Maximizing party time for a late night flight

[livingvicariously]

My apologies if this is the wrong forum area, but it's loosely tied to nightlife so here goes

For my upcoming CES trip, my return flight is the late night redeye back across the country. With that thought in mind, does anyone know when the earliest I can drop off check-in luggage at McCarran would be? The thought would of course be to check my bags in at the airport late afternoon so I could go party my few remaining hours at the bars or lounges and wouldn't need to worry about any hassle checking in the bag later in the evening.

[wowzers83]

Im sure its not uncommon for people to get dropped off 4-5 hrs before their flight....which means checking their bags in early... It shouldnt matter. My guess of how the process works is: a bag is scanned, it goes on a cart...if there is no cart, the worker makes a new cart for that flight.

Drop it off at the bell desk at a casino where you will be hanging. this will work too.

[fordan]

For my upcoming CES trip, my return flight is the late night redeye back across the country. With that thought in mind, does anyone know when the earliest I can drop off check-in luggage at McCarran would be? The thought would of course be to check my bags in at the airport late afternoon so I could go party my few remaining hours at the bars or lounges and wouldn't need to worry about any hassle checking in the bag later in the evening.

At the airport it's airline specific but generally around 4 hours before your flight. Alternatively, there are off-airport checkin facilities that look like they'll go 12 hours out but don't work with all airlines and they charge a fee, although in this case it may be worth it. (The one I'm thinking of but haven't used myself is this one.)

[Sidekicknicholas]

I was torn with the same problem, I ended up just bumping my flight out of from evening flight to 1pm the next day.... it was the same price and it gave me another whole night to play.

I'm flying through Detroit to get out to Vegas for CES too.

[livingvicariously]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

wowzers- The bell hop is still an option, but my main focus is not so much the hassle of carrying the luggage to the airport, but rather standing around for 30-60 minutes to check the bags in.

fordan - I have seen that off-airport checkin, but cheap @$$ Spirit doesn't offer that

sidekick - I wanted to do that, but my director only gave me 2 days excusal so although my hands aren't completely tied, I don't want to needlessly burn vacation days before things like mAyOD :P Also, almost as important, I was trying to avoid the dreaded 6am flight which was the case for my last trip.

Looks like I'll check spirit's website and swing by LAS around dinner that night. Then back to the strip for more fun!

[fordan]

Looks like I'll check spirit's website and swing by LAS around dinner that night. Then back to the strip for more fun!

From Spirit's Contract of Carriage:

6.2.4.2.
Baggage must be checked at the airport in advance of flight departures. Baggage will not be accepted more than four (4) hours before schedule departure time.

I haven't flown Spirit (and hope not to; their escalation of the multiplying fees idiocy was impressive), but you might also be able to use a skycap at the curb to check your bag, or some airlines have faster baggage drop desks for people who already have paid their bag fees and checked in online.

[iamkhai]

My only bit of advice is that if you do come back, make sure there is still plenty of time to get through security. For whatever reason, every time I have left Vegas I swear the security line is a 30 minute wait. One year it was really bad because all the computers were down so we had a 4 hour wait to get our bags checked and go through security. Flights were delayed/missed because of this and it was a nightmare.

[BigPimp]

Send your bag back by UPS/FDX. Your hotel likely has a business center that can help you with the shipping so you won't have to go to and from the airport an extra time. Spirit appears to have cheap baggage fees [see http://www.spirit.com/OptionalFees.aspx]. But for the extra cost of shipping by UPS/FDX (I have no clue how much but it will be cheaper than you expect especially if you can get your bags 2 or even 3 business days later and be happy) you will eliminate the hassle. And of course you will have to pay the extra taxi fee to and from the airport to drop your bags off in advance, so I bet you end up breaking even or even saving a few bucks. I've done that before with golf clubs because those were a pain to lug to the airport for my red eye home.

[Sidekicknicholas]

I've UPS'd bags before too... not to/from Vegas but for wakeboard events when I was still a young man... was much easier/cheaper to ship a bag and/or my boards than try and travel with them

[wowzers83]

Thanks for the quick feedback!

wowzers- The bell hop is still an option, but my main focus is not so much the hassle of carrying the luggage to the airport, but rather standing around for 30-60 minutes to check the bags in.

fordan - I have seen that off-airport checkin, but cheap @$$ Spirit doesn't offer that

sidekick - I wanted to do that, but my director only gave me 2 days excusal so although my hands aren't completely tied, I don't want to needlessly burn vacation days before things like mAyOD :P Also, almost as important, I was trying to avoid the dreaded 6am flight which was the case for my last trip.

Looks like I'll check spirit's website and swing by LAS around dinner that night. Then back to the strip for more fun!

If you are worried about time, it might be a good idea to drop them off first but keep in mind how busy it is going to be this weekend. I am the worst with time and the past two trips ive allowed like 1hr from mid strip to the gate and useally have just enough time to board . Dont pull a me during CES.