Love SNA
the real issue is what time you land at LAX? If rush hour on a Friday night, it will be LONG drive to Glendora. 
LAX isn’t so bad. I certainly would not re-route to avoid it.
The worst thing about the Southwest terminal at LAX concerns the difficulty accessing the terminal by car if you enter the airport from Century Blvd. it is really difficult to get into the SW drop off area because you have to get over several lanes of traffic quickly and they often block off the first entrance to the drop off area to avoid causing grid lock at the entire airport. It is kind of a mess being dropped off by car. There are similar problems with the SW pick up area. Also, if you happen to hit the wrong time, you can hit insane traffic trying to get out of the airport, with the whole airport loop at a standstill, but most of the time it is not too bad. Those are the only real complaints about the SW terminal. During construction they used to divert part of the security line to a second, longer security line from hell, but that hasn’t happened to me in a long time.
It is not convenient to Glendora or Pomona, though. I’m sure you realize Ontario is much, much closer.
The Long Beach airport is the easiest airport in the world. It is like a Mayberry airport (as in the Andy Griffin show). The reviewer who thought it was difficult must have been there when it was being remodeled. Construction was completed several years ago and it is a dream.
SNA is easy too but far from where you are going. The parking in the SW end of the airport stinks. Actually parking at the entire airport is bad, especially if you have a mid-afternoon flight. I’ve missed a flight because there was no parking at the entire airport.
Burbank is good for celebrity sightings. The skinny folks in hoodies with baseball caps pulled down low are super famous (even though you can’t recognize them).
SWA is in Terminal 1 in LAX, which is good in that all the traffic entering the airport has to loop around the terminals, so you’re first to get off at Terminal 1. But the traffic to drop off at Terminal 1 is so bad that it backs up all the other traffic coming into the airport. SWA check in lines can get very long if your flight is during the morning crush. Just be prepared to wait a while in line if you’re checking bags.
As stated above, Ontario is a better bet if you want to get to Glendora and Pomona. Years ago I used to fly out of there regularly and getting in and out was a breeze.
Nothing compared to JFK.
I have flown into LAX from JFK several times a year for the past 3 years on JetBlue, Delta, and Virgin America. The part of the trip I absolutely dread is the JFK end. (Getting off LonGuyLand took 2.5 hours the last time I did it.)
The LAX part seems like a piece of cake. However, I generally don’t rent a car in LA and either have a cab, hotel shuttle, or DS1 pick me up.
Picked up D from LAX two weeks ago at 6:00 on a weekday and had to drive to Anaheim Hills. Traffic going to and fro. LAX traffic is bad at peak times plus there’s a lot of construction gong on. If you’re flying Southwest, you may want to see if they have a Burbank flight. DH flies out of there and prefers it. Much smaller and less crowded.
thanks for the comments. After much discussion with H, I finally pulled the trigger on a Richmond to LAX flight. 4 round trip tickets came to $1588 and arranged our arrival time into LAX at 1045 am and departure out of LAX at 1040 am. The $400 saved can be spent on a rental van. We will be spending the majority of our week in the LA, Long Beach area so LAX seemed the best bet.
Now I need to get a rental van/car. Any thoughts on getting a van for the entire 10 days or swapping out- getting a van from wed-sun- when we will have it full; then Sun-Sat a full size car when it is just the 4 of us? I was thinking about using Priceline’s name your own price. I did this for past vacations and was able to get pretty good deals.
I have mostly used Costco.com. I would look at prices of swapping vehicles as you propose vs. just having the larger vehicle for the entire time. Consider the time and hassle factor, as well as the price difference in making your choice. A few times, we have swapped vehicles because the price difference made the swap attractive enough for us, but most of the time we don’t bother and rather have one less thing to be concerned about on our vacation.
I like to KNOW what car rental company I will be using, so book with Costco, so I KNOW the car rental company. I also like that spouse of the main driver is included at no extra charge, which gives us more flexibility.
I’ve found that if I’m getting a rental for a longer period of time, it’s often worth getting a shuttle to my destination and then renting a car in town. The taxes at an airport car rental really drive the price up. This might not be cost effective for you though if you are taking a shuttle from LAX to Glendora. And, of course, this has to weighed against convenience too.
But if you are thinking of swapping cars this could help you if you swap in town. (Of course, again this is only a good plan if they don’t charge you extra for returning the van to a different destination.)
When you fly with others (OP is flying with 3 others), it can be cheaper to catch a taxi than the shuttle, H & I have found. It also tends to be more direct than the shuttle that will stop and multiple other people’s destinations.
Depends on the distance. For shorter trips, I would agree a taxi is cheaper, but all the way to Glendora, I’d doubt it – but that’s easy enough to figure out. Maybe OP could take a taxi to a closer town to pick up the rental and then go to Glendora from there.
Yeah definitely worth checking getting your car/van rental closer to Glendora. For that long distance from Lax to Glendora, I would definitely look to take an Uber - looks like $40-$50 versus $120+ for a cab.
What time are you arriving? It could make sense to eat near the airport to try to miss rush hour traffic.
The good news is San Diego traffic is generally not as bad.
My condolences for your loss!
I just flew in and out of LAX on Southwest and it was super easy. The traffic to and from the airport is much more likely to be a hassle than the terminal itself. So you may want to get there super early on your flight out just so you aren’t battling traffic the whole way there.
We have also had good luck with Priceline. We used Budget on this last trip and other than not having sufficient staffing when we arrived it was fine. Very efficient when we dropped off.
We also did the ashes into the Pacific thing with both my mother-in-law and father-in law. These were very nice events for my family. I hope you have glorious weather for your trip and that the memorial is meaningful for you.
LAX is a dump, but the only real problem I’ve encountered is that there are no signs indicating which baggage carousel will have the bags for what flight. So when the flight attendant gives you that information at the end of the flight, you had better remember it.
It also helps to know that the airport is on Jupiter and the rental car offices are on Saturn or somewhere else that seems just about as far away.
Be sure to allow plenty of time to return your rental car to LAX. The GPS took us on a very circuitous route several times to return the rental car. The iPhone seems to do a more direct routing. 
Costco Travel is the best, if you have a membership. I did a quick check, assuming you are talking about traveling next week, April 21 to April 30, and a minivan at Alamo was $376, including taxes and fees. One add’l driver is included in the price.
If you’re not a member, try Kayak.com. They show a Hotwire deal for a similar price. Alamo has kiosks and as long at you enter all your info on their website, check in goes quite quickly. Good luck on your trip, and hope you enjoy spending some time with your family, even if its for a sad occasion.
Note to all: You may already know this, but: If you have full coverage on one of your vehicles at home, you don’t need to pay for a Collision Deductible Waiver. All you’re doing is paying for insurance to cover the deductible portion of your policy. Your full coverage policy should cover any rental in the US. Double ck w/ your agent or insurance carrier, on your specific policy. We used Alamo at LAX a few weeks ago, and even w/ the traffic, since the buses enter on from a lot very close by, we seemed to get in and out of the airport relatively quickly. As stated, SW is at Terminal 1, so first to get off at departure time.
When I have flown out of LAX I have returned the rental car the night before and stayed in a hotel close to the airport with a shuttle in the morning. Saves us time and some aggravation.
@morningside95 and @mamabear1234 thanks for the ideas. I did a search using costco’s site and boy do the prices jump in the summer months! A nine day trip costs $1250!. I haven’t completed our itinerary for the trip yet but will definitely think about staying at a nearby hotel the night before our scheduled departure.
If you keep checking, the prices MAY drop. I tend to watch and then rebook if there is a drop and then cancel the higher reservation.
I have had them drop from $300+ to under $100 about 6 weeks prior to the date, so it’s worthwhile to keep checking. Also, as others stated, consider looking at renting away from the airport and catching transportation to rental site if it saves enough to make it worthwhile.