A thread to discuss the flights to and from Vegas...

I'm in Houston so I'm held captive by United because it is a hub. I sorely miss Continental. I dislike Southwest because of the boarding process and plus I'd have to drive to Hobby airport which is further away from my place than Bush.

I used to have silver and gold status in the Continental days but my flying has cut back quite a bit although I'll probably hit gold this year. I'm purposely buying all first class tickets this year to help qualify. Even though domestic first class has been watered down I prefer having the extra room and drinks included in the cost of the ticket along with the baggage fees.

On my March trip the fares to LAS were in the neighborhood of $900-1000. They know it's March Madness and St Pattys day and the route was priced as such. Flights for SB weekend were close to that price as well.

So to save $350 I'm flying to Vegas with a connection at LAX. It was $650. I have a 90min layover at LAX and arrive in Vegas a shade before midnight.

I looked into American and Delta but they were in the $800 range with connections in DFW, PHX or SLC.

Which airlines do you use?

 

I live in the Seattle area, so I use Alaska for most of my domestic flights. For international, I try to use a partner carrier of Alaska, if not I usually go with the best value while taking into consideration the product.

Fly a lot for leisure and business, so I have 75K status with Alaska right now. Used to fly with American and other Star Alliance carriers quite a lot as well.

I hate Southwest and the other low-cost carriers (Allegiant, Frontier, Spirit,etc.) since I hate the cramped seats and boarding process. I usually pay for First Class seats or get upgraded when flying domestically, so I will have to pass on the Economy seats...

 

United's former CEO, Jeff Smisek, was forced out recently and everyone was happy. Flight attendants were even giving out free rounds of drinks to celebrate when the news broke.

The new CEO recently had a heart transplant but he's been giving good lip service to making changes and righting the Smisek wrongs.

However their new boarding process of having families with kids 2yrs old or younger began today and it's going to be a mess. In theory it makes sense. But they're implementing and enforcing it incorrectly.

Rather than doing this after Global Services (the highest tier on their loyalty program), first class, disabled and uniformed military they're now first in line. The gate agents aren't allowing enough time between groups so everyone gets clogged up on the jetway. And they're not restricting the pre boarding with young kids to just the infant/toddler...entire families are going with both parents.

Global services and first class need to go right after disabled and military. Once three seated then let the families on. And give some space between the calls. Most GS and FC passengers are frequent flyers and get on and get seated right away. No hold up.

 

Have you ever flown out of FLL/PBI? It's like a wheelchair parade of preboarders and their families.

I think it should be Global Services & First Class / Preboard (Families with <2 year olds, disabled, etc.) / Elites (not lumped into one group) / Everyone Else. GS should always be first (if they want to preboard) since their $50K+ a year in travel should be appreciated every time they travel.

Pretty sad that it takes US airlines 40+ minutes to board a damn 737/A320, while it takes Asian carriers at most 20-30 minutes. I blame the damn carry-on bags that everyone is bringing on-board nowadays since they don't want to pay the checked bag fees or gate check their bags.

 

Or flying from EWR/PHL to FLL/PBI with the people who need wheelchairs back east but as soon as the flight lands they're miraculously perfectly able bodied.

My last flight to PHL and back I sat in my favorite 5F on a 739 and watched people lugging huge carry-on's on. We sat there and then the inevitable "overheads are full please gate check" announcement. Of course no one volunteers. Or when FC isn't full yet and someone just tosses their bags up front filling the FC overheads. Final FC passengers board and there's no space. So they have to walk back and find a spot bc the FA won't remove the economy bags.

As an aside the new 739s suck. My one from PHL-IAH was brand new and it had no TV and spotty wifi. Some aren't event fitted with wifi yet.

It's a crying shame that I'd rather fly an e175. I miss the 752s.

 

Haha that's so true about those who walk off the plane after using the wheelchair service at the originating airport. Ridiculous.

Call me a douche but I always put my backpack (no other carry-on bag) in the overhead compartment since I hate putting it under the seat infront of me. People can stop bitching about my bag, instead they can go gate check their bag since it's a suitcase. It's usually those in Economy who bitch about my bag, so I agree that the overhead compartments in FC should only be for FC passengers.

Absolutely stupid on UA's part to not equip all of their 739s with individual IFEs. Too bad the 752s aren't as popular anymore.. always enjoyed turning left after boarding from 2L. *sigh* On the bright side at least for the 752s that are being used right now have lie-flat seats in BizFirst.

 

I too put my backpack in the overhead. Usually since I'm in row 4 or 5 I can hit that little sweet spot there between row 5 and 7. I'm not cramming it under my seat because I want to stretch my legs out.

For some weird reason they were flying 752s with lie flats from IAH-LAS in Jan and this month but it ends in early March. Only on the first flight of the day. I was hoping it would've continued thru March!

I don't even care if they have IFE with their own movies and shows. Just hook me up with wifi so I can surf the net while watching movies on my iPad.

Have you seen the new FC seats on United?

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Apparently a few Airbus have them now - can't wait to try them out. I generally avoid Airbus but I'll check the FleetTracker and see if I can snag one soon

 

The trip to Las Veags from Columbus, OH has just gotten ridiculously expensive. SWA is currently our only airline that offers direct flight. I began flying to LAS FROM CMH in 2008, those were the days of $99 out and $99 back, then it slowly began to creep upward. I believe December of 2011 was the last good flight deal I got I think we paid $149 out and $119 back.

Around 2012 to 2013 it became a good deal to pay around $360rt, now anything under $460rt seems to be the norm. We may have salvation on the was as Frontier begins flying out of CMH in June. I intend to give them a shot in July!

 

Indianapolis to Vegas has gotten a lot more expensive in the past year.(at least for booking within 7 days) I used to be able to book same day for 197 one-way everyday of the week. The same flight is now 360 one way.

 

I'm in the same boat here in Houston. I can't bring myself to pull the trigger on Spirit -- since the extras you pay for up the cost to make the difference worth it to fly a "real" airline to me. I find that Southwest usually doesn't beat United on price, so I fly United because it's a bit easier to get to IAH, and I fly United for work. Anyway, the fares are just so bad post-merger. I'm lucky if I find anything less than $400 to LAS and routinely it's $600+ ... even for off-peak times. It's really forced me to consider going at odd times -- Wednesday and Monday flights. Things like that. United is tough to stomach.