Las Vegas to Los Angeles
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
7
13
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
West Hollywood,
California,
United States
Friday, September 26, 2008
They tell us we need 2 hours to check in and get through security but just over 3 hours was out of control. Check in is random in Vegas. You Self Check in like in Australia, but there is no line once this is completed. Its totally random once you have your boarding pass to get your luggage checked. Some people who got their boarding pass after us got called forward before us. I think that fact that we had 4 bags may have been an issue here - not sure. Nonetheless we got called us, individually, and baggage go through. Luckily we are international travelers and had a 70 pound weight limit - some passengers luggage was too heavy and they were forced to unpack their baggage on the spot!
Getting through US security screen is similar to Australia, just there are more people, more x-ray machines and obviously more security staff. Its just easier to check through everything you dint need and put everything except those clothes you are wearing in the x-ray machine. Even our thongs go through the machine.
So there we were, in the terminal with a 2 hour wait before check in, luckily for me the terminal had free wireless so could catch up on some emails and news as the Hotel did not have free wireless.
We arrived at LAX on time and made our way to the baggage claim. The airport clearly needs an overhaul and we found out later this was on the agenda. It looks really old and run down. Our baggage was delayed a bit, but it was also the first bags out so that was nice to be on our way.
Finding our shuttle relatively easily we were off. LA is mad - there are cars everywhere - 5 or 6 lane freeways are totally blocked and its not even peak hour.
We had another bad experience on the shuttle. Not the drivers fault. The shuttles are supposed to be for a specific area of LA, like ours was Beverly Hills / West Hollywood. Some random women somehow got on the bus and took us into the Hills of LA way past our hotel. We figure she tricked the driver and slipped him some extra $$ to get dropped of first. She lived in a very fancy place in a Private Drive, so she prob was as tight as and not prepared to pay for a better service even though she could afford it - the driver and a few of the passengers had a bit of a stink, but it wasn't really his fault.
We were last to be dropped off, prob after about 90 minutes in the shuttle and it was a stinker. You could say we are not massive fans of shuttles and for our next trip we will certainly look at alternatives.
Luckily the Hotel had a room available and we settled in, had a wander around and got our bearings. We booked a trip to Disneyland for tomorrow and had Beer and Pizza for dinner to finish off our arrival in LA.
