[PHXFlyer]

Originally Posted by Silent Bob

Chaos in Vegas?? I thought it was crazy all over when it comes to morning check in, especially a sunday morning where it's just complete chaos. I remember my first shock when I arrived at the airport for my return. Flew USairs and it was not pretty (They also did the shouting thing, but it was actually quite helpful.) So I can't imagine what that delta/northwest mess might have looked like. But I have a trip to Vegas in a couple of weeks so it should be interesting.

McCarran International (LAS) is a perfect storm of travel headeaches. First you have lots of leisure travelers the majority of whom are infrequent travelers or are traveling for the first time or for the first time in a long time. Next is the design of the airport itself. The 45 minute checkin cutoff is necessitated by the fact that the check-in areas are literally miles away from the furthest gates. Passengers, too, have to trek a long way from check-in to gate and most have to take the inter-terminal train. Finally many people departing LAS are tired, groggy (probably went to bed @4AM and are catching a 7AM flight!), hung over, grumpy because they've lost money, or any combination of the above. And there never seems to be sufficient TSA staff to efficiently process all of those people.

It's just a mess and anyone who arrives for check-in (with luggage or without having checked in online first) less than 2 hours before their flight departs and expects to make that flight is deceiving themselves.

[jimworcs]

Plus, they just had to watch Wayne Newton, because they couldn't get tickets for anything else...