I’ve been flying in and out of the airport, I’ve never actually had to run to an international flight. When I recently flew to Colombia, I arrived right around three hours early, and the lines to drop off our luggage were quite long, and we had to wait a while in the security line, too. However, even though we must have waited close to an hour to give our luggage to the airport personnel, we still made it to our gate with almost an hour to spare before the flight.

Now, it’s important to remember that getting to the airport three hours early is a lot different than leaving for the airport three hours early. It’s helpful to consider how much time it’ll take to get into the airport via whatever option you use for drop-off (often a taxi or ride share). Note that Americans measure distance in time, so even though the map might tell you that the airport is just 10 miles away, that could easily be an hour with heavy traffic.

You may find it helpful to look at a map on the day before your departure, just to see what the traffic is like. If your flight is at 7 PM and you plan on getting to the airport at 4 PM, note that the rush hour traffic will be quite thick by that time. Rush hour for the afternoon starts a little after 2 PM and goes all the way until 6:30 or 7 PM

Tips for Getting In And Out of LAX

Always take note of when your flight takes off and whether you’ll be traveling in rush hour traffic, because that’s one of the biggest impacts on your timing. If you’re leaving the airport and you find yourself falling quite behind, you can ask your driver to drop you at arrivals rather than departures if the lines for departures look exceptionally long.

When you arrive at LAX, much of the traffic is funneled into an upper deck (departures) or the lower deck (arrivals). Depending on the time of day, you can save time by getting dropped off at arrivals rather than departures. All you have to do is take a staircase up to departures. You can also save time when someone picks you up at the airport by having them head to the departure (upper) level.

Sometimes, it’s a literal ghost town up there on the second level while it’s a busy fracas down below with everyone arriving. If you can tell that the whole airport is quite busy when you arrive, you can also choose to walk into the airport on foot, which may save you some money on how your taxi fare. Who likes watching a taxi fare go up and up while sitting in traffic?

Even if you’re traveling with a roller bag and a backpack, it’s not too difficult to get dropped off at the In-N-Out near the airport (it’s just north of the airport, and it’s where a lot of travelers get cheeseburgers before they leave Los Angeles). It takes about 20 minutes to walk from In-N-Out to Terminal One at the start of the LAX horseshoe.

You can also get dropped off at one of the hotels that’s just to the east of the airport and then walk right into the airport’s departure level. Obviously, this takes a little time, but if you’re facing a really long international flight, you might appreciate the walking you do before you find yourself sitting in an economy seat for 13 hours on a flight to Taipei.

Understanding the Layout of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

One of the features that makes LAX super easy to get around is its design. It’s just a giant horseshoe with terminals numbered in sequential order around it. If you fly in and out of the airport regularly, you’ll get to know where different airlines have their gates. Southwest is always at Terminal One and United is always at Terminal Seven.

The one thing you’ll want to remember is that if you’re flying internationally, you’ll fly out of the terminal that’s at the very middle (or bottom, if you’re looking at it like a U-shape) of the airport. Oddly, it’s called “Terminal B” even though all the other terminals are numbered. But note that not every single international flight goes out of Terminal B. Make sure you check your tickets for information on where you’re departing from.

If you have a lay-over in another American airport for the flight you booked, you might fly out of one of the domestic terminals. For example, if you’re flying to Paris but you have a layover in Newark, New Jersey, don’t assume that you’ll fly out of Terminal B (international terminal) because your final destination is outside the United States. You might fly out of Terminal 3 on a Delta flight and then go to an international terminal when you arrive in New Jersey.

It’s almost impossible to get lost when you’re flying in or out of LAX. It’s literally so straight forward that there’s just a single way to get into the airport and a single way to get out of it. Obviously, you have the choice of getting on a variety of roads that will take you out of the airport once you’ve reached the end, but even if you have to circle around a few times, it’s just two levels in a horseshoe. Upstairs is departures, and downstairs is arrivals. Easy!

All it takes is a check of your boarding pass as to where you’ll need to go once you enter the airport. You’ll either see a number that corresponds to one of the domestic terminals or a “B” for the international terminal. If you’re taking a ride share or a taxi to the airport, your driver may know what terminal you’re departing from before you do, just based on your airline.

What Sucks About LAX?

Not everything is easy and straightforward at Los Angeles International Airport. I have to say that the traffic getting in and out of LAX is often terrible, and it’s the biggest unknown whether you’re arriving at the airport or leaving. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re arriving in the middle of the night or during rush hour. The roads going in and out of the airport are almost always busy.

Another issue that’s become annoying over time is the lack of food in the terminals. I mean, sure, there are restaurants, but they’re not always open, and the lines to get coffee are always really, really long. Since you might find yourself sitting in front of your gate for a couple hours, you may find yourself getting hungry, which can make your flight a little difficult when you’re flying a class that doesn’t receive a meal or with a company that doesn’t serve food on the flight.

LAX is also not centrally located in Los Angeles, so unless you’re staying right near the beach, it’s going to take some time to get to the airport. I lived right next to the airport for several years, and I didn’t know how good I had it until I moved closer to downtown, which is several miles to the east of the airport. If you’re staying in Anaheim on a visit to Disneyland, you’ll need to budget at least an hour just to reach the airport let alone get to the gate.

Outside of the location and the crowding, you shouldn’t find it too difficult to fly in and out of LAX. As I write this, the airport is currently building some people-movers that will take passengers to a more convenient area outside the airport, which should alleviate some of the crowding at the terminals. Also, there are some buses you can take to the airport, should you find yourself staying an hour or more away from it.

Once you’ve flown in and out of LAX once, you’ll have the process down, and you really shouldn’t have any significant problems. All you have to do is allot the right amount of time to get to the airport (and pack snacks!), and you should find it pretty straightforward to use the airport. There’s no reason to feel nervous about coming into or leaving LAX. It’s a simple airport, even if it is one of the busiest on the planet.

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