A great trip on a great airline!
Written: Sep 06 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean, efficient, new airline, with LOTs of leg room and reasonable airline food.
Cons: They need their own gates!
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| psimon's Full Review: National Airlines |
I recently spent a week touring the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. To do that, I had a few options in air transportation. I could take one of the big carriers (United, Delta, etc.) which might involve a plane change somewhere, or I could fly one of the smaller operations. Looking into what was available from the Philadelphia area, I found that National and America West were available. I chose National Airlines and was NOT sorry.
National is a fairly new carrier, about a year old, with it's hub in Las Vegas. This made it an obvious choice for our travel. For the Philadelphia market, they have 3 flights a day in each direction, which is more than enough options to fit anyone's needs. (TIP: If you are staying in Las Vegas and are using the Rio or Harrah's hotels for your stay, the airline with take your luggage all the way to the hotel for you. When you leave, just check out of the hotel, and your bags are checked and taken to the airline for you! This is because the hotels have a financial stake in the airline.... they own a piece of it!)
We chose the 7:55AM flight out of Philadelphia. Right on the dot, at 7:55AM they left the gate. Quite punctual. They arrived even 25 minutes early into Las Vegas, and that included sitting on the tarmac in Philadelphia for 35 minutes because of congestion.
The flight was great. The aircraft they use are 757s, which were new for them! Can't beat it. Also, the way they equip the aircraft for seating, there is plenty of leg room. I have been on many a flight where if the person in front of you puts their seat back, your knees are in your chest. Not on a National flight. There was still leg room available. Even if that had cost a few extra bucks, I would have paid for it (compared to the America West flight available), but it didn't. the National flight was $10 less than America West. food was reasonable. We were offered a choice of Belgian waffles or omelettes. Came with OJ and other stuff. A reasonble breakfast for airlines food.
Our return flight was great, too. We took the red-eye home, which left Las Vegas at 10:45 PM. It left promptly. It arrived into Philadelphia at 6:AM, ahead of it's posted 6:25AM time. This was supposed to be a snack flight. I expected a beverage, and, if I was lucky, to get peanuts as well. This is what they considered a snack: Fresh veggies with a dip, grapes, crackers, cheese and a beverage. That was a heck of a snack!
The only problem we had, which really isn't a big problem, is that, in cities other than Las Vegas, National Airlines shares it's gates with other carriers. In Philadelphia, it shares the gates with NorthWest Airlines. We were lucky, the winds were with us, and we arrived early. The down side to that was that the NorthWest Airlines flight that used the same gate hadn't left yet. So we had to sit on the tarmac and wait for the gate to become available. Not really National's fault (there are only so many possible gates available). Because of this, however, we ended up de-planing at the posted 6:25AM time anyway! So much for being early!
If I were to go to Las Vegas again, I would definitely fly on National again. The food, the service, the seating, were all top-notch. I highly recommend it to anyone. Check your availability for National as they are adding routes all the time.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
psimon
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Location: NJ
Reviews written: 154
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
Engineer that loves Disney, computers, photography and anything that merges those hobbies!
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