Boogie711

So, I'm flying to Las Vegas yesterday for a conference. Held in BUF for an hour and a half for ATC out of EWR, which means I miss my connection (and confirmed upgrade) EWR to LAS.

Being a smart Flyertalker, I get on the phone and call right away, and even as a lowly Gold peon, they were able to book me on the 6:23pm flight instead of my original 3pm flight, and even confirmed an upgrade. Sweet!

When I land in EWR, I realize I may be able to make the 4pm instead... and sure enough, the service desk person was able to rebook me and confirm an upgrade.

I found out why. The 737-900 went out with an empty seat in F. There were entire rows of empty E+ seats behind us. Maybe 45 people on the entire flight?

Why would they schedule a 737-900 to go to Las Vegas an hour after a previously scheduled flight if that's the loads they're going to get? I'm not complaining, but considering I paid all of $195 for my roundtrip ticket, they're not making much money.

rankourabu

Plane rotations are set weeks in advance?

Maybe that 739 flew out of LAS full to another destination with 20 paid F seats?

ECOTONE

This period, before the holidays, is probably the quietest time of the year in Las Vegas so low loads aren't a complete surprise. Depending on the day of your flight, your plane may have been re-positioning itself in LAS for one of the many early morning ex-LAS departures that are usually quite full.

LilAbner

Flights coming into LAS are usually quite heavy, however most flights leaving are almost always extremely light!

The reason --- "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", and that includes everyone's $$$!

star_world

Correct. See flight 1196 today, which is the next flight that aircraft took. (It's actually a 738 and actually has 16 seats in F, but the principle is the same)

mherdeg

Last year during the holidays, I was on a 757-300 flying CLE-LAS which had something like 10 people in the 24-person F cabin. Strange times.

Bear96

Sounds like EWR was messed up. There were probably a lot of misconnects - you suffered a significant ATC delay yourself, so maybe it was originally booked a lot fuller.

weirdlyndon

I was on an A320 last Saturday (12/1) from IAH-DEN with 8 people on board. I was the only revenue pax in F. Purser was great though - when doing her welcome aboard announcements she noted that this was probably as close to a private jet as we'd get and to enjoy it!

rankourabu

When I lived in the Bahamas, twice I was the only pax on those CO B1900s.

Leaving the island for Xmas, I was the only one, all the traffic was coming the other way. When I came back after Xmas, I was the only one flying from MIA to the island, but the plane picked up a full load to go back to Florida.

I am sure they didnt make money flying just me to/from the island.

In The 216

I encountered a similar situation two Saturday's ago when flying CLE-EWR-SEA. My CLE-EWR was delayed due to ATC and I misconnected on my original EWR-SEA flight. I was rebooked onto the EWR-SEA flight that left one hour later and had an empty FC seat next to me all the way to SEA on a 737-900. Every pair of two seats, except one, had one seat empty. It was nice and strange all at the same time.

I don't believe the ATC delays played into this as the flight was lightly booked all along. I attribute this to the post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas light travel period.

LHCVG

Just curious: was that due to IRROPS or was that just a fluke? Seems like an extremely low load for a h2h flight, even for a Sat. Granted, they may repo the plane regardless since it is h2h, but still I wonder if they see that often.

787fan

For my 10 annual NYC-LAS trips, mostly on UA, I can definitely attest to how impossible it is to get seats leaving LAS on any Sunday.

Every flight is oversold, prices are wet dreams for yield management, 1Ks get denied CPUs, and saver award (even in F) only exist for the 6am departures.

weirdlyndon

Nope, was always scheduled as an A320. It was the 5:50am flight, so maybe that was why, but this past Sunday, too, the same flight was sparsely loaded.

LHCVG

Interesting. 5:50 on a weekend probably would tend to light loads, but I guess they need it anyway so it's going regardless.