AA F LAS-LAX
AA169 - 737-800
Planned T/O – 0710
Actual T/O - 0707
Planned Arrival – 0820
Actual Arrival – 0811
Seat – 4A
Transportation
I had a car booked to take me to the airport – Bell Transportation. If you are ever in Vegas and need a limo service – these guys are great and have never let me down. It was an early start and the car arrived at 0500!! I was a bit surprised when the car turned out to be a stretch limo rather than the sedan I had booked but it seems loyalty pays in the limo business too - off I went to the airport feeling like a rock star! In true FT style, instead of flying direct to ORD I had decided to take the extra leg via LAX to get another 60 BAEC Tier Points and 1000 BA Miles. I did wonder if this may bite me as ORD had snow scheduled and I got a call from American Airlines telling me my flight to ORD had been cancelled just as I got to the airport.......more on that later!
Check-in
Due to the early start and no traffic, I quickly arrived at McCarran International Airport (LAS) Term 1 and proceeded to check-in. LAS is an airport I know and love and whilst it is not the easiest to negotiate and the flow is not ideal, it has a great buzz and is still one of my favourites for a US domestic flight. If you are flying international from LAS then feel free to look at my mini Terminal 3 review –
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ow-photos.html
I had already checked-in on-line but wanted to get a boarding pass – I really don’t like the ones you print at home – they are too big! Plus I needed to find out what was going on with the flight that was supposedly cancelled! Check-in was a scrum today - not sure why it was so bad so early in the morning but the queue for First check in was 15 deep so I decided to risk the normal check-in which looked faster. Of course I picked the wrong queue and got the girl who thought she could check-in 2 lines at once rather than just work one line - no dear it is not faster, you just annoy everyone as you swap from console to console! When I got to the desk I was expecting some discussion about the cancelled flight but nothing was said and my boarding passes and luggage tags were printed with no fuss. I was confused and had a closer look at the flight numbers - sure enough I was on a different flight to ORD than the one I booked but when I questioned the lady, she had no idea what I was talking about and appeared not to realize I was on a completely different flight! Never mind I thought, at least I had a First seat (I had a booked a K-UP fare and could easily have ended up in economy and thereby negating the reason for the dog leg to get Tier Points completely). Once I had my boarding pass I was off through security – Fast Track - and then on to the D gates via the little tram. It is always very easy at LAS in my opinion and apart from the long queue for check-in I was a happy girl!
Lounge
There is only a lounge that you can pay to go in at LAS D Gates so I did not bother. I also noticed a new American Express Centurion lounge which looked very nice but I did not have the right credentials to enter
. It seems very nice though according to this post
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...las-vegas.html However, I think the terminal has enough to keep you amused and people watch without paying for the pleasure so I just wandered around. I normally walk up and down each leg at the D Gates to see if there are any new shops however I actually didn't have much time today so I just sat at the gate and used the free wifi to figure out what was going on with the flights.
Flight
Seats were perfectly comfy for a short hop to LAX.
Alcohol – A bit too early for me at this stage of my journey but they have a selection should you wanted to start drinking at 0730!!!
Menu – Only a snack of pretzels on this very short flight to LAX. I actually didn't have anything, as I was not hungry.
Entertainment – My iPad kept me amused for the 45 min trip.
Amenity Kit – N/A
Cabin Crew – They were a slightly mature cabin crew of the skies but they were perfectly pleasant and I had no complaints. On take off there was a bit of a commotion when a tray that had been laid out for the upcoming coffee run fell on the floor - not sure why the flight attendant did not realize that on take off, all that was on the side of the galley would end up on the floor! It did not give me great confidence for any emergencies
!
Arrival
All AA domestic flights are flown from the same terminal and the gates are all very close together – this allows for some tight connections – certainly tighter than I would be comfortable anywhere else! I was quickly off the aircraft and off to the AA Flagship Lounge.