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Las Vegas Overview
Vegas Here We Come
Where to Stay & Why
Getting Around the City
Attractions & Sightseeing
Entertainment & Shows
Dining in Las Vegas
Shopping
Four Day Walking Tour
Sensible Gambling
Heading Back Home
Appendices
Glossary
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Chapter 2: Las Vegas! "Here we come!"
2.5 Dealing with the airlines: Getting the best rate
About 36 million visitors visit Las Vegas every year with most of them arriving by air. Many airlines serve Las Vegas McCarran Airport. You’ll find a list here of the major ones. The two largest air carriers at McCarran by far are Southwest Airlines and America West Airlines. Both specialize in high-frequency, low fare flights.
Airline vacation package providers
Southwest Airlines
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Southwest Airlines began as a small Texas Airline in 1971. It has been flying to Las Vegas since 1982. It is now the fifth-largest major airline in America and operates nearly 3,000 daily flights to 60 airports across the United States. Its fleet consists of about 400 Boeing 737 jet aircraft. Southwest has ranked number one in fewest Customer complaints for the last 13 consecutive years. | Southwest’s number one destination city is Las Vegas where it originates nearly 200 fights a day from its 19 gates. It flies non-stop to about 50 cities. Strangely, due to the so-called “Wright Amendment”, Dallas - its headquarters city - is not one of them. But this could change in the years ahead.
Southwest Airlines Vacations offers complete air/hotel vacation packages to Las Vegas as well as to destinations across the U.S. Southwest Airlines Vacations partners with many major Las Vegas hotels. Its website is located here.
American West Airlines
| Founded in 1983, America West Airlines is now the nation’s eighth-largest carrier serving 88 destinations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Las Vegas is one of its three hubs. It is also the nation's second largest low-cost airline, second only to Southwest Airlines. |
 | America West is in the process of merging with bankrupt US Airways which would create the nation's sixth-largest airline and a nationwide low-cost carrier. The two airlines are a good match. US Airways is strong on the East Coast and has routes to Europe and the Caribbean ...while America West’s strength is the Western U.S. and has routes to Hawaii. America West will eventually take the US Airways name and compete ferociously with Southwest Airlines.
America West Vacations, a separate company, has sales in the billions of dollars. It sells vacation packages to hundreds of thousands of vacationers annually. You will find them located here.
Other low cost airlines that you might want to try are JetBlue, AirTran and Song, Delta Air Lines' low-fare carrier.
American, Delta and United Airlines
American, Delta and United Airlines are not discount airlines. But they do compete in the Las Vegas market and have many convenient flights. Many times the major carriers match the fares of a low-cost airline between the same cities. American Airlines Vacations is located here, Delta Airlines Vacations here and United Airlines Vacations here.
Restrictions and additional costs can apply
Seats may be limited (or not be available) on some flights that operate during peak travel times and holiday periods. Surcharges can also be applied to high demand periods such as weekends, holidays, special events, and convention periods.
Getting the best airfare only
There is no one "best site" for getting the least expensive airline tickets. Chances for a deeply discounted ticket increase as you get closer to your departure date. There are substantially less bargains for advance-purchased tickets.
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Hint from: INSIDER SECRETS;
Tried and true travel advice from the pros.
A supplement to the August 2006
"CONDE NAST TRAVELER" magazine.
When you want to know which carrier offers the best combination of a low fare and a convenient routing, use itasoftware.com, a search engine created by scientists at MIT. Unlike online travel agencies such as Expedia and Travelocity, it is not biased toward certan airlines and provides the most complete list of fight options for a given itinerary. You can’t purchase tickets through it, but you can find which carrier best suits your needs and then go to its Web site and book your flights. (Southwest Airlines is not included.) |
When one airline announces a fare sale or promotion, many other airlines will match it .... especially when it is a competitive market. A good place to check out recent online fare sales is Travelersnet.
| An interesting website!
Want to know when you should book a flight from a particular city to Las Vegas? Farecast.com tells you when you should book a flight which you book directly with the airlines.
Just select your departure city (there are 55 of them), departure date, destination, return date, and number of travelers. Then click the button to submit your search.
A Fare Prediction shows if the lowest fare is rising or dropping over the next seven days for the specific dates and cities searched.
The advice it gives helps consumers determine the best time to buy a ticket by anticipating what the airlines’ price-setting computers will do. |
A new breed of travel search engine companies are challenging the big three, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. These new "metasearch" sites can simultaneously scan dozens of travel sites, (including airlines) for the best airfare prices. You can then do a side-by-side comparison rather than having to check many different sites. If you are looking for a cheap airfare only (no hotel) be sure to check out: Pinpoint, Mobissimo, Sidestep, Farechase, Qixo and Kayak.
How can I contact my airline?
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Best prices at the last minute
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It is best to book your travel arrangements far in advance to take advantage of the lower airfares. The airlines contract for Las Vegas rooms in advance and combine them with their “Super Saver” airfares if they are still not all taken. And air/hotel packagers contract for airline seats in bulk as far as a year in advance, locking in low rates no matter how high prices climb later. They all must be sold. | Site59 (located here) is an excellent source for last minute air/hotel package travel. The hotels use them to insure the highest possible occupancy rate and unsold rooms are often offered to Site59 at a low price to clear them out. (Are you beginning to learn how Las Vegas - and its 130,000 rooms - enjoy a year-round 90% plus occupancy rate?)
Site59 packages are sold from 14 days to 3 hours before departure. They make it easy to slip off to Las Vegas on a whim since they have partnerships with the travel industry ...including Las Vegas hotels. You simply choose your departure city and preferred dates of travel. Availability changes all the time, so if you don't see what you're looking for right away, check back again later and you may find it!
Last Minute Travel is another site that specializes in clearing out unsold airline seats and hotel rooms.
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Factoid: Six and a half million people visit Las Vegas for the first time every year!
Factoid: Sixteen of the twenty largest hotels in the world are in Las Vegas.
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