It’s a fact of life for millions who live in Los Angeles and plenty who pass through: You’re going to spend hours at LAX. Awkward, restless, unproductive hours.
Or you can take a walk. A long one.
Thanks to a recently completed connection between LAX’s Terminal 3 and the Bradley International Terminal, ticketed travelers have the freedom to roam all nine terminals without going through TSA multiple times. (Air travel cognoscenti call this unrestricted pedestrian access “airside connectivity.”)
For any traveler who is early or whose flight is delayed, this means access to about 90 eateries, 85 retailers and dozens of artworks and striking architectural features in LAX’s horseshoe arrangement of terminals. Across all of the terminals, it’s a 2-mile, post-TSA, one-way journey, or 2.5 miles if you include the far-flung West Gates of the Bradley International Terminal.
I’ve covered many miles on foot at LAX over the years, but never all the terminals in a day, and I hadn’t seen some spaces beyond TSA in years, if ever. So, to see what’s new and what I’ve been missing, I set out to walk the whole horsehoe.
A logistical and legal note: My first plan was to buy the cheapest possible ticket from LAX (about $40, Las Vegas one way), use the boarding pass to go through security, then circle the terminals and never board a flight. But it turns out that might be considered illegal. The TSA warns that punishments for “fraud and intentional falsification” begin with a $3,720 fine. So Plan B was to meet up with an LAX representative at the airport for the purpose of this story. LAX’s director of communications for development projects, Jessica Merritt, joined me on the walk and a follow-up expedition, standing back to let me seek out terminal-to-terminal corridors on my own.
In other words, don’t try take a walk at LAX for the heck of it. You need to be flying out or flying in.
Because I did a lot of nosing around, my one-way walkabout clocked in at 8,900 steps, not counting the West Gates. From the start, the terminals’ wayfinding signs — white letters on blue background — were clearer than I expected. The journey is mostly a series of hallways on the Departures Level, with a few escalator and moving sidewalk rides.
En route, I learned about airport pricing, zombie restaurants (Terminal 5), groovy tilework (Terminal 3) and where to find perhaps the best seats in all of LAX (at the West Gates). I discovered that if you’re in Terminal 1 and craving Starbucks, you can get to the one in Terminal 2. Before heading off to see family from Terminal 6, you can pick up a toy from FAO Schwarz in Terminal 5 or a T-shirt from the Harley-Davidson merch store in Terminal 7 (although that T-shirt might run you $69.99). And while LAX is certainly no place to go looking for a great meal, thanks to this new walkability, I did find a solid burger in the Bradley Terminal and a sophisticated bowl of chowder in Terminal 3.
The Bradley International Terminal might be the best part of this new connectivity. That terminal, unseen by most who haven’t flown abroad, has more and fancier shops and restaurants than the rest of LAX, with video towers and assorted artworks. And in 2021, when the West Gates opened, it grew dramatically.
Here’s a guide to the many highlights of the walk, and a few lowlights. (This is, after all, the airport that a J.D. Power survey ranked 14th of the 20 largest in the U.S., the airport where my wife won’t pick me up after business trips.)
I’m guessing there are a few surprises here for even an old hand at LAX.
It’s a fact of life for millions who live in Los Angeles and plenty who pass through: You’re going to spend hours at LAX. Awkward, restless, unproductive hours.
Or you can take a walk. A long one.
Thanks to a recently completed connection between LAX’s Terminal 3 and the Bradley International Terminal, ticketed travelers have the freedom to roam all nine terminals without going through TSA multiple times. (Air travel cognoscenti call this unrestricted pedestrian access “airside connectivity.”)
For any traveler who is early or whose flight is delayed, this means access to about 90 eateries, 85 retailers and dozens of artworks and striking architectural features in LAX’s horseshoe arrangement of terminals. Across all of the terminals, it’s a 2-mile, post-TSA, one-way journey, or 2.5 miles if you include the far-flung West Gates of the Bradley International Terminal.
I’ve covered many miles on foot at LAX over the years, but never all the terminals in a day, and I hadn’t seen some spaces beyond TSA in years, if ever. So, to see what’s new and what I’ve been missing, I set out to walk the whole horsehoe.
A logistical and legal note: My first plan was to buy the cheapest possible ticket from LAX (about $40, Las Vegas one way), use the boarding pass to go through security, then circle the terminals and never board a flight. But it turns out that might be considered illegal. The TSA warns that punishments for “fraud and intentional falsification” begin with a $3,720 fine. So Plan B was to meet up with an LAX representative at the airport for the purpose of this story. LAX’s director of communications for development projects, Jessica Merritt, joined me on the walk and a follow-up expedition, standing back to let me seek out terminal-to-terminal corridors on my own.
In other words, don’t try take a walk at LAX for the heck of it. You need to be flying out or flying in.
Because I did a lot of nosing around, my one-way walkabout clocked in at 8,900 steps, not counting the West Gates. From the start, the terminals’ wayfinding signs — white letters on blue background — were clearer than I expected. The journey is mostly a series of hallways on the Departures Level, with a few escalator and moving sidewalk rides.
En route, I learned about airport pricing, zombie restaurants (Terminal 5), groovy tilework (Terminal 3) and where to find perhaps the best seats in all of LAX (at the West Gates). I discovered that if you’re in Terminal 1 and craving Starbucks, you can get to the one in Terminal 2. Before heading off to see family from Terminal 6, you can pick up a toy from FAO Schwarz in Terminal 5 or a T-shirt from the Harley-Davidson merch store in Terminal 7 (although that T-shirt might run you $69.99). And while LAX is certainly no place to go looking for a great meal, thanks to this new walkability, I did find a solid burger in the Bradley Terminal and a sophisticated bowl of chowder in Terminal 3.
The Bradley International Terminal might be the best part of this new connectivity. That terminal, unseen by most who haven’t flown abroad, has more and fancier shops and restaurants than the rest of LAX, with video towers and assorted artworks. And in 2021, when the West Gates opened, it grew dramatically.
Here’s a guide to the many highlights of the walk, and a few lowlights. (This is, after all, the airport that a J.D. Power survey ranked 14th of the 20 largest in the U.S., the airport where my wife won’t pick me up after business trips.)
I’m guessing there are a few surprises here for even an old hand at LAX.