Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: January 29, 2005 to February 07, 2005 Hotel Stayed At: LV Club The Ho part 2 Report by: jim johnson <jmmyj126@aol.com> From: rockford il

Day 7

Friend wants to go to the Peppermill for breakfast. After our excursion here the other day I have no desire to go but relent for the sake of friendship. Well three of us eat breakfast. Friend has ham and eggs. The ham is hanging off the side of the plate it is so large. My wife orders Alpo
again....I mean corn beef hash, her serving is so large she cannot finish. I have bacon and eggs-thought my eggs were quail eggs they were so small. I get the runt of the three breakfasts. The food was good but expensive, $48.00 for us three. I watch the Rico Suave dudes sitting next to us. They have just been to the Stardust and picked up a list of prop bets for the Super Bowl. Man is there a lot of testosterone at that table. Talking about how they were gonna score with the women, score free tickets to this and that score this and that. These dudes were going to do some scoring. The biggest swinging d_ck decides to impress his buddies by ordering a gin martini straight up with twist. He said this in such a monotone I know her got it from a movie and has been practicing the lines before the trip out here. As we eat I continue to watch Chief Swinging D_ck impress everyone. I also notice that the amount of fluid in the drink hasn't gone down very much in the whole time we are there but he is continuing to get refills of water. I guess gin and eggs don't mix well.

The two construction workers who delayed their flights have to leave. They are sober and worried about missing their 3:15 flight and want to go to the airport at 11:00am. We tell them they have awhile. That was a mistake. They head to the bar and there butts become glued to the seats. They start doing appletinis. What is it with everyone and the Friday morning martinis? Tell them they now need to get going as it is 1:30pm. They order another round. I pull them to the back and throw them in a cab with their full drinks.

The couple with us now asks about the Klondike. I like the place but more than 3 visits in a trip wears me out. We go there and I just can't get into the mood. I spend some of my time outside watching planes land while they walk around dropping coins into machines. The pit boss that offered the food comp yesterday is behind the tables today. He doesn't have his satin San Remo jacket on today and he acts like he doesn't even remember me. I'm hurt.

After this we head to the Orleans as neither of them has heard about this place. We get here around 3:00pm on a Friday. My god the long line for check cashing. There had to be over 300 people in line when we got there. When we left 2 1/2 hrs later the line was just as long. People standing in line with their young children. Most of them looked to be of Spanish decent. If someone would open a system of banks catering to the Spanish population in Vegas I think they would do quite well. I asked a cashier what the benefit was for them to cash their payroll checks here. She showed me a green token they each get. They choose from two machines to play it in. They have the chance to win $250.000 I think was the amount. All we saw were free drink vouchers being won. That drags them even deeper into the casino to get to the bar and passing by slot machines crying out for their money. Don't stop there go ten feet past the bar by the sports book and grab some hotdogs for you and the family for .75 cents a piece. Get them further into the heart of the casino. This is the part about casinos it is hard to like. How they do anything to get you into their building so they can get your money.

Wife is playing a WOF and losing. She gets up and woman sits down. Woman gets the bonus on her first spin. She asks my wife what does this mean and how do I do it. Well you know the rest of the story the woman hits the $1,000.00. The wife gets pissed and takes it out on me like it was somehow my fault. I'm smart enough to hide some where else. I find a blackjack table and settle in far away from the wife. The bad luck friend is 37,000 feet in the sky and getting farther away every minute. His karma has to be wearing off. Believe it or not the cards fall like they are suppose to. I get in on a hell for run and within 1/2 hour I'm up to $1,800.00 from my $500.00
buy in. Just then I get the tap on the shoulder-the wife. She sees all the black chips on the felt and is pleased. A gentlemen who was standing behind me states rather loudly "I have to get in on this good run" and sits at the table and then singles me out and says "we won't be having anymore of the doubling on that A/7 sh*t". Ok I've lost my good mood that fast. I tell him if the card says to play it I will. His reply is that the only person who made money on that card was the person who sold it. The dealer, a blonde name Montayo I think, chirps in "its working for him, it’s the first time he has bought in-haven't you bought in 3 times today". I feel a little victory while the dealer defends my play but don't want to cause a scene so I just color up and leave.

We go to the Hofenbraus for dinner. We get there at 6:30 its pretty empty. My wife dislikes German food and orders the fish fry. The rest of us get the wiener and jager schnitzel. I'm sorry but I don't get the hype over the German food either-especially spatzel. Yuck dough balls in flavorless brown gravy. The bill comes to $152.00 Yikes-for pork cutlets.

We go to NYNY. I buy in for $500.00 at a blackjack table. Get it to $1,175.00. Tell myself I'm ready to cash in-but somehow never do. Lose it all down to my last $50.00 wager. Somehow I get lucky enough to get back to my buy in of $500.00. I eagerly cash out. One of the things I like about NYNY is they give you rating slips when you ask for one when you leave the table. A lot of places won't do this but they will. It has your table number, time gambled, average bet and the person rating you. I was told to ask for this each time I got up as on an earlier trip the pit and I had very different totals for the amount of time I spent at the tables. This is the way to document it I was told. We go to Nine Fine Irishman to watch some River dancing. Man does the little girl who taps to the music put on one h*ll of a show. She must have muscles of steel to do that dancing song after song and never break out in a sweat. While we were there some fly guys from the Air Force walked through. The whole downstairs part of the restaurant broke out in applause for them as they walking by everyone. Neat to see a group of strangers do that together for the men in service. After awhile all of us decide to head closer to home as we are drinking and the traffic on the strip in unbelievable.

We head to the Frontier or New Frontier whatever you want to call it. We go here specifically for the Sigma Derby. When we get there about half of the stations on it are broken and a mechanic is trying to fix them one at a time. He says they continue to try and get rid of this piece of junk but the owner loves it and will not get rid of it. Tonight all it was being use for was empty glasses. If you could have squeezed another glass on the machine I would have been impressed. We stroll into Gilleys. I think it was a $10.00 cover, we didn't feel it would be worth it for us. The main sign outside on the marquee is what drew us to it. It said "Cold beer and dirty women" alluding to the bikini bull riding I'm assuming. We couldn't see from the entryway was happening in there. As we watched for maybe 5 minutes though we saw three different guys being led out in handcuffs. They looked like they had been having fun until the cuffs were slapped on. I have never seen so many cowboy hats and its not even National Rodeo Finals week. I can only imagine what Vegas is like that week if the Frontier is any semblance of what happens. We plan on playing blackjack and during my first show I get a drunken cowboy sitting at my table telling me what to do every hand. I have the wife and friends with so I have to shut my mouth and not start anything. I just asked to be colored up after the shuffle comes due. If your ever in the pit area look at the underside of each table. They must have 20 white towels under each table. I asked what they were for and no one really knew. Some sort of guessed that so many drunken cowboys spilt drinks they were kept there for that purpose. If anyone knows I would like to know.

Now it’s off to the Strat. Valet is full so we park in the garage and can’t find a way out. Finally we find a way and notice the on every cement support crossing over our heads in the garage there are thousands of footprints. How they go there I will never know. Its weird-if your ever in the Stratosphere garage take a look. Lots of young girls under dressed and wearing shoes they can't walk in. See security helping one girl who sprained her ankle trip over her own heels. It was funny watching these young girls, the more they drank the harder time they had in their heels. We sat at a table, bought in for $500.00 cashed out 1 1/2 later at $525.00 when people start having a hard time keeping their eyes open. We head back to the new Ho for some chicken wings and to bed at 3:30. The wallet is starting to look a little sick at $4,810.00.

Day 8

Wake up early at 8:00am considering I didn't get to bed until 3:30 and was pretty polluted. Went down to the Ho deli to jot down some notes from the night before. Well after that was done nobody else had made it to the casino yet. Time by myself to sit down and get some quality gambling time in. Find a table with a married couple with each of them sitting at the corners of the table-the husband at 3rd base. Before I sit down she tells me that she never hits 16 and wants to forewarn me. I let her know that in the long run her play doesn't affect my outcome. She says she agrees with my statement and people shouldn’t try to intimidate others at the tables. I tell her she should even should get credit for being consistent with her 16’s. She replies she is thankful as some players will scold her for not hitting 16. Well a few hands in some other fella at the table doesn't hit a 12 against the dealers 2. The woman who agreed with me 5 minutes earlier is now chastising this guy for not hitting. I'm thinking my talk fell on deaf ears and the woman didn't even listen to what she was telling me. I feel uncomfortable at the table as she is starting to correct other players at the table. She is quick to point out when she would have busted by taking a card on her 16, but remains keeps as quiet as a mime when the card would have helped her. I make a small $75.00 profit when the wife comes.

Something happened at the Ho on Friday that had 4 dealers walk off the job. They had dealers who were in their first week there dealing on Saturday, the day before the Superbowl when the place was packed. Locals smell this like a shark does blood in the water. They come and try to frustrate the new dealers hoping to catch a break. One guy had the dealer so upset when I bought in for $500.00 I was given $525.00 by mistake. When I pointed it out to the dealer it caused more of problem than keeping my mouth shut as two pit personnel had to come over and review the whole thing. The local says I should have kept my mouth shut and says that's what he is here for to benefit from her mistakes. In my opinion the guy has no class. The young girl was hesitant the rest of the time I was at the table. I saw someone also get paid on a push but kept my mouth shut as it’s not my hand. I was greeted by immediate eye contact from the person received it-who kept quiet. Thinking the honesty might help me win, it didn't. I lost $500.00 in about an hour and half. Again I have never seen so many starting hands of 5 and so many doubling hands where I received a 5 or less. Pretty amazing how the flip of the card could make you a big winner-or in my case a big loser.

Now everyone is down to the casino and we decide where to eat. One wants Mexican and the other wants breakfast and my wife wants to try the Triple 7 Brew pub. Since we have the car the have to relent LOL . On our way down there we stop at the gamblers general store. It’s not that big but packed with tons of gambling stuff from slot machines to different chips and books. No major purchases for us, just some token chips and postcards. At the Triple 7 we on the only ones to be waiting for a seat and half of the seats are empty. After waiting for 5 minutes a server comes by and says it is break time for half the servers so it will take awhile and seats us. Jamie, our waiter runs by and says I will get to you when I can. After another 10 minute wait without Jamie appearing the friend who wanted breakfast wants to leave because the slow service and there isn't breakfast on the menu. We leave and they walk to the Bay City Diner at the Golden Gate. Well, my wife had doesn't want to go there because of the last visit her. The other couple has sort of taken over which bothers me slightly. We get tacos, ham and eggs, Mexican combo and I get a patty melt. The food was much better than last time but the service was slow. We ask why and told that some of the servers are on break. How can this be at both places? We got to the Triple 7 at 11:30am and made it down to the Bay City Diner at noon. Who has wait staff taking breaks at one of the busiest times of the day?

After the food we are wandering the casino and see a huge crowd around a crap table. While watching, the shooter finally threw a seven. He received an ovation from the players at the table, but I didn't see any chips get thrown his way from the other players. First time I had seen a table break out in a round of applause for a shooter after he finished.

We go out in the Fremont Street Experience. It is quite different out here now than it is on weekend nights. We wander around and lose the girls at Fitzgeralds at some slots. I noticed that whenever we reached the front of a casino the women naturally dropped back behind us a few steps and the men were in front. Once we got inside we became a group again. Now I'm no psychologist but I think the women were dropping back so we wouldn't be bothered by the time share hawks and doing it subconsciously. Whatever it was it worked. We were hardly approached by them. We continue to walk around. We are standing at the Horseshoe by an ATM. Someone who wanted to use the ATM come to us to say the were two charges that the ATM would have charged a $2.00 charge by his institution and a $6.00 fee from the ATM itself. Holy cow the odds are against us to begin with but $8.00 to get money out of an ATM. The guy declined and walked away from the machine. By 2:00 the downtown casinos are packed-it looks like a Saturday night. We decide to go for a ride.

The friend who comes out here for work becomes the navigator and gives directions to try some new casinos I haven't been to. We are off to Texas Station, SunCoast and Rampart. We go through some neighborhoods that didn't look the best. At one intersection the road was closed with police tape up around a bus stop. We never did figure out what happened there. When we were driving along the North Las Vegas Airport I would have sworn we were driving alongside the Baghdad Airport. Desert and few weeds in the lots between the street and the airport and some of the oldest and rundown planes I have seen. The couple with us has a son stationed 40 miles north of Baghdad in Baad. His father was taking pictures with his phone of the airport and surrounding area and sending them to his son saying we all just flew into Iraq for a quick visit.

The SunCoast looked nice and had $3.00 minimums for blackjack so the girls played for a while. Finally they get up to go play some machines claiming the machines were calling them. They had started out today each putting $20.00 together and that's all the money they used. They were only up to $57.00 but have played all day on $20.00 each. The hard part about going to casinos that cater to the locals is the slim selection of slot machines. Everything is video poker. You really have to hunt for the slots. I settle in at a game and lose right off the bat. I get down to my last $50.00 bet and fluctuate from there to $150.00. I can't break this trend. Finally the other 3 show up to leave and the cards start falling my way. Within minutes I'm back to my buy in of $500.00. I would have loved to stay and see how far I could have rode that lucky streak, but I was outvoted 3-1.

Hope in the car a drive the few blocks to the Rampart. The casinos are only separated from each other by a few fairways of a golf course. The Rampart is smaller than the SunCoast which seemed to be pretty large to me. The Rampart has a higher class of clientele it seem, at least on this Saturday night it seem so. Lots of people in their 50's and 60's pulling in some nice cars. Saw Mercedes SL600 hardtop convertible. Man am I in love. Probably costs more than my house though. My turn to buy a round and figure with the class of people hear I will probably drop close to $30.00 for 4 beers. Imagine my surprise when the bartender tells me "$10.00 please." Music to this mans ears-we can stay here all night. They have an elevated bar with a seating area that looks out over the casino. Nice spot to talk to someone you care about and glance out at the casino. Look for my wife and going to suggest we hobnob with the rich and sit and whisper sweet nothings into each others ear as we gaze out over the casino. Get real-my wife is off putting money into the machines and can't be found. So instead of using the bar for intimate conversation and hobnobbing with the wealthy I'm using the elevated perch much like a sailor up in the lookout of a ship-except I'm trying to find my wife and not avoid a shipwreck.

I locate the girls gleefully playing a machine with the $40.00 they started with today. As a group of girls get up to leave a machine the two woman swoop in like a hawk does on a field mouse. Within minutes the machine is treating them nice and the woman playing it before can't believe it. Next thing you know they hit some bonus round and get the machine up to $517.00. Now the girls that were playing the machine are no longer amused at the win the girls have they are downright pissed. I thought this was going to be one ugly catfight. Thankfully my wife was so happy they didn't even notice the evil stares from the other group of girls. As we leave we are on the top floor of the parking garage. It is a nice view of the strip from here. Wife shots some photos to send to the kids on the phone.

Back to the Ho. We haven't eaten since noon. I get a comp for us and we head into the restaurant and everyone orders the T-bone special. Now it’s not Delmonicos but I was surprised at how tasty it was. I'm drowsy as is the other guy. The girls want to play more machines. We guys go to our separate rooms. Too much fun last night. I stay in the room watching some show for an hour and at midnight decide to go back to the casino. The girls are determined to not miss one machine in the casino. There luck has turned sour. This is getting ugly as the wife needed money. I try and choke down a couple of beers but it isn't fun. In Vegas for two Saturdays in a row and wussied out on both of them and in bed early. The wife had the money so I have no idea where we stand at the end of the night.

Day 9

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. The last of our friends leave today and then it is finally just the wife and I. With 3 three different groups of friends coming and going during our trip out here it didn't leave us any time to ourselves. Next trip we will be planning alone as we can come and go as we wish.

After we pick up the luggage from friends room we go to the Westward Ho buffet. Nobody is real hungry. Everyone seems to want an omelet. This was our only buffet we had in Vegas as we don't care for them, but the pit personnel gave me an open comp for the four of us so why not use it. We straggle through the line and get to the omelet station. Guy comes up behind my wife and asks if she is in line and has she placed her order. She says no, he replies OK then shouts over her to the cook what kind of omelet her wants. I didn't hear this but all of the sudden hear my wife asking people around her "would anyone else like to butt in front of me in line to place their order." Most of the people, including me, think she has lost it. Once she explains it to me it makes sense. The guy who is about 6'3" and about 375 lbs is acting like he doesn't hear my wife. A completed deaf man could here the high pitched tone of my wife when she is pissed. Maybe he is dying of starvation-worthless slob. She continues to tell me about it with this guy not two feet away. Don't you know it when we get to our table who is sitting at the next table over? My wife won't let it go. Now I’ve let her have her 10 minutes of whining and it’s getting on my nerves and I tell her to drop it, but she can't. If this sets the stage for the rest of the day with my wife it could be a long day.

Take friends to airport. Is there ever a day this place isn't a zoo. Drop them off and get the heck out of there ASAP. We have a piece of costume jewelry my mother in law bought last August at the Excalibur that had two rhinestones that fell out. We decide to go to Excalibur and exchange it. Well we have no luck doing that. Wife walks into the store while I hang outside the store. Next thing I hear someone yelling at my wife as she is walking towards me. She explains that lady refused to exchange it because my wife didn't have a receipt. Even though the cardboard backing the jewelry is on says Excalibur on it. When my wife asked why she couldn’t get an exchange the lady told my wife. ''people lose money in casino come get money for stuff they bought cause they broke-get fu__k out of my store." I didn't hear the exchange of words but my wife has never lied to me in 10 years of marriage, but even I was shocked to be told the woman dropped the F bomb on her. I go into the store and the woman claims she didn't use the word. When we try to get her to call a manager she refuses. I suddenly realize if I continue to be this stubborn I'm going to end up in the poky over a $15.00 piece of costume jewelry. As we are walking away all I can think about is the slob at the Ho that set the tone for day for my wife. I hoping he chokes on a Ho dog.

We go back to the Ho to get the cell phone as we forgot to charge it last night. Wouldn't you know it 6 different people have called. All want bets put in on the Super Bowl and not one of them has sent out money. Hell, some I haven't seen in 6 months. After returning the calls and seeing what they wanted we went over to the Stardust to place some bets. After placing $2,300.00 of tickets (none of which cashed by the way) we walk out with one lousy free tee shirt. The wife doesn't mind placing the bets for friends as she is sure she will get the money back and I can't get crazy and lose it all here. She fails to realize I will be chasing people like a bounty hunter does so I can get my money back. If the bets would have won I wouldn't have been surprised to see people meet us as we departed the plane on our arrival home with their hands out.

The biggest drawback in Vegas is the cell phone. People call and want you to place bets for them without giving you cash. People call you and ask "what are you doing." I'm in Vegas fool-what do you think I'm doing, gambling and drinking like a fish. And the kids. They call sometimes every hour. I love my kids but there's only so much you can say to them on the phone. Plus anything outside our local area is .79 cents a minute. The phone bill is always over $250.00 for the month we go on vacation. Being here 10 days is really gonna goose up that bill.

We go back to the Ho and the wife settles in for a session of blackjack before going to the party upstairs for the game. She buys in for $300.00 and plays $25.00 flat bets. She is bouncing along having fun. Once she gets up a little I tell her to start pressing up her bets. The game is getting ready to start she cashes in for $875.00. A nice profit. We originally were given 8 tickets for Super Bowl party but everyone left. I only took two. As many people as they turned away I could have sold the remaining tickets.LOL We go upstairs for the party and I'm not impressed. Three screens for the game and since we came right before the game started we had to sit in the back. The food they put out was hot dogs-not Ho dogs, tacos, wings, veggies and chips. It was a little hard to hear the game where we were at. We stayed until the middle of the second quarter and left. I don't know why but I have been in Vegas for the last two Super Bowls and I just can't get into the game out there. I would have rather bought a case of beer and sat in the room and watched it.

We go to the bar for a couple of beers and try and watch the game for a few minutes. This isn't working either. Too crowded and to loud. We decide to head back to the tables because with the game on the casino is relatively quiet. I buy in for $500.00 and the wife $300.00. The dealer is vicious. Within a short amount of time I'm down to my last $50.00 bet. I get a 17 to the dealers 9. I start standing up thinking its all over. The dealer busts her hand. Sit back down and start to play. The only other player at the table has to use the bathroom. So does the wife and me. We all decide to get up at once and shut the table down as we are playing a two deck game and there isn't any mid deck entry. Dealer asked the pit what he should do. He was told to just stand there until we all got back. Two hours later we are at a combine $1020.00. We take the profit and cash out. The game is over and I lost my bet. I had New England giving 13-18 points at 5-1. It looked good up until the middle of the 4th quarter I'm told.

We walk outside to go down the strip but when we see the traffic we immediately change our minds. I had never seen it that bad before. We go to the new Ho and wife wants to play blackjack again but just for fun and not $50.00 and hand. I agree. We each buy in for $300.00 and start playing. Next thing you know we have close to $1,000.00 between us. New kid comes in wearing rumpled dirty clothing. Says he and girlfriend just moved here from the Bronx looking for work. He says he has had better luck at the tables than at work. He buys in for $300.00 plays $50.00 a hand and loses that quickly. He goes to the ATM pulls out more money. My wife and I are talking about the guy and where he will be in 6 months. The pit boss jumps in and says within 6 months he will be figuring a way to get back to the Bronx after Vegas uses him up and spits him out. A little harsh but most likely true. Well, the kid comes back from the ATM and sits down. I'm sort of feeling sorry for him now. We in no matter of time he has turned his meager stake into over $3,000.00. Now I've went from feeling sorry for him to being pissed, so I increase my bets to "try and catch him." My wife scolds me saying this was just supposed to be for fun. Well, with enough alcohol in my system I'm hell-bent on trying to make money. Within minutes I've lost my money and my wife’s. Not a pretty sight. My wife had wanted to stay up all night for our last night. Ain't no way that is going to happen on Super Bowl Sunday when you start drinking at noon. Around midnight we ask for a food comp. We both get wings and fries. Putting food in tummy just made bed time that much earlier.

Day 10

Wake up and today is packing day. A somber quietness falls across the room as we pack. We are ready to go home. Ten days is enough, but you never want to leave for a worry that something will happen and you may never see the Mecca again. The people that have moved out to Vegas-do you still love it as much as you did before-do you love it as much as us tourists do? We went down to eat. We still had a comp ticket without an expiration on it. We waited until 11:00am when the lunch and dinner menu opened up. Knowing it would be our only meal of the day we decided to eat big. Two T-bones for our brunch I guess you would call it. Again I can't complain about the taste of the steak. As we were eating an entertainer whose show started that day was handing out free tickets to that afternoons show. Now the Ho will have an afternoon show for the price of a $6.95 drink I think it said.

We eat and the wife checks the points on the card. We put on 20,000 points this stay, not counting the points to be added when they enter the rating slips into the system. She picks up a couple of sweatshirts in the gift shop which has expanded. The only thing that I think everyone could agree on, even the people who think the Ho is a dump would be that Nickel Nicks was a bargain. But alas no more. They closed it down and expanded the gift shop. The expanded gift shop opened during our stay there.

We walk around playing the WOF one last time. We play the $1.00 and do quite well. We get spins of $100.00, $150.00 $200.00 and $250.00 plus smaller ones. Why didn't this happen all week. Then we start hearing peoples "theories." Well, it was Super Bowl weekend and they tighten up the machines, now during the week they will hit or after all the money put in them on a weekend a Monday is the best day to play them. Hey, if the machines are going to pay me like this I will listen to everyone's crackpot excuse as long as I'm making money.

We say good-bye to the Westward Ho and head south on the strip. Wife says we have to stop at Caesar's to cash a ticket at the sports book and she wants to run through the Forum shops. I don't know where to pull into this place. I end up taking the northern most entrance and come out by the entryway to the Forum shops. Good this will work out for my wife. I ask the valet how I get to the sports book from here. He tells me to walk out to the strip head south go upstairs in the white circular building and walk the broken moving sidewalk. Now does it make any sense to you to pull into a casino and get out and be told to walk back out to the sidewalk on the strip to get back into the place? My brother calls and asks in we are extending the trip tell him we will take a bump but won't know for a while. He asks me to take $200.00 and play $10.00 a spin on 13 in roulette for him. Twenty spins and no 13. I ask the man running the games if he is in the T.V, show Caesars 24/7. He said just bits and pieces. He seemed disgusted by it. He compared it to Jerry Springer. Said the confrontations are all lined up so they get to film what they want to see.

Of to Dollar drop off the car and take the shuttle to the airport. ATA is working at a new location and they have construction work going on at their counters. There were originally an 8:00am, 3:07pm and an 11:40pm flights today. The earlier and late flights were canceled two weeks ago so we have 3 flights worth of people trying to board one flight. The line is huge. They are not assigning anyone seats unless you offer to pay for an upgrade to business class or take a flight they are trying to get a plane in her for to to fly out one hour after us. I tell the counter lady for compensation my wife and I will take a bump. She quickly points out that there will be no compensation as we are not being bumped; we are being offered an alternate flight. Something about if you fly with 2 hours of your scheduled time they don't have to offer compensation. I tell her no then, we want on the 3:07 flight. She tells me she cannot guarantee us seats but gives us boarding passes with no seat assignment and tells us to head to gate 6.

We wander over there and I see guys just screaming at the gate attendant. I hear them say I've had these tickets booked since August I'm getting on that flight-you better get us seats. Well, after listening to a few people tell the gate attendant their story I figured honey is going to work better in this predicament than vinegar. I talk to the gate attendant and tell her if she is offering me a free upgrade on the early flight we will take it. She says nope-nothing doing. OK, I'm going to have to work a little harder here. Tell her how much of a pain it must be to work days like this and so and so. All she says is seats will be assigned shortly and walks away. I'm must be losing my touch. I haven't been that blown off since high school. Well, with damaged ego we head over to grab a couple of pops. HOLY COW $5.36 for two medium fountain colas from Pizza Hut. What a rip-off-there wasn't even a fountain show to watch. We talk to everyone at home tell them we weren't successful with the bump and it looks like we will get stuck on an hour later flight. We hear our names being paged to go to the gate. When we arrive there is the gate attendant that put the dagger in my heart. She has a stern look on her face. Haven't you heard me paging you? Sorry but no we haven't. She replies “you almost lost our seats”. Hands us seating arrangements. Not business class but the first row behind them so we got leg room we get to stretch out at least. The honey worked. With my ego restored we board the plane. Uneventful ride home.

Six flights have luggage on one carousel at Midway takes awhile for luggage. Take shuttle to the car at Park and Fly pay the $75.00 parking fee and we our on our way home. Got home at 11:30pm. I tried to count the money when I got home but stopped to buy some stuff and was handing it out to the wife and kids. To the best of my knowledge here is how the financials of the trip worked out
Start $9,000.00
End with $1,400.00
Spent on friends Super Bowl bets-money I will get back $2,300.00
Overall money lost $5,300.00
Should anyone have any questions please feel free to direct your questions to me. I apologize for the length but this was beneficial for us as I got to relieve our Vegas trip again by composing
jim johnson <jmmyj126@aol.com> - rockford il    2471

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