V-Flyer

Trip report for VS019 LHR - SFO & VX918 connection to LAS.
Due to problems in getting leave sorted out, had to make booking for trip at fairly short notice. Looked at flying out on Sat 27th October, to either Las Vegas, San Francisco, LA or New York. Being half term week we found that many flights were either full [in PE] or the price was ridiculous – quoted over £2000 each for a PE return from Gatwick to Vegas. Eventually decided to on an “open jaw” ticket flying PE out from Heathrow on Sun 28th October to Vegas via San Francisco and a return flight from New York to Heathrow for a very reasonable price. Booked through Expedia as no credit card fees and also get cashback through Quidco.
As flying out Sunday morning stayed previous night at Hilton at T4, for £123 got a room and 8 days parking. A further £35 at check in and we upgraded to an “executive room”. Easy to get from Hotel to T3 via Heathrow Express. Check in was very quiet, having done OLCI previous evening it was just dump bags and collect boarding passes (for both flights). Very friendly and efficient at desk, bags tagged through to LAS but were advised that we need to collect them on arrival at San Francisco. Headed up to security and again very quiet and through in a few minutes. We then headed to No.1 Lounge, booked through their website and got special deal that included free glass of bubbly - which turned out to be champagne . Had a very pleasant & relaxing time with breakfast and time to catch up on a few emails using the free wi-fi. Headed to the Gate about 1015, and boarding commenced fairly shortly after we arrived.
Pushed back from Gate on time at 1100 and take off 10 mins later from the South runway.
Flight was exactly as we’ve come to expect when travelling PE . Menu same as previous flight and excellent cabin crew made for a good, relaxing flight. Arrival at San Francisco was at 1500 with arrival at the Gate 1515. Arriving at the adjacent Gate was an Air France aircraft so we made sure that we got off quickly and headed to immigration in front of the French . First time that we’ve flown into SFO International, immigration was busy but we were through within 30 minutes. We collected bags and then walked to Domestic Terminal 2. No problem here, the Virgin America desk checked our boarding passes and collected the bags. Headed through security and in to the terminal. Terminal 2 was very spacious and we sat down by the Gate where we were able to make use of the free wi-fi and power points to re-charge phones. Boarding started about 1745 and plane was only about half full so did not take very long to load and departed from Gate dead on time at 1820 with take off at 1830. Plane was Airbus A319, seats relatively comfortable and the purple lighting was interesting! The big bonus for me was the RED IFE system – on from when we boarded to when we got off the aircraft; was able to watch live television for the journey which happened to be the final game in the World Series. A massive improvement compared to the V-Port (VERA) on the service from Heathrow.
A relatively short flight and we landed in Vegas just over an hour after leaving San Francisco. Having completed Immigration earlier we simply got off the aircraft, collected the bags and exited the airport. Decided to get taxi straight to our hotel, the taxi from the airport now takes a different route (longer distance, but quicker) and what used to be around $15 fare is now $25.
Overall very satisfied with the VA / VX combination and would definitely do this route again to get to Vegas. As with previous trips in PE if you get a good Cabin Crew then you have a pleasant & relaxing trip .

All sounded good! Thank you for posting!

Ah, the famous LAS taxi scam.

Drivers will often take unsuspecting tourists headed for the Strip the long way round via the airport tunnel and the I-215 which, as you say, can be quicker as there's usually less traffic and fewer traffic lights but costs quite a bit more.

To avoid this, ask the driver to go "via Swenson".

Cheers for posting - good to hear the transfer went off without a hitch, and that you beat the French

gumshoe wrote:To avoid this, ask the driver to go "via Swenson".

Cheers for the tip gumshoe, will remember that.