Has anyone here flown out of the A or B gates recently at LAS? A friend of mine is flying this Sunday night and wants to know what time to arrive.

Normally, the A&B gates are'nt too bad. Whenever the C&D gate lines were ringing around the terminal it seems the A&B gates were'nt affected. I'd guess the usual 2 hour prior to departure as a rule though.

I've got a 6:50am flight out to SFO on March 21 which is a Sunday. (Except for a few 10am flights, most of my outbounds have been in the afternoon.) Does anyone have an idea of how the D-gate lines (if any!) are that early on a Sunday morning?

I've got a 1:50pm flight today and the only leg I couldn't get an upgrade was the LAS to LAX. UA must be selling a lot of FC or full fare Y's from LAS. Actually, last Monday wasn't too bad later in the afternoon. Hopefully, I'll luck out again today!

Came through LAS this past Sun morning. Big problems with the automatic check in machines on the main level. Of the 6 machines only 2 were working, a UA staffer was trying (without much success, I may add) to assist--but the lines were loooong! With my booked F (abit on TED LAS-DEN), then onto DEN-EWR I went to the First Class lines for check in where I was duly given a stamped FIRST boarding pass with no problem. To be honest, while the regular security lines did appear long, they appeared to move pretty quickly, but it was still nice being able to go through the FIRST security line.

TUFBEAR,
you are wrong 2/2 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
You are not allowed to transition from C to D, you have to go through the security AGAIN! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

On the other hand, I booked a WN flight over the phone and got through the security in D checkpoint with boarding passes from the cancelled UA flight.

On Monday morning, I noticed a memo on the check in counter stating that only UGS and / or First Class passengers could be stamped with the red First Class Stamp. I asked the CSA about it and she said that it was a directive from McCarren Management and that they were taking pictures of boarding passes and passengers who where going to the First Class line without meeting the criteria. She also stated that United would lose the ability to use the First Class line at all if they continued to stamp boarding passes of non UGS, non first class passengers. I expressed to her that United would lose this for most of us with the implementation of Ted anyways because there would be no first class and that this would be a GREAT disappointment to me.

I also sent placed a call to Customer relations regarding this. They told me that they have not received many complaints about this from customers. So, please call customer relations and let them know that it is going to be a big problem in LAS when Ted flights are our only choice and we will all have to wait in the regular lines! I am going to call my county commissoner friend and see if she will do anything about this. So far, she has said that there is nothing that she can do and she just refers me to McCarren Management.

Can anyone confirm that provided one of your legs is FC, McCarran will allow you to access the FC line? I'm booked on a TED flight http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif out of LAS but my remaining connections are all FC.

Does LAS have any Easy Check in machines airside? I'm doing some turn around mileage runs, and it would make my life easier if they do...

Nope. All of them are before security.

2/26/04-My wife & I went thru security first class line @ LAS. Just to check, I walked thru the open glass doors between "D" gates, behind security and "C" gates, also behind security. No-one (security) was stopping anyone from walking between these 4 trams (2 for "D" and 2 for "C". On 2/29/04 on our return, (MUC-IAD-LAS)I again checked and the same was true. We were able to walk to the Southwest trams without a hitch.

I also checked with the guy verifying I.D.'s and boarding passes prior to security and he stated that only "RED" stamped "FIRST CLASS" boarding passes would be allowed thru his line. All others are rejected, and sent to the generic line. In the past, depending who was working this position, determined if 2-P's & higher got thru. My daughter-in-law works @ Delta (LAS) and states that in the past few days there has indeed been a directive sent out to all airlines that any boarding pass "coach class", (even 1k's and such) who approach with a "RED First Class" stamp on it will be photographed and sent to the management of the violating airline. It's "curtains" for the ticket agent that stamped the boarding pass, the memo indicated, and possibly an end to the airlines ability to allow their passengers to use this option.

McCarran Airport management controls everything in LAS. The airlines are leasing every bit of equipment from the airport authority, and they make the rules. So being 1K's and flying on TED to DEN 2/3 times a month is not going to be fun.

But as SEATTLEPILOT points out I could be wrong 2X2!!!

All of these reasons make avoiding LAS for the forseeable future and easy decision for me. If LAS wants to demonstrate it doesn't want my $$$, I am happy to oblige them.

No line at all for the D gates last Saturday at noon, though the inept x-ray operator took 5 minutes to process luggage for the woman in front of me.

I now avoid Sunday travel from LAS like the plague. Plus it saves me money on the jacked-up room rates for Saturday nights.

There are another dozen multi-airline check-in machines on the 2nd level.

Below is a portion of the response received from Randall Walker's office at McCarran airport re: access to the FC line.

This pretty much seals the fate of me flying TED out of LAS. Looks like AA will be getting some additional business...

---------------------------------------------
Thanks for taking the time to write and for your interest in McCarran.
Our Director, Mr. Walker, forwarded your e-mail to me for response.

The policy for the First Class checkpoint lane (which also serves
special needs passengers) agreed upon by the Airlines, TSA and Airport
is that it is to be used by passengers ticketed for the First Class
cabin as they depart Las Vegas. This was decided in an effort to
alleviate confusion and keep the process fair for customers. At this
point broadening the service to include premium, platinum or other
frequent flyer programs is not being considered.
---------------------------------------------

UA & AA both use the "D" gates, and Mr. Walker tells them both what the rules are, and "that's-that",period..............

"Please go to the end of the line, sir", the one that begins in the 2nd level parking garage.