McCarran Madness
 

The lines for the United's terminal D at McCarran today are hopeless! Spent 3+ hours in line and missed my flight. I've never seen lines this long. The D gate lines stretch around up to the A gates and then outside to the parking deck! Even the FC lines were several hundered people long. (Can't imagine there's that many FC seats from the D gates) I expect a good number of United flyers will be sleeping at the airport tonight.

I know there was a convention in town but that to me seems like a planned event that additional resources can be applied. When I called United to rebook I was ok with the fare increase but initially couldn't believe they were trying to impose the $100 change fee. I was told it wasn't United's fault the lines were long that it was the TSA's problem. Seems like it was passing the buck to me. I questioned why there wasn't any web notice or voicemail notification on the delays. I'm always at the airport 2 hours early at a minimum.

After two calls I finally was able to get the change fee waived. Needless to say, this put me to the limit of my patience. On the plus side, I just got the voicemail that I was automatically upgraded to FC for tomorrow's flights. I would have rather of gotten a voicemail this morning saying "get your butt down to the security line at least 4 hours early..."

Ok. My last vent is I checked in using the online check-in the night before. Seems reservations couldn't remove me from the flights since I already had checked in, so I had to go down to ticketing and wait in an hour long line to "uncheck-in". I guess it's time to have a drink and settle down and just be happy I'm not one of the stranded at the airport.

BTW, my original flights were done to maximize segments and miles. The rebooked flight is going to short me a net of 2000 miles. Any know if I have a chance of me getting credited for the original flight miles?

You may not like what I have to say about this.

UA is not 'passing the buck'. TSA handles security - if there was a need to staff up, TSA has to do that, not UA.

UA is going to operate it's flights on time, whether everyone is on board or not. There's no reason to notify you of a need to arrive 4 hours early because an annual convention ended and thousands of people are all leaving at the same time. UA doesn't keep track of who is in town and when they are leaving town.

Your Web Check-In boarding pass has a toll free number to call to offload you from your flight. There's no reason to have waited in line for an hour downstairs. You could have called and had it done in a matter of moments (as I have done before).

While it's a shame you had to miss your flight, a good deal of this doesn't lay at UA's doorstep as an error in servicing you.

You could always try to get in via the 2ND southwest screening point (walk past the check in lobby, past Southwest, WALK OUTSIDE), look for the signs for this security checkpoint. Take the tram to arrivals, DON'T walk down the escalator, walk to the right (at the end of the PACKED C checkpoint line and see the sign for "D Gates"). I did this yesterday, it is up to the security guys at the Southwest checkpoint area if they will let you in!

Very poor planning on TSA's part.

Even if you did get the notice to get to the airport 4 hours early, is that acceptable to you?

For me, I'd find a way to avoid commercial transport if this was the case.

Sounds like incompetence at LAS is really going to hurt passengers, and potentially the airlines as well.

The Annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the biggest conventions in Las Vegas, if not the entire country. This year it was bigger than COMDEX.

McCarran is always a madhouse during major conventions. However, when a major convention is in town, it's sure not a secret. When you see the town is way crowded, that means get to the airport a lot earlier than usual ... or else. The alternative is to not travel to LV during major conventions.

Sorry, to hear your story. I'm just glad I left LAS on Saturday night already. There was almost noone at the airport and I had already planned an additional 30 minutes for any delays. It took me 5 min from check-in through security but I was told the lines in the afternoon were quite long. Looks like Sunday was even worse. I actually called UA and asked what time I had to be at the airport and they said the usual 90 min. So, I guess they would have told you the same even on Sunday, it's just their standard response not taking any conventions into account.

I agree that TSA should have had more staff as this weekend Las Vegas had about 200.000 visitors and almost 90% of them left this weekend...

Oh yeah? You wanna bet??!!

I'm writing this from LAX because I missed my connection because United decided to wait for some passengers and onload some who missed their flights earlier in the day. The flight to LAX was about 35 minutes late; the SFO one at the next gate was 30 minutes late and the ORD one was about 30 minutes late as well.

So don't tell me that United will operate its flights on time whether everyone is on or not. I witnessed it; you were not there.

I fly into/out of LAS three times a month, usually departing on a Sunday back to ORD. I have NEVER EVER seen anything like I saw and experienced today at LAS. One agent said that it was the worst day he has ever experienced in his thirty years working there. If anyone experienced LAS after September 11, you know how bad that was for about 3 months. Well, multiply it by 10 and you had LAS today. I would term it a cluster you know what. I was lucky I found someone to stamp my itinerary card with "FIRST CLASS" so I could go to the FC line. The elite line checking in was about 100 people itself. I was lucky; I only had to wait less than an hour in the FC security line. I always get to the airport early and gave myself extra time because of the end of CES and the adult convention. Sure glad I did.

But unfortunately I'm stuck here for the next 5 hours waiting for my redeye flight because United decided to wait and not leave on time.

The good news was that when I arrived to LAX, the agent apologized profusely for my missing my connection and invited me to spend my 5 some hours in the International First Lounge where I am the only one here with all this nice stuff. Ozstamps and auh2o would be having a field day...

Okay guys... since you were in Vegas this weekend, I expect a full trip report on the AVN Awards. Please include photos. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Yes, we're always interested in hearing who cleaned up at the "Stiffies" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

JD

I had a 7am flight out of LAS on Saturday morning. The security lines for D gates were long, but only took about half an hour. At the same time I got to the front, TSA opened a cross-connect between C and D and started moving the people through the C security point.
There were 110,000 people at the CES show. It's a big convention, but not the biggest, I've heard.
Sounds like the same problem that affects the early morning International arrival security point at SFO--
namely, TSA doesn't do enough staffing planning.

IF it took that long to get into VEGAS from an airplane, I wonder how long it would take for the casinos to arrange for more money for TSA? Or put a train in from LA

I am sooo glad I stayed in FLL this weekend! That sucks!!!!! I remember for the few months after 9/11 and if this was 10 times worse....ICKY!

I was one of the lucky exhibitors at CES this weekend, there were over 100,000 people at the show and I think I spoke will every one of them. I was lucky enough to get out on Saturday at 3:30 pm, the wait was pretty long. The security line was about an hour and I was pretty sure Sunday would be worse.

There's got to be a better way than United shrugging it's shoulders and say it's the
TSA's problem and the TSA's blaming the convention crowd. Everyone is a loser under those conditions, United, the TSA's, McCarran and Las Vegas.

At the least, I think United should be proactive in using their voicemail messaging to alert passengers. United and all the other airlines at McCarran know their max-out capacity and are not naive to the potential problem like what happened today. No I wouldn't be happy having to get there 4-5 hours early but I be a lot more understanding than I am now about the situation.

As for the special number for off-loading me from my check-in, I somehow missed that (learned something new today!). The 1k desk said I had to go to customer service or ticketing to off-load me.

I've seen the D-lines a time or two when they've looked pretty hopeless; fortunately have not had to be in them yet during such times. Trying to blame the passenger to the tune of a $100 change fee under such circumstances does seem a little much, though. Maybe TSA needs some more complaint letters to get serious about the problem. They probably have uneven periods of demand and need a better system to respond to it. Indeed it could be planned for.

As an aside, I also wonder if UA doesn't have an especially lousy collection of airports, hub and otherwise, that are hurting it through taxes, PFCs, customs delays causing missed flights, TSA problems or other "factors beyond our control" Obviously when you're in bankruptcy and these things turn people off your airline or even just traveling in general it won't save your skin to say it wasn't your fault, even if true. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I hope for the sake of the mileage balance that UA brass are taking it seriously.