[folkie]

We haven't had a problem flying out from LAX, but flying in last year it took us 3.5 hours from landing to getting to the car hire office. It was quite the worst airport experience we've ever had. So much so that this year we took an indirect flight via Chicago O'Hare instead so we'd clear immigration before arriving at LAX. O'Hare also doesn't have a great reputation for immigration but it was way better than LAX although not without stress - we had 2 hrs 20 mins to transfer (including retrieving and re-checking bags, changing terminals which at the moment is by bus that has to leave the airport to get to another terminal, and going through security again) and made it with about 20 minutes to spare. We'd have been quicker but DD was using crutches which slowed us down a bit.

The best immigration experience we've ever had was at Dulles, that took us 35 minutes, and from what I've read that's not particularly unusual - it just seems to work well.

Flying home I can highly recommend flying United and changing at San Francisco. We walked off the flight from LAX, along a corridor, through a couple of doors into another terminal and were at the gate. No need to collect bags or re-do security (although I think with some other airlines you might need to) - just a couple of minutes' walk then we were in the bar, ordering wings and onion rings to go with our last holiday beer