LAX Catalog

Your Nov. 19 “Whole LAX Catalog” illustrates why--unlike most civilized places--Los Angeles will never have rapid transit to the airport. L.A. received $42 million in parking revenues from airport lots in 1994, but the vast majority of LAX users do not live in the city. We subsidize L.A.’s economy by using LAX’s parking lots and the city builds subways from nowhere to nowhere.

WILLIAM J. WARREN

Pasadena

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Regarding Karen Kaplan’s article, “Shuttle Diplomacy”: I usually travel with carry-on luggage. Several times I have arrived at curbside less than 10 minutes after my plane reaches the gate, [and boarded a shuttle] only to find myself repeatedly circling LAX. As far as I know, two companies that only circle once are SuperShuttle and Prime Time, and those are the ones I use.

DIANE KRAVIF

Los Angeles

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Christopher Reynolds’ Travel Insider column, “Tardy Flights: You Can Bet They’re Later Than Ever,” is an obvious example of a lack of understanding of the marvelous performance record of the airlines, despite their inability to exert any meaningful control over nature and its whims. To suggest that being 15 minutes late is poor performance is ludicrous. In my own experience of about 3 million passenger miles I can recall perhaps a handful of problems--one an unscheduled night in Tulsa; another time when my luggage went to the Canary Islands while I went to London (and it caught up with me the next day). My hat is off to all of the world’s major airlines. They are doing a fine job.

E. DOUGLAS REDDAN

Santa Barbara

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Your Nov. 19 section was very informative. As I had just flown back from Rome through New York on TWA, I have a few comments.

First, the good news. The day after my return, I noticed my bag had been torn in transit. I was advised to take it to the nearest TWA counter, which was the Beverly Hilton. A very courteous employee took care of the problem, and within three days, my bag was delivered at home, looking like new.

Now, the bad news. No one was checking luggage tags as we were retrieving our bags from a full TWA flight made up mostly of passengers returning from a cruise, with much luggage. The doors were wide open and there was no security in sight. Anyone could have walked out with anyone else’s luggage. This is a problem at many airports, but I thought LAX was an exception. Surely no one would mind spending a few extra dollars per ticket to have employees at all exits to make sure that no luggage is taken out without proper identification.

SIMONNE REYNOLDS

Santa Monica