Today was my final day in Vegas and last day of work on the trip. I started out the morning with some in-room coffee.
Out the window, there was a rather interesting string of ads on the main Planet Hollywood billboard by the then candidate Mike Bloomberg. This was just days before the Nevada Democratic primary and the morning after the Democratic National Debate.
After my morning work meeting, the doorbell rang with my room service breakfast. As a Amex FHR benefit, I received a $60 credit for breakfast which I could use either at the restaurant or for in-room dining. I usually don’t get a chance to use room service because it is so expensive, but it’s a great way to blow a lot of free money on breakfast. I ordered a salmon avocado omelette, an açaí bowl, and a papaya smoothie for a cool $56.
Everything was really tasty and rather unique, so I was very satisfied. This was only my second time having room service, both complements of FHR. It is a pretty nice luxury, and highly recommended when it’s free, but otherwise definitely unnecessary.
I specifically got a late breakfast so I wouldn’t need to have lunch and continue my streak of free meals on this Vegas trip. I worked for the rest of the day until my 4pm check out time. Since I was working today, it was essential that I had this guaranteed late checkout. All the credits were applied properly and I even got the Hilton points - well done. At this time, I saw that my flight out to San Francisco was delayed by 2 hours. There wasn’t really anywhere I wanted to go and I still had some work to finish off, so I just headed to the airport. TSA Pre-Check was quick and painless. Soon I was back in my second home, the Centurion Lounge, having an early dinner.
This was also a good place to catch up on my work, while sipping some cocktails. I was here for a while, and as a Premier Platinum, United did offer to switch me onto an earlier flight for free. The only option that made sense was only about 40mins earlier and it wouldn’t guarantee the first class upgrade that I was already cleared for. I wasn’t in a rush, so I stuck with my original flight. I ended up taking a shower at the lounge before heading out to my gate for the revised 10pm departure. Domestic first class on any legacy US carrier is nothing to write home about, but since this was my first time using airline status and getting a free upgrade, I was still pretty excited.
Most people ended up switching onto an earlier flight, so there was only 36 people on the whole plane. As this was a short 1 hour flight, there wasn’t much in the way of service, and the crew was very eager to make up for the long delay. They did serve cocktails and went around with a snack basket on this late night flight.
I also managed to get some night time shots of the Vegas Strip after takeoff. Pardon the astigmatism of my camera.
I arrived in SF at around 11pm and took an Uber to my hotel, Marriott Fisherman’s Wharf and called it a night.
