Las Vegas; Wednesday, 05 April, 2023

I’d originally planned on working from home in the morning and then heading to the hotel at lunchtime for my late afternoon flight. That would have left enough time to get from home to the airport in normal circumstances, but then the union representing the security screening staff at the airport announced a 10 day strike over Easter which meant I would have been very tight on time for getting through, so I decided as soon as the strikes were announced to book an airport hotel for the night beforehand and work out of there.

It meant that just 20 minutes after powering down the work laptop I was already pulling into Terminal 5 tube station and heading up to checkin.

In the end I probably didn’t need the extra time as security only took about 30 minutes to clear, but it made for a far more relaxing start to the holiday than fretting about missing the flight stuck in a queue for security.

A smooth journey through the airport and onto the plane, with everyone else apparently also experiencing the same as the doors were closed and the plane was pushing back about 5 minutes ahead of our originally scheduled time (and over an hour earlier than the same flight had done every day for the previous week!)

An uneventful and smooth flight over to Las Vegas and then an incredibly smooth journey through the airport, being one of the first to reach immigration, but even then it took less than 45 seconds to clear with the border guard doing a quick scan of my passport, asking the reason for my visit and then stamping me straight into the states.

Even the luggage came round within about 25 minutes of landing.

Through to arrivals I made my way over to the rideshare pickup area and ordered an Uber over to the hotel where I had a quick checkin and then up to my room.

I spent a little time taking in the views of the strip from my room, as well as popping next door to the CVS to pick up some water, as that isn’t something the hotel provided for any reasonable rate, before turning in for the night as my body was now telling me that I had been awake for nearly 23 hours, even if it was still only just gone 9pm.