I don't see how the A380 works at all for BA LHR-LAS - way too many F/J seats. Selfishly, I do hope they keep F on the route even if I'm not flying to London that much anymore (and I've never flown the A380, so that'd be fun!), but I just don't think it makes sense financially.
Also, note that the A380 isn't great on arrival in LAS since it would have to park at Concourse D as there are no A380-capable gates at T3/E, so there's a very long walk (under the tarmac, adjacent to the tram - but there is no tram on that side) to T3 for CBP. This also greatly increases wait times for those checking bags. (The VS flight occasionally docks at D, so I've had to experience this firsthand.)
Originally Posted by
SgtRyan
Would be really interested to see how the restaurants have been coping. Our local Thai in Henderson had an hour wait for pick up last Saturday!!
Restaurants have been absolutely destroyed here. A huge part of the problem is that many tourists go to off-Strip restaurants (especially visitors driving from CA and have a car anyway) so the Strip closure has been particularly devastating to this area.
IME the reason there are long waits is that few restaurants have remained open, so they're the only options. They're also typically operating with as few staff (including kitchen) as possible so the capacity is limited. One of my regular spots in Henderson had 10+ people waiting in line for pickup recently (none of them doing a particularly good job of practicing social distancing...) but the manager has told me they are doing just 20% of normal business and they are losing money.
Originally Posted by
GumshoeW12
Aren’t conventions the real money-spinner for Vegas these days?
The California weekend party crowd may return relatively quickly but it’s the conventions that fill the hotels during the week and with far fewer of them likely to happen going forward that’s going to be a problem. For BA also.
Conventions are certainly huge business in Vegas especially as they are very high margin, but Vegas has diversified and become mainstream enough that it attracts visitors for all its key hospitality components and casino properties need the revenue from all those components in order to sustain profitability. My understanding (just from talking to FAs) is that this is primarily a leisure route, even in F, and that's also why the 744 works so well - for the economy lift.
Another poster mentioned visitors not scrambling to go to Vegas because of the financial difficulties caused by the pandemic; while that's certainly true with 33+ million people in the US joining the unemployment ranks in recent weeks, there are also millions of people who have been forced home who are itching to get out and do something. Our country has largely been shut down for around two months despite that many areas have not had significant impacts (to put it in perspective, even California has contiguous counties bigger than Wales that don't have a single confirmed case), so while I'm sure many people will be wary of traveling / social gatherings, I think a lot of others are going to jump at any opportunity to get back towards normalcy.