LAX was NBD (Plus used Super Shuttle)

[deejdigsdis]

While planning my most recent trip, I looked for LAX reviews. Most of them included words like "nightmare" and "never again." Just wanted to share my experience on May 14, 2019.

I have always flown into SNA and love that smaller airport and closer proximity to Disneyland. As I was looking at flight prices this time around, I found that flights were literally half the price if I flew into LAX as opposed to SNA. I wondered if it would be worth it so I searched the DIS a bit. I came away thinking perhaps I shouldn't have been so quick to agree to fly into LAX.

But, I had a great experience. Flew in on Delta, landed at Terminal 2. Came off the plane, used the restroom right near the gate, easily found baggage claim downstairs. Luggage was already there. Picked up my one checked bag, grabbed my car seat from the oversized baggage area right near the luggage carousel. I had booked a Super Shuttle shared ride for 4 the day before. $82 total including tip, one way to Grand Legacy at the Park. I had received a text after landing, welcoming me and inviting me to check in. I didn't check in right away because I didn't know how far away my luggage was or how far away the shuttle pick up area was, so I waited until after I picked up my luggage before clicking the check in link. We stepped right outside baggage claim, and saw a Super Shuttle sign outside the door and to the right. That's actually when I clicked check in -- when I saw the sign. There wasn't nearly as much walking and waiting as I was expecting in this larger airport. A couple minutes after I checked in, they texted back and told me what shuttle number my party of 4 was assigned to. We walked over to the waiting area by the sign, and there were maybe 10 people already waiting. Our assigned shuttle pulled up shortly and we hopped on with a few other people waiting. (Others waiting before we got there must not have checked in ahead of time.)

We stopped at one more terminal to pick up one more passenger and then we were off to Harbor Blvd. All passengers were dropped off on Harbor. We drove down one side of the street, then turned around and drove up the other side, making stops along the way. We were the last of 6 stops, which I was actually hoping for, to give my 2 year old a longer nap before heading into Disneyland. We were on the shuttle for a little over an hour total.

I don't know if Terminal 2 is a better location than the others? Smaller? There just wasn't that much walking to get to where we needed to be, no confusing signage, etc. I couldn't figure out why the word "nightmare" was used multiple times in other reviews. I would for sure fly into LAX and use Super Shuttle again. (I flew out of SNA because flight prices weren't that much higher than LAX, and I didn't have to leave Disneyland as early to get to the airport.)

 

[midnight star]

I think some of the advice about LAX is a little dramatic. I live not too far from there, so I just know how to maneuver around very well. And even before living near it, I never had any issues. Yeah it's big, but, it's an international airport lol. It could just be preference. With traffic it can be far from the parks.

 

[PinkHelloKitty]

we always fly into LAX and have never experienced any of the nightmare I always read about. As much as we would prefer to fly into SNA it's significantly cheaper and we have more flight options available as we fly in from Canada

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

I had a worse time flying in and out of San Diego. LAX has never been a problem for me.

Omaha, on the other hand...I will fly somewhere else and drive there to visit my DD. I will never fly into that airport again. Everyone...the people at SW, the TSA, the janitors, the people at the coffee shop...were so negative. Refusals to help (SW...they screwed my other DD's flights up and didn't help at all to get her where she needed to go); the bathrooms were not clean at all and the two janitors were sitting on a bench outside them for over an hour; TSA was just flat out rude to people; and the coffee shop people were just not at all friendly.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Landing at LAX and getting out is never really a problem, other than dealing with traffic.

Arriving on the other hand at peak times or where there are system wide delays...when things go wrong, they go REALLY wrong at LAX and the problems compound exponentially quicker then they do at smaller airports. Those are many of the nightmares you hear about. When things are hummin, LAX is as you noted NBD.

It is not always a cluster, but when it is you will know what they were talking about!

 

[DLgal]

But have you flown back home yet? Flying OUT of LAX is usually where the nightmares happen.

I'm glad it was easy for you, but I had to fly back home via LAX on May 5 when I had to change flights due to a delay that would have kept me in Phoenix overnight. I landed at LAX at 9:45pm. I was still waiting for my bags an hour later. I walked out with my luggage at 11:13pm. Got on a Hertz shuttle (had to rent a car one way to get back home...cheaper than Uber/Lyft due to the late time and surge pricing plus distance. It took until 12:30 to get to the rental car place. I got home at 1:15. So, it took me over 3 HOURS what would have taken no more than 30 minutes at SNA.

 

[Kittyskyfish]

We always fly into LAX because we can get a direct flight for half the cost of the other airports. Since our travels occur in December, we only do direct flights because we don't want to risk winter weather delays and getting stranded in the connecting city.

LAX is large, but you stay within one single terminal footprint for your arrival/departure, bag claim and transportation shuttles or taxi service. I think the signage is clear and if the terminal is a long walk...aren't we a Disneyland forum? Don't we walk ~10 miles per day going from ride to ride? Walking from the gate to baggage is like going from Main Street to Adventureland. Ok, maybe New Orleans Square from some gates. lol

Landing at LAX and getting out is never really a problem, other than dealing with traffic.

Arriving on the other hand at peak times or where there are system wide delays...when things go wrong, they go REALLY wrong at LAX and the problems compound exponentially quicker then they do at smaller airports. Those are many of the nightmares you hear about. When things are hummin, LAX is as you noted NBD.

It is not always a cluster, but when it is you will know what they were talking about!

You don't spend much time at JFK and LaGuardia airports. Both of those airports and the surrounding traffic situations of NYC are certifiable dumpster-fires compared to LAX.

 

[2 Pinks]

I'm glad to read you had a good experience. I booked our flights into LAX for the same reason - prices where nearly half what we would have spent flying into SNA and we had better time options. But then in reading some of the forum posts, I started regretting that decision.

Trying to take it all with a grain of salt as what might bother some, might not be as big a deal to others. Your post has given me hope!

 

[Steven G]

I may be a bit jaded, since I have flown a lot in and out of O'Hare in Chicago, but LAX is not really too bad.

It's main problem is the traffic getting in and out of the airport, and if you have a connecting flight and required to go to a different terminal, that can be difficult due to it's layout and traffic.

The actual airport part of it is not too bad.

I too would prefer to fly into SNA, but it's often a lot more expensive.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

We have flown in and out of LAX for Disneyland trips twice, and never had an issue. We've used Uber to go between DLR and LAX three times, and once tried out Disneyland Express. Both were totally fine as well! For us, LAX is typically half the price of SNA, so worth the extra Uber cost and a bit of our time.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I flew in and out of LAX 12/2019. It was not bad at all. There was a delay getting into the departure terminal though and the uber/lyft driver turned off their light and took me to arrivals.

DH and I are flying in at LAX in Nov. The times just worked out better for us. We saved like 10,000 miles-not a big deal.

I’m glad to hear you had a good supershuttle experience. We had a terrible time upon arrival the last time we used it. But I may consider it for our departure next trip. We’ll uber/lyft to the hotel.

With our kids we will absolutely fly in and out of SNA. They can’t deal with visual overstimulation and SNA has a much calmer atmosphere.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Its a little congested due to how small the terminals are. And God help you if you have to transfer between the two Delta terminals. It just feels really dated for the biggest airport on the West Coast that greets so many international travelers. Im not confused by it or do I think it takes too long(security was pretty quick actually) I just think its such a subpar airport facility and amenities wise.

And apparently a lot of people agree.

https://moneywise.com/a/americas-worst-airports

 

[lilmissfoodie]

Depending on time of the day and day of the week, you can get around a lot of the traffic inside the airport by using the departure level for an arrival and vice-versa. For example, on Monday mornings, there are a ton of people leaving. So even if you are departing on a Monday morning, use the arrival level as there will be a lot less traffic (you just have to use an escalator or elevator to get to the proper level). It's reversed on Friday evenings. These are just 2 examples that I use most often. LAX (and Waze or Google maps) show traffic inside the airport so you can use those to determine which level is less crowded.

Personally, I'm not a fan of SNA (and I live in the OC so it's, by far, the closest airport). That's mostly due to outdated reasons. In the past, they used to take off at a high AOA or angle of attack (i.e. very steeply), then after they got out a little, throttle back to idle for noise abatement. I've heard they've changed this policy a number of years ago. Also, prior to airplane manufacturers adding in winglets, the Boeing 757 used to create an inordinate amount of down draft and it caused a few accidents and SNA for planes flying too close. Now it's really down to just the high cost that causes me to avoid that airport. Now that more airlines are using Long Beach, that's become an alternate sometimes when the fares there aren't too bad.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think some of the advice about LAX is a little dramatic.

Agreed.

Landing at LAX and getting out is never really a problem, other than dealing with traffic.

Arriving on the other hand at peak times or where there are system wide delays...when things go wrong, they go REALLY wrong at LAX and the problems compound exponentially quicker then they do at smaller airports. Those are many of the nightmares you hear about. When things are hummin, LAX is as you noted NBD.

It is not always a cluster, but when it is you will know what they were talking about!

That’s just a bigger airport issue.

Walking into a mess with United at SeaTac was not that different from walking into a mess with Delta at lax.

It wouldn’t be as big of a deal at a smaller airport simply because there aren’t as many flights or passengers to deal with.


I was flying delta out of lax the day in 2016 that all delta computers were offline. It was a bad bad day for delta. But the airport part of it was fine, even though the number of people made the ac system fail a bit. Employees came around with free bottled water. It was lovely.

And we were just there two weekends ago for the minion run at USH, and all was well. The delta terminal is gorgeous now.

The only issue we had was our rideshare out, but that was bc the Lyft driver and I had different definitions of what “directly under the rideshare sign” meant AND there were two jerky Uber drivers in those boxy Kias sitting side by side, blocking everything behind them for the entire time we were waiting.