Getting Cheaper Flights Into Las Vegas?

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Las Vegas McCarran Airport

This was a recent "Letter To The Editor" of the Access Vegas Insider Vibe:

Since reviewing things on your site as well as others, it’s apparent that Las Vegas is experiencing a slow down in economy. Gambled money and room occupancy is down, even our paper has reported it in the Sunday travel section. My suggestion is to have the city and casino’s work in conjunction with the airlines to help lower the cost of flights in and out of Las Vegas.

My wife and I travel on the average 4 times a year to L.V., being that we gamble a lot, Hooters has “comped” us for each stay. The travel is what’s costing us and preventing us from going more then 2 times this year so far. An example of price fares form Cleveland to L.V. via Continental airlines – In April it was $ 198. round trip ; in May it was $ 218. round trip; now the cheapest we can travel is $ 438. round trip.

I know airlines are taking a beating on fuel cost, but if the city and casino’s can work with the airlines to help subsidize travel I would bet that more people would come out and reverse the decline in gambling revenue and room occupancy. It’s just a suggestion, for a 4day – 3 night trip we generally add $ 1,500. to the L.V. economy via gambling; food; drinks; and misc spending. Thank you for your time to review my request,

John M. Kacvinsky

AccessVegas.com's Managing Editor Ted Newkirk responds:

John,

Interesting thoughts. Actually, the hotels are starting to "subsidize" the cost of the flights by slashing their room rates. You end up paying more for your flight, but less for rooms.

I realize that doesn't help those like you who gamble enough to get your stay comped. For those of you who do play enough to get free rooms, I'd strongly suggest writing the hotel you give your action to and simply tell them "Hey... we come and gamble a lot of money, but airfare is killing us and a free room just doesn't make it worth coming out. Is there any way players at are level can get something like a rebate on our airfare, extra free play, or meals?"

Per the city or casinos subsidizing flights:

The Las Vegas Strip isn't even inside the City of Las Vegas and all local governments are experiencing shortfalls. As it is, McCarran Airport (owned and operated by Clark County, Nevada) has one of the lower fees in the nation that they charge the airlines.

Side Note: With 2 million people living here (and using the airport for their travel to other places), a blanket subsidy wouldn't work anyway. Imagine the paperwork trying to figure out how much of a flight was tourists, and how many on the flight were locals.

Hotels have run "junkets" over the decades and/or partially invested in certain airlines. The now defunct National Airlines was partially funded by Harrah's Las Vegas and Rio Las Vegas (prior to Rio being bought out by Harrah's).

I'm going to tell you a little secret: The media reports are overblown. Considering that it is the "slow" time of year for Las Vegas (summer season) and the U.S. is at the mid-point of a recession, numbers aren't down that much. Gaming revenue is only down a few percentage points. Room rates are down quite a bit, but in previous decades, significant room rate reductions in the summer were not unusual.

Gaming stocks are down, but this is mostly because of the "sky if falling on Las Vegas" stories that have spread like wildfire.

Also, how expensive it is to get here depends on what market you live in and what your major airlines are. Some visitors are reporting spending twice as much on airfare. Other markets are reporting only a 20% increase.

Californian's aren't happy about the price of gas, but at the end of the day many of them are used to 45-60 minute commutes do pouring piles of cash in the gas tank is nothing new. Once again, the cheaper rooms are offsetting what they spend coming here.

At the end of the day, new exploration for U.S. oil will start to drive down oil speculation and the price to fly will stabilize (and maybe even come down a bit).

The good news for tourists? I see the low room rates (which were a hallmark of Las Vegas for decades) staying for years to come. Especially with all the new rooms coming online.

For comped players? This will mean more competition for players gambling at the "room comp" level. Thus, the same amount you are playing now will get you comped at a more upscale hotel.

Ted Newkirk CEO, Managing Editor AccessVegas.com

Posted by Access Vegas staff

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