Here we are, happy 2021!!!
We were planning this trip for months, as usual. We saw decent flights out of PHL at around $58 each way, so we booked on 10/28 for the trip starting on 02/26. A long time away, and anything could happen in between.
Fortunately this time, there weren't any major itinerary changes, although my travelling companion decided not to go. I ended up making my own booking and rental car about two months ahead of the departure.
I picked up McDonald's before heading up to Philadelphia a little before 1 PM. My flight was leaving at 5:40 PM, so I wanted to get to the parking lot around 4:30. I arrived there around 4:00 PM, and with my TSA Pre, I breezed through security, within 10 minutes of arriving at the airport and checking my bag. I now had around an hour to wait in the airport. I was thinking about perhaps getting food, but I wasn't hungry, plus I thought I'd get something at my connection in Chicago. I saw a few people sitting, not wearing masks. Security told one guy to put on a mask, which he did in front of them, but pulled it down after they left. Grrr. . .
We boarded on time and this flight was not full, so I had an empty middle seat, which was nice. The flight from MDW to LAS was a different story, that flight was completely full. Not only that, the terminal was pretty crowded, and of the restaurant options, they all had lines. I only had around 20 minutes before boarding, so I decided I'd just hold on until I arrived in Las Vegas. A nice feature with Southwest is that you can send What's App texts for free, so I was sending messages to Kip, who was already in town.
One thing I wanted to mention now that I have the chance. Apparently Hertz/Thrifty/Dollar Car Rental in Las Vegas closed after 10:00 PM and opens again at 8:00 AM the next morning.
I booked my car with a pick up time of 10:00 PM, even though my flight wasn't scheduled to arrive until 9:55 PM. I thought about changing the pick up time to 10:30 PM, but I didn't.
Our flight was delayed a bit due to the high winds, and I didn't get to the rental facility until around 10:30 PM. I walked out to the Thrifty car booth and the sign said it was closed and to go inside. I went over to the Thrifty booth and it was closed, as was Dollar, the signs said to go to the Hertz rental. The corral was closed.
I told the man I had a reservation and he said they were closed. I said how can that be, and he said they started closing at 10:00 PM in April. I said nothing I saw indicated to me that they closed at 10:00 PM. He said the rental agreement should have said that. I told him I didn't see anything that mentioned that (although I went to the website tonight and indeed, if you try to book a car at 10:30 PM, it says the facility is closed).
He asked me if I called and told them I was running late and I said I didn't, I was on the plane, and how would I know there would be an issue? I asked him what I could do and he said I could come back and pick up the car at 8:00 AM the next morning. I told him how was I going to get where I needed to go tonight? He didn't have an answer for me. I then asked him if other car rental companies were open and he said he couldn't speak for them.
I told him that Thrifty already charged me that morning and sent me the rental agreement (marked "incomplete"). As I was accessing the rental agreement to see where it said the facility closed at 10:00 PM, I told him this was just wasting time, since he wasn't going to process my rental. He asked me if I booked directly with Thrifty and I said yes. He then asked me if I was a Blue Chip member or something else I can't remember and I said yes. He asked me my name and I gave it to him and he said he checked me in and handed me the rental agreement. I needed to go to the Hertz area and pick up the car.
The agreement had "Zone 3" on it, and when I got there, there was only one car. Not wanting an issue if I took any car, because there wasn't a choice, I took that last car. I didn't have much time to inspect the car, since the clerk at the booth was leaving after the person who was checking in while I was talking with the guy got his vehicle. I noted there were a few scratches and the booth guy gave me the vehicle damage paper. Inside, I noticed that the car charged cover was broken off and the side view mirrors do not appear to move side to side, but at least I had a car. Hopefully they won't charge me for any damages. I'm not sure what I could have done to discover that the Hertz guy had already checked me in, but it was stressful situation.
I leave the facility, and I'm hungry, since I haven't eaten since around 2:00 PM EST, and it's now around 11:00 PM PST. With COVID, not many places are open. I had a craving for a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, so I tried ordering one on the app for pick up, but it wasn't working. I ended up just ordering one through the drive-thru at the Wendy's on Tropicana, since I was picking Kip up at Cosmo.
I quickly ate as I headed to Cosmo, and picked Kip up at Cosmo and headed to Binion's (Hotel Apache) to check in. We arrived a little after midnight, and we checked in at the same time and got rooms just a few rooms away from each other. My room was one bed, not too big, but not tiny either. Kip's room had two bed and was really large. They could have put in a pool table or something in the extra space her room had. Both rooms had a nice large refrigerator, but unfortunately, the rooms did not have a coffee maker.
Our original plans had us getting drinks at Frankie's Tiki, and Kip said since I had such a long day, we could skip it, but I said we could go, we got there around 12:40 AM. There was plenty of distanced seating.
We just enjoyed the one drink because I had been up all day, and we had some play to do the next day, well, later today, so we headed back to Binion's. Kip had been staying at Wynn and Cosmo before, so I'm sure going to Hotel Apache was quite the downgrade. . .
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