okay so i literally just landed at lax like five minutes ago and honestly its already been an experience you know like i flew in and now i gotta catch another flight and its just a whole thing and ive done a few layovers here before so i figured id just dump all my thoughts and some recomended tips here cause holy moly this airport is a beast and youre gonna need a game plan if youre connecting flights here or youll basically just be lost and probably miss your flight and thats not fun for anyone.
first off its huge and spread out and there are like nine terminals that arent really connected in a super easy way so youre often gonna need to take a shuttle bus or walk kinda far and it feels like a maze sometimes but once you figure out the system its a little less intimidating but still chaotic and there are just so many people everywhere and the food options are okay but sometimes the lines are super long and you just want to get to your gate without any drama.
The connection game plan
alright so my number one piece of advice for connecting at lax is to honestly know your terminals and if you gotta switch terminals give yourself extra extra time cause those shuttles can take a minute and sometimes they are full and you gotta wait for the next one and its just stressful and you dont want to be sprinting across the airport like some action movie character trust me ive seen it happen and its never pretty and youre probabaly gonna be sweating a lot too which is gross.
Do you have enough time?
this is like the million dollar question honestly and basically it depends entirely on your specific situation but heres my general rule and its really important and basically i tell everyone this like if youre on one ticket and its all domestic to domestic flights then id say two hours minimum is usually okay but if its international to domestic or vice versa or if youre changing airlines and have to pick up bags you absolutely need three hours maybe even more like seriously dont skimp on time here because lax does not care about your schedule it just cares about being busy and having a lot of traffic both plane and car wise.
heres the deal with your bags and its super annoying sometimes:
- if you just landed from an international flight like mexico city or london or whatever then yep you are going to have to pick up your checked bags no matter what even if your final destination is on the same ticket and then you gotta haul them through customs.
- after customs you usually recheck your bags at a specific area right after customs but make sure its going to the right place and they are tagged correctly cause its your responsibility basically.
- but if youre flying domestic to domestic and its all on the same ticket with the same airline or partner airlines then usually your bags are checked all the way through to your final destination and you dont have to worry about them which is a huge relief honestly.
- if youre flying on separate tickets or different airlines that arent partners then its a whole different story and you almost always have to collect your bags and then recheck them at the next airlines counter which adds like another hour to your connection time easily.
and then theres the security situation which is another headache:
- if you come in internationally like i said you have to go through customs and then yep you literally have to go through tsa security all over again even if you just went through it in your origin country and its just a waste of time but you gotta do it so plan for that line.
- for domestic to domestic flights if you stay within the secure area of the airport and dont exit the terminal then you usually dont have to go through security again which is awesome and saves you a ton of time.
- but if you have to switch terminals and those terminals arent connected airside and you have to take a shuttle on the ground then you will have to re-clear security at your new terminal and its just another bottleneck and another long line you gotta deal with.
- pro tip always keep your boarding pass handy and your id ready cause youre gonna be showing it a lot and make sure your liquids are in the right size bottles or they will literally throw them away.
so basically just be prepared for anything at lax and dont underestimate the time it takes to get from one gate to another and grab a snack if you have time because you never know if your next flight will be delayed and you dont want to be hangry and remember its a big place so just try to stay calm and follow the signs and honestly you’ll eventually get where youre going it just might take a minute.