If you have a choice, never
EVER fly out of LAX! Their pre-security procedures are ridiculously slow. You'll wait in longer lines than the most crowded day at
Disneyland, and there's no fun ride at the end. I flew into LAX in July and it was no big deal, but flying
out a few days later went like this:
45-50 min.: Wait in a confusing mass of non-lines to check in, even with an e-ticket (Alaska Air, though I'd bet most airlines were similar).
20 min.: Wait in a line to tell some TSA dude that yes, my suitcase was unlocked
15 min.: Wait in a line that extended out from the terminal and along the curb, so someone could check my boarding pass and give me permission to go up the escalator! Talk about a waste of time! At best, this process eliminated a teensy bit of crowding in front of the actual security checkpoint. Big deal.
10 min.: Get through security checkpoint. This was actually not a bad wait at all, especially for such a busy airport. But getting up to it was god-awful. I was glad I'd gotten there with plenty of time before my departure or I'd have been super-stressed.
I don't know if this is true anymore, but it used to be that a lot of airlines would let you fly into one airport and out of another (in the L.A. area) and still considered it a round trip. Worth checking into, that's for sure.
