Narrative:

I briefed the student on the challenges of lax; ramp tower frequencies and where to locate them; and taxi routes during our break in ZZZ. Upon arrival into lax; we were assigned [runway] 24R for landing; cleared the runway on zulu and began our taxi towards our gate; assigned by operations when we called in. We were given the south route; published taxi route. Upon contacting south ground; they cleared us onto taxiway bravo [intersection] to the gate. I asked the first officer to verify our gate with operations; no response was received from operations so we checked in with ramp tower who informed us '[gate] is your new gate and it is occupied; please check in with you operations.' we informed ground our gate is occupied; they assigned us a turn around to circle back to the west and hold on taxiway bravo; short of taxiway uniform.we were monitoring ground and operations on comm 1 and 2 respectively. Our gate switched again; third time. We were then quickly assigned taxi instructions to taxi via bravo; [intersection] to the gate; give way to air carrier Y at juliet. I instructed the first officer to find the other ramp tower frequency as we slowly proceeded down taxiway bravo. This proved to be a huge distraction and we ultimately missed the 'hold short of juliet to give way to air carrier Y' ground quickly called us 'air carrier X; you were supposed to hold short of juliet for air carrier Y. Hold short of [intersection]' which I apologized for our mistake and complied with the hold short [intersection]. We received new clearance '…to the gate give way to another air carrier Y aircraft at [intersection]. We taxied into the alley and [gate] without further incident.I'm a check pilot; lax is an extremely dynamic and challenging environment; it was my first time conducting an oe 1 & 2 into lax which I knew would greatly increase my threats and workload. Looking back I wish I had just stopped and asked to hold on the taxiway until we had figured out the confusion of multiple gate changes and subsequent frequency changes for ramp tower. This would have potentially prevented the missed ATC instruction. The other challenge was ATC assigning multiple clearances all into one call. I wish ATC would have at least clarified it more with 'give way to air carrier Y from your right/left; exiting the runway/alley way' these types of descriptions greatly improved situational awareness. The challenges of an unfamiliar new flight route compiled with extensive taxi instructions proved to be too high of a workload for my student and myself. In addition; the airport information chart only shows 6 potential parking gates instead of the 10+ gates we can be assigned. The information as to which ramp tower and associated gates is hidden in many paragraphs in subsequent pages; instead of being on the first page with the map of gates. In review we certainly learned no matter how much you try to brief everything you may encounter; gate changes and frequency changes prove to be a huge threat and distraction for crews in this busy environment; leaving very small margins for error and safety.redo the airport information chart with better visual representation of all potential gates; within the picture of the gates and alleyways add the respective ramp frequency to make it easier for crews to find the info they need for quick gate changes; especially 3 gate changes like we experienced. Not seeing our gate on the chart added to our confusion. A great example of how a chart should look in my opinion is ZZZ taxi chart. This chart is easy to follow and has the ramp frequency in bold with a box around it to stand out. I also recommend a taxi clearance sim session that could expose crews to the challenges of lax (spot style training like we do for sna). This experience has proven why we need 2 pilots; it is a challenging and very dynamic airport with threats all around you; next time I will definitely ask to hold on the taxiway until we are 100% clear onour route and associated frequencies. I did attempt to clarify with ATC our clearances; however I still missed the hold short of juliet to give way to air carrier Y.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reported confusion over LAX ATC instructions and taxi charts that resulted in a taxiway incursion.

Narrative: I briefed the student on the challenges of LAX; Ramp Tower frequencies and where to locate them; and taxi routes during our break in ZZZ. Upon arrival into LAX; we were assigned [Runway] 24R for landing; cleared the runway on Zulu and began our taxi towards our gate; assigned by operations when we called in. We were given the South route; published taxi route. Upon contacting South Ground; they cleared us onto taxiway Bravo [intersection] to the gate. I asked the First Officer to verify our gate with operations; no response was received from operations so we checked in with Ramp Tower who informed us '[gate] is your new gate and it is occupied; please check in with you operations.' We informed Ground our gate is occupied; they assigned us a turn around to circle back to the west and hold on taxiway Bravo; short of taxiway Uniform.We were monitoring ground and operations on Comm 1 and 2 respectively. Our gate switched again; third time. We were then quickly assigned taxi instructions to taxi via Bravo; [intersection] to the gate; give way to Air Carrier Y at Juliet. I instructed the First Officer to find the other Ramp Tower frequency as we slowly proceeded down Taxiway Bravo. This proved to be a huge distraction and we ultimately missed the 'hold short of Juliet to give way to Air Carrier Y' ground quickly called us 'Air Carrier X; you were supposed to hold short of Juliet for Air Carrier Y. Hold short of [intersection]' which I apologized for our mistake and complied with the hold short [intersection]. We received new clearance '…to the gate give way to another Air Carrier Y aircraft at [intersection]. We taxied into the alley and [gate] without further incident.I'm a Check Pilot; LAX is an extremely dynamic and challenging environment; it was my first time conducting an OE 1 & 2 into LAX which I knew would greatly increase my threats and workload. Looking back I wish I had just stopped and asked to hold on the taxiway until we had figured out the confusion of multiple gate changes and subsequent frequency changes for Ramp Tower. This would have potentially prevented the missed ATC instruction. The other challenge was ATC assigning multiple clearances all into one call. I wish ATC would have at least clarified it more with 'give way to Air Carrier Y from your right/left; exiting the runway/alley way' these types of descriptions greatly improved situational awareness. The challenges of an unfamiliar new flight route compiled with extensive taxi instructions proved to be too high of a workload for my student and myself. In addition; the airport information chart only shows 6 potential parking gates instead of the 10+ gates we can be assigned. The information as to which Ramp Tower and associated gates is hidden in many paragraphs in subsequent pages; instead of being on the first page with the map of gates. In review we certainly learned no matter how much you try to brief everything you may encounter; gate changes and frequency changes prove to be a huge threat and distraction for crews in this busy environment; leaving very small margins for error and safety.Redo the airport information chart with better visual representation of all potential gates; within the picture of the gates and alleyways add the respective Ramp frequency to make it easier for crews to find the info they need for quick gate changes; especially 3 gate changes like we experienced. Not seeing our gate on the chart added to our confusion. A great example of how a chart should look in my opinion is ZZZ taxi chart. This chart is easy to follow and has the ramp frequency in bold with a box around it to stand out. I also recommend a taxi clearance sim session that could expose crews to the challenges of LAX (spot style training like we do for SNA). This experience has proven why we need 2 pilots; it is a challenging and very dynamic airport with threats all around you; next time I will definitely ask to hold on the taxiway until we are 100% clear onour route and associated frequencies. I did attempt to clarify with ATC our clearances; however I still missed the hold short of Juliet to give way to Air Carrier Y.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.