Finally, the third of my three airport reviews – Los Angeles International (LAX). Holy crap, what an awful experience. I didn’t have to opt for the nudie photo or sexual assault, because it appeared the nudie photo machines were down on my security line. The counter agents and TSA employees were all quite polite, but there is obviously a serious infrastructural or procedural problem with LAX’s checkin process. Â Since I’ve not been through LAX in many years, I assumed it would take twice as long to get through all the hoops as I was accustomed to in years past. Â I was pretty close to accurate in that assessment, and I could imagine that there are times when my estimate would have been an underestimate of an order of magnitude.
I arrived four hours before my flight was due to takeoff, because I had run out of things to do in my hotel room and I can read at the airport just as well as anywhere else. Â It took over 30 minutes just to get my bag checked, and then I had to carry it myself to the security scanners. Â It makes me wonder what those giant conveyor belts behind the ticket agents are for. Â Not to mention, since LAX is one of the growing number of “self check in” airports for American Airlines, the name “ticket agent” may be inaccurate as well. Â The counter agent merely prints out the label that goes on the bag, after you’ve already verified your identity and printed out your own boarding pass at a kiosk that seemed to drive many people insane with confusion.
After that bizarroland detour, which was leavened by a trio of children who wanted to share all the details of their Disneyland experience, I was directed to the security line. Â The security line started outdoors. Â It started down the sidewalk. Â It actually started near the neighboring terminal. Â Thankfully, it only took 45 minutes to get through that line, which was a surprise of inestimable proportion. Â It looked like the highest-volume day at Disneyland, waiting for Splash Mountain. Â Insane.
Finally, I arrived at the top of the stairs where I could just see the security machinery. Â The line bifurcated, then bifurcated again. Â Each of those four lines went through a screener who made sure your ID and boarding pass matched. Then, each line split into 2-6 more individual lines. Â Since I have a netbook which is listed on the sign as one of those items you don’t need to remove from its case, I didn’t. Â That was wrong. Â Take it out. Don’t put the case on top of it. Â Give me your book. Â It was weird as hell, but ultimately just a little more useless security theater.
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