Topic Of The Week: "When Things Go Wrong"

[Steve]

The week's Topic Of The Week question is:

What has personally gone wrong with any of your Las Vegas trips?

This can include the flight, the hotel, a show, a dinner, a cab ride..etc.

Steve

[1940GMC]

We have been blessed with our trips to vegas, but a couple of times we did have some problems. Once, we were paying the cab driver as he wa taking us to Mandalay Bay. The bellhop came to get the bags, the driver was in a hurry, y'know. Too much at one time!!! My husband, after the cabbie left, looked for his wallet..IT WAS GONE. The head bellman at MB went running down the cab line, looking for our cabbie, as we were sure my husband had put his wallet in the back of the cab. The bellman's name was Joseph...what a doll. We went up to our room, finallay, disheartened. Our bags were delivered and, VOILA, his wallet was clamped under the handle of the suitcase..

Then, on that same trip, we took a cab ride to buy liquor at an off-the-strip location. The clerk was telling us about how here two cats had attacked her.....long story short, we helped her box up the booze, got back in the cab, and went back to MB. There, my husband realized that his credit card was not with him............THE CLERK HAD NOT GIVEN IT BACK TO HIM. Another cab ride back to the place. Over $50 in cab fares!!!!

Those are the worst things to happen to us in Vegas.......not bad, really. We laugh about all of it now!!!!!

[Coaltownannie]

Well, nothing really bad has happened in all of my trips to Vegas, but 2 years ago I went out with my Mom, cousin and her girlfriend we had an unfortunate experience. When we arrived back to our final destination in Pennyslvania, our luggage was left behind in Chicago! It took two days for all four of us to get our luggage back. It was very frustrating, but thankful that it did not happen on our way to Vegas!.

[sean]

The week's Topic Of The Week question is:

What has personally gone wrong with any of your Las Vegas trips?

This can include the flight, the hotel, a show, a dinner, a cab ride..etc.

Steve

Mine was in May of 2000. My wife and I were going out to Vegas for our 4 year wedding anniversary.

We booked our trip through a travel agency called Las Vegas Holidays it was based in Las Vegas. We get to O'Hare and we were told that we had paper tickets by the porter (our agent told us that we had e-tickets this was when they first came out). After debating with America West and the airline finally getting a hold of the travel agency we get the next flight which was 3 hours later. The Travel Agency had to eat the cost of the flight out to Vegas because of the ticket mix up.

Then we are sitting on the runway for 3 hours because of rain. No drink carts to serve even soft drinks. Finally after take off we are on our way to Phoenix to catch our connecting flight. For an in house meal we are served cold BBQ Chicken Pizza. UGH.

When we get to Phoenix we miss our connecting flight by 6 hours so we have to wait for the next flight which was another 3 hour wait. Once we boarded our flight we had to sit a the tarmac for 45 minutes so they could find the pilots.

We finally land in Vegas 9 hours and 45 minutes late. We quickly get to the Strat to change and when we get to our room I open up the curtains and what is my view of? A concrete post (thanks Stupek).

The next day my wife and I took a cab to the Travel Agency and I ask to speak with the manager and when she came over my wife just ripped her a new hole. They had enough nerve to tell us that they did not have to pay for the airline tickets for the later flight. I asked them why we were told that we had e-tickets when we really had paper tickets. They had no excuse. I then asked where our original paper tickets were and they were sitting on somebody's desk. WOW what nerve. What do we get out of it? A comped meal at the Top of the World and $100 voucher the next time we use them.

[JanG]

In January 2001 my husband and I and son visited Vegas for the first time. Specifically I wanted to go to the S&R show. We arrived at the Mirage for the late show and found that Siegfried (or Roy can't remember) had flu. We hastily rebooked for five days in advance, and given that the show was always heavily booked we considered ourselves lucky to get a new show the night before our departure. When we arrived for the second attempt, the show was cancelled due to technical problems. I dissolved into tears and they gave us a buffet for compensation. Seeing that show became my No1 aim as I figured it would not go on forever, and we returned in April 2002. My husband was there for his birthday. I attended twice. - why not I had travelled from Sydney Australia! We enjoyed the show tremendously - it was unique.

[vegasbabe]

my very first trip to Vegas was in 1992 shortly after Excalibur opened. I booked at the last minute, and it took 4 planes to get me there. Even though I only had about 38 hours to spend there, every minute was precious, and I'll never forget that first trip! But I'd love to forget the flight!

[mweber]

A number of years ago we arrive at the Lady Luck from the airport in our National rental car. We pulled in by the valet and got out of the car. I left the keys in the ignition for the valet and somehow all the car doors got locked. My sister and I ended up taking the Lady Luck shuttle to and from the airport to get a second set of keys from National to open the locked car. The start of my fun in Vegas was delayed by a couple of hours. Who knows, maybe I saved some money! Each time I pull into a valet now, I make sure I leave the driver's side window open just in case.

[wolfman1953]

April 2006; we met 2 of my wife's nieces and their guys in Vegas.
* 1 niece and husband's luggage arrived 14 hours late.
* My wife's father and the nieces' grandfather passed away (we had him to 2 doctors the 4 days before we left and it was a surprise to them). My wife's other niece's family had a family event that her sister was tied up with, so we decided not to cut the trip short.
* We had a flat tire on the rented mini-van about 17 miles off road.
* I got sick one of the nights we had show tickets.
* And made funeral arrangements via phone & fax from Vegas.

We've had other trips that had bad streaks, but somehow they were followed by a good streak. This trip was just varying degrees of bad and depressing.

[pateboo]

My problems revolved around flights with America West. The first problem was a couple of years ago. I splurged and paid $150.00 to upgrade to first class, they told me the only type of meal left for first class was some thing with melted swiss cheese on it. Normally I would just pick off whatever I don't like, but since it was melted on, I just decided to pass and asked for the snack box. About half an hour after finishing the snack box, which was basically a dry granola bar and a cookie, the flight attendant asked me for $5.00. I thought she was kidding. She wasn't. Apparently the people who make the snack boxes are a different concession. Had I known I was going to be charged for this after paying an additional $150.00 I would have passed on that too. This trip this past June I was not going to pay all that money for a possible upgrade and pay for a snack box if I didn't want the included meal. So this time I went to Walgreens and bought a Nacho snack that sold for .99. I'm not a cheapskate, it was the principle. You pay all that money in addition to the regular fare, they ply you with liquor which isn't cheap, and then they charge five bucks for a granola bar. Go figure. This trip was a different problem with America West. This time we had to sit on the tarmac for half an hour while we burned off 600 pounds excess fuel before we could take off. Someone apparently dozed off with their hand on the gas pump handle. Park in any bad neighborhood and someone will syphon your gas out. Don't you think in this day and age when we send shuttles to the moon like it's nothing, someone couldn't syphon all that excess fuel without wasting it. There's all this talk about the cost and how it hurts the environment and then they waste SIX HUNDRED POUNDS. And does anybody want to guess who pays for this mistake.

[bzzpam]

Our worst experince in Vegas just happedned in May. We booked through Travelocity! It stated 4 nights. We arrived on Tuesday. 4 night hotel stay.
We go to the airport on Saturday to leave, they tell us our flight went out on Friday. We said "no " we had a 4 night stay! It cost each of us $100.00 to get home! I called Travelocity right away, all I got was the run around. They say they have great custumer service, but they don't.

I have e-mailed them several time, They admitt they made a mistake, but will do nothing about it!

For your own sake, do not use Travelocity! They rip you off! We had a nice vacation in Vegas, but are trip turned ugly!:mad:

[vegasdough]

I lost a lot of money! Twenty-some times now. :)

[Larry Robinson]

Our worst experience in Vegas had nothing to do with anyone
in Vegas. We were at Harrah's in 2001 and due to leave on
9-11. Our daugh. from Nashville called us and told us not to
go to the airport due to all planes being grounded. It was 4
days later before we finally got out of Vegas and home. During
those 4 days it was quite depressing being 2000 miles away from
your family and nothing to do. Most shows shut down for a period
of time after the attacks. We just sat by the pool and and lost
more money. At the time we were to leave we were ahead a few
dollars. It was an experience my wife and I will never forget.

[PatSprouseYo]

We had to cancel our April trip due to a death in the family, that is probably worse than going and having a bad experience...not going at all.

My worst experience there however was in taking the LV bus to Fremont. Tina and I go in all seasons of the year, but for some reason I love going in the middle of Summer with the hot desert sun baking the city. One July I get the "great" idea to take a city bus to Fremont, so we hop on somewhere between Paris and Harrah's, to a packed bus. Standing room only if you suck your stomach in...and no AC. So we ride all the way to Fremont, packed to the gills with other sweaty tourists. By the time we get off, Tina is so pissed at me for my "great idea" that she just wants to hop in a cab and head back to the casino...luckily I salvaged the night by chance...go figure in Vegas right? Fremont was having an outdoor concert of a cover band/show Louis-Louis, live music in Fitzgerald's, and all the regular weekend Fremont goings-ons.

All-in-all our bad Vegas experience was our first trip to Fremont, and after it was salvaged, we fell in love with downtown and make sure to visit Fremont everytime we go.

[Boston_Bill]

I have been very lucky in my travels to Las Vegas. Worst flight was a bumpy one from Vegas to Phoenix ( god I hate the flight from Vegas its always bumpy coming over the mountains). Had a three hour delay in Denver coming back to Boston then had bratty kids behind me but other than that no real issues.

[YSinAppleton]

I had one bad scare but actually turned into a good thing. Was playing a slot in the Mirage, decided to go up to the room to use the bathroom, change and freshen up. Was gone for about 45 minutes, noticed my purse was missing. Had quite a bit of money in it, rushed back down to the casino and it was still sitting where I left it on the floor by the slot I was playing.

BZZpam - we use travelocity quite a bit and have had nothing but good service from them. Surprised by your problem. I guess that is why it is important to check your tickets, reservations etc. to see if there are mistakes in them. You just never know when a flight will be changed or cancelled without them informing the customer.

[jfoisy]

We had dinner at the Asian restaurant (now closed) at Harrah's. We were asked if we wanted a drink, and we declined. Then the server asked if we wanted a drink. We declined. Then the manager asked. Then the server asked again. There were only three occupied tables. A Harrah's employee with a walkie-talkie set at maximum volume came in and was seated next to us. She got about a dozen calls, and I jumped everytime that thing squawked. The server was OK until dessert -- she said she was going to give us both our desserts NOW, even though I was nowhere near finished eating. Of course, the dessert was ice cream, which was completely melted by the time I got to it.

Our room at Harrah's was awful -- peeling wallpaper, noisy. From the looks of the hall carpeting, one would think that someone had changed the oil in his car out there. There was a roomful of kids next door who were staging their our version of championship wrestling. The front desk clerk gave us a lot of attitude when we asked for a different room, but she finally did, after a lot of deep sighing and rolling of eyes.

Needless to say, I have never stayed at Harrah's again.

[Turnip579]

DEAF = Can't Hear! = No Slot Noise = Read My Lips.

I had a head cold and got on the plane in Seattle. All was OK until we started to descend. My ears would not pop. I went all the way to the ground and went totally deaf.

I was that way for 3 days. I couldn't hear the slot machines. I couldn't hear the waitress in resturaunts, I COULDN'T HEAR SQUAT!

Then on day 4, we were walking down the hallway at The Trop. and this loud "squeel" went off in my head. VIOLA! I could hear again. What was funny was that my wife heard the squeel also and started to laugh. She said "was that your ears? I said YUP. Trust me, being deaf sucks. :eek:

[billfarr]

Nothing really wrong in Las Vegas but, we were married in Las Vegas on August 30, 2005. Look back in Florida Hurricane History. Yep there was a Hurricane that week and all flights into Florida were canceled we just had to spend 2 extra days in Las Vegas. No one seems to show any sympathy when we tell them we had o extend our Honeymoon by 2 days in Las Vegas:D .

[slhanson]

My wife and I were in Vegas staying at the IP in March of 2003. Mark and Clark were playing in the lounge (since gone) and had enjoyed their performances for several nights. Our last night there we wanted to get a picture with them. They said ok come on stage after the set. My wife started to climb the steps and missed one, fell back on me and I hit the floor and broke my leg. We finally got a cab (had to wait for a minivan because I couldn't bend my leg to get in a regular car) to an ER only to sit and wait for over an hour for an x-ray which showed two breaks. The hospital then said by the way we don't have orthopedics here so you have to 1. go to another hospital and wait for a few more hours, 2. Go back to the hotel and go to another hospital tomorrow, or 3. Go back to Minnesota. We did get back to the hotel and my wife took the rental care to get my pain med prescription filled. I had a bumpy ride through the casino (people just don't move out of the way for a wheel chair) and got into bed. Finally got ahold of Northwest to get an early flight (for several hundred $$ extra). Morning had me going to the Airport by cab (minivan again) and wife returning the rental car. Had lots of papers to fill out from the hotel re: liability etc. Seat on the plane was in the back row isle. I told the ladies in the other two seats they better pee now, because I was not getting up once I sat down. Flight was full of turbulence (why not) and then after 3 plus hours I still had a 90 minute drive down to Rochester Mayo Clinic. Wish we would have known Bob Cohan then as we didn't receive as much as a free drink, room, meal, taxi fare etc. They said sorry, accidents happen. We still enjoy staying at the IP especially after meeting Bob. The Dealtainer pit is the best thing in Vegas...steve and linda

[irelandvegas]

It seems that most of the troubles have to do with travel and the general forgetfullness we suffer in Las Vegas.....
So here is my story. We took our first ever shuttle fromt the airport. after the prerequisit really long curbside wait we boarded. One of the later passengers wouldnt move a bag he put in the Aisle. next thing you know there is a full blown confrontation and he is removed from the shuttle. It was amazing to see someone on vacation act like that. Of course the ride to our hotel was longer than i had imagined due to mid strip location putting us later on the list of stops. My return shuttle never showed up, so i hoped a cab. No more shuttles for us, ever.
Not bad to have only that to whine about! love that town!

[twotree100]

The week's Topic Of The Week question is:

What has personally gone wrong with any of your Las Vegas trips?

This can include the flight, the hotel, a show, a dinner, a cab ride..etc.

Steve

we had a room at harrarfor 7n&8day .on saturday night they toll us we had leaveour room.theysaid we only book fri night.they would give us at the rio for 290.00 night yer.

[dreamcatcheril]

What has personally gone wrong with any of your Las Vegas trips?

I have to take my wife along at least once a year.


only kidding dear....................

[pateboo]

Our worst experince in Vegas just happedned in May. We booked through Travelocity! It stated 4 nights. We arrived on Tuesday. 4 night hotel stay.
We go to the airport on Saturday to leave, they tell us our flight went out on Friday. We said "no " we had a 4 night stay! It cost each of us $100.00 to get home! I called Travelocity right away, all I got was the run around. They say they have great custumer service, but they don't.

I have e-mailed them several time, They admitt they made a mistake, but will do nothing about it!

For your own sake, do not use Travelocity! They rip you off! We had a nice vacation in Vegas, but are trip turned ugly!:mad:

The Chicago Sun Times has a column called "The Fixer". You contact them with a problem and they investigate and usually are successful in getting refunds or replacements etc. The website for the paper is suntimes.com.

I have been booking online for years through various travel agencies and they always send a confirming email with the confirmation number that you're supposed to be able to use to retrieve your reservation. They always give a different confirmation number than the one you need and you end up contacting them to get the right one anyway.

[ChicChas]

My worst experience was in February 2006. I had a ticket to see "Hairspray" at the Luxor. They took my ticket at the door and I entered the inner lobby. The theater wasn't open yet for seating, so I purchased a drink and was flipping through my program book when I suddenly realized I couldn't find my ticket stub with my seat number on it. I looked everywhere including digging through the trash where I had thrown out my wet bar napkin.

Eventually, I went back to the box office where there was a line a mile long. When I finally got my turn, they refused to reissue my ticket even though I had all of the original paperwork still with me.

When I went back to the theater to look for my ticket again, the woman who was manning the door wouldn't let me back in without my ticket, even though I had already talked to her FROM INSIDE about whether the ticket had been turned in to her.

I never did get to see the show, but I have an $85.00 program booklto remind me of the experience.

[Nevada]

My problem was a couple of years ago . The flight home was delayed for two hours when person at desk tells us we will be loading plane as soon as a new fuel pump arrives from Los Angles Ca. Well after a six hour delay we took off.In back of my mine while leaving I said to my self I hope the problem was fixed there is not a place to pull over in the sky.:eek:

[hirolrwannabe]

We were in Las Vegas last August and had tickets for Barry Manilow - 3rd row center. At 9PM he walked out on stage in a pair of jeans, no fanfare, no bright lights - just the announcement that he would not be able to perform because of the terrible pain he was having with his hips (prior to upcoming surgery). We'd seen him before but had never done better than 7th row. He sang one song that night and that was it. We got our money back, but my husband and I just sat there in absolute disbelief for probably 10 minutes. We were so disappointed that we blew the entire refund gambling.

We are going to Vegas in 2 weeks. This time we have FIRST ROW CENTER. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[hipster818]

There was this one time when my parents, grandmother and myself were staying at Bally's at the time. We decided to eat at the Sidewalk Cafe in Bally's and plan out our day. We were seated promptly, yet we were seated in an area that was isolated from where the everyone else. This was odd because the place was not that busy. There were maybe three other tables that were being served.

The waiter who was waiting on was from Bulgaria did not speak English very well. Everyone at our table had to just about make hand gestures so that our waiter could understand us. The same could be said for the other tables. yet our coffee and orange juice came quickly, and some of us thought it was a slow start and would pick up... we were all wrong.

It took about more than 45 minutes for all of our food to come. When it finally did come our waiter brought he not only brought our food, but food for all of the other tables. Needless to say just about everyones food was cold. The hapless Bulgarian waiter was getting everyone's order mixed up. He would ask someone two or three times if they ordered something when the did not. Some people were taking plates just because the felt sorry for the poor guy. I remember one guy finally took an order of French toast even though it was not what he had ordered. This did not bod well for my parents nor some of the other patrons. I remember he asked me a few times if I ordered the pancakes and I kept telling him now. I ordered a bagel with cream cheese, hash brows, and bacon.

After some short tempers and begging for the manager, the manager for the sidewalk Cafe finally came out. Well after a few choice words from all of use and the near by tables the manager comped everyones food. After breakfast my parents and grandmother went to gamble while I went to Swensen's, which was on the "bottom floor" of Bally's at the time for some more food, I was still hungry.

Out of all of my trips to Vegas that stories stands out the most of when things go wrong. Though there are plenty of others, yet I'll save those for another day.

[bigbri525]

My worst trip was back in June, when I was taking my mother and blind father to Vegas for a quicky weekend. Our plans were to attend a party in California, and my parents would have someone close by, in case something happened. Our plans got changed when our friends aunt passed away, the day before we left, but luckily, she lived in Vegas, so that was no big deal, we could still spend time with our friends, and pay our respects to the family, at the same time.

Our flight was to leave at 9:30, on America West. We get to the parking shuttle lot at about 7:30. Everything was fine, until the driver, who doesn't speak English very well, gets to the security gate, and the gate won't open. He tries backing up and pulling forward for about 20 minutes. Finally, he decides to go to the other gate. The gate he was trying to activate, gets activated by the very next person to try. he pulls up to this gate, and it doesn't work. this went on for about another 15 minutes, when finally, another shuttle comes by, and we switch shuttles. It's now 8:15, and we get our tickets. My mother decides she should use the restroom, before she goes through security. She comes out, and she decides to get her ticket and I.D. together for security. She can't find her I.D. She checks the pockets she normally puts stuff in, she can't find it. She checks her purse, not there. She checks my dad's pockets, I bet he enjoyed that, and no I.D. My wife goes back into the restroom, is going through the trash cans, I go back to the ticket counter, she didn't leave it there, my mom tracks down a police officer, and nobody had turned it in. She takes off her jacket, she's always cold, and she bends over to check her stuff again, and I notice a bulge in her back pocket, so I ask her, did she check her back pocket? Sure enough, there was her I.D. So, it is now 8:55. We get to security, and my dad gets stopped. He had knee surgery, and has pins in his knees, just like the medical card says, but they search him anyway. We are waiting for him, when an officer tells us we have to go to the gates. I explain to the officer that my dad is legally blind, and needs assistance to get around, to which he tells us that it is his problem, and shouldn't have been going through security by himself. To which I replied did you get your badge from a Cracker Jack Box, or just naturally stupid, that's why we are waiting for him, since we can't be right by the machines that they scan people with. He asks for documented proof that he is leagally blind, to which I reply, it's on the medical card that also says he had knee surgery, and is still getting scanned. We wind up getting 4 officers over and the supervisor, to explain why we are not obeying the idiot officer, and the 6 of them still don't understand, but by this time, they were through with my dad, and we told them we would just do as they told us. Denver International Joke of an Airport has got to be the worst security, next to Mccarran, but Mccarren comes later. It is now 9:10, and we have to take the trams to the concourses. The worst part is that A-West is C Concourse. The trams take forever, and my wife and I are running down the concourse, and naturally, the gate is the very end gate, to find out that the flight had just arrived, they had to clean the plane and get it ready for our flight, that it would be another 20 minutes before we could board. We wait, and they come back over the intercom that they have a mechanical problem, and it would be another half hour. Now, we only have about 26 hours in Vegas, before we come back to Denver, so this is really not starting out well. 10:15, they come back on the PA, and say it's going to be another hour. So I go to the counter and ask if we can just switch our trip to another weekend, since we are now going to be down to under 24 hours in Vegas, and they tell us until the flight has been delayed more than two hours, there is nothing they can do. They then come over the PA again at 11:15, and tell us that a flight is coming in from Phoenix, and should be here by midnight, and we should be on our way by 12:30. According to my calculations, that is more than 2 hours, so I go back to the counter. It is now going to be over two hours late, what can you do for us? To which I get a reply from a very rude lady, she took off her badge, so you couldn't get her name, there is nothing they will do, and that is the risk you take not getting their trip insurance. If I hadn't already upset the Denver PD that night, I may have gone over the counter at her. We finally get on the plane at 12:45, but before I get on the plane, I called Budget to let them know that I was going to be late, and they said there was no problem, that they would have my car all ready for us. we finally get to take off at 1:20, and we get into Vegas about 2:15. we get off the plane, and go to baggage claim. It took them over an hour to get us our bags. we finally get to the shuttle for the rental cars at 3:30. we get to the Budget counter, and they have a canceled reservation for me. they finally give me a car at about 4:15, for the rate I was supposed to get, and we went to Fitzgeralds. we get there at about 4:30 and try to check in, and they tell us they are sold out. I pull out my confirmation, and they tell us too bad, we should've been there sooner to get our rooms. At this point, I explode, and demand to see whatever manager is on duty. The manager comes over, and says that they had our rooms already blocked, since it was part of the package, and it was under the A-West package, not our names, gives us our keys, and we go up to our rooms. My wife and I decide to go to the cafe to get something to eat. we get sat, and we are two of six people in the cafe. the four other people in the cafe get up and leave, so it's just my wife and I. We wait for about 15 minutes, and ask if someone was coming over, the person says just a minute, and goes to the host stand. She and the two other women stand up there for about another 10 minutes, looking back at us and laughing. we finally get up and leave. We go straight down to the check-in desk and ask for a complaint form, and tell them about the rude women in the cafe. My wife fills out the form and leaves it with the person there, and he says that he will get it to the manager. we decide to go to bed, since we were meeting our friends at noon, we would just get something to eat after we get our few hours of sleep. At 9:30, we get a phone call, it's the Food and Beverage Director. He asks what happened, and my wife proceeds to tell him about our whole trip so far. He asks if he can buy us dinner at the steak house, and she declined, since we didn't know when we would be back tonight, and that we were going to just grab a buffet and get on our way. he tells my wife that the buffet was on him, and we should bring my parents with us. So, the four of us go down, and the F & B Manager greets us at the entrance. She takes us to a tablr that has a fruit plate, a bottle of champaign, and four shrimp cocktails waiting for us. She tells us that if there is anything else we need while we are at the Fitz, to let them know, and they will take care of it. If you ever have a problem at Fitzgeralds, just ask to talk to Jim Karnuth or Cathy Cox, they will take care of you and then some. They are very nice people, and want you to come back and see them. We were there two weeks later, on another trip, and just stopped in to say thank you, and they remembered us, and bought us dinner at the steak house that night, which is very good, if you are downtown and want a steak.

We go to leave on Sunday morning, we grab a buffet, and get to the airport. We get checked in, I check to make sure my mom has her I.D., and we go to security. My mother had purchased a snow globe for my neice, and was going to carry it on. Security tells us that we can't carry it on, that it has liquid in it, and it is not allowed. During this time, we see three other people with snow globes that are not getting hassled, and going to the planes. We argue with the guy for about 15 minutes, and we say the heck with it, and the guy slam dunks the snow globe into the trash. we still see other people getting by with their snowglobes, and they do nothing. we get to the gate, just before they close the door, and my dad didn't have his shoes on, and was told that he had to have his shoes on to board the plane, but we can take them off once we are in our seats, go figure. we notice anther person with a snowglobe getting on the plane, and we point out that they had it, to which the rude woman says that she ahd to have purchased it in the secure area of the airport, to which I ask, is there a Bonanza gift shop from Sahara and Las Vegas Blvd in the secure area? She replys that it's none of my business and to just get on the plane and we were lucky to have her hold the door open this long. We get to our seats, and we wait, and wait, and wait, about 20 minutes later, another three people get on the plane, and they take another person off, because she left her I.D. at security, and they couldn't bring it to her, she had to go get it, and take the next flight to Phoenix.

In conclusion, never fly America West/US Airways, and whatever you do, if you purchase a snowglobe, take your chances checking it, and hope that it gets home in one piece. Also, the TSA is a joke, and it makes me wonder why we haven't had another 9/11 happen, it would be so easy for them to do it again.

[YSinAppleton]

Wow! What a miserable time you had. Very sorry. Hope your next trip is better.

[lvgecko]

My episode was not nearly as bad a bigbri's - I don't know how you kept from going ballistic!

A few months before we moved here, we had a group of 8 from all over the country coming to Las Vegas for my 50th birthday in 2005. 4 of us were all travelling together from DFW. Mid-July, Texas temperature high 90's with high humidity. Typical Dallas temperature for summer. We go to get on the plane and it is warm. We all think it's just because the air conditioning hasn't been turned on yet. WRONG! The air conditioning trickled out of the vents the entire trip. It was probably 90 degrees in the plane the entire trip - about 3 hours - not a good start to our trip. And, of course, when we get to Las Vegas, it's the summer of near record heat (similar to this year) - 115, 116, 117! When we went to pick up the rental car, all of us stayed inside the building and downed quite a bit of their very cold refreshing water! Fortunately, that was the only thing that went wrong the whole trip. And you can bet that the first thing we checked on the return trip was the AC - we had all decided we would take another flight if the AC wasn't working!

[CeeJayRocker]

My worst experience, which is my only bad experience, demonstrates the "you get what you pay for" theory . . . We'd taken a charter package for the first time in years. We stopped using the charter flights from Chamption when the airline dropped the Fri-Monday gig and went to Thur. - Sun, so we switched to commercial for several years. The Fri-Mon flights returned, and so did we.

Flight out was uneventful. For the return trip, we met our limo at 7 am for a 9 am or so departure. I knew things weren't going right when the plane wasn't at the gate, even though I knew that a flight should have arrived at about 7:30 for us to take back . . . At 9, we were told that we'd leave at noon. At noon we were told we'd leave at 4, and at 1 we were told it'd be 9 that night, which is when we left. . . . We got some free food coupons and a hundred dollar voucher from the package company good only on a package using the charter air . . . Never did use it . . . .:cool:

[Dee]

The food poisoning started sometime afer midnight. Had to check-out and be at the airport by 11AM, got tunneled on the way to the airport, taxi cost $27 and change from the Wynn:eek: I was so sick I couldn't even yell at the guy. Flew to Atlanta (2 1/2 hour delay in Atlanta), husband was on a business trip in Atlanta and wanted to come get me and boy did I want him to but did not want to leave my friend who was having her own travel issues (sinus, nose kept bleeding). Did not get home till around 3 AM. It was the worst day of my life.

[cynthiaB]

It was a bad one from the beginning.
I usually book our vacations online, but in our Sunday paper Majestic Travel had advertised a package that beat SWVacations deal. So, I called made the reservations and paid with our CC for our SW flight to stay at the Fitz. for 4 persons. 3 months in advance. We received our confirmation letter in the mail and were told we would be issued our tickets at the SW counter.
Thursday we were all packed and ready for our trip, which was to leave Friday morning, when I received a call from Funjet. They said, they were very sorry but, the travel agency made our reservations but failed to pay for it!! I said, I have my letter of confirmation and a receipt and a bill that shows my CC was charged. It took 3 hrs on the phone with Funjet and Bank of America. BOA discovered my card was used to pay for 4 other persons.
Because of the insurance BOA cleared the orig charges and we could pay for our reservation again.
Friday we arrived at the airport checked in no problem. We found out our flights were not SW but Champion Air, which was fine they were very nice to us and were so helpful with our son who is in a Wheelchair.
We arrived at the airport took shuttle to Budget. We reserved a specific car we knew our son would have no difficulty getting in and out of, which they did not have, they wanted to give us a 2 door compact car. We had to wait for almost 2 hours for someone to turn in a car we could use.
We got to the Fitz finally. We checked in no problems. We went for lunch and spent the rest of the day on Freemont St. My daughter and son went to their room next to ours. We walked into our room which was like an oven. My husband called downstairs and they sent someone up immediatly. He said, it would take about 45 minutes. So we went to the casino. We returned to a cool room. I went to shower when I came out the AC had stopped. Another call to the desk, again they came up this time we went to the cafe. It was about 3:45am. We went back our room it was cool. We went to sleep about 5:00am we awoke as human popcicles. My husband was going to call the front desk again, I said, lets just put more clothes on a we did and we took all the sheets and bedspread off the other bed and rolled ourselves in like a taco. Around 10am we left our rooms and went to complain there was a manager at the desk she was very nice and promised it would be fixed or we could change rooms.
After walking around the strip we went to lunch. About an hour later my son got sick. So I went back to the room with him. I told my husband and daughter to go on to the show. Don't know what made him sick but, he took his medication and we stayed in for the rest of the evening.
The next day he was fine and we were off again to the strip. We parked the car at Ceasers after some time there we decided to walk to the other casinos. we played for a while then to the next casino. Making our way to the NYNY It began to rain, then thunder, then pour down we were running with the rest of the people trying to get out of the rain. We were soaked. The power went out in the NYNY. The rain stopped so we were headed back to our car at Ceasars when the rain poured down again.
We finally made it back to our car around 11pm and some drunken fool, I suspect he was, I mean who ealse would park their car behind ours! There was no parking space there! IDIOT! Some one had called security so they arrived at the same time. He said, everything was being taken care of and the car was going to be removed. 1 Hr later we were finally on our way back to our freezer. The AC was fixed. The next day it rained again. The best day was our last day there before our flights home. We won some money. Oh yes we came home to find the sink in the bathroom was running. I know it was my husband who left it on for 4 days! Hey but I love Las Vegas and I am ready to go again.

[Jacob36]

After reading cynthiaB’s Funjet story, it got me to thinking of the only real trouble I have had on a trip to Vegas. It was a few years ago, booked with Funjet because it was the cheapest fare at the time. Everything goes good boarding and taking off in Cleveland. The flight was going good, until the pilot comes on, says we do not have enough fuel to get to Vegas :eek: , so we land some place in Texas, I forget where.

We stay parked out on the tarmac, waiting to get a fuel truck to come out to us, we are at a airport that ATA (I think that was the airlines) does not have a hub, the truck will not fuel the plane with out payment on the spot, no credit. In the mean time in the middle off summer in Texas, no engines for air, we are on the ground now for 30 minutes; the aircrew says they cannot open the doors. After 45 minutes, everyone is getting ready to start opening the doors anyway, when they finally open up. After about an hour everyone on the plane is getting ready to take up a collection to try to pay for the fuel, when the pilot comes back out of the cockpit with HIS credit card, the truck starts pumping and after about an 1 ½ hour, we finally get going again.

So we lose 1 ½ hour of time in Vegas, what does ATA do for us, for our flight home, we get to sit about 50 feet from the gate at McCarran for about a 1 ½ hour, while they clean up the fuel leaking from the plane, they over filled it. :rolleyes:

Need less to say that was the last time for them and Funjet, now it is strictly Continental, until they screw up and then I will start looking for another airline.

[VegasBride]

Our worst experince in Vegas just happedned in May. We booked through Travelocity! It stated 4 nights. We arrived on Tuesday. 4 night hotel stay.
We go to the airport on Saturday to leave, they tell us our flight went out on Friday. We said "no " we had a 4 night stay! It cost each of us $100.00 to get home! I called Travelocity right away, all I got was the run around. They say they have great custumer service, but they don't.

I have e-mailed them several time, They admitt they made a mistake, but will do nothing about it!

For your own sake, do not use Travelocity! They rip you off! We had a nice vacation in Vegas, but are trip turned ugly!:mad:

Always try to use your credit card when making flight plans, then you have a recourse in charging back the cost as a dispute. They cannot add on any late or finance charges on a dispute. That gets their attention fast.

[VegasBride]

Since we have traveled a lot to Vegas, we have had a few bad times. I have had food poison twice. Once at Mr. Lucky's in the Hard Rock, and at the Rosewood Grill. Luckily it only lasted a few hours. It would wake me up in the middle of the night, and by morning it was over. Just a little wore out.

Probably our worst one was the time we were on the airplane for over nine hours. The trip usually takes under four hours, but because the plane had to be de-iced twice, and we had to wait for clearance because of the weather.
We were not allowed to leave the plane, and there was no drink service (probably because they did not want us all rushing to the lavoratory). But there were screaming kids.

Finally after four hours on the plane and the second de-icing, we got clearance from the tower to take off. Everything went smoothly, until they came over the PA to announce that we would be making a stop in Denver. It seems that the whole time we waiting for takeoff, they left the engines running, so that now they were short on fuel. So that was another hour for refueling and clearnce for landing and takeoff.

Other than that, there is never a bad trip to Vegas:p

[8888]

i have been lucky enough to take it all in stride. i have had no disasters personally but have been with some friends who have. two that come to mind are a buddy being dragged out of a strip club by his bride to be. he was supposed to meet her in califorinia in a week. she was supposed to be at home in ny but supprised him. the hickeys on his neck did not go over well. antoher friend, a celebrity, had his wife hit him in the head with a champagne glass. cut him up good. the tabloids had a field day. kinda ruined the week. i was in a minor car accident out there once but didnt get hurt and insurance paid. the way i look at it is "how bad can things be? i'm still in vegas".

[RWHannu]

>>have had food poison twice. Once at Mr. Lucky's in the Hard Rock, and at >>the Rosewood Grill. Luckily it only lasted a few hours.

I think a lot of people confuse food poisoning with just "eating something that didn't agree with you"...strictly speaking, food poisoning takes a while to kick in and doesn't end in a hurry. But I know, first hand, the kind of thing you're talking about.

I've had a couple of bad travel experiences back when I used to fly to Las Vegas...most notably a TWA flight through St. Louis with no connecting flight available to get back to Madison. (At least this was back in the days when the airline would actually provide a free hotel room in situations like that...plus a little travel bag of sundries.)

Overall, though, it's good to read that most of the stories here haven't involved real "death and destruction".

[La$Vega$]

:mad:
We had a bad long delay in our flight to Vegas, as it turned out we taxied out of the gate and back after 3 hours. Many got angry. They use this ploy so they can say they left the gate or something to that effect?
The reason for the delay was the defroster did not function on the pilots windows...whoa! ok, understandable, they need that I thought, but was it a rouse, we will never know?

Finally arrived in V, went to the hotel to check in for a fully comped suite of 3 days and they did not have us in the computer and in fact they said they were fully booked...uh oh:mad:, (time to call tiny;)) after a long delay of an hour or so of calling to speak to our host here that made the arrangements, we all of a sudden had a nice suite...went up to the room and did not like it at all....
now i realize that you are not in the room all that much, but this was a special trip and going to stick in my craw so..........
called down to the front desk, said didn't care for the comped room:rolleyes:
could they set us up in another suite in their sister hotel....
They did, all was fine, we had an excellent trip and even won some dough
but, the beginning of that trip seemed like it was headed for the horror stories

[lovevegas]

We just got home from a trip that had a bad experience. We booked a bus tour to the Grand Canyon through Las Vegas Tour Company....don't do it!:eek: We had received an email from them as to where to be picked up and when. We were told to call the night before to confirm out tour which we did and were given the same information as the email. We were to be at a certain entrance at 5:50 a.m. We got there at 5:40 and waited until 6 and no one showed up. We called them and they said the bus was running late. We went over and talked to the valet and he said we were at the door on the email and that is where tour buses usually came. At 6:20, we called again and they said we were a "no show". I said, "No, we showed and you didn't!" A big white bus had gone by us and never stopped and that must have been it. The lady was very nasty on the phone and said they had picked up someone else at our hotel and I certainly wonder how they got the right information!! :cool: Stay away from RX Tours at the Las Vegas Tour Company!!

[krisfarnsworth]

Our worst trip was a few years back we were supposed to stay at the Bellagio for our 10th wedding anniversary and we check in when their power was out. But we just got back from the planet hollywood and we were really treated rude by the a-list players club and that is almost as bad as no power let down.

[TexasPam]

But we just got back from the planet hollywood and we were really treated rude by the a-list players club and that is almost as bad as no power let down.

I had the same problem with the a-list player club -- and also the ph cashiers -- and the boothlings at the show desk. All of these people are downright NASTY!