The company that I had worked with for over 17 years was purchased by a French capital investment group last year. Through some uncertain times over the past few months, the dust has finally settled for me to realize that the new ownership group and their managers like me and the job that I continue to do for the company enough to keep me on. I can't say that about some of my colleagues who either were given pink slips or moved on to new endeavors over the past year. One thing that the French managers of the new ownership group like to do is have meetings in warm places. We were in Phoenix for meetings last September and again in December. And a couple weeks ago we had a series of trainings and meetings in Las Vegas.
Now, I'm a veteran of going to Las Vegas - so much so that my feelings about the destination went from a euphoric high when I would visit there 25 to 30 years ago, to one that made me call the city the world's largest toilet in the last three or four years when I used to attend the Consumer Electronics Show held annually in early January. I had not attended a CES since 2017 and that didn't bother me one bit. Missing CES in 2018 was a little strange - especially when I would see coverage of the convention on The Today Show or CNN. But the past two years have been absolutely blissful knowing that on or about January 3rd if I were still sentenced to go to CES I would have had to completely shut off the post-holiday warm and fuzzy feeling and get on a plane to head to Las Vegas to meet up with my colleagues for a nearly week-long stay, pressing the flesh of people with ebola-type bacteria that they drug from all corners of the earth, and wishing them a very insincere "Happy New Year." I don't miss Las Vegas - or CES - in the least.
But I was sort of interested in going out in early February since there was no show and we had been in a streak of non-sunny days at home. Quite honestly, the weather in the Midwest wasn't as brutal this winter as it has been over the past couple of winters. But not seeing the sun for a week at a time in late January into early February really grates on my mental standing.
Flying to Las Vegas was non-eventful - not so on the way back home (I'll get into that later on) - and I got into McCarran International Airport around 2:30 on a beautifully sunny, but unseasonably cool day. It was very windy and my Uber driver told me that while it was windy and cool this day, the day before was even MORE windy and cool. I didn't bring a jacket - I just wore pullover sweaters or long-sleeve shirts on this visit - so it was a bit nippy at times when I had to venture out of the hotel.
I stayed at one of my all-time favorite hotels in Las Vegas, the Mirage, where we were having our meetings/trainings. Actually, I was supposed to stay at Bally's just down the street as our company evidently got a good deal there. However, the night before I was to arrive, I got an e-mail from our marketing manager who said that two bedrooms off a suite they were going to use as a meeting room were open and he wanted to know if I wanted one of the rooms. Sure! It turned out that it was quite possibly the same room - or a similar room - that I stayed in at a couple of Consumer Electronics Shows in the past. It was on the 25th floor and offered a great view of the Volcano (still a big hit with the tourists after all these years) and the Las Vegas strip.
But the hotel has become a bit dated from when it first opened toward the end of November in 1989. The wonderful rainforest in the atrium is still there, but the fragrant tropical flowers were masked by the smell of 30 years of cigarette smoke from the nearby casino. A number of my favorite restaurants in the hotel have closed or been re-purposed into other eateries. And it wasn't cheap to drink in any of the bars in the casino, either. A bottle of domestic beer cost $7.00 - plus tax - and a craft beer - such as the Firestone Walker 805 blonde ale - was $8 bucks. Plus tax. So much for the day of the $.99 cent Heineken.
Not being in Las Vegas for 3 years was a bit of a shock to the system. I used to marvel over the changes from year to year when I would go to Vegas on an annual basis. But the changes over 3 years left me a little lost. Lots of things have changed, but in a lot of ways they've stayed the same. New hotels have popped up, more attractions have opened, and a new state-of-the-art football stadium across I-15 from Mandalay Bay will house the newly relocated Las Vegas Raiders starting this fall.
And coming in 2021 will be the culmination of two ambitious projects - the MSG Sphere, an advanced multi-media entertainment facility that will seat 18,000 people for concerts and will fully immerse patrons in sound and video for the performance; and Resorts World Las Vegas, a $4.5 billion (yes, billion with a "b") dollar project that will feature a 110,000 square foot casino, over 200,000 square feet of restaurants, 70,000 square feet of shopping, and a huge five-acre outdoor area that will feature 7 unique swimming pools including an 1800 square foot infinity pool. The complex will also feature a 100,000 square foot LED display on the side of one of the towers on the hotel.
The Las Vegas "High Roller" observation wheel opened in early 2014, so I've seen this before. However, I found a somewhat new pedestrian mall just off the strip between the LINQ hotel (the former Imperial Palace) and the Flamingo called The Promenade that took you right up to the base of the Ferris wheel. The Promenade featured a number of shops, restaurants and bars. It had zip lines above the walkway for people that ended at the observation wheel - the tallest of its kind in the world. I was able to walk around one evening and see what was new in the immediate area. I was alternately amazed, amused and disgusted with what I encountered in my walk that evening.
We were going to have dinner one evening at a restaurant in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, so I wandered over there early to walk through the shopping and restaurant complex. It had changed dramatically, not only in terms of restaurants and shops from when I was last in there, but the lay-out had changed, as well. I found myself getting kind of turned around in the place as I was walking through. After getting through the Forum Shops, I wound up at the sports book at Caesar's watching some basketball and having $8 dollar 12 ounce glasses of craft beers. Things had changed so much in the casino and sports book area that I didn't even recognize the place from when the last time I was in there.
I guess that with the proliferation of gambling around the nation - and worldwide - Las Vegas needs to do things like remodel hotels and casinos, and build attractions such as the MSG Sphere and Resorts World to keep its place as the gambling capital of the world. Restaurants are changing, more bars and entertainment complexes are coming in, casinos are expanding, and more hotels are being built. I remember when the total of hotel rooms passed 100,000 about 25 years ago and thinking, "Do that many people really come to Las Vegas?" Today, over 150,000 hotel rooms are available in the city and projections are for the total to go over 160,000 within 3 years. While Vegas now has increased competition for domestic gamblers, it's still a huge draw for international travelers who like wager money.
We had meetings up to 6 p.m. both days we were there, but we had a two-hour window for lunch both days. When I was walking on the Promenade the first evening, I came across an In-N-Out Burger location along the walkway. (see map) I made a mental note to go back the next day for lunch. The inside was packed as it was during the noon rush, so I sat out at a fountain area in front of the place in the sun on a cool day to enjoy my double-double. I know some people don't like In-N-Out, but every time I'm near one, I have to get one of their burgers.
I didn't want to linger in Las Vegas any longer than I had to, so I booked a 7:00 a.m. Pacific time flight out on a Friday morning that was scheduled - United Airlines-willing - to get me back to Moline just after 1 p.m. Central time. My layover in Denver would be a manageable 65 minutes, and possibly longer if a good tailwind got us up to Denver more quickly. I got out to the airport in plenty of time, had no problem getting checked in, bag checked and through security (thanks to TSA Pre√) and out to the gate. In fact, from the time I was picked up by Uber at the hotel to the time I made it to the gate, it was just 32 minutes. We boarded not long after I got there.
However, in my row - well, it had to be a sight. The United gods of seat selections had a wonderful sense of humor that day. Now, I have lost significant weight over the past couple of years and have managed to keep it off. (Well, I did gain about 10 pounds during the holiday season, but that will go off when the weather gets nicer.) I sat in my window seat first, then this guy - he had to weigh 350 pounds if he was an ounce - had the middle seat next to me. He was so big that he had his own seatbelt extender. Then seated in the aisle seat was a guy who was 6'4" and had to also be well over 300 pounds, as well. He, too, had his own seatbelt extender. So, here I was - the smallest of three big guys, literally smashed up against the wall of my window seat. It wasn't going to be a fun flight.
As we were taxiing out to take off, the plane sort of veered off to the side of one of the runways to a large open space next to the taxi way. The pilot did a little 180 degree turn, stopped the plane and turned off the engines. I thought, "Uh oh, this isn't good..."
The pilot then came over the intercom and said that due to snow in Denver, there was a ground stop due to poor visibility. I just shook my head because I always seem to have the worst luck in situations where I think I have outsmarted the elements and airlines. My personal preference is to never fly through Chicago in the winter time - just because if they have snow flurries, it causes delays. Or - as in the case of flying through there to Phoenix last December - if a snowstorm is affecting the east coast, Chicago gets completely backed up. And that's even with nice weather conditions in the city. So, my rule of thumb is to fly through Denver where they built Denver International with the Colorado weather in mind and have the plans and apparatus to keep runways open when it snows.
Well, then again... I suppose if it's snowing heavily and it's blowing, it doesn't matter how many plows you have.
So, every 30 minutes for the next hour-and-a-half the pilot came on the intercom and said that they were still in a ground stop in Denver. Once, however, he said that they had lifted the ground stop, but then he came back on and said, "Aahhh, they just ordered another ground stop, folks..."
Now, remember, I'm scrunched against the wall by this huge man who was as big as a house. And if I would have tried to get up to use the restroom, getting these two big-assed guys out of their seats would have been quite the chore - and quite the sight. I sat there thinking that I was glad that I didn't stop for an espresso or drink a bunch of water before the flight. I was that way for FOUR hours!
Finally at 9 a.m. - two hours after we were supposed to leave Las Vegas and at the same time we were supposed to be landing in Denver - the engines started up again, we taxied to the runway and took off. I knew that I probably missed my Moline flight at 11:00 a.m. But then I thought, "Wait a minute. If this flight is delayed coming in, maybe my Moline flight is delayed, too!"
However, when we touched down in Denver at 11:45 a.m. Mountain time, I checked the United application on my phone. Hoping that the flight was delayed, I immediately found out that - nope - it had taken off at 11:05 a.m., 40 minutes before. However, the app gave me alternative flights. There was a 5:30 p.m. flight to Chicago that got in around 8:55 p.m. Central time. But the connecting flight to Moline, was just 35 minutes after we were to arrive. I sort of winced at that and had a chance to talk with a United service agent. She looked up my flights and said, "Oh, well, you're scheduled to get in at gate B-16 and the Moline flight is at B-20. You won't have very far to go." I knew that if I could make my flight, there was a better than even chance that my checked bag would not.
Sitting around the Denver airport for 4+ hours isn't the most fun thing to do. I had a 3.5 hour layover on the way out to Denver that gave me time to check e-mails and make phone calls. And I tried to do that during this extended layover, as well. I called my wife and told her not to expect me home until around 11 p.m. - if I make it home at all. We were supposed to get together with friends that evening, but those plans went by the wayside.
I get on the plane to take me to Chicago and, of course, I was stuck in the last row. I had a window seat and the middle seat was vacant, so it wasn't as bad as my Las Vegas to Denver flight. (Quite actually, I don't know if I've EVER had a flight that was like the one I had earlier in the day.)
We backed away from the gate at 5:30 p.m., but it had continued to snow and it was getting colder after the sun went down. The pilot came on and announced that we were going to need to get a quick spray of de-icer before we could take off. That's happened to me before in Denver and it's usually about a 20 minute ordeal of waiting and then getting de-iced. OK - I just lost 20 minutes putting me in jeopardy of missing my Moline flight.
However, the pilot came on the intercom and announced that they determined that we had more of an ice build-up than they originally thought. So, we got a double-drenching of de-icer that took another 10 minutes longer. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I was going to miss my flight to Moline.
As we took off and headed toward Chicago, I thought, "Well, it IS Chicago and they're notorious for having delays especially later in the day. Maybe I'll make that Moline flight."
When we landed in Chicago, it was 9:20 - just 10 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave to the Quad Cities. But it didn't matter. I checked the United app and found that we were now coming into gate C-9 - not B-16 as I was originally told - and the Moline flight was still going out of B-20. If you're familiar with O'Hare, the C concourse is out further away from the main terminal. You have to go down an escalator and through a 750 foot - or the length of two-and-a-half football fields - underground walkway to escalators to take you up to the B concourse. And that's not counting the space between the gates and the escalator. So, yeah - it's a hike. And it was quite obvious that I wasn't going to make my flight.
On the United app, I had been directed to choose a flight the next day. I already had it in my mind that I could just walk to the Hilton-Chicago O'Hare and get a room there if I missed my flight to Moline. I had checked in Denver to see if they had rooms available for that evening and they did - and they were pretty reasonable, coming in under the limit that our new owners have set for hotel rooms in our travel expense guidelines. I went back to the Hilton Honors mobile application on my phone to book a room while I was still on the plane. It turned out that I got an even cheaper rate that evening than what I found when I was in Denver.
They had a 9:00 a.m. flight to Moline the next morning and the weather appeared that it would be good enough that we might not have any delays, so I chose that flight on the app. However, I wondered where my bag was and whether or not I'd be able to retrieve it for the evening. (In my years of travel, I've learned to always pack an extra shirt, underwear and socks - even when I'm driving.)
By the time we taxied to the gate and started to disembark, it was 9:35. By the time I was able to get off the plane - I was the second-to-last person off, of course - it was 9:55. Inside the terminal, I went to the agent at the gate to inquire about the whereabouts of my bag. I showed her the sticker with the tracking number of my bag that I always put on the back of my passport when I check bags. (A shout-out to my former colleague Ian who taught me to do that.) She said, "Well, do you have the United application on your phone?" I told her that I did. She said, "You can look it up there."
Now, by this time, I was tired, irritable, and not in the mood to play hide and seek with my bag through an app on my phone. I just said, "I'm sorry, but I've been up since 4:30 this morning and I've missed my connecting flight to Moline. I'm not in the frame of mind to be looking this up on my phone." Actually, I could have been a little more terse than that. And I probably was.
She took a look at my tracking number, typed in the number into her computer and she hesitated for a moment. "Uh, your bag is in Moline."
I'm like, "WHAT?!!"
"Hmmm....", she said as she typed in a couple of other things. "Yeah, it looks like your bag was re-routed on the 1:30 flight out of Denver and arrived here around 4:45. Then it was put on the 7:30 flight to Moline. It will be there when you arrive."
I said, "Well, that's not going to do me a lot of good tonight. I'm stranded here until tomorrow morning."
"Oh gosh," she said in a somewhat faked - but somewhat sincere - reply. "Well, you'll have it waiting for you when you get there tomorrow."
I just stood there and laughed for a moment. I said, "OK, well, thanks." And I walked away to go to the Hilton-O'Hare.
It's a walk through another underground walkway past the main terminal at O'Hare to the Hilton. Now, I have never stayed at this hotel in all my years of travel. I usually stay at the Hilton Garden Inn-O'Hare as it's centrally located for me to see accounts in the Chicago area. But I didn't feel like waiting for their shuttle bus or taking an Uber over there and having to do the same to get back to the airport first thing in the morning. By the time I made it to the front desk of the Hilton it was about 10:25 at night. I stood in a line that was five people deep for a moment before I realized that there was a Hilton Honors line with no one in it. Since I'm a Lifetime Hilton Diamond member, I should be in THAT line! I just shook my head and walked back out of the line I was in and over to the Hilton Honors desk.
Since I didn't have a bag meant I didn't have any toiletries. Or a change of clothes. I figured that I could get by the next morning with just brushing my teeth before I got back home to do a full cleansing and change of clothes. I asked the young lady at the front desk if I could get a toothbrush and some toothpaste. The toothbrush was as close to a throwaway utensil that I have ever seen. It was so crappy that bristles from the brush were coming off while I brushed my teeth the next morning. And the toothpaste was in something similar to a ketchup pack you get at a fast food restaurant. I was glad that I only had to rough it for one night.
As I was getting settled in my hotel room - which, I thought was sort of tired for a high-end hotel like the Hilton-O'Hare - a friend of mine had texted me saying that he was stuck in Los Angeles trying to get back to St. Louis, but the snow that was in Denver earlier in the day was now affecting air traffic into Lambert International. I texted him back and let him know of my ordeal. He texted back asking me if I was going to rent a car back to Moline. I told him, no, I would have probably gotten home at 1 a.m. and no one would have been at the Moline airport for me to retrieve my bag. So, I was just going to stay in Chicago that night. I felt bad for him. He didn't get out of Los Angeles until 8:30 Pacific time and he wasn't scheduled to get into St. Louis until close to 2 a.m. But, at least, I told him that he was going to be able to sleep in his own bed that night. Not me.
Spending a Friday night with no change of clothes wasn't my ideal scenario, but I was able to get up on Saturday and get ready with minimal sleep. For some reason, I'm always apprehensive about flying early in the morning. I get uptight worrying if I'll miss my alarm, which means I'll miss my flight, which means I'll have another hassle of re-scheduling or re-routing. I think I had 3 hours of sleep the previous night in Las Vegas and I had - maybe - 4 hours of sleep on Friday night in Chicago. I was in a veritable haze as I walked back over to the terminal to go through security again and head to the gate. From the time I left my hotel room to the time I got to my gate, it took me 25 minutes. I like that when there are no hassles to get through security and to the gate.
The flight to Moline was on time and I got in to the Quad City International Airport around 9:45 a.m. I went to the baggage claim area and I found my bag behind the locked glass doors of the baggage holding area. Only there was no one there to open the doors. The sign on the wall next to the holding area said that I had to go see the agent at the ticket counter. Well, shit.
The Quad City airport in Moline is not that large. I like the fact that I can drive from my home, check in and drop off my checked bag, go through security and be at my gate in less than 45 minutes. And I still get funky before I have to fly worrying that something will go wrong from my Point A home or hotel departure to my Point B gate. But, still, the hassle of having to walk all the way down to the United counter to have someone come back and retrieve my bag for me after all I've been through for the previous 24 hours was not what I wanted at the end of my adventure.
I walked up to the United counter. There was no one in line to check in and three ticket agents - two ladies and a man - were hanging out and talking. I immediately went up to the counter and they turned their attention to me. "I need to pick up my bag in holding," I said.
One of the ladies said, "Uh, we don't have keys to get in there."
The other lady said, "Wasn't anyone there?"
I said, "No. The sign next to the holding area said I had to go to my airline's ticket desk."
The second lady said, "Well, someone should have been there."
At this point, I was about ready to lose my shit. "You've got to be SHITTING me," I exclaimed.
The second lady said, "Let me go check. She should have been there." And she walked into a back area behind the counter.
The first lady said, "There should have been somebody there."
I said, "Well, there wasn't."
Then the man said, "If we don't have the key, sir, we can't open the door."
"I realize that," I said in a firm and somewhat angry tone. "But the sign said to come down here."
"Yes," the man said again in a somewhat snarky tone. "But we don't have the key."
"Yes, once again," I said as I turned to walk back to the baggage holding area. "The sign said to come here!"
Now, it was just a two minute walk back to the baggage holding area. But, to me, it felt like it was an hour walk back. When I turned the corner, there was a young lady standing at the desk. I went up to her and she must have gotten a radio call from the United desk wondering where she was and giving her a head's up because there was an asshole coming back to get his bag.
"Are you the one who needs a bag," she asked as I walked up to the counter with a purposeful look on my face. I confirmed that, yes, I was the one. "Which one is yours," she asked. Well, there were only two in there and I said it was the burgundy bag. She opened up the glass doors and pulled my bag out of the holding area. She never asked to see an ID or a tracking number - nothing. But, I got my bag and I started out to my car. I was home 20 minutes later and in the shower five minutes after that.
So, that was my recent trip to Las Vegas and my subsequent adventure getting back home. It wasn't quite like "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", but it was an aggravating sequence of weather related events that got me home about 21 hours later than I had planned on being home. Still, it was somewhat nice to get back out to Las Vegas, even though we were stuck in meetings and nighttime events for most of the time we were there. It's still a fascinating place and a destination that I think every person should experience for a minimum of three days at least once in their life.
Yipes! Flying is quicker than trains and buses, but I could see myself having a panic attack cramped in as you described.
Coach seats on Amtrak are roomier and accommodate bigger passengers much better than airline seats, but I am going to miss having a roomette on my Nevada trip next month. I've dealt with some interesting delays but having my own little room to chill in lessens the stress considerably. Not sure I'll care about hours-long delays with grumbling people around me. ;)
Posted by: slakingfool | February 22, 2020 at 03:50 PM
Thinking from a 'hindsight' perspective and mixing in the adage that things happen for a reason, I wonder if your time chsnges helped you miss the advent of the civid19 virus... I've had several friends come back from travel in Jan Feb and March saying there were flu like illness in fellow travelers or that they themselves were sick once they got home.
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Posted by: Tabia | July 31, 2020 at 08:57 AM