The LAX Nightmare

The wonders of LAX will never cease to amaze me. Why in God’s name would they make it so horrendously difficult to make the transition to the domestic terminal after arriving on an international flight and going through customs??? It is bad enough that one is dog-ass tired, achy and sore after a way too long flight, but THEN you have to deal with the whole miserable transition part. So let me share my experience at LAX.

I retrieved my baggage with only a couple of problems – one bag was VERY heavy and the other bag was ripped with things falling out the end. I managed to load my stuff on a cart and make it through customs without any difficulty. I proceeded out of the terminal and was informed I needed to turn right and catch the shuttle to terminal 7 for my connecting flight. The shuttle was picking up passengers on a little island that had NO ACCESS for the cart which held my bags (I had the VERY heavy one, the ripped one, an extra carry on and my green bag Denise made me). All I could do was get the cart to the curb and unload all my bags on this little island. The shuttle showed up and I had to lift all the bags onto the shuttle – one at a time. The shuttle then dropped me off at a little island where I unloaded all my bags (three steps up and three steps down with a swollen knee that did not want to bend or hold any weight). There I was on the island with all my bags AND there was not a push cart to be seen. I needed to make my way across a street and then find an elevator to take me up to the departure area. My very heavy bag had wheels, so I had to put the bag with the stuff falling out and all the other bags on this HEAVY bag and TRY to wheel it across the road (now I was dealing with MEGA HEAVY). OMG not an easy task, but I finally made it. I then began the struggle to find the right entrance for an elevator to get me up to departures. I only dumped my whole load FOUR times during this process. Thank God an elderly Black man came walking by with one of those push carts and mentioned, “Honey, you look like you need some help.” I told him I would LOVE to have his push cart (he had nothing in it and was probably going to return it for the .25 cents). He was very sweet and said, “You can not only have this cart, I will put your luggage on it for you.” He then wanted a handout and I gave him a handful of change, which made him very happy. At this point I am hot, sweaty, pissed, tired, thirsty, achy, sore with a throbbing knee and just NOT very happy. I finally found the elevator to get upstairs and then found a plastic bag to put my torn bag into and got in the line to check my bags for the flight to San Francisco.

I was in that line for ONE HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES! OMG you can not imagine the number of people that were missing flights – I am very grateful I did not try for the connecting flight that had forty-five minutes between my landing and its departure. While standing in line I was chatting with several people who were missing flights and the whole scene was a general cluster "you know what". I was complaining about being tired, hot and thirsty and this woman who was standing there with a bottle of water offered to give me the bottle. I told her I would be only too happy to pay her $5 for that bottle of water. She would not take the money and gave me the water. THANK YOU BLONDE LADY GOING TO SACRAMENTO FOR A FUNERAL FOR THE WATER – IT WAS A LIFE SAVER FOR ME!!! I know she will probably never know this, but I PROMISE I will repay her kindness by returning the favor to a stranger sometime in my future with a similar act of kindness! I finished checking in and got my boarding pass – ahhhhh, twenty minutes before my flight was scheduled for departure. LAX – I only have horror stories connected to that place and international arrivals for domestic connections.

I did make my flight and arrived home safe and sound and very grateful that someone (Darling Max) was there to take on the luggage problem.

Later . . .