Flights for 2024 Thanksgiving Trip to Las Vegas

I took a few days off before Thanksgiving 2024 to explore nature around Las Vegas. This post would be about my flights back and forth, and the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix that I stumbled across.

Las Vegas Grand Prix from Escalator

Ticketing

Back in late August, I first bought this set of tickets, flying BOS-SDF-DFW-LAS on Saturday November 23 and LAS-PHL-BOS on Sunday Dec 1. I was quite pleased to secure these flights for 9.5k AA miles per one-way, especially since they fell during the peak Thanksgiving travel week. Then, about a month before Thanksgiving, I noticed that American Airlines had released a cash fare for the BOS-DFW-LAS leg, basic economy for $103 (main cabin at $200+). That’s a new record low that I had seen with American Airlines flying across the country, so I didn’t hesitate to grab it.

American Airlines Flights 129 and 884 from Boston to Las Vegas via Dallas Fort Worth

My flight from Boston to Dallas left at noon, that meant I procrastinated until the morning to do most of the packing, which was a bit rushed. The sense of urgency continued with me racing a bus towards a stop in light rain, and lost by three seconds (but the bus driver waited for me nonetheless). Not to mention I packed a full tent and duvet into my two suitcases, measuring 47.5 and 46 pounds by the airport scale, happily just under the 50 limit.
The successful footrace meant I arrived at the airport two hours before my flight, hence I could have a proper (second) breakfast at a restaurant before boarding my flight to Dallas.

For this flight, I had American Airlines’ Platinum Pro status and was third on the upgrade list, with one remaining first class seat open at the gate. The two before me were obviously a couple, that opted to sit together instead of the solo upgrade. Thus I was upgraded at the last minute, after boarding had started.

American Airlines 129
Boston, MA (BOS) – Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
Boeing B737-800
Seat 4E
Scheduled Departure – 12:15pm
Actual Departure – 12:45pm
Scheduled Arrival – 3:55pm
Actual Arrival – 3:17pm
3 hours and 32 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

There was a 10-minute wait in line before takeoff, but apart from that, the flight was quite uneventful.

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Breakfast

From “Stephanie’s”, a restaurant that participated in PPS. Somehow, I felt their breakfast burger (pictured here) tasted better than their non-breakfast one.

Lunch

This lunch was actually pretty good, the chicken breast tasted better than my cooking. There was an additional round of ice cream which wasn’t pictured.

We touched down in Dallas about 40 minutes ahead of schedule. Upon landing, I joined the Capital One Lounge’s digital waitlist, which was estimated to be 70-90 minutes (turned out to be 79 minutes). (This lounge meant I had a preference to connect via Dallas compared to Philadelphia or Chicago, which was fast diminishing given the increasing waitlist times.) With roughly three hours until my connecting flight to Las Vegas, I still had time to properly enjoy the lounge before continuing onto Las Vegas.

Then it’s my next flight to Las Vegas. As American Airlines’ Platinum Pro, my upgrade for this flight was cleared just over 24 hours in advance. For some reason, the flight was slightly delayed, which probably contributed to people congregating near the gate. So the gate area felt crowded and chaotic, despite there were 74 empty seats on the 190-seat A321.

American Airlines 884
Dallas Fort Worth, TX (DFW) – Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
Airbus A321
Seat 5A
Scheduled Departure – 6:35pm
Actual Departure – 7:10pm
Scheduled Arrival – 7:35pm
Actual Arrival – 7:35pm
2 hours and 25 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Overflying Downtown Fort Worth

Dinner

After trying out the chicken breast on the previous leg from Boston, I tried this vegetarian option on the flight to Las Vegas, which wasn’t as appetizing.

Town of Henderson

This flight was not eventful. Toward the end, I remembered the cabin crew mentioning they were based in Boston. It seemed like American Airlines operated so few flights out of Boston that its Boston-based crew had to work routes elsewhere.
In addition, we arrived at the gate at 7:45pm, and my checked bags appeared among the first bags on the carousel at 8:06pm, after 21 minutes. I guessed that’s a fail compared to the 20-minute standard some other carriers stuck to.

Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix

It’s pure coincidence that Las Vegas happened to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix on the date of my arrival. Being somewhat of a Formula 1 fan, I was naturally tempted to attend. However, the tickets to the grand prix were pretty expensive (they were the most expensive of the 2024 season), and I was only scheduled to land in Las Vegas 2.5 hours before the race’s start. I didn’t want to risk flight delays that I couldn’t make it to the grand prix (the tickets were obviously nonrefundable). Instead, I decided to explore the Las Vegas Strip if my flights were on time and I wasn’t too exhausted from flying. otherwise I would just rest in my Airbnb room.

In the end, I made it to the Las Vegas Strip in time before the race start. To protect the values of its exuberantly priced tickets, Formula 1 management installed blackout screens all over the strip and on its pedestrian bridges. As a result, the best way to watch the grand prix without a ticket was riding the infinite escalator loop.
Here’s what it looked like:

15 seconds, 2160p60fps, 15Mbps for H265 / 16Mbps for H264, 31MB file size.

Las Vegas Grand Prix from Monorail

In addition, Las Vegas monorail ran above the grand prix track for sections between Boingo and Harrah stations, so I also tried to watch the grand prix riding the monorail back and forth. (Since technically one didn’t exit the station, that only required a single ride payment.) There were some issues though, most importantly, most (if not all) Las Vegas monorail cars were covered with dot-patterned advertisement, significantly obstructed the view from inside. Then, the monorail was also crowded, given it was the only way for some strip workers to access the strip during the grand prix weekend, in addition to other like-minded fans. Finally, the monorail cars felt a bit claustrophobic, not to mention it’s not that frequent. Overall, the experience was just worse than escalators.

However, given my experience and extrapolate it to the ticketed grand stands, my takeaway for the night was that, with its massive track layout, Formula 1 was best watched on TV, which I would happily continue to do from the comfort of home.

American Airlines Flights 1075 and 2701 from Las Vegas to Boston via Phoenix

Fast forward to my return flights on the evening of Sunday, Dec 1.
Originally, I was booked on a redeye from Las Vegas to Philadelphia, after a short layover I would land in Boston at 8:32am. A few days later American Airlines changed its schedule, pushing back my flight from Philadelphia to Boston by two hours. So after a phone call, I managed to switch my itinerary to connect through Phoenix, with the redeye from Phoenix to Boston arriving at 5:33am (this allowed me to take a short nap before heading to work).

Dinner at The Club Las Vegas Airport

Perhaps not surprising, there was a waiting list to enter this lounge. The front desk agent estimated it to be 20 minutes, which ended up being 12. The “Chicken Taco” on the right was actually the most appetizing food that I had had in “The Club” in the States.

American Airlines 1075
Las Vegas, NV (LAS) – Phoenix, AZ (PHX)
Boeing B737-800
Seat 11A
Scheduled Departure – 7:58pm
Actual Departure – 8:24pm
Scheduled Arrival – 10:12pm
Actual Arrival – 10:10pm
46 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Of the four segments flown for this trip to Las Vegas, this was the only one that I wasn’t upgraded (first class was full). I assumed there was no shortage of high-rollers on a flight departing Las Vegas on a Sunday night.

The highlight of the flight was no doubt the takeoff. I sat at the left-side of the plane with views overlooking the Las Vegas Strip as we ascended into the night sky. Here’s a video:

American Airlines A321neo (N429AN)

My plane to Boston. I took this photo as my flight from Las Vegas was pulling into the gate, slightly delayed. This was 33 minutes before the scheduled departure time of my connecting flight to Boston. Fortunately, my connecting flight was just next door, and I made the connection with ease.

My connecting flight to Boston was just next door. Weirdly there was no line at the jet bridge (the gate crew must be expertly managing the flow).

American Airlines 2701
Phoenix, AZ (PHX) – Boston, MA (BOS)
Airbus A321neo
Seat 3F
Scheduled Departure – 10:50pm
Actual Departure – 10:58pm
Scheduled Arrival – 5:33am + 1
Actual Arrival – 5:21am + 1
4 hours and 23 minutes
Here’s GPS tracking:

Click here to display photos of the slideshow

Overlooking Phoenix

Northern Suburb of Boston

City of Winthrop before Boston Airport

The flight itself wasn’t remarkable as I slept most of the way through. We arrived at the gate at 5:30am and I got my checked bags 16 minutes later on the carousel.
END

Flights for 2024 Thanksgiving Trip to Las Vegas by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.