Review: Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 7

Booking the Trip: To Milwaukee in United and back in Delta First Class
Review: Los Angeles International Airport Terminal 7
Review: United Airlines 757-300W Economy Los Angeles to Chicago
Review: United Airlines ERJ-145 Economy Chicago to Milwaukee
Review: Milwaukee International Airport Concourse D
Review: Delta Airlines 737-900ER First Class Milwaukee to Minneapolis
Review: Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport Terminal 1 Concourse F
Review: Delta Airlines A319-100 First Class Minneapolis to Santa Ana

YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Los Angeles to Chicago
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Chicago to Milwaukee
YOUTUBE: Delta Airlines: Milwaukee to Minneapolis
YOUTUBE: Delta Airlines: Minneapolis to Santa Ana


Good evening everyone from LAX’s terminal 7, which is United’s main terminal. I will say the renovations do look good, but this terminal still needs work and I will go into detail of that very soon. Now to the terminal overview:

The entrance looked slick, clean and well designed. Compared to the way it looked before renovations, I will say United did a good job on the outside.

 

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LAX terminal 7 bag drop

Above is a photo of the bag drop area for economy class. The process is very simple if you’ve already checked in online. You go to the kiosk, enter your details, and print a tag for each of your check in bags, and/or boarding passes if you didn’t already print them. Then you get in a line to drop off your bags. All they do is check the weight, check your boarding pass, and some official ID and you are all set. There are so many lines that I was waiting for no more than 2 minutes before I got helped.

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LAX terminal 7 United bag drop area

Once that is done, security is to the left of the bag drop hall. Once again, it looks very clean and very sleek, and there were plenty of lines so the queues were not too long.

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United Security check point hall

If you go all the way down the hall, you will reach the check in area for high tier United premier customers. The board below says it’s  for United 1K members and United Polaris Business class passengers but keep in mind United’s “secret” ultra elite tier Global Services® also gets to check in here.

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United Polaris business class and 1K passengers

I am TSA pre checked so I used that line to clear security but there was virtually no difference between the line length for TSA pre-check and general security. But of course with TSA pre-checked passengers, the process is less painful so that line was, of course, the obvious choice.

Now to the restaurants and shops. Here is where my mixed feelings come for how this terminal has changed.

 

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Tarmac views from near gate 71A

Now just after you clear security here is something for you to keep in mind. You are in terminal 7, but there is an open walkway to take you to terminal 6 and/or terminal 8. You don’t need to exit the terminal. For those that love burgers, terminal 6 has The Habit in it, so many will find that worthwhile to walk over to. But there are also a good variety of food places in terminal 7 that I will show you.

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New United Club LAX

As soon as you clear security, you will go up a set of escalators and the new United club is to your immediate left. It is definitely one of UA’s better clubs though I won’t be visiting it this time around.

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Shops to the right

As you walk past gate 71B which is on the right side after you pass security, you will see these 3 shops. The first one appears to be a coffee shop. the second one is the famous motorcycle brand we all know about. The 3rd one is a steakhouse called B3 Steakhouse I believe.

 

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More Stores

Further down on the right side will be a Duty-Free Story and some kind of book store. and directly across from those two stores is a Hugo Boss shop.

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Hugo Boss

As you go further in, you will reach a circular part of thr terminal. On the right you will find gate 73 and a Hudson News store right to the left of that.

 

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Hudson News

On the left, you will find a Rolling Stone Restaurant and gate 72A to the left of that.

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Rolling Stone

Now if you continue further into the terminal you are nearly at the end but there are a few more food places to eat. There is a Wolfgang Puck Express to the left and a food court to the right. That food court has a Coffee Bean & tea leaf shop, a burger place, an overpriced Mexican place, and some snack shop.

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food court

Now after the food places is the end of the terminal. This is what made me very very mad. This part of the terminal is where all the widebody aircraft leave from. The winows were great places to take photos and enjoy the views. However, now they’ve blocked off pretty much every area imaginable so that there is no room for photography. Ultimately if you are only there to get on a plane and go to your destination, then it truly is not a big deal, but if you’re like me and you love spotting, then this is a big issue. There are only a couple good places to spot at terminal 7 and I’ll go over those.

 

 

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End of terminal hall

PLACES TO SPOT:

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After Security

After you pass security and go up the escalators, to your immediate right is the United club. Just to the left of that is gate 71B which has a large open window section which gives great tarmac views.

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Another great place to spot is the walkway between terminal 7 and 8. I got lovely shots from there and that is also the only place where you will get a decent angle of the wide-body aircraft at the terminal.

 

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Same as above

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There was a very tiny space next to gate 72A where you can take this photo, but this is the best I could do.

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United goals below!

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All these tarmac views are taken from the walkway between terminal 7 and terminal 8 so that’s the only place I found “solid” views.

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Eventually my plane was towed in and it would be soon time for boarding.

 

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United 757-300W

So overall, I think United has done a fantastic job redoing their terminal, but I they could have done better allowing for more windows for spotting. Just my thoughts though. Not everyone is crazy about airplanes. But otherwise, I hope this was helpful and do stay tuned, there’s a lot more to come on this trip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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