The only airports I've ever seen worse than this were in the Third World.

Outside of Heathrow, this is the worst airport I know. Above all, it's unsafe, in the terminal and out. Magellan mentioned the recent violence inside, and pilots hate it because it's overly congested, resulting in a record for near-collisions. Fortunately, LAX can be avoided ... there are many other, better airports in the L.A. area.

I guess you can rate LAX as moderately good or moderately bad, depending on your point of view.

Outside of it being in the middle of Los Angeles, I never understood what the big deal was with LAX. And based on my recent visit there when dropping off my younger sister, the service there seems to be second rate. I cannot argue that this airport is user friendly and accessible when the airline staff and we were at odds with our accomodations, and at the same time were hessitant to help. In our specific case, we got to the airport early, only to be told that the airline my sister was riding on needed another ticket from an unrelated airline on the other side of the airport- and that we had to get it ourselves. And after some running back to and back ourselves since the accomodations were not accurate to the agreed upon itinerary, airline personel had the gall to tell us that the ticket was printed wrong and that we would have to go back to get it again reissued (with only 45 minutes to go before boarding). Luckily, they let my sister on, but so much wasted time and no apologies on their part. I'm pretty sure that this is an isolated case and LAX has its upside to it. But for my sister and I, we probably will stick to San Francisco International (SFO) from now on where service is superb!

The L.A. airport wants to renovate this sorry excuse for an airport. I have a better idea...blow it up, start from scratch, and we will have a MUCH better airport. This airport has NO redeeming qualities to it! The layout is horrible! The people who work there (regardless of airline or vendor) are totally incompetent. I would have to place a plastic bag over my head for five minutes to kill enough brain cells to understand how they think. If you have to buy food, avoid the Burger King in Terminal 4 as the lines are always long and those who work there are complete morons. The flight attendants based out of there are really nice, though. If you have to get to the airport from somewhere else, the 405 and 105 freeways are giant parking lots during all hours of the day and night. In summary, fly out of Long Beach, John Wayne, Burbank or Ontario before EVER flying out of this place. Connect through LAX if you have to, but if you are going to the L.A. area, use alternate airports as ALL are much better!

I used to pray that a missile would hit this sesspool. I will not go to LAX. Period. I hate the town and I loathe the airport. It is the worst America has done.

You wanna talk about a terrible airport!!! This place never gets better for the 20 years I have lived in Southern CA....no,no,no....it gets worse. Security is nice now...because they work for the government...before they were very rude and careless. I was wearing shorts, a shirt, and sandals...no problems. Those not so lucky...was pretty much everyone else! The security is a little lacking, so expect to wait a long, long time. I flew on a red eye, and ended up waiting for 20-30 minutes. LAX also makes it very difficult for the 1st time vistor to understand where the terminals are. They had one baggage carousel for 6 different airlines....because the others were being rebuilt. That was not the bad part...the bad part was the way they mixed all the luggage together and didn't tell you which airline was putting luggage on the conveyor.....a waste of an hour sifting through 100's of pieces of luggage. The stupidest thing I saw was a Japanese airline flight who was told that their luggage was going to placed at our carousel....but while we were there, they announced in English that the their baggage was being sent to another carousel. Unfortunately, it looked like many did not understand English, since they were still waiting for their luggage at our carousel. The location of the airport gives the best representation of LA by giving tourists the impression that LA actually looks like Compton. This airport has really got to improve its image....one really does not want to fly out of this airport, except out of extreme necessity. In the future, I will definitely shell out the extra $100 to fly out of Orange County.

Their airport code (LAX) perfectly describes their service.

The WORST airport I have ever had the misfortune to visit. I have been through LA airport at least 10 times, and each time has been a drama and full of stress. Long, long queues, you have to pay for a trolley, and have to wait around for ages to get a bus to take you to a different terminal. A nightmare to be avoided at all costs!

Way too much walking and confusion simply to change planes.

An awful airport. Always chaotic, huge hikes to get everywhere, crazy security lines, and you'll find major airlines that make you check in at one terminal, and then hike two terminals (or take a bus) to get to your gate (see American Airlines). The recent shootings make it an even less attractive place to travel from, to, or through.