{"id":121596,"date":"2021-04-28T18:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T01:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=121596"},"modified":"2021-04-28T18:21:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T01:21:18","slug":"with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"With travel, a few hours can make a lot of difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently took a trip to Las Vegas. My flight out of\nDetroit left at 6:20 PM on 4\/10 (Saturday) and got into Phoenix at 8:00 PM and\nthe connecting flight to Las Vegas left at 8:50 PM, getting in at 10 PM. The\nflight out of Detroit was delayed 20 minutes due to storms but still got in\nearly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we landed in Phoenix, I put my phone on and had 3 texts\nfrom Southwest. Your flight is delayed til 10 PM. Your flight is delayed til 11\nPM. Your flight is delayed til 12 midnight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I call Budget (my rental car company for this trip) and\nexplain the situation. I was scheduled to pick up my rental car by 11 PM and\ntold them I would not get to rental car facility til about 1:30 AM. At first,\nshe said she would have to cancel my reservation and then make a new one. I\nknew I would not get my $82 rate on a rebooked rental so I protested, and she\nsaid ok, she can just move the time. Then she tells me that Budget closes at 1\nAM in Las Vegas rent a car center. I was not expecting that. I said, \u201cwhat do I\ndo?\u201d and she says that Budget re opens at 7 AM. Not good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I call the Golden Gate (where I am staying the first 2\nnights), explain the situation and they tell me, as long as I check in by noon\non Sunday, everything will be fine. That was nice to hear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now go to the Southwest customer service, explain the\nsituation and ask what they can do. The lady tells me I can catch a flight in\nthe morning. I ask about a hotel for the night and she said they can offer a\ndiscount, but not a freebie, since the delay was weather related. Transportation\nwould be on me and Uber\/Lyft are difficult to get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decide to think about my options over a bite to eat. It is\nnow 8:30 PM and almost everything is closed at Sky Harbor airport. 8:30 on\nSaturday and they are locking up? I finally find a place and they tell me we\nhave one hot sandwich available. I take it, give him a few dollar tip and thank\nhim for being open, and enjoy my meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After thinking about my options, I decide to keep my\nmidnight flight and just wander around LAS for 5 hours til I can go pick up my\nrental car. This will give me plenty of time to machine hustle at the airport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We touch down about 1 AM and after taxi and deplane, it is\n1:30 AM. There is no one at the airport. I may not have seen 10 people,\nincluding workers. And to top it off, all the slot machines are roped off\nbecause they are moving them around. I decide to wait at the rent a center, hop\nthe shuttle and get to the facility about 1:45 AM. For kicks, I walk over to\nthe Budget desk and it is dark and roped off, but I see a worker in there, so I\ngo it. He asks if I have a reservation, I say yes, and he says okay I\u2019ll take\ncare of you. Very, very nice of him. We finish the paperwork, I leave him a tip\nso he and his co worker can grab a coke, and head on my way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finally got to bed about 3:30 AM so the trip was off to a\nrough start, but it could have been much worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Avoid the last flight of the night. <\/li>
  2. Be aware that not all rental car facilities in\nLas Vegas are open 24 hours any more<\/li>
  3. Do a little scouting on the last airport you\nwill be in to see what is open and what isn\u2019t, in case there is a delay. <\/li>
  4. Since rental cars are now grossly expensive and\nUber\/Lyft are difficult to get, securing your car rental is way more important\nthan it used to be. <\/li>
  5. Put a non-perishable snack in your backpack.\nDelays will happen and sometimes, there are no good alternatives except to wait\nit out. <\/li>
  6. Review travel protection offered by your credit\ncards. Two things worked against me on this trip. It was a frequent flier\nflight and I used a gift card for the 911 security fee. For future, I should\nuse a credit card for the fee and make sure that I am offered travel protection\nif only a portion of the trip is paid for with a credit card. Also, this was a\nweather delay, so it is very tough to get compensation. Especially since the\nactual delay was 3 hours and 15 minutes. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Travel nowadays is not very accommodating to delays\/issues\nand I don\u2019t see it getting much better. You now have to prepare in ways that\nyou didn\u2019t have to worry about previously.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I recently took a trip to Las Vegas. My flight out of Detroit left at 6:20 PM on 4\/10 (Saturday) and got into Phoenix at 8:00 PM and the connecting flight to Las Vegas left at 8:50 PM, getting in at 10 PM. The flight out of Detroit was delayed 20 minutes due to storms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWith travel, a few hours can make a lot of difference - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With travel, a few hours can make a lot of difference - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently took a trip to Las Vegas. My flight out of Detroit left at 6:20 PM on 4\/10 (Saturday) and got into Phoenix at 8:00 PM and the connecting flight to Las Vegas left at 8:50 PM, getting in at 10 PM. The flight out of Detroit was delayed 20 minutes due to storms […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lasvegasadvisor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-29T01:21:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-29T01:21:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lva_tweet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lva_tweet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/\",\"name\":\"Gambling With An Edge\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/with-travel-a-few-hours-can-make-a-lot-of-difference\/\",\"name\":\"With travel, a few hours can make a lot of difference - 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