How to get your money’s worth on JetBlue’s all-access pass

By Richard N. Velotta

Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 | 3 a.m.

A lot of the mass transit guys have it right when it comes to offering the enticing “all-access” deal on their transportation systems.

For example, the local Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada sells an all-access pass that enables riders to climb aboard any Deuce, MAX or residential route CAT bus for 24 hours from the time of purchase for just $7. A similar three-day pass sells for $15.

That’s a pretty good deal, considering that one-trip rides are $1.75 or $3, depending on which system you use.

A tourist hopping on a Deuce bus would get more than his money’s worth by the third ride.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could find such a deal for airline travel?

Last week, in a bid to fill its flights during the post-summer swoon that many airlines experience, JetBlue Airways decided to try such a plan with its “All-You-Can-Jet Pass” promotion offering a month’s worth of travel in coach for $599.

Unfortunately for those of you who didn’t see anything when the announcement was made, the deadline for purchasing one has passed.

JetBlue has been a high-quality operation, and New Yorkers love the airline. It was one of the first to break out live in-seat televisions, and the airline doesn’t oversell its flights, meaning minimal bumping of confirmed passengers.

But there are a few catches to the pass plan.

Although taxes are included, anytime you book you have to pay the passenger facility charges, which can run up to $9 per flight segment, and the $2.50 9/11 security fee and a $3.60-per-segment federal tax. And, of course, if you have a second suitcase on JetBlue, it charges an extra $30 per one-way trip.

The pass is good on domestic routes only so forget about flying on the cheap to some of JetBlue’s cool Caribbean destinations or Cancun, Mexico. (Although a flight from New York to Bermuda, Nassau or Aruba suddenly becomes a more affordable option if you already have the Las Vegas-to-New York part covered.)

At McCarran International Airport, JetBlue averages 10 flights a day in and out — roughly 1,436 seats a day.

There aren’t many nonstop destinations from Las Vegas on JetBlue — Boston, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, Burbank and Long Beach, Calif., are it. That means the segment fees can add up if you want to go to Seattle, San Francisco, Tampa, Fla., or Washington.

The pass is good from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8. To use it, a traveler would have to book a reservation at least three days in advance. The day ends, by the way, at 11 p.m. since JetBlue’s reservation offices are in the Mountain time zone. The company’s rules say a pass holder can book flights for only one flight per city per day.

There’s also a big penalty for booking a flight and not showing up, or canceling within three days of a flight. If that happens, the customer’s pass is put on hold, all other reservations are canceled and the customer can’t book another flight until paying a $100 no-show fee.

Since JetBlue has a small operation at McCarran, I decided to check out the opportunity for local travelers and compare some round-trip fares against the cost of a pass.

With a few exceptions, it would take about three round trips to and from Las Vegas to fly enough to make it worthwhile.

JetBlue’s fares already are pretty low on most routes. You can fly round trip to and from Boston for $349, New York for $259 and Long Beach or Burbank, Calif., for $121.

The big advantage of the pass is that you don’t have to pay the equivalent of a mortgage payment even if you book three days in advance. As long as there is a seat on the plane available, you can book it with the pass and there are no blackout dates (but no three-day weekends, either.)

A few other dots on the JetBlue route map and their prices: San Francisco via Long Beach, $230; Salt Lake City via Long Beach, $170; Seattle via Long Beach, $300; Washington via Long Beach or New York, $360; and Tampa via New York, $550. And don’t forget, that doesn’t include the segment fees. To go to any of those destinations, it’ll cost another $25-$30 at the time of booking or $55-$60 if you have a second suitcase.

The All-You-Can-Jet Pass is an interesting experiment for JetBlue. Airlines often mimic what their rivals do, so it would really get interesting if the concept catches on with competitors.

Gearing up for the gridiron

With the National Football League and college football seasons just around the corner, Southern Nevada’s sports books are preparing for the most lucrative wagering of the year.

Three sports book items won initial approval from the state Gaming Control Board this month with final approval on the Nevada Gaming Commission’s agenda Aug. 20.

The biggest deal involves the licensing of Gaughan South, Michael Gaughan’s casino holding company, to pool wagers with the Palms, Rampart, Cannery and East Cannery resorts. The move enables all the books to take larger wagers to spread potential risk.

Gaughan already pools bets with books at the downtown Las Vegas’ El Cortez and Mesquite’s Casablanca and Virgin River. He had a similar strategy when he ran Coast Casinos’ multiple books.

Under the system, Gaughan’s South Point sports book Director Bert Osborne would set the lines for all properties and administer the Palms’ popular Pigskin Payoff football contest and try to resolve any patron disputes.

But the key feature is the ability to take bigger bets.

“With a bigger pool, there’s less volatility,” Palms owner George Maloof said. “It’s better for the customer. Typically, we could take bets of up to $10,000, but this gives us the opportunity to take up to $20,000.”

Gaughan said there could be room for more partners in the future — possibly even a Strip casino if the right deal comes along.

One downside is that the partner casinos will no longer be able to take wagers on Sacramento Kings basketball games when the National Basketball Association season begins in October. Because the Maloof family owns the Kings, none of the books in the network will take wagers on games involving the team.

Other sports books also are gearing up for the football season.

Brandywine Bookmaking, operating Lucky’s Race & Sports Books, has received Control Board approval to run a book at Laughlin’s Pioneer. The company already operates books at the Plaza and Terrible’s in Las Vegas, the Grand Sierra in Reno, Terrible’s Town Casino and Terrible’s Lakeside Casino in Pahrump, Terrible’s Primm Valley Casino Resorts, Casino Fandango in Carson City and the Red Lion in Elko.

Cantor Gaming, which has a relationship with Las Vegas Sands and the Venetian for mobile gaming technologies, received Control Board approval to operate the Venetian’s book. Cantor officials assured the board that the operation of the sports book would not incorporate mobile applications.

And a sports book that has been dark since April will reopen Aug. 26.

The 285-seat sports book at Bally’s Las Vegas, located in the Avenue Shoppes and known simply as the Book, will reopen with a VIP viewing area, sports celebrity appearances, drink specials and text promotions.

The book was closed as a cost-cutting measure.

In the past 12 months, sports books accounted for $129 million in Nevada gaming revenue — about 1.2 percent of the $10.9 billion taken in.

Air notes

The U.S. Transportation Department’s air travel consumer report for June had a number of Las Vegas footnotes.

Two of the top three airlines with the best on-time arrival rate — Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines — have flights to McCarran, but so do two of the worst three — Frontier and American.

McCarran’s on-time and arrival and departure figures show that 78.4 percent of arrivals at the airport were on time, defined as arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. The national average was 76.1 percent.

A Las Vegas-bound flight landed on the list of the flights with the longest tarmac delays — United’s Flight 140 from Washington’s Dulles International Airport on June 3, which was delayed 290 minutes, the fifth worst of the month. (The worst flight was delayed 328 minutes,)

McCarran market leader Southwest Airlines was No. 1 for the least number of consumer complaints in June, 0.19 complaints per 100,000 enplanements. But that was worse than the 0.17 complaints recorded in June 2008. And a Southwest Las Vegas flight, Flight 2030 to San Diego, leaving at 8:30 p.m., made the list of flights arriving more than 15 minutes late more than 80 percent of the time. That flight, late 82.6 percent of the time, came in an average 48 minutes behind schedule.

Caribbean flights

US Airways announced plans to offer nonstop seasonal service four times a week between its Phoenix hub and Montego Bay, Jamaica, from Dec. 17 to April 12.

Las Vegas will be among 26 cities on the airline’s route map to get one-stop service to the Caribbean with the flights, which will be operated on twin-engine Airbus A319 jets.

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism, technology and small business for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4061 or at [email protected].