LAX commute
 

Can anyone offer basic details about commuting to LAX?
- How painful is it to cover all three airports? How do you transit from one to another?
- what is the crash pad situation?
- Any idea which airport the 320 will primarily operate from?
- Is 737 flying weighted toward one airport?

I’m very unfamiliar with LAX. I currently commute to NYC, but the crash pad and transit situation there seems simple and plentiful compared to the limited info I’ve heard about LAX.

I looked for an earlier thread with this info and couldn’t find it... feel free to point me somewhere else if this question is repetitive. Thanks!

I love your username.

On the 737, the flying right now is probably 95%+ out of LAX with a little bit of ONT and SNA. This changes month to month, but the vast majority of flying seems to always be out of LAX.

Transiting between airports is probably easiest done via Uber, but it'll be costly. Hotels around LAX usually cost 100-150, but vary night to night. I've seen times where there weren't any hotels near the airport available for less than 250. I haven't done a crashpad, but I believe they are around 350 a month.

Not a bad base to commute to really. It's not ideal, but I don't know of any commute that is. Crews are nice and the CPO here seems good.

sent you a PM

Those that sent PM....mind posting some details for others that are intrigued?
Thank you

Former 717 LAX here, hopefully I can offer some insight.

3 Airports
Best way between the airports is definitely Uber/Lyft though I utilized shared van services a couple of times that saved a bit of money but not necessarily worth it if you are tight on time. Be prepared for some drivers not wanting to make the trip from SNA to LAX, had one guy accept the trip one night then drop my captain and myself off in a parking lot where Uber drivers hang out and told us good luck.

Hotels/Crashpads
Never used a crashpad as my trips were mostly commutable so relied on a mix of hotels/Airbnb when I needed it. Priceline/Hotel Tonight garnered the best results usually just be careful to choose a hotel with airport transport. Only once got a hotel for less than $100 usually a bit higher out the door, there are a few Airbnb options but you need to Uber/Lyft to them.

LAX Traffic
This airport sucks to drive into. I once missed a commute home from SNA (late release) because it took 30 minutes to drive the 3 miles onto airport property during the red eye push. Not much you can do it about it, thought about hoofing it that night but probably would've been ran over. Plan ahead if you can, there is a new project to connect LAX with public transport better but its a ways off...

https://www.lawa.org/connectingLAX

The Commute
Commuting wasn't bad for me, plenty of options but occasionally there'd be 5 guys standing around for a jumpseat so you can be flexible with 3 airports. Decided to hop on a flight to ONT once instead of vying for diminishing opportunities to get to work. Cost me an Uber but made it with no worries. That is one advantage over most commutes having multiple airports in a pinch. LAX has redeyes to a lot of places for backups as well.

Hope that helps, the CPO is nice and has a good sleep room if you need it. Terminal 2 & 3 basically suck because they are so freaking busy even though one is new it's always a hot mess. Sometimes if I commuted in on Spirit or AA I'd walk around the long way through Tom Bradley and chill there for a bit as you could find a quiet spot easily most days with more food options. If you don't have it yet, recommend a credit card that offers lounge access for your sanity too.

Excellent stuff. Thanks for the caveats ... I'd forgotten about the 3 airport mix. Ouch.

From a LAS commuter:
The 7ER gets ONT every once in a while, but otherwise SNA is the only consistent secondary airport. My gut tells me it’s 85/15 LAX-SNA but you’d have to analyze a bid package to get more precise. Enough guys live in OC or south that those pairings get taken before anybody becomes forced to fly them. Of course, reserve is whatever it is. I never bothered discriminating away from co-domiciles, cause SNA works for me too. It’s a mellow environment to work in and out of and the pairings tend to be commutable. Evidently I’m SNA domiciled next month based on my bid results, but at 90% I can both avoid SNA and fly a lot of it if desired. Can’t soeak for how things sort out on reserve. A once on a while Uber is probably a good solution. The various airporters like SuperShuttle are around $50 or less, but can vary to duration depending on stops.