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Well here's part 2.
America West flight 51
LAS-JFK
Depart 1:45 PM Arrive 9:37 PM (actual departure 2:15- actual arrival 9:40 PM)
Eq. Boeing 757 reg# N915AW- City of Las Vegas livery
First Class- seat 3A,
Overall satisfaction- Very Good.
From the Monte Carlo where I was staying to McCarran is only about a 10 minute drive. I arrived at the airport at 7:30 Am. Read on and you'll know why I was there so early. The cab ride from Monte Carlo to McCarran was $10.00, talk about a rip off. Upon entering the terminal I proceeded to the America West ticket counter. Since McCarran is a hub for them they had plenty of stations open. Even so they was only 15 people on line so I made it to the counter very quickly. While checking in for flight 51 my original flight I decided to upgrade to First Class. The upgrade fee was $150, which I paid for with some of my winnings. After check in I handed my bag off to the TSA and went off to the gate area. The checkpoints were totally empty with absolutely no line at all. The one gentleman in-front of me was rather amusing. I thought he was going to take off every article of clothing as to not set off the detector. This time I didn't set off the alarm and went on my way. The terminal it self was stifling hot and quite uncomfortable. America West operates out of concourses B and shares part of concourse A with Continental, US Airways, Alaska, Frontier, Champion, Jet Blue and Allegiant. Since I had more then enough time on my hands before my 11:00 Am departure I wondered the terminal to check out the sites.
While exploring through concourse A and B at first I found nothing in the way of planes. Just look for yourself.
Both of America West's concourses were empty! Concourse A didn't have one plane parked at the gates and concourse B only had one plane parked. I understood why I made it through check-in and security so quickly; I just missed America West's morning push. I proceeded over to the other part of concourse A that the other airlines use; that’s where the action was. Continental had an ETOPs 757, a 737-900 and a MD-80 at the gate, US Airways had two 757's, Champion Air had a 727, Alaska had a 737 and Frontier had a shinny A319 at the gate.
After snapping my photos and getting weird looks from people that I was taking pictures of planes I grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King and watched the action on the ramp. While I was eating the only action I saw was countless Southwest 737's taking off with the occasional AA MD-80 a former TWA 757 (I got very excited) a few Delta 757’s and 767’s but nothing to exciting. Closer to my departure time I headed over to gate B12 where I was thrilled to see a JAL 744 taxi from the active to the international terminal. Amazingly this 744 only spent three hours at LAS before leaving again for Japan.
This time I would have been traveling on a A320 but while waiting for my flight to board they announced the flight was oversold and they needed people to give up their seat in exchange for a $200 voucher and a seat on the next flight out. I jumped at the opportunity for the voucher and gave up my seat. They booked me on America West flight 51 leaving at 1:45 PM on a 757. I was happier to be on the 757 rather then a full A320. America West also gave me a lunch voucher to use until departure. Now the terminal really started to get busy. Both A and B concourses where packed with planes. I guess it was America West's late morning early afternoon push. During the time between flights I really just sat and watched the planes taxi around, nothing really special to report, although I did see Southwest’s Arizona One and two Shamus’s. No pics sorry.
I headed back to the gate area to board and saw that this flight would be operated by America West's City of Las Vegas 757. She pulled into the gate about 30 minutes late having just arrived from JFK but we were told we would depart on-time. About 15 minutes after deplaning we boarded the flight. Having upgraded to First Class I was able to board first which is always a plus. I was impressed with the turnaround time.
The First class cabin of AW's 757's hold 14 people with fours rows on the left side and three on the right side. The seats are dark blue leather and very soft. Depending on where you sit in first class you'll either have two windows or one, I had two windows. Word of caution the last row doesn't fully recline and the first row only has one window. Some seats had PTV's but they weren’t turned on. We were offered a pre-flight drink and some peanuts. You also get the headset for free in first class. We were delayed about 30 minutes taking off because two of the coach bathrooms weren't working and they weren't leaving until they were working. After that was resolved we quickly taxied and took off without delay.
Once signaled the FA's came around and took drink orders and handed out the dinner menu. Before dinner I enjoyed a 2 Rum and Coke's. There really is something great about having cocktails at 35,000 feet while you sit back in a large soft leather seat looking out over the magnificent landscape of the American West, truly a good way to live.
For dinner we had two choices. The first selection was beef and chicken medallions lightly breaded over angel hair pasta, pomodora Chianti sauce with fresh roasted vegetables and Parmesan cheese. The second choice was a slow cooked mélange of saffron rice; shrimp, and chicken, New Mexico mild aromatic turkey sausage sprinkled with sweet peppers drizzled with mildly spiced golden olive oil. I chose selection one, it was very good. They also served a freshly prepared Caesar salad and a white chocolate strawberry mousse for dessert. The entire meal was served on America West logo glass where and porcelain plates. Everything was excellent.
During the flight they showed the movie The Emperors Club with Kevin Klein, some music videos, and an episode of Frazier. The service from the first class FA was excellent and the flight itself was smooth and comfortable. Overall I would give America West an A for their customer service and products. I would fly them again.
Lastly they sent my bags on the my original flight so my bags got to NY before I did, no waiting at the baggage claim.
Well here's part 2.
America West flight 51
LAS-JFK
Depart 1:45 PM Arrive 9:37 PM (actual departure 2:15- actual arrival 9:40 PM)
Eq. Boeing 757 reg# N915AW- City of Las Vegas livery
First Class- seat 3A,
Overall satisfaction- Very Good.
From the Monte Carlo where I was staying to McCarran is only about a 10 minute drive. I arrived at the airport at 7:30 Am. Read on and you'll know why I was there so early. The cab ride from Monte Carlo to McCarran was $10.00, talk about a rip off. Upon entering the terminal I proceeded to the America West ticket counter. Since McCarran is a hub for them they had plenty of stations open. Even so they was only 15 people on line so I made it to the counter very quickly. While checking in for flight 51 my original flight I decided to upgrade to First Class. The upgrade fee was $150, which I paid for with some of my winnings. After check in I handed my bag off to the TSA and went off to the gate area. The checkpoints were totally empty with absolutely no line at all. The one gentleman in-front of me was rather amusing. I thought he was going to take off every article of clothing as to not set off the detector. This time I didn't set off the alarm and went on my way. The terminal it self was stifling hot and quite uncomfortable. America West operates out of concourses B and shares part of concourse A with Continental, US Airways, Alaska, Frontier, Champion, Jet Blue and Allegiant. Since I had more then enough time on my hands before my 11:00 Am departure I wondered the terminal to check out the sites.
While exploring through concourse A and B at first I found nothing in the way of planes. Just look for yourself.
Both of America West's concourses were empty! Concourse A didn't have one plane parked at the gates and concourse B only had one plane parked. I understood why I made it through check-in and security so quickly; I just missed America West's morning push. I proceeded over to the other part of concourse A that the other airlines use; that’s where the action was. Continental had an ETOPs 757, a 737-900 and a MD-80 at the gate, US Airways had two 757's, Champion Air had a 727, Alaska had a 737 and Frontier had a shinny A319 at the gate.
After snapping my photos and getting weird looks from people that I was taking pictures of planes I grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King and watched the action on the ramp. While I was eating the only action I saw was countless Southwest 737's taking off with the occasional AA MD-80 a former TWA 757 (I got very excited) a few Delta 757’s and 767’s but nothing to exciting. Closer to my departure time I headed over to gate B12 where I was thrilled to see a JAL 744 taxi from the active to the international terminal. Amazingly this 744 only spent three hours at LAS before leaving again for Japan.
This time I would have been traveling on a A320 but while waiting for my flight to board they announced the flight was oversold and they needed people to give up their seat in exchange for a $200 voucher and a seat on the next flight out. I jumped at the opportunity for the voucher and gave up my seat. They booked me on America West flight 51 leaving at 1:45 PM on a 757. I was happier to be on the 757 rather then a full A320. America West also gave me a lunch voucher to use until departure. Now the terminal really started to get busy. Both A and B concourses where packed with planes. I guess it was America West's late morning early afternoon push. During the time between flights I really just sat and watched the planes taxi around, nothing really special to report, although I did see Southwest’s Arizona One and two Shamus’s. No pics sorry.
I headed back to the gate area to board and saw that this flight would be operated by America West's City of Las Vegas 757. She pulled into the gate about 30 minutes late having just arrived from JFK but we were told we would depart on-time. About 15 minutes after deplaning we boarded the flight. Having upgraded to First Class I was able to board first which is always a plus. I was impressed with the turnaround time.
The First class cabin of AW's 757's hold 14 people with fours rows on the left side and three on the right side. The seats are dark blue leather and very soft. Depending on where you sit in first class you'll either have two windows or one, I had two windows. Word of caution the last row doesn't fully recline and the first row only has one window. Some seats had PTV's but they weren’t turned on. We were offered a pre-flight drink and some peanuts. You also get the headset for free in first class. We were delayed about 30 minutes taking off because two of the coach bathrooms weren't working and they weren't leaving until they were working. After that was resolved we quickly taxied and took off without delay.
Once signaled the FA's came around and took drink orders and handed out the dinner menu. Before dinner I enjoyed a 2 Rum and Coke's. There really is something great about having cocktails at 35,000 feet while you sit back in a large soft leather seat looking out over the magnificent landscape of the American West, truly a good way to live.
For dinner we had two choices. The first selection was beef and chicken medallions lightly breaded over angel hair pasta, pomodora Chianti sauce with fresh roasted vegetables and Parmesan cheese. The second choice was a slow cooked mélange of saffron rice; shrimp, and chicken, New Mexico mild aromatic turkey sausage sprinkled with sweet peppers drizzled with mildly spiced golden olive oil. I chose selection one, it was very good. They also served a freshly prepared Caesar salad and a white chocolate strawberry mousse for dessert. The entire meal was served on America West logo glass where and porcelain plates. Everything was excellent.
During the flight they showed the movie The Emperors Club with Kevin Klein, some music videos, and an episode of Frazier. The service from the first class FA was excellent and the flight itself was smooth and comfortable. Overall I would give America West an A for their customer service and products. I would fly them again.
Lastly they sent my bags on the my original flight so my bags got to NY before I did, no waiting at the baggage claim.
I got an upgrade from coach to Business on a flight from LAS to SAN because me and my friend (unaccompined minors) were seperated. We had the entire row to ourself unfortunately it was only about an hour flight.
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