LAX Airport lines and procedures...

[LuvTigger]

I'm going to be travelling to LA next week and was wondering if people could share their experiences with waits in check-in lines recently?

I travelled once after September 11 (beginning October), but it was to Las Vegas and we only had a brief layover in Oakland.

I'm departing LAX on a Saturday around 6:30 p.m., United Airlines, if anyone can offer any insight.

Thanks!
=)

 

[Michelle]

Check-in and airport security lines run pretty smoothly at LAX, actually.

United is in Terminal 7, and according to the United website, you can plan on these wait times:

Ticket counter hours of operation: 4:30am-11:30pm daily

Security line information:

Peak times: 6:30am-8:30am/10:30am-12:30pm/8:00pm-9:30pm
Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Peak security line wait: 40 plus minutes

Off-peak security line wait: 10-15 minutes

*EasyCheck-in units are available at curbside on the departure level, in the United lobby, in the Red Carpet Club and in Satellite Terminals 7 and 8 near the entrances.
*Priority Security Line available for United First, Mileage Plus 1K, Premier Executive and STAR Alliance Gold members

Plan on arriving at the airport at least two hours early and you'll be fine.

 

[jillhou]

We will be going to LAX for the first time later this month. How difficult is it to get luggage and to your rental car? We are renting from AVIS.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>UA sounds better than the Southwest lines, which can be up to an hour & a half or more at peak times.

Anyways.... getting luggage is easy - just have your claim checks ready for when you leave because they do check. The luggage is downstairs, and flights are stated on the electronic boards.

The various rental car agencies have shuttles that continuously run, so just ask a sky cab person where to go to get the shuttle you need. The pick-up areas are clearly marked with signs hanging.

 

[Zimbubba]

We were just there Sunday. The lines were well over an hour and a half for security. Plan ahead!

 

[LuvTigger]

Hi everyone, thanks for all of the tips!

Just wanted to let everyone know that things went smoothly at LAX. There weren't any lines at United. The only thing that took a while was they have one of those super-xray machines, so basically I checked in one line to get a boarding pass, then had to lug my luggage to another line to get scanned by the xray. The scary thing is I can see how it would be easy for them to miss-tag people's luggage...you have to make sure they are tagging your luggage with your destination, and not someone else's. The security line took a few minutes, and they checked my bag, but all-in-all, it was painless and took probably 20-25 minutes total. (This was a Saturday, around 4:30 p.m.)

Someone asked about rental cars...at LAX, none of the rental car agencies are in the terminal, you will have to catch a shuttle. You exit from the baggage claim area (and as one of the above posters mentioned, have the claim checks ready, they DO check), and cross to the median, where they have all the shuttles to the rental car agencies and such.

We arrived at the airport about 2 hours ahead of time and it allowed enough time to check-in, get through security, grab a drink at Starbucks, and sit down for a little while before boarding.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[Chipmunk]

We had an hour wait to check into united. Security line was a nightmare. We got on one line that was three rows across and about 100 people in each line. Since I was at the back of the line I noticed some people going to the other end of the terminal. I guessed that line couldn't be as long and I was right. I only had to wait 45 minutes to get through security. I might had missed my flight if I stayed in origional line.

 

[Judy from Boise]

we just flew Boise to LAX and onto Maui the next day, then in reverse......we never had any problems.....maybe 20 minutes max to get through the security line. Of course we showed up 120 minutes early so it was easy to stay calm

alos, in 4 trips through LAX, they never checked our baggage once we claimed it ! wierd.