Not a fan of LAX, but I friggin hate transiting through FRA.
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Anybody ever fly through St. Petersburg in Russia? Unless it’s been improved since 2010, it’s on my worst list.
LAX - I’d rather be repeatedly punched in the face for 12 hours than fly out of LAX. That airport is an absolute nightmare and calling it the world’s worst isn’t hyperbole in the least.
The hidden gem that didn’t make their list is RSW in Ft Myers. Built after 9/11 it is the first US airport to have all of the newly required safety features built in, which certainly helps both its aesthetics and foot-traffic flow. Beyond that, everything is a breeze to get in and out of. My favorite feature of the airport is that the Long Term Parking shuttle picks up you from, and drops you off at your car. Everything at the airport is designed to make a traveler’s life easier.
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Build a damn subway in your stupid city or STFU.
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Have lived in LA for 24 years and love LAX. Just never fly out of any terminal except Terminal 1. And park next door at the Park N Fly. Easy Peasy.
You do realise that this advice is both impractical and useless, right? Some folks can’t or don’t fly Southwest, and even if they did your advice doesn’t scale - ponder how much you’d still love flying out of LAX if everyone ‘just never flew out of any terminal except Terminal 1. And parked next door at the Park N Fly.’
If a particular facility is only useful if you follow very specific and narrow rules, then that facility isn’t really very useful.
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I took the tube the last time. Head room was a bit limited but otherwise I thought it was an okay way to get around. Probably easier overall than MEL which doesn’t have a train.
edit: I used LAX once and thought it was okay but I was transiting from the east coast so getting to the airport was a lot easier.
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It was seriously renovated since 2010. Has it’s downsizes, but is much better now
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That LAX horseshoe is really a mess., and has been for the decades I’ve flown in and out. For a several years when JetBlue was new I flew in and out of Long Beach, which was a small pleasure with a 1940s vibe. Taking LAX’s built-in 30-minute delay into account, Long Beach didn’t seem that much farther away in terms of drive time to and from West LA.
They do seem to be slowly improving LAX, but they’re up against a bad design legacy and the car culture.
I flew out of LGA just the other day. They’ve been doing construction and renovation there for years now, and they do seem to be making some progress as it seems less run down than it used to be.
It wasn’t the worst I’ve been through when I flew out of there a few years earlier than you did, but it wasn’t all that good, either.
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To be fair they are spending £17 billion pounds on a new train line for almost that specific journey.
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It could be worse.
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Outside of major cities, U.S. public transportation infrastructure is similarly underfunded due to car culture. Throughout the West the story is similar: if you can’t afford to live in a large desirable city (whether or not you choose to do so) you’re on your own, buddy.
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No kidding. Also, so sick of the posters on the wall in terminal 2. How many more times can I read about Elton John’s outfit of apres ski boots…
That said, caviar house pruner has fantastic sandwiches.
If you’re staying anywhere near Covent Garden, check out the restaurant Barbery in Neal’s yard. Fantastic place.
I’ll take GSO any day of the week. Admittedly, it’s a good bit smaller than BUR (1.9M passengers to BUR’s 5.2M), but I don’t recall traffic delays ever being longer than about 45 seconds, I tend to get through security in under 5 minutes, and when dropping someone off, I can park directly across from the ticket counters for a quarter.
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I do everything I can to avoid LAX. On multiple occasions I’ve taken an LAX -> ATL morning flight, and the security line was so long that it snaked outside. Literally, you just stood in the slowly moving line until about 45 minutes before you’re flight, then they would pull you out and move you to the front of the line.
Orlando is pretty terrible too, for a few reasons.
- Security is very poorly organized.
- Most of the people there almost never fly, so they don’t know what to do.
- They brought their 7 kids and their 300 year old grandparents with them.
Perfect storm for a terrible flight. But hey, once you’re through, you can wash your tensions away with an $11 tepid Fosters at Outback.
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Yeah, Changi is the shit. Flying Singapore Air into Changi is even better. They nailed the whole air travel experience.
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You must not have parked there in the last year. My husband, who travels for work, used to park at that lot up to last year. He saw the daily rate go from $12 to $19, to now $40. He’d often be gone for 10 or more days per trip.
If money is no object, yeah go ahead and enjoy it for now. However, there’s chatter that the airport is looking to buy up the property to help Southwest expand their terminal. It may go away pretty soon.
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My issue with FRA is finding a place to sit.
In the LA area I wish they’d reactivated the Palmdale Regional Airport. I have to be in the desert in a couple of weeks, for 18 glorious months 10 years ago one could have flown into SFO then a short hop to PMD.
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Fuck LAX. Last time I was at that airport I had a connecting flight on a different airline so I had to literally walk about a half mile through a construction zone, exit the airport onto the street, go to the next terminal, and back through security again. What kind of bullshit airport design is that?
MIA and IAH are pretty awful as well.
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