Kinglobjaw's Blog

One of the shortest airline hub-hub routes is the 255 mile flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to Phoenix, Arizona. US Airways operates this route with almost every aircraft in it’s fleet. Merger synergies have brought in the A321 to operate the route a few times, the 733, A320 and A319 are regulars with a 757 making it’s presence when necessary. Odd flight times also make way for one or two US Airways Express CRJ-900’s. In the past, America West also used a 747 on the route. I wonder how they could provide the service on such a short flight?

US Airways has ‘…teen’s’ of flights on the route, with the most interesting scheduling being one flight followed by the next, just five minutes later. 1:09 PM on an A319 followed by 1:16PM on a 733. I wonder if they board them next to each other just to confused the passengers a little bit more?!

Southwest runs a flight almost every 30-45 minutes, and you would assume clearing upgrades on the US Airways flights would be a no brainer. Unfortunately, the booking patterns are quite odd and the same flight can be sold out in First Class on one day, and completely open on the next. We can say that it’s possible with every flight, but when you are talking about LAS-PHX, you are talking about something else. It’s not the East Coast Shuttle, nor the West Coast one, it’s a shuttle between two cities with very little premium traffic. So when I want to upgrade on LAS-PHX weeks in advance, I’d expect to clear it before a transcon flight. Anyone disagree?

One other thing. What happens on LAS-PHX (or PHX-LAS for that matter) when you have a hub in LAS but only one huge crew base in PHX for both PHX and LAS? PHX-LAS becomes happy hour, every hour for commuting employees between the two cities. Imagine more employees on a flight than passengers! That’s LAS-PHX for you! LAS-PHX, gotta love this route. All those additional miles and segments I can fit in when traveling to the West Coast.

Hm, what flies into Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas, and only leaves Las Vegas when it flies out of Las Vegas. You’ve heard it all about Vegas, but I bet you’ve never heard about this.

Have a lucky clicK life,

-Mark