Park Place Entertainment has just announced that it will begin to offer baggage and flight check-in in its Bally's Las Vegas hotel, with the same service to follow at its other properties. This sounds similar to the service currently offered at a few other locations, including at Harrahs and the Rio for National Airlines. The Business Wire story is reprinted below:
Park Place Entertainment Corp. Announces New Airport Check-In Service

BusinessWire
Wednesday October 13 11:33am

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 1999--As part of its ongoing goal to enhance the customer experience, Park Place Entertainment (NYSE:PPE) introduced a new airport check-in service at its Bally's Las Vegas casino resort.

Park Place Entertainment, working with Certified Airline Passenger Service (C.A.P.S.), will offer a program enabling guests to check baggage and receive seat assignments and boarding passes from two to 12 hours in advance of flight departure for a nominal fee.

In anticipation of a successful trial period at Bally's Las Vegas, Park Place expects to introduce this service later this year at its sister Las Vegas casino resorts including Flamingo Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Hilton, Paris Las Vegas and -- following the acquisition with Caesars World -- Caesars Palace. All necessary FAA approvals to implement this service have been received.

Park Place Entertainment is the world's largest gaming company, as measured by casino square footage and revenues, and is currently the only casino gaming company with a leading presence in Nevada, New Jersey and Mississippi -- the three largest gaming markets in the United States.

The Company owns or has an interest in 17 gaming properties located throughout the United States and in Australia and Uruguay, with a total of 1.4 million square feet of gaming space and approximately 23,500 hotel rooms.

In April, Park Place Entertainment entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Caesars and other gaming assets of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The transaction is scheduled to close in the fourth quarter of 1999 pending regulatory approval.


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Mark L. in NJ

Mark: Thanks for that good info. It will be interesting to see what they mean by a nominal fee.

I didn't see in the article if this is just for National Airlines, or is it for other airlines as well?

I think it was the end of May that you could check in for America West flights at the Imperial Palace.

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John B.
jblersch@optonline.net

Of course I'm very interested in this news!

Now what airlines will be offerd for this service?

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Lee-PA
Moderator, What's New Forum
lee@talkvegas.com

I think this is a great idea. I enjoyed the convience of being able to check in our bags early at a hotel. You don't have to drag the bags on the rental car bus and the best is you don't have to leave for the airport until the last minute. As Veronica knows, Michael and I would never have made our flight last week if we had to stop at the counter to check our bags and get boarding passes. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

The sense I got from the article was that the service would be for any airline that does business with "Certified Airline Passenger Service (C.A.P.S.)." Can't tell for sure, though.

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Mark L. in NJ

I just found some more information about the airline check in service. Right now there are two hotels that will allow check ins, Bally's and Sahara. Park Place will eventually add their other hotels. There are two airlines that are participating at this time, Delta and America West. Check-ins will be allowed between two and twelve hours before your flight.

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com

Lee Ann --

Thanks for the clarification. I'm sure this will be the wave of the future in Las Vegas. Seems to be to convenient to ignore.

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Mark L. in NJ

The CAPS fee for baggage check-in at Bally's and Sahara for America West and Delta fliers is $6.00 per person. ($3.00 until the end of the month.) As Lee Ann noted, passengers must check in 2 to 12 hours before departure.
Hours of service may vary per hotel, so it's best to call ahead.

CAPS plans to add check-in service for Southwest Airlines and open offices in 7 more Las Vegas hotels within 90 days.

What do you think of this $6 fee? That's $12 per couple. Do you think you will use this service?

V,
I would! But I don't fly those airlines, so it's a mute point.

Lee-PA

Lee: I'll guess that most of the majors will start offering this service in the near future.

Pesonally I don't think I would use the service, unless I was planning on a show or some other committment that would cut it too close time-wise in getting to the aiport and checking bags. I usually have a LOT of luggage to check!

I made sure when I talked to CAPS that it was $6 per person...not $6 a bag <g>.

V,
I was thinking of the option of when your check out time is 1pm and your plane doesn't leave for several hours. Instead of checking your bags with the bellman, you could just check it with the airline. One less thing to handle when it's time to leave Las Vegas.



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Lee-PA
Moderator, What's New Forum
lee@talkvegas.com

Lee: I wonder if the casinos are supplementing CAPS on the service since that leaves more time for people to go gambling. <g>



[This message has been edited by Veronica (edited October 29, 1999).]

V,
I'm sure they are paying a fee for the service. But it might not be for more gambling time, it might just be to stay up (on par) with the IP, Harrah's, & Rio.

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Lee-PA
Moderator, What's New Forum
lee@talkvegas.com

V,
If you check in at the hotel then you don't have to drag all of those suitcases on the rental car shuttle. <vbg>

Lee Ann
Past, Present and Future Forum Moderator
leeann@talkvegas.com