We had originally planned for a road trip this summer to North California but decided to change our plans when we found cheap airfares out from Bellingham, WA to Las Vegas. I came across it quite accidentally when I heard over the radio of the news that a lot of Vancouverites had been coming over to Bellingham for cheap flights.
Although the airport is called the Bellingham International Airport, I don’t think they have scheduled flights to airports outside of the US. It’s a small airport really and that means that checking in and out is so much more faster and easy.
The flight tickets we bought were just $89 one way from Bellingham to Vegas. We decided to fly Bellingham-Vegas on our way there and take a return flight from Reno (which was just $39 or $59 depending on the day of travel), Taxes and all came up to about another 20% more. They do charge $3 for each baggage checked in. All in all, it’s a good deal — I figured it could be actually cheaper to fly than to drive from Vancouver to Las Vegas. You should check out their prices on their website … you’ll be surprised I’m sure.
One thing though … you need to be careful about all the additional charges they put on. I am not surprised because this is a no frills fare they are selling. For instance, if you book the flight ticket over their website, they will charge you $7.50 convenience fee, It is not charged if you buy it from the ticketing counter at the airport. To select a seat of your choice, it will be an additional $11. If you want a choice seat, you have to check-in early … at least 2 hrs early.
Everything about this flight is really basic. You don’t even board the planes via aerobridges but a walk-up stairs. Gosh … the only time I had boarded a plane via stairs were in Phnom Phen, Cambodia about 10 years ago!
The flight was smooth and pretty short. It took about 2.5 hours only. We were quite late checking in and got seats on the last two rows. The last row had no views at all … the engine was just by the window.
Can anyone recognize the mountain below? The give-away is the half crater.
They don’t serve anything for free at all during the flight … you have to pay even for a bottle of water.
Nanzaro loves the airline snack boxes I bring home from my business trips. So when he learned that they also have snack boxes for sale inflight, I just knew he wanted one. Each box costs $5.
Allegiant Air’s Snack Boxes were no where compared to United’s which costs the same (see here and here for United’s Snack Box review). They are all very dry snacks and simply not worth the money. You should bring along your own snacks.
Just before we landed, the stewardess organized a raffle on board. Everyone who wanted to participate have to write their seat number on a dollar bill and put it in a bag they pass around. The winner takes all the money in the bag (about $80!).
As we land we can pick out some of the hotels on The Strip. The LAS airport is just about 5 minutes from the Strip which I think is awesome.
Allegiant Air is an airline based in Las Vegas. You should check out their airfares on their website (http://www.allegiantair.com/). What I like about the website is that they show you a table of the prices by a range of days so that you can see at a glance all the options available.
Mt St Helens? I recently flew to Vegas from the Bellingham airport as well (drove down from Vancouver). I was with Alaska Airlines/Horizon and they have free snack packs/peanuts and all the beverages you like. I love those stubby little bottles of water, perfect for the short flight.
Hello i happen to come across your blog and i love it! Especially your recipes and are you from a community kitchen? My mom has been finding a community about cooking in richmond/vancouver for quite some time. So can you give me more info about it? Thank you! =)
That’s right Rebecca … that’s St Helens. I did not know that Alaska fly BLI-LAS. How much was the airfare?
Although I am happy that you got to visit Las Vegas, I am pretty sad that you didn’t make it to Northern California. 🙁 Well, there is always next time! And maybe I should make the trek up to Vancouver!
Hi Passionate Eater:
We did make it to San Francisco on this trip. We did get to visit almost all the areas you recommended though — thanks! We had wanted to meet up with you but we just winged this trip because we did not have much time to plan … we literally planned just 1 week before we left Vancouver. Maybe next time. I love San Francisco.
Did you know chowtimes.com was mentioned in the Food section of The Georgia Straight July12-19? Let me know if you want me to keep a copy for you.
Hi MammaViv:
We did notice that there were some links into chowtimes from Georgia Straight sometime last week. Could you, would you … keep a few copies for us? Let us know once you gotten then.
Ben
Don’t worry, Ben. Passionate Eater is mad at me too. I was up in San Francisco three times this summer and wasn’t able to see her. =(
I luv ya’s PE. Someday soon!
No wonder why their flights are so cheap- they charge $5 for a box of crackers! LOL!
I definitely want to book a vacation to Vegas for us someday (mainly to go see the Star Trek Experience, nerds that we are), and they have great deals- plus, you can’t beat flying OUT of Bellingham instead of Seatac! (Now if they would only have flights going from Bellingham directly to the bay area in California…)
Hi Jennifer:
You a nerd too? Yah! Nerd Rulez! 🙂 If you want to get to SF, well, Allegiant flies from Bellingham to Reno for just $39. It’s a 4hr easy drive from Reno to SF.
Oh no! Don’t tell me that…my mother-in-law lives in Reno! LOL!!! It’s definitely not too far from Monterey-SF. As long as I can get to Monterey I will be a happy girl.
And yes, we are major sci fi geeks in this household. I told my husband we should renew our vows at the Star Trek Experience on the holodeck. That would ROCK!
I am going to las vages soon !
This information is all outdated. We had decided that we could pack whatever we needed in our carry-on bags because of the high charge for checked bags. We hadn’t flown in some time and so were unaware of the airlines requirement that items such as make-up, sun block, hand lotion, etc. be in 3 ounce containers and these containers must be put in ziplock bags if they are in your carry-on. What a farce this is. To avoid having to throw away a lot of the things we needed we had to check one carry one. THEY CHARGED US $40.00 FOR CHECKING THE ONE SMALL BAG. We all boarded the plane which was hot and some 10 minutes or so after everyone was on board the pilot came on the intercom and gave us some long winded story about maintenance on the aircraft being due. We would all have to exit the plane, taking all of our personal things with us (carry-ons, etc.) until the maintenance was performed. We overheard a flight attendent talking to another attendent saying that this was a real screw-up because the plane had been parked for 4 hours until it was time for the flight. The maintenance should have been done during the time the plane was parked. An hour or so later we were able to board once again. Our seats were at the very front and so we boarded last as the boarding order was from the back of the plane to the front. So, OK, this makes sense until you look at the overhead storage for your carry-ons and find that there is none because that space is used for emergeny equipment. I had to go back to row 7 and then on back to row 10 to find spaces for our carry-ons. (This was on the return flight where we had complied with the ridiculous 3 ounce container, ziplock bag requirement and had two bags.) In order to avoid staying in our seats and waiting until everyone else had exited I had to fight the rush of people to get back to our bags in rows 7 and 10. Lessons learned: Never ever sit in the first 5 rows if you can help it. Walgreens sells a little clear plastic bag that zips up and contains three nice little 3 ounce size containers. WE’RE DRIVING NEXT TIME…………
hey REP the whole 3 oz. containers in a zip-lock bag is now a airline rule in order to force you to check bags that is a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rule. This is for national security purposes. Just an FYI.