Las Vegas Trip Report
Apr 6, 2022, 12:31 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Channel Islands, UK
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 556
Las Vegas Trip Report
This trip report has taken me hours to write - it's 8 pages long (excluding pics)! 😱 Sorry if the picture sizes are too big. I am trying to upload pictures, but FT has bugs as the pictures are large.
So, some of you may recall that I was meant to go to Las Vegas on Sunday 19 March, on BA49, connecting in Seattle with Alaska. I chose an indirect routing, both ways, as it was significantly cheaper. I bought a Fly Drive holiday through BA.com. I believe with flights (Y) and car, it came to Ł1,100.
It was a last minute decision to fly to Las Vegas. I had been thinking about going to Europe and staying all inclusive, but although prices were reasonable, all the resorts were in the middle of nowhere, which is why they were probably cheap!
Some of you may also remember, I was looking for ideas on how to get USD. I found a website that offered near market rates, and would be able to post me the money. But, I didn't want it posted as I wouldn't be home to collect. I looked at travel cards, as I knew that I would be able to get one then and there. I was told that TUI offered travel cards, so I looked up their exchange rate, it was pretty good, but it was going to be inconvenient to get to them, so I went to the local Travelex in Tesco. I said that I had 750 GBP cash that I wanted in a USD travel card. The official exchange rate was something like Ł1.31, TUI were offering Ł1.29, Travelex were offering Ł1.25. I said to the agent, could you do Ł1.29 as TUI were offering that rate. The Travelex agent said she could do Ł1.27. I countered and said Ł1.29??? She started tapping away on her keyboard, she said she could Ł1.29 in the end...! It was worth haggling!
Also, the day before, I got my Covid lateral flow test at one of the local clinics. It was something like Ł39, and as I was going to do the checkout, I noticed it had an option for a discount code... So, I did a quick search for the clinic's name and discount code, and I found a discount code on their own website for Turkish Airlines (Turkey20), this gave me a nice 20% off. I spent more time walking to the clinic, than I did being tested! It was pain free, quick and easy. It only took about half an hour for my results to come back.
The same day I got my results, I did my VeriFly successfully, no problems, but this would not allow me to check-in online at T-24, I checked throughout the day, still nothing. In the morning, I tried again, but still said I needed to do VeriFly... 🧐
I was travelling from Reading to Heathrow, and there is a 24H coach service (RailAir) to Heathrow for Ł30 return, so I walked to the train station to get the coach, and shortly after 10am (its STD) we were on our way to Heathrow. We took a detour through Windsor and Egham, as apparently the motorway was busy from what I gathered from the driver. We arrived pretty much on time.
RailAir at Reading Central Station.
The BA lady deserves a shoutout. I think her name was Elizabeth, she had a Nigerian last name. She was positive, helpful and tried her best to help.
I'm now at T5, it's 11am, I see it's a madhouse, even the First check-in was busy, so I decided to 'powder my nose', and get a drink from WH Smith. After that, I look on the departure board and I can see Seattle has no zone, but I noticed that all the US flights are being checked in from C Zone, so I start queuing there 5 minutes early. Eventually, the Seattle check-in opened in C. The queue just moves sloooowly. The time did go quickly, despite just standing there. I did the checkin using the kiosk and got my boarding passes. I figured, if I at least have my boarding passes, BA can't say "You arrived too late".
They had two queues, 1 for those that had completed the VeriFly and 1 for those who had not. They only had 3 people on the desks for VeriFly, but only 1 person was actually checking-in those in the queue. The other 2 were checking-in random people.
Eventually, after 3 hours, I got to the front of the queue, but I might as well not have bothered - not enough staff, too many people. It was as if British Airways had no idea so many were flying that day, perhaps they should start taking reservations in advance? Maybe that will allow them to schedule more resources, so that they can fly more people? Just an idea! 🧐 😂 Oh wait? What was that? They do that already??? 😲 😂
By the time I got to the front of the queue, it was T-45 minutes to departure on several USA routes, including mine. There were 2 gents who were put into the front of the queue, when I was there, they had missed their flights yesterday for the same reason - not enough staff. No idea if they got on their flight, because as soon as a check-in agent became available, another passenger came out of the woodwork to check-in before them!
BA staff were starting to round up bunches of passengers to get them checked in, as their flights were closing, however most of them couldn't be checked-in. There were a lot of upset passengers saying that they were going to miss their flight, what is BA going to do, etc, etc. I wasn't upset, I was pretty chilled, I knew that there was nothing I could have done, and I knew BA would make it right, eventually.
A manager did come down to try and help the situation, but all he did was take everyone to the F zone (not First) and dump them there - that was it! No telling his staff how to fix it, not even what was going on! The agents were asking why they were being assigned passengers who had 'missed' their flight. They had no idea. So, they started scrambling trying something, trying to contact a manager... These agents were good, despite having this dumped on their lap, and tried to help people to the best of their abilities.
People started panicking that they were going to miss their flight, and were getting upset at BA staff due to no communication (understandably). Some of the staff had just given up, saying that there is nothing that they can do - I get that. If they are not getting any support from the managers, why should they care?
The F zone was not busy, the peak had seemed to have flattened out, it would have made sense to start calling certain flights to go to different check-in desks to spread the load. But maybe there is a reason why this didn't happen?
I knew that BA275 (LAS) was going to leave in about 2 hours, I asked 3 people at the F check-in if they could bump me from the Seattle flight to the Las Vegas flight, as it was going to be easier for everyone involved. I got 3 different answers! 1 said, I would have to contact ticketing. 1 said that I would have to contact BA Holidays (BA Holidays said to contact them through the website...). 1 said he would look at my flight details. I don't know if he was a supervisor, but this gent spoke to one of the agents and agreed that I should go on the Las Vegas flight. He said to her, just put my name down as the person authorising this, so I think she did, she then issued me a new BP to Las Vegas. This was great! Despite leaving later, I would arrive earlier! As it so happened, my Alaska flight to LAS was delayed by a couple of hours, so it really worked out flying directly with BA, despite the headache!
During this whole process, the problem flights actually seemed to have been delayed from taking off, with BA49 apparently having a "return to gate order", as they were going to allow the delayed passengers to get on. However, I got an automatic e-mail "apologising" for the "technical problems" BA49 had. I don't know if it had technical problems, or if they actually recalled the plane - it seems strange to recall the aircraft to get more passengers when you have depart from the gate and you're waiting for your takeoff slot to come. What do I know? Your thoughts?
So with my LAS BP, I headed off to Security!
Security wasn't too bad, I think it took 15 minutes to clear it. I was speaking to one of the security officers, and he said that they were drafting in extra security from other terminals.
After I cleared security, I made a mad dash to T5C (of course it had to be C, when the flight is meant to depart in 60 minutes), but only to find out that there were problems with BA275, too!
At the Gate, waiting for boarding.
The problems were, the plane was about 15 minutes late in, technical problems and no despatcher. You should have heard the groans with each announcement. 🤦♂️😂 But, in fairness to the gate agents, they kept us updated, promptly.
Before boarding, I was going to see if I could change my seat, or do an AUP, but I never got around to it. But, I am glad that I didn't change my seat (37G), as it was an aisle seat, and there was an empty seat to my left, so I had no one bothering me to get up.
Whilst waiting, I thought I would look for USB outlets in T5C, but there were hardly any, and where there was, they were not working. 🤷♂️
So an hour later we boarded, and I would say boarding took 30 minutes. It was relatively quick as everyone was already at the gate and was just waiting. I thought I had enough leg room in my seat despite having long legs. I would have liked a little bit more leg room to stretch my legs fully, but it was enough. The seating pitch is not something I would do on a ULH flight.
The seat back entertainment was so-so. The earphones that they provided were probably the type you get in Poundworld (2 for Ł1) - the quality was that rubbish, but they were satisfactory to use on the flight to watch movies. I only watched the new James Bond, as I had other content to watch on my phone. I didn't think much of the new James Bond movie. I played Monopoly too, which was quite addictive. The response time switching between different IFE menus was ridiculously slow, although the touching accuracy and response time was good. I don't understand why in today's age, we can't make IFE and car infotainment screens as responsive as mobile phones. In fact, just allow people to stream the IFE from their personal digital devices (AA offer this). Or even embed a smartphone, or tablet, into the seats and have it run an IFE system. I think AA, or BA were using Android to power one of their IFEs? 🤷♂️
With BA, the USB charging doesn't work until you're in the air, but no mention of that in the IFE, or by cabin crew. I looked in the FAQ section too - nothing! On the IFE welcome screen, a little note saying "USB and power outlets will work shortly after takeoff" would have been sufficient.
The flight was relatively peaceful, lots of groups travelling together, and chatting back and forth. There were at least 4 guys who were drinking the bar dry throughout the flight. It was ridiculous. I'm all for free alcohol when flying, but if I were BA, I would be looking at reducing the amount of free alcohol in W and Y on Las Vegas flights. I'm sure these guys had been drinking in the airport bar before flying, then continued drinking in the air! However, In fairness to them, apart from the typical giggling, nonsensical drunk conversation these people were having, they caused no problems and were not annoyingly loud.
We arrived in LAS, no problems. Immigration took about 45 minutes to complete. I think our flight was the last international flight of the day. The agent asked me how long I was staying. I couldn't remember exactly, so I said 8 or 9 days, she asked, why don't I know????? I couldn't remember exactly, but I have the paperwork here. She gave me a small grilling over it. She asked what food I was bringing in, I said some chocolate. She said I didn't have to declare that. I said I didn't know that, but I would rather declare it to be on the safe side. Eventually, she stamped my passport and I was in. On my Customs' card, she had written 401 on it, don't know what that meant? I gave it to Customs, I don't think they even looked at it, just two guys busy chatting away to themselves. When I handed my card to them, it was like I was intruding into their conversation! 😂
I got into arrivals and saw a "what happens here" Las Vegas sign, so I took a picture of that with me, tried to upload it, but the Wi-Fi was really bad in the airport - it kept dropping. I get the bus to the rental centre (it's quite a distance from the airport), to get my Avis car. The weather outside is pretty bad, it's just like being back in England, it was windy and cold! In Las Vegas, the car rental centre is not located on airport grounds, it's located about a 10 minute bus ride away.
I wasn't sure how long until I had to wait for the shuttle to the car rental centre. I started thinking it was going to be hourly! But, soon enough the bus arrived. There were only two or three of us at this terminal, then we went to the next terminal (domestic) and there was a whole load of people waiting there, which made the bus full! I would imagine that the shuttle comes regularly, even late at night/early in the morning.
When I got to the rental centre, I went to the Avis section, I tried waiting in the normal queue, but it was taking sooo long. Then I heard a woman behind me talking about Avis Preferred and how she was going to check that out. I logged onto Avis, to see if I was Avis Preferred and if I was eligible to use the Preferred desk (a short walk away from the main desk), I was eligible, so I went down there. It was quicker. Despite being around 11pm at night, Avis were flat out busy. As soon as one car came in, they had someone else lined up for it. I was assigned a Toyota Corolla, which I wasn't impressed with. It was late at night, I was tired, so I took this car and decided I would deal with it in the morning.
I was staying in a motel, called the Wyndham Wild West, on Tropicana. It was about Ł50 a night during the week, which I thought was reasonable. If you were driving, it was a great location, just off the I15. But, if you wanted to walk to the Strip, there were similar priced motels, which were closer to the Strip. From the WWW, it was about a 20 minute walk to the Strip - not terrible. In some of these big hotels, such as MGM, if your room is right at the back of the resort, it would probably take 20 minutes to get onto the Strip. MGM Signature comes to mind as one of these places, as it's right at the back of the MGM lot, in its own towers.
The WWW was nothing amazing, but at Ł50 a night, what do you expect? But, I found it clean and comfortable, with good Wi-Fi. The room did have that typical motel deodorising smell (I am probably the only one here that stays in budget accommodation, judging from all the posts, so you probably don't know the smell. You probably don't know what a motel is! 😂 ) Although I didn't use it, they seemed to have a nice pool area. My room overlooked the pool. My two biggest criticisms with the WWW were the resort fee, and that the casino and reception are shared, so as soon as you walk into reception, it was stinking of cigarettes. 🤮🤢 I mentioned this in their review. Also in the review, I described the resort fee as a word that starts with 's' and ends with 'm'. I marked them down to 0 on the value category, because of their resort fee.
The view from my motel.
The next day, I went to Avis, initially, I parked at the Premium Outlets, as they were not far, but I started walking 5 minutes and decided that's too far, I would try to park closer. I did find somewhere to park closer, it happened to be one of the competitor's carparks! 😂 🤦♂️ I could have parked at the rental centre, but they don't have free parking. I went to the Avis Preferred again and asked if I could change the car. They said that was a car in space A1, have a look at it. I did, I was less than impressed - it looked like it had it seen better days. By the time I came back to AP, they said that the car had been already assigned to someone else, and they couldn't 'bags' me a car temporarily, they would have to assign a car specifically for me, as they were so busy. At 9am in the morning, I could see that they were busy. He assigned me a Camry instead, and this was an upgrade from the car I had booked (B Cat), I didn't like this car either. I figured, I am not going to push my luck, I will accept this and it will have to do. It was my own fault for choosing a B Cat. Next time, I will choose something like a D. I found the driving in Las Vegas was pretty aggressive. Cars just barge in wherever there is a gap, or they will create a gap, they will tailgate you aggressively. Very different from driving here in the UK!
The Camry that I had for most of my holiday.
As the weekend came, I decided to stay at Hostel Cat, which is halfway between New and Old Vegas, as it was about half the price compared to the WWW. I had stayed at that hostel previously. There wasn't much to dislike about he place, except that they charge a resort fee, too! Although cannabis is legal in NV (plenty of dispensaries in LV), the hostel allowed people to smoke their cannabis, which stunk out the place... I referenced this in my official review too. I again called the resort fee a word that begins with 's' and ends with 'm'.
Hostel Cat. Not a bad hostel.
Usually I stay at Sin City Hostel when I go to Las Vegas, I have been staying there for years, even before the current owner. However, this time, the owner got upset at me about a week before I was going there, because I asked how the business was, I asked had business picked up after Covid, was it busy, how are you doing against the other hostel that has opened up opposite you. I was just trying to be friendly, as I was friendly with the owner, as I had stayed regularly over the years and he knew me. He got upset over this, asked me why I was asking him these questions, I wasn't his business partner, I had nothing to do with his business, and for me to go stay at the other hostels, I am not welcome any more at his hostel. Before I could respond to apologise, and say that there was a misunderstanding, he had blocked me on FB. 😲 I tried to see him when I was in LV, but I was quite busy, so I didn't get a chance to see him, but I dropped off a bottle of Scotch for him, and some Cadbury's for his wife (I had met her a couple of times, but she wouldn't remember me) left it with his staff. Never heard anything back! 🤷♂️
For my activities, I went to Death Valley, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon, Hollywood Sign in LA and Seven Magic Mountains. I also thought I would visit the Premium Outlets shopping centres, I went to the South Premium and North Premium Outlets, and I didn't find the discounts that good, or if any at all, in these locations. Places like Skechers and Nike, were charging full price for their products. Nike seemed to have absolutely no shortage of customers. And there was little difference in pricing between the UK price and US price. One of my plans was to drive to LA to see the Hollywood Sign, I had been to it several times, but I enjoyed going to it. For the next couple of days after, I could hardly walk due to my muscles! For those interested in hiking to see it (it is a hike), park your car at 2734 Canyon Drive, and walk from there. It's at least a 1 hour walk to it, each way. You can park near the horse stables to get close to the sign (which is NOT near 2734 Canyon Drive), but they don't like you parking there taking photos, or walking to the sign from there. I think I saw a security guard telling people not to park there, otherwise they would get a ticket. Use this website for more hiking information:
https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/hol...griffith-park/
7 Magic Mountains
$8 for a 32 ouncer (945ML). Great price. Shame about the beer. Fremont Hotel and Casino, Downtown.
I'm a Dam VIP, OK????
Unfortunately, I really did leave it too late to drive to Hollywood, it was 4am by the time I left, and by the time I started getting into LA, I started hitting rush hour traffic. One thing that puzzled me about driving on the motorways was the traffic. At times, the traffic was moving slowly but steadily, but at other times, it was just grid locked. I would be thinking maybe there is a lane closure, maybe there has been an accident, but nope, eventually the traffic just cleared up by itself, only to get the same problem a couple of miles down the road.
The Hollywood Sign.
Next time I drive to LA from Vegas (I will at some point in the future), I will leave around 12am so I can get into LA around 6am - avoid all the traffic. Then, I would book a motel (that's something similar to a hotel, in case you're not familiar with that word) 😂 , stay in it for the night, and leave early in the morning. It's ridiculous to drive to LA from Las Vegas, and back, on the same day.... Do not do it.
With Death Valley, I left it too late again to get there. I was planning to go the previous day, but I realised that I had left it too late, so went to Red Rock Canyon instead. I really should have left for the Valley around 6am in the morning, to get there for 9am. But, I got to the Amargosa Hotel & Opera House around 12pm (about a 30 minute drive from the Park), walked around the grounds for about 45 minutes, took photos and videos of the site, then proceeded to the Park. It was about 1pm by the time I got there, and I realised by this time that I had left it too late to see everything. I left the park around 5 pm and just as I was leaving, I could see the Sun starting to go down and by the time I got halfway to LV (Pahrump), the Sun was very much on the Horizon, and by the time I got to LV, it was dark.
Here is the video of the Amargosa Hotel, just me walking around the grounds.
Amargosa Hotel and Opera House.
Petrol Station, before Death Valley Junction, charging ~$4.80 a gallon - cheapest in LV. They have clean toilets in the bar you can use, along with free Wi-Fi. You can also buy petrol and supplies in the National Park, but it's not cheap. I recommend you stop for petrol here before or after the park. I would personally make sure you tank is at least 75% before entering Death Valley.
The address is 3100 N Leslie St, Pahrump, NV 89060, USA, or you might be able to use "Tumbleweed Tavern", or "Fastrip Gasoline" as the location in your satnav. There is a Family Dollar opposite too (similar to Poundland).
If you're in LV for a week, go to Walmart, or CVS, or Walgreens and buy yourself an ice box/chest and fill it with ice to keep your cold drinks cold, and perishable food in. When you're out in the desert, an ice chest is your BFF! It's a lot cheaper than the hotel vending machines, or minibar.
Furnace Creek, Visitor Centre. It was cold that day. 🥶🥶🥶
Named Badwater, because of the donkeys/mules wouldn't drink the water when it was 'discovered' - it tasted bad, due to the salt.
Before I knew it, my holiday was up, it was time to head back to London. In hindsight, I wish I had used some of my 2022 holiday allowance, as I was using up the last of my 2021 holiday allowance. I guess I have another reason to come back!
On the way back to LHR, I decided to fly American, via LAX, to see what it was like compared to BA. There was no great difference between the two. For some reason, BA/AA would not allow me to check in online AGAIN. I tried on both websites.
My last minutes of Las Vegas. I did no gambling in Las Vegas. I don't mind gambling, but I have no great urge for it.
At LAS, the flight was delayed by a solid hour because I think the aircraft was late due to bad weather in other parts of the country. Then, the LAX-LHR was also delayed by an hour (no idea why). So, as it so happened both aircraft were late, if the LAX-LHR had not been late, I would have missed that flight! Once I got to the airport, I used the kiosks to check in and to choose my seats. I was stuck with a middle seat for LAS-LAX, but it was only a 1 hour flight, so not a big deal.
At LAX, I was shocked to see the pricing for food and drink, it was so expensive. And there were no food or drink vending machines in LAX, or LAS, which I was pretty surprised about. I noticed the shops in the US, or at least the airport, are usually pretty price label shy - many things didn't have a price tag on them, or a placard with the pricing. 🤷♂️ Hudson News had a "meal deal" for $10, a sandwich and a packet of crisps, no drink included... Add an extra $4 for that!
$5 for a bit of egg and spinach??? This makes WH Smith's airport locations look cheap.
For the LAX-LHR seat, I got a seat towards the back, in a D seat and it turned out to be a great choice (for the most part). There were two English women travelling together, but were sitting separately, 1 was sitting next to me in E, and the other one was sitting behind me in B. I believe the C seat behind me was empty, so after boarding was complete the woman sitting next to me in E, moved to C, so she could be with her friend. I was glad she moved, because I was worried that they were going to be talking over me, or be a jack-in-the-box, wanting to get up every 5 minutes to talk. This left seats E and F empty, with someone else in G. The man in G decided to start using 3 seats to sleep across, which I didn't like, I felt it was invading my personal space (his feet were near me, and his head was at the other end). F was his spare seat!! 😠
When boarding was complete, a woman a couple of seats ahead of me asked a crew member if she could switch to a different seat, she asked if she could switch a specific seat, the crew member looked at her tablet and said "You can, but those are not free seats, you will have to pay for those", I was thinking, interesting, despite these seats being empty, they would not allow anyone to sit in them (like it would be in a different cabin). I did understand that to a point. The crew said you can go to seat 37C, as that's empty, the crew member went to it, and saw that it was no longer empty and it was being occupied by the lady who was meant to have been sitting next to me! In the end, the crew said she could have the premium seat without charge. If it had been me, I would have just plonked myself down in them, without telling anyone. The crew would have been none the wiser!
I thought the IFE was slightly better on AA, than on BA. I didn't watch much - just some L&O SVU. The earphones provided were the same quality as BA's. I played the game Battleships, which was quite fun. I developed a strategy to win that seemed to have around a 75%+ success rate!
The LAX-LHR flight was non-eventful, the food quality was the same as BA's. However, AA had a far better soft drinks selection - they actually gave you full sized cans, rather than the tiny cans BA gives you. With BA's cans, you only get a mouthful and then they are empty!
Landing into LHR T5 was easy, we arrived into the B gates, so we trained over to the A terminal to collect our bags. The immigration queue was reasonable. It seemed like all the eGates were working. The queue moved swiftly. I had a little difficulty with the camera recognising me, despite not wearing glasses or a cap - it appeared that my headphones that were around my neck were causing the problem. I removed them from my neck and then the gate opened up. I got the RailAir back to Reading, and that was my holiday.
All in all, it cost me around Ł2,000 for everything, including food, accommodation, attractions, car, etc. I thought that was reasonable. It wasn't cheap, but it was reasonable.
So, some of you may recall that I was meant to go to Las Vegas on Sunday 19 March, on BA49, connecting in Seattle with Alaska. I chose an indirect routing, both ways, as it was significantly cheaper. I bought a Fly Drive holiday through BA.com. I believe with flights (Y) and car, it came to Ł1,100.
It was a last minute decision to fly to Las Vegas. I had been thinking about going to Europe and staying all inclusive, but although prices were reasonable, all the resorts were in the middle of nowhere, which is why they were probably cheap!
Some of you may also remember, I was looking for ideas on how to get USD. I found a website that offered near market rates, and would be able to post me the money. But, I didn't want it posted as I wouldn't be home to collect. I looked at travel cards, as I knew that I would be able to get one then and there. I was told that TUI offered travel cards, so I looked up their exchange rate, it was pretty good, but it was going to be inconvenient to get to them, so I went to the local Travelex in Tesco. I said that I had 750 GBP cash that I wanted in a USD travel card. The official exchange rate was something like Ł1.31, TUI were offering Ł1.29, Travelex were offering Ł1.25. I said to the agent, could you do Ł1.29 as TUI were offering that rate. The Travelex agent said she could do Ł1.27. I countered and said Ł1.29??? She started tapping away on her keyboard, she said she could Ł1.29 in the end...! It was worth haggling!
Also, the day before, I got my Covid lateral flow test at one of the local clinics. It was something like Ł39, and as I was going to do the checkout, I noticed it had an option for a discount code... So, I did a quick search for the clinic's name and discount code, and I found a discount code on their own website for Turkish Airlines (Turkey20), this gave me a nice 20% off. I spent more time walking to the clinic, than I did being tested! It was pain free, quick and easy. It only took about half an hour for my results to come back.
The same day I got my results, I did my VeriFly successfully, no problems, but this would not allow me to check-in online at T-24, I checked throughout the day, still nothing. In the morning, I tried again, but still said I needed to do VeriFly... 🧐
I was travelling from Reading to Heathrow, and there is a 24H coach service (RailAir) to Heathrow for Ł30 return, so I walked to the train station to get the coach, and shortly after 10am (its STD) we were on our way to Heathrow. We took a detour through Windsor and Egham, as apparently the motorway was busy from what I gathered from the driver. We arrived pretty much on time.
RailAir at Reading Central Station.
The BA lady deserves a shoutout. I think her name was Elizabeth, she had a Nigerian last name. She was positive, helpful and tried her best to help.
I'm now at T5, it's 11am, I see it's a madhouse, even the First check-in was busy, so I decided to 'powder my nose', and get a drink from WH Smith. After that, I look on the departure board and I can see Seattle has no zone, but I noticed that all the US flights are being checked in from C Zone, so I start queuing there 5 minutes early. Eventually, the Seattle check-in opened in C. The queue just moves sloooowly. The time did go quickly, despite just standing there. I did the checkin using the kiosk and got my boarding passes. I figured, if I at least have my boarding passes, BA can't say "You arrived too late".
They had two queues, 1 for those that had completed the VeriFly and 1 for those who had not. They only had 3 people on the desks for VeriFly, but only 1 person was actually checking-in those in the queue. The other 2 were checking-in random people.
Eventually, after 3 hours, I got to the front of the queue, but I might as well not have bothered - not enough staff, too many people. It was as if British Airways had no idea so many were flying that day, perhaps they should start taking reservations in advance? Maybe that will allow them to schedule more resources, so that they can fly more people? Just an idea! 🧐 😂 Oh wait? What was that? They do that already??? 😲 😂
By the time I got to the front of the queue, it was T-45 minutes to departure on several USA routes, including mine. There were 2 gents who were put into the front of the queue, when I was there, they had missed their flights yesterday for the same reason - not enough staff. No idea if they got on their flight, because as soon as a check-in agent became available, another passenger came out of the woodwork to check-in before them!
BA staff were starting to round up bunches of passengers to get them checked in, as their flights were closing, however most of them couldn't be checked-in. There were a lot of upset passengers saying that they were going to miss their flight, what is BA going to do, etc, etc. I wasn't upset, I was pretty chilled, I knew that there was nothing I could have done, and I knew BA would make it right, eventually.
A manager did come down to try and help the situation, but all he did was take everyone to the F zone (not First) and dump them there - that was it! No telling his staff how to fix it, not even what was going on! The agents were asking why they were being assigned passengers who had 'missed' their flight. They had no idea. So, they started scrambling trying something, trying to contact a manager... These agents were good, despite having this dumped on their lap, and tried to help people to the best of their abilities.
People started panicking that they were going to miss their flight, and were getting upset at BA staff due to no communication (understandably). Some of the staff had just given up, saying that there is nothing that they can do - I get that. If they are not getting any support from the managers, why should they care?
The F zone was not busy, the peak had seemed to have flattened out, it would have made sense to start calling certain flights to go to different check-in desks to spread the load. But maybe there is a reason why this didn't happen?
I knew that BA275 (LAS) was going to leave in about 2 hours, I asked 3 people at the F check-in if they could bump me from the Seattle flight to the Las Vegas flight, as it was going to be easier for everyone involved. I got 3 different answers! 1 said, I would have to contact ticketing. 1 said that I would have to contact BA Holidays (BA Holidays said to contact them through the website...). 1 said he would look at my flight details. I don't know if he was a supervisor, but this gent spoke to one of the agents and agreed that I should go on the Las Vegas flight. He said to her, just put my name down as the person authorising this, so I think she did, she then issued me a new BP to Las Vegas. This was great! Despite leaving later, I would arrive earlier! As it so happened, my Alaska flight to LAS was delayed by a couple of hours, so it really worked out flying directly with BA, despite the headache!
During this whole process, the problem flights actually seemed to have been delayed from taking off, with BA49 apparently having a "return to gate order", as they were going to allow the delayed passengers to get on. However, I got an automatic e-mail "apologising" for the "technical problems" BA49 had. I don't know if it had technical problems, or if they actually recalled the plane - it seems strange to recall the aircraft to get more passengers when you have depart from the gate and you're waiting for your takeoff slot to come. What do I know? Your thoughts?
So with my LAS BP, I headed off to Security!
Security wasn't too bad, I think it took 15 minutes to clear it. I was speaking to one of the security officers, and he said that they were drafting in extra security from other terminals.
After I cleared security, I made a mad dash to T5C (of course it had to be C, when the flight is meant to depart in 60 minutes), but only to find out that there were problems with BA275, too!
At the Gate, waiting for boarding.
The problems were, the plane was about 15 minutes late in, technical problems and no despatcher. You should have heard the groans with each announcement. 🤦♂️😂 But, in fairness to the gate agents, they kept us updated, promptly.
Before boarding, I was going to see if I could change my seat, or do an AUP, but I never got around to it. But, I am glad that I didn't change my seat (37G), as it was an aisle seat, and there was an empty seat to my left, so I had no one bothering me to get up.
Whilst waiting, I thought I would look for USB outlets in T5C, but there were hardly any, and where there was, they were not working. 🤷♂️
So an hour later we boarded, and I would say boarding took 30 minutes. It was relatively quick as everyone was already at the gate and was just waiting. I thought I had enough leg room in my seat despite having long legs. I would have liked a little bit more leg room to stretch my legs fully, but it was enough. The seating pitch is not something I would do on a ULH flight.
The seat back entertainment was so-so. The earphones that they provided were probably the type you get in Poundworld (2 for Ł1) - the quality was that rubbish, but they were satisfactory to use on the flight to watch movies. I only watched the new James Bond, as I had other content to watch on my phone. I didn't think much of the new James Bond movie. I played Monopoly too, which was quite addictive. The response time switching between different IFE menus was ridiculously slow, although the touching accuracy and response time was good. I don't understand why in today's age, we can't make IFE and car infotainment screens as responsive as mobile phones. In fact, just allow people to stream the IFE from their personal digital devices (AA offer this). Or even embed a smartphone, or tablet, into the seats and have it run an IFE system. I think AA, or BA were using Android to power one of their IFEs? 🤷♂️
With BA, the USB charging doesn't work until you're in the air, but no mention of that in the IFE, or by cabin crew. I looked in the FAQ section too - nothing! On the IFE welcome screen, a little note saying "USB and power outlets will work shortly after takeoff" would have been sufficient.
The flight was relatively peaceful, lots of groups travelling together, and chatting back and forth. There were at least 4 guys who were drinking the bar dry throughout the flight. It was ridiculous. I'm all for free alcohol when flying, but if I were BA, I would be looking at reducing the amount of free alcohol in W and Y on Las Vegas flights. I'm sure these guys had been drinking in the airport bar before flying, then continued drinking in the air! However, In fairness to them, apart from the typical giggling, nonsensical drunk conversation these people were having, they caused no problems and were not annoyingly loud.
We arrived in LAS, no problems. Immigration took about 45 minutes to complete. I think our flight was the last international flight of the day. The agent asked me how long I was staying. I couldn't remember exactly, so I said 8 or 9 days, she asked, why don't I know????? I couldn't remember exactly, but I have the paperwork here. She gave me a small grilling over it. She asked what food I was bringing in, I said some chocolate. She said I didn't have to declare that. I said I didn't know that, but I would rather declare it to be on the safe side. Eventually, she stamped my passport and I was in. On my Customs' card, she had written 401 on it, don't know what that meant? I gave it to Customs, I don't think they even looked at it, just two guys busy chatting away to themselves. When I handed my card to them, it was like I was intruding into their conversation! 😂
I got into arrivals and saw a "what happens here" Las Vegas sign, so I took a picture of that with me, tried to upload it, but the Wi-Fi was really bad in the airport - it kept dropping. I get the bus to the rental centre (it's quite a distance from the airport), to get my Avis car. The weather outside is pretty bad, it's just like being back in England, it was windy and cold! In Las Vegas, the car rental centre is not located on airport grounds, it's located about a 10 minute bus ride away.
I wasn't sure how long until I had to wait for the shuttle to the car rental centre. I started thinking it was going to be hourly! But, soon enough the bus arrived. There were only two or three of us at this terminal, then we went to the next terminal (domestic) and there was a whole load of people waiting there, which made the bus full! I would imagine that the shuttle comes regularly, even late at night/early in the morning.
When I got to the rental centre, I went to the Avis section, I tried waiting in the normal queue, but it was taking sooo long. Then I heard a woman behind me talking about Avis Preferred and how she was going to check that out. I logged onto Avis, to see if I was Avis Preferred and if I was eligible to use the Preferred desk (a short walk away from the main desk), I was eligible, so I went down there. It was quicker. Despite being around 11pm at night, Avis were flat out busy. As soon as one car came in, they had someone else lined up for it. I was assigned a Toyota Corolla, which I wasn't impressed with. It was late at night, I was tired, so I took this car and decided I would deal with it in the morning.
I was staying in a motel, called the Wyndham Wild West, on Tropicana. It was about Ł50 a night during the week, which I thought was reasonable. If you were driving, it was a great location, just off the I15. But, if you wanted to walk to the Strip, there were similar priced motels, which were closer to the Strip. From the WWW, it was about a 20 minute walk to the Strip - not terrible. In some of these big hotels, such as MGM, if your room is right at the back of the resort, it would probably take 20 minutes to get onto the Strip. MGM Signature comes to mind as one of these places, as it's right at the back of the MGM lot, in its own towers.
The WWW was nothing amazing, but at Ł50 a night, what do you expect? But, I found it clean and comfortable, with good Wi-Fi. The room did have that typical motel deodorising smell (I am probably the only one here that stays in budget accommodation, judging from all the posts, so you probably don't know the smell. You probably don't know what a motel is! 😂 ) Although I didn't use it, they seemed to have a nice pool area. My room overlooked the pool. My two biggest criticisms with the WWW were the resort fee, and that the casino and reception are shared, so as soon as you walk into reception, it was stinking of cigarettes. 🤮🤢 I mentioned this in their review. Also in the review, I described the resort fee as a word that starts with 's' and ends with 'm'. I marked them down to 0 on the value category, because of their resort fee.
The view from my motel.
The next day, I went to Avis, initially, I parked at the Premium Outlets, as they were not far, but I started walking 5 minutes and decided that's too far, I would try to park closer. I did find somewhere to park closer, it happened to be one of the competitor's carparks! 😂 🤦♂️ I could have parked at the rental centre, but they don't have free parking. I went to the Avis Preferred again and asked if I could change the car. They said that was a car in space A1, have a look at it. I did, I was less than impressed - it looked like it had it seen better days. By the time I came back to AP, they said that the car had been already assigned to someone else, and they couldn't 'bags' me a car temporarily, they would have to assign a car specifically for me, as they were so busy. At 9am in the morning, I could see that they were busy. He assigned me a Camry instead, and this was an upgrade from the car I had booked (B Cat), I didn't like this car either. I figured, I am not going to push my luck, I will accept this and it will have to do. It was my own fault for choosing a B Cat. Next time, I will choose something like a D. I found the driving in Las Vegas was pretty aggressive. Cars just barge in wherever there is a gap, or they will create a gap, they will tailgate you aggressively. Very different from driving here in the UK!
The Camry that I had for most of my holiday.
As the weekend came, I decided to stay at Hostel Cat, which is halfway between New and Old Vegas, as it was about half the price compared to the WWW. I had stayed at that hostel previously. There wasn't much to dislike about he place, except that they charge a resort fee, too! Although cannabis is legal in NV (plenty of dispensaries in LV), the hostel allowed people to smoke their cannabis, which stunk out the place... I referenced this in my official review too. I again called the resort fee a word that begins with 's' and ends with 'm'.
Hostel Cat. Not a bad hostel.
Usually I stay at Sin City Hostel when I go to Las Vegas, I have been staying there for years, even before the current owner. However, this time, the owner got upset at me about a week before I was going there, because I asked how the business was, I asked had business picked up after Covid, was it busy, how are you doing against the other hostel that has opened up opposite you. I was just trying to be friendly, as I was friendly with the owner, as I had stayed regularly over the years and he knew me. He got upset over this, asked me why I was asking him these questions, I wasn't his business partner, I had nothing to do with his business, and for me to go stay at the other hostels, I am not welcome any more at his hostel. Before I could respond to apologise, and say that there was a misunderstanding, he had blocked me on FB. 😲 I tried to see him when I was in LV, but I was quite busy, so I didn't get a chance to see him, but I dropped off a bottle of Scotch for him, and some Cadbury's for his wife (I had met her a couple of times, but she wouldn't remember me) left it with his staff. Never heard anything back! 🤷♂️
For my activities, I went to Death Valley, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon, Hollywood Sign in LA and Seven Magic Mountains. I also thought I would visit the Premium Outlets shopping centres, I went to the South Premium and North Premium Outlets, and I didn't find the discounts that good, or if any at all, in these locations. Places like Skechers and Nike, were charging full price for their products. Nike seemed to have absolutely no shortage of customers. And there was little difference in pricing between the UK price and US price. One of my plans was to drive to LA to see the Hollywood Sign, I had been to it several times, but I enjoyed going to it. For the next couple of days after, I could hardly walk due to my muscles! For those interested in hiking to see it (it is a hike), park your car at 2734 Canyon Drive, and walk from there. It's at least a 1 hour walk to it, each way. You can park near the horse stables to get close to the sign (which is NOT near 2734 Canyon Drive), but they don't like you parking there taking photos, or walking to the sign from there. I think I saw a security guard telling people not to park there, otherwise they would get a ticket. Use this website for more hiking information:
https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/hol...griffith-park/
7 Magic Mountains
$8 for a 32 ouncer (945ML). Great price. Shame about the beer. Fremont Hotel and Casino, Downtown.
I'm a Dam VIP, OK????
Unfortunately, I really did leave it too late to drive to Hollywood, it was 4am by the time I left, and by the time I started getting into LA, I started hitting rush hour traffic. One thing that puzzled me about driving on the motorways was the traffic. At times, the traffic was moving slowly but steadily, but at other times, it was just grid locked. I would be thinking maybe there is a lane closure, maybe there has been an accident, but nope, eventually the traffic just cleared up by itself, only to get the same problem a couple of miles down the road.
The Hollywood Sign.
Next time I drive to LA from Vegas (I will at some point in the future), I will leave around 12am so I can get into LA around 6am - avoid all the traffic. Then, I would book a motel (that's something similar to a hotel, in case you're not familiar with that word) 😂 , stay in it for the night, and leave early in the morning. It's ridiculous to drive to LA from Las Vegas, and back, on the same day.... Do not do it.
With Death Valley, I left it too late again to get there. I was planning to go the previous day, but I realised that I had left it too late, so went to Red Rock Canyon instead. I really should have left for the Valley around 6am in the morning, to get there for 9am. But, I got to the Amargosa Hotel & Opera House around 12pm (about a 30 minute drive from the Park), walked around the grounds for about 45 minutes, took photos and videos of the site, then proceeded to the Park. It was about 1pm by the time I got there, and I realised by this time that I had left it too late to see everything. I left the park around 5 pm and just as I was leaving, I could see the Sun starting to go down and by the time I got halfway to LV (Pahrump), the Sun was very much on the Horizon, and by the time I got to LV, it was dark.
Here is the video of the Amargosa Hotel, just me walking around the grounds.
Amargosa Hotel and Opera House.
Petrol Station, before Death Valley Junction, charging ~$4.80 a gallon - cheapest in LV. They have clean toilets in the bar you can use, along with free Wi-Fi. You can also buy petrol and supplies in the National Park, but it's not cheap. I recommend you stop for petrol here before or after the park. I would personally make sure you tank is at least 75% before entering Death Valley.
The address is 3100 N Leslie St, Pahrump, NV 89060, USA, or you might be able to use "Tumbleweed Tavern", or "Fastrip Gasoline" as the location in your satnav. There is a Family Dollar opposite too (similar to Poundland).
If you're in LV for a week, go to Walmart, or CVS, or Walgreens and buy yourself an ice box/chest and fill it with ice to keep your cold drinks cold, and perishable food in. When you're out in the desert, an ice chest is your BFF! It's a lot cheaper than the hotel vending machines, or minibar.
Furnace Creek, Visitor Centre. It was cold that day. 🥶🥶🥶
Named Badwater, because of the donkeys/mules wouldn't drink the water when it was 'discovered' - it tasted bad, due to the salt.
Before I knew it, my holiday was up, it was time to head back to London. In hindsight, I wish I had used some of my 2022 holiday allowance, as I was using up the last of my 2021 holiday allowance. I guess I have another reason to come back!
On the way back to LHR, I decided to fly American, via LAX, to see what it was like compared to BA. There was no great difference between the two. For some reason, BA/AA would not allow me to check in online AGAIN. I tried on both websites.
My last minutes of Las Vegas. I did no gambling in Las Vegas. I don't mind gambling, but I have no great urge for it.
At LAS, the flight was delayed by a solid hour because I think the aircraft was late due to bad weather in other parts of the country. Then, the LAX-LHR was also delayed by an hour (no idea why). So, as it so happened both aircraft were late, if the LAX-LHR had not been late, I would have missed that flight! Once I got to the airport, I used the kiosks to check in and to choose my seats. I was stuck with a middle seat for LAS-LAX, but it was only a 1 hour flight, so not a big deal.
At LAX, I was shocked to see the pricing for food and drink, it was so expensive. And there were no food or drink vending machines in LAX, or LAS, which I was pretty surprised about. I noticed the shops in the US, or at least the airport, are usually pretty price label shy - many things didn't have a price tag on them, or a placard with the pricing. 🤷♂️ Hudson News had a "meal deal" for $10, a sandwich and a packet of crisps, no drink included... Add an extra $4 for that!
$5 for a bit of egg and spinach??? This makes WH Smith's airport locations look cheap.
For the LAX-LHR seat, I got a seat towards the back, in a D seat and it turned out to be a great choice (for the most part). There were two English women travelling together, but were sitting separately, 1 was sitting next to me in E, and the other one was sitting behind me in B. I believe the C seat behind me was empty, so after boarding was complete the woman sitting next to me in E, moved to C, so she could be with her friend. I was glad she moved, because I was worried that they were going to be talking over me, or be a jack-in-the-box, wanting to get up every 5 minutes to talk. This left seats E and F empty, with someone else in G. The man in G decided to start using 3 seats to sleep across, which I didn't like, I felt it was invading my personal space (his feet were near me, and his head was at the other end). F was his spare seat!! 😠
When boarding was complete, a woman a couple of seats ahead of me asked a crew member if she could switch to a different seat, she asked if she could switch a specific seat, the crew member looked at her tablet and said "You can, but those are not free seats, you will have to pay for those", I was thinking, interesting, despite these seats being empty, they would not allow anyone to sit in them (like it would be in a different cabin). I did understand that to a point. The crew said you can go to seat 37C, as that's empty, the crew member went to it, and saw that it was no longer empty and it was being occupied by the lady who was meant to have been sitting next to me! In the end, the crew said she could have the premium seat without charge. If it had been me, I would have just plonked myself down in them, without telling anyone. The crew would have been none the wiser!
I thought the IFE was slightly better on AA, than on BA. I didn't watch much - just some L&O SVU. The earphones provided were the same quality as BA's. I played the game Battleships, which was quite fun. I developed a strategy to win that seemed to have around a 75%+ success rate!
The LAX-LHR flight was non-eventful, the food quality was the same as BA's. However, AA had a far better soft drinks selection - they actually gave you full sized cans, rather than the tiny cans BA gives you. With BA's cans, you only get a mouthful and then they are empty!
Landing into LHR T5 was easy, we arrived into the B gates, so we trained over to the A terminal to collect our bags. The immigration queue was reasonable. It seemed like all the eGates were working. The queue moved swiftly. I had a little difficulty with the camera recognising me, despite not wearing glasses or a cap - it appeared that my headphones that were around my neck were causing the problem. I removed them from my neck and then the gate opened up. I got the RailAir back to Reading, and that was my holiday.
All in all, it cost me around Ł2,000 for everything, including food, accommodation, attractions, car, etc. I thought that was reasonable. It wasn't cheap, but it was reasonable.
Last edited by RJD1983; Apr 7, 2022 at 12:51 pm
Apr 6, 2022, 2:28 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2014
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 12,254
Great stuff! Thanks for reporting back, I actually wondered a couple of days ago about this trip! Can’t wait to get back to Vegas for a couple of days at the end of my US trip later this week
Apr 6, 2022, 2:32 pm
#6
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 699
Did you stay in the armagosa opera house ? It’s a complete and utter sh!t hole , but the history about the place and owner is incredible, we only stayed as a last resort on a Harley Davidson road trip, other wise we would of had to head back to stovepipe wells in deaths valley , which would of meant a longer day the next day back to vegas to give the bikes back before our flight back
Apr 6, 2022, 3:01 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Channel Islands, UK
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 556
Did you stay in the armagosa opera house ? It’s a complete and utter sh!t hole , but the history about the place and owner is incredible, we only stayed as a last resort on a Harley Davidson road trip, other wise we would of had to head back to stovepipe wells in deaths valley , which would of meant a longer day the next day back to vegas to give the bikes back before our flight back
Later, I saw the reviews of it, and the reviews don't seem too bad. Sure, it's a little dated, not maintained very well, but the reviews are generally positive of the place.
Apr 6, 2022, 3:09 pm
#8
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 699
I didn't stay in it. I didn't even know that were accepting guests until I got there! I honestly thought it was semi-abandoned before I got there.
Later, I saw the reviews of it, and the reviews don't seem too bad. Sure, it's a little dated, not maintained very well, but the reviews are generally positive of the place.
Later, I saw the reviews of it, and the reviews don't seem too bad. Sure, it's a little dated, not maintained very well, but the reviews are generally positive of the place.
Apr 6, 2022, 3:09 pm
#9
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 699
I didn't stay in it. I didn't even know that were accepting guests until I got there! I honestly thought it was semi-abandoned before I got there.
Later, I saw the reviews of it, and the reviews don't seem too bad. Sure, it's a little dated, not maintained very well, but the reviews are generally positive of the place.
Later, I saw the reviews of it, and the reviews don't seem too bad. Sure, it's a little dated, not maintained very well, but the reviews are generally positive of the place.
Apr 6, 2022, 3:28 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Channel Islands, UK
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 556
You can get refreshments in the Valley, along with petrol, but it's not cheap ($7-$10/g). If you are driving, buy an ice chest from Walmart for $20, fill it up with ice and keep loads of soft drinks in it, and fill up with snacks, before you go - that's what I did.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1402867749866024 - Money saving tips and questions for LV. Also, a good place for general FAQ for LV.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1417802165196441 - Solo Las Vegas
Apr 7, 2022, 2:10 am
#15
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592
Next time, try ordering your foreign currency through the Post Office. They give a good rate, and you can pick it up from a designated post office which avoids worrying about whether it will arrive in the mail.