Greetings Everybody!
SoCalFlyer97 took a day trip to LAS. This trip was booked entirely with Rapid Reward points from September's WOW50 sale with the inbound trip later rebooked thanks to a fare drop in October under the "Wanna get away with low fares?" sale. Las Vegas Boulevard is certainly turning into a racetrack complete with temporary grandstands for its upcoming F1 Grand Prix event to take place the following weekend Nov 16-18 with the 50 lap race taking place on Saturday.
I was not there for any F1 business but had a chance to walk along the boulevard to provide you with the construction progress shots. Let me tell you straight up: The cost to sit in one of those black VIP chairs...gonna run you a few grand!
But there's an airport "VIP" program that doesn't cost much at all and certainly holds its value in my opinion. This is a must-have travel tip that I share to many folks. I encourage readers on this board to get TSA PreCheck if you qualify for it, or even Global Entry that comes with PreCheck if you have any thoughts or plans to go international, even if it's across a land border, even if it's just for a few trips here and there.
Membership in both programs lasts five years and for this trip, I felt like a Vegas VIP because the PreCheck lane from SAN had absolutely no waiting at the TSA Checkpoint. The regular line was nearly full.
If you don't or cannot get PreCheck, remember that Southwest's A-Listers, Business Select and Anytime ticketholders can use the Priority Express Lane. Also don't forget CLEAR.
Outbound Flight:
Plane: 737-700 Florida One
Full Flight, On Time
Preboarders: 4
Farewell SAN!
Gotta have those Remy Grahams with free OJ. Also brought my water bottle and refilled it after clearing TSA.
Welcome to LAS!
My little "private" concourse wasn't so private today:
LAS flew a good amount of flights from this area and most of the gates were in use. Still not nearly as crowded compared to other areas of the airport and got a bunch of remote work done while waiting for my appointment.
Took care of my business, now let's see how Las Vegas Boulevard is shaping up with the F1 Race.
The journey begins on the northern end at the Mirage hotel where crews built one of several temporary grandstands. I've been reading that tickets to sit in this area cost in excess of over $2,300-$4,300 a pop for the 3-day event. As of the week of 11/5, the Ticketmaster prices for this area posted as follows:
The Mirage Grandstands $2398 Each (3-Day Ticket All Ages with Complimentary food, water and soft drinks); The Mirage VIP Seats (standard seats but with added perks) $8720 for Two.
Crews appear to be building another grandstand in front of the Venetian. According to the F1 website, this is marked as the "Venetian Zone" but I did not see any tickets posted for sale for this area nor any notes that the area is sold out. Room Packages sold by the Venetian appear to include tickets for another area of the race, not this location. Likely a private VIP area.
Going a short distance further south, is the Sports Illustrated Club area:
$1750 Thursday, $1750 Friday, $3500 Saturday, $7630 All 3 Days
Perks included access to Club SI, a shared hospitality space; All-inclusive food and beverage menu, including beer, wine, and spirits.
And finally, the Bellagio Fountain Club seating:
This appears to be a mini VIP stadium area built directly in front of the Bellagio hotel. Take a look at these prices: $11,247 each excluding Required Minimum Hotel Stay at an MGM Resorts Property. Ticket included all 3 days, premium track views, meet-and-greets with F1 Ambassadors, access to the Club’s private indoor and rooftop hospitality decks, Unlimited curated menu by celebrity chefs, premium bar featuring selections by master mixologists and sommeliers.
Let me just tell you this:
After I completed my business and before I took my photo walk along LV Boulevard, I spent lunch with a friend of mine at a casual dining, non-celebrity restaurant near the Bellagio grandstand. We had the time of our lives, enjoyed quality food, for great prices! I don't think I'm missing out on anything by not paying five figures for a sports event.
For the record, F1's basic packages are located near the Sphere. These packages included complimentary food by Wolfgang Puck Catering, water and soft drinks, access to live entertainment in T-Mobile Zone at Sphere featuring J Balvin, Major Lazer and Mark Ronson. The $500 3 Day General Admission Standing Rate was sold out as of the week of 11/5.
Some additional shots of the track:
Time to head back!
Did I mention TSA PreCheck and Global Entry are worth it? How about another no-wait processing via the PreCheck Lane:
Now that's VIP!
Return Flight:
Plane: 737-700
Full Flight, On Time until...
Preboarders: 3
So this flight was due to depart on time. Everything was looking good. The Ops Gate Agent called up the A-Group to line up. Just before, the pre-board group was cleared to get on, there was a crew emergency; one of the Flight Attendants had to deplane and return home.
The Gate agent had everybody sit back down but quickly assured us the flight was still a go but the crew needed time to find a replacement flight attendant and get them reassigned to this flight. The replacement FA arrived at the gate approximately 20 minutes later with a nice applause as she walked through. A short while later, we all boarded.
Despite the personnel issue, the flight ended up being only 33 minutes tardy out of the gate according to FlightAware, recovered about 10 minutes en-route and arrived at SAN 24 minutes after the 7:15pm scheduled arrival. That's excellent in my opinion considering a last-minute crew emergency. It could have been much worse. Kudos to our Southwest Ops once again!
Some nice skyline views of Vegas and Downtown San Diego:
Safe Travels!
SoCalFlyer97
@jksobonya wrote:
My fear is that the stands are going to stay up and it's never going to go away entirely ... I feel like they ruined a lot of the LVStrip to prepare for a race that, in the end, not a lot care about.
Today's race day...10pm PST...I'll be in bed by then!
I have another trip to LAS booked after the Christmas holidays. I'll likely have time to swing by the Bellagio area but I predict that no evidence of F1 infrastructure will remain. I saw a few I-beams but most of the other supporters appeared to be the same material used for temporary scaffolding.
One interesting fact though: Quality of life appeared to take a major decline for visitors and workers during the several months leading up to the race going all the way back to last spring. Crews had to close traffic lanes through several sections of Las Vegas Boulevard and other major throughfares along the track route to repave and prep the roadway. That led to serious bottlenecking and standstill congestion in the district which made rush hours in SoCal look like the Priority Express Lane (okay...a little exaggeration).
@jksobonya wrote:
Hotel prices have plummeted this week and I am sure people who paid hundreds/thousands for rooms are a bit ticked that they are quite cheaper now due to apparent lack of demand.
This is a reason why SoCalFlyer97 always picks the "Free Cancellation" option when I hotel shop through the Southwest Hotels and Rocket Miles portals, although to be fair, I did not do a curiosity price check of the Vegas area for this weekend's race when the rates were at their peak levels.