Las Vegas Direct Magazine

Las Vegas News and Events (November 20, 2009)

Strip’s Slots-A-Fun evacuated for suspicious package

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:28:00 -0000 - Metro Police and the Las Vegas bomb squad have evacuated a Las Vegas Strip casino after a suspicious package was found at 1:18 p.m. today.

Joint venture will acquire Hughes Center owner

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:19:00 -0000 - A big nationwide real estate deal announced today includes the high-end, 115-acre Hughes Center office and business complex in Las Vegas. Its owner, Crescent Real Estate Equities Limited Partnership of Fort Worth, Texas, has been taken over by Barclays Capital, part of London-based banking giant Barclays Bank Plc.

Man enters insanity plea in fatal 2008 shooting

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:01:00 -0000 - A man charged with fatally shooting another man he accused of sleeping with his wife and sexually assaulting his 6-week-old baby pleaded not guilty today to murder by reason of insanity.

‘New Moon’ star talks ‘Twilight’

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:09:00 -0000 - Ashley Greene says “Twilight” fans can expect more action and emotion in “New Moon.” The latest installment of the “Twilight” series opens in theaters today.

3 arrested in teen’s robbery, fatal shooting plead not guilty

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:06:00 -0000 - Three people accused in the robbery and fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man last month in the western Las Vegas Valley pleaded not guilty today to the felony charges against them.

Police: 3 arrested in officer’s death have gang ties

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:45:00 -0000 - An 18-year-old North Las Vegas man has been released from University Medical Center after an alleged exchange of gunfire that left a Metro Police officer dead Thursday morning at his North Las Vegas home.

Berkley Square neighborhood on National Historic Register

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:29:00 -0000 - The Berkley Square Neighborhood, the first subdivision in Nevada built by and for African-American residents in west Las Vegas, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Two more CityCenter structures earn high green ratings

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:04:00 -0000 - Mandarin Oriental and Veers have both reached the high environmental standard, bringing the total of LEED Gold certified facilities to six. Others include Crystals retail district, Vdara, ARIA’s hotel tower and separately, its convention center and theater.

Henderson firefighters battle garage blaze

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:49:00 -0000 - When Henderson firefighters arrived at a residence near Boulder Highway and Racetrack Road about 7:45 p.m. Thursday, flames and smoke from a garage had engulfed a vehicle parked in the driveway.

H1N1 flu vaccine clinics scheduled

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:29:00 -0000 - The Southern Nevada Health District is offering H1N1 flu vaccine clinics at three high schools from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday for priority groups.

Vegas company to pay $1 million to settle Arizona case

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:19:00 -0000 - Global Cash Access Holdings Inc. of Las Vegas on Thursday disclosed details about its agreement with Arizona gaming regulators, saying it will pay $1 million to settle an investigation involving actions years ago involving the company’s founders.

SEC sues former gaming exec for alleged insider trading

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:42:00 -0000 - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday sued former gaming executive R. Brooke Dunn, charging he and a friend were involved in illegal insider trading of the securities of Shuffle Master Inc. of Las Vegas.

Senator to host fundraiser for Harry Reid in New Orleans

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:17:00 -0000 - WASHINGTON — The Louisiana senator who secured a $100 million bonus in Medicaid payments for her state in the proposed Senate health care bill will host a fundraiser for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid next month in New Orleans, the Times-Picayune is reporting this morning.

Station Casinos, lenders agree to rent decrease at 4 properties

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51:00 -0000 - Station Casinos Inc. and key lenders have reached an agreement to temporarily slash the rent that Station pays to lease from itself four of its most valuable hotel-casinos.

10,000 Nevadans daily to get pro-Harry Reid robo-call

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:29:00 -0000 - WASHINGTON — The progressive group that ran TV ads critical of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s leadership as it pushed him to include the public option in the health care bill now says it has the leader’s back as he potentially comes under pressure to change the bill as the health debate begins in the Senate.‬‪

At 13 percent, jobless rate falls for first time this year

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:08:00 -0000 - CARSON CITY – For the first time in more than a year, the jobless rate fell in Clark County but a state official says the economic problems of Nevada are far from over.

Lewis Black, Kenny G and UFC fighters in Las Vegas for weekend

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:01:00 -0000 - It will be quite the mixed bag of star sightings and celebrity hostings in Las Vegas this weekend, as a range of comedians, musicians, and MMA fighters are all expected to come to town.

Las Vegas Valley to warm up into the 70s

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:00 -0000 - Pull out the sunglasses and head outside this afternoon - Las Vegas will be sunny and warm today, hitting a high of 73 degrees.

Gaming regulators, manufacturers disagree on computer-code writers

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0000 - State gaming regulators and slot machines manufacturers are at odds over how Nevada should monitor independent contractors hired to write computer codes for new or updated machines.

Q&A: Michael Modic

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:00 -0000 - Dr. Michael Modic is overseeing operations at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health after the two organizations joined forces this year.

Finding Cheap Airfare 

The Wall Street Journal Online
By Scott McCartney

Web Sites Offer New Features To Help Users Time Purchases To Get a Better Travel Deal

When the price of an airline ticket can change several times a day, it’s hard to feel secure about locking in the lowest fare. But several Web sites are adding features intended to help you feel confident about the price you’re paying.

FareCompare.com offers historical prices for trips in 77,000 markets in the U.S. and Canada — data that haven’t been available before to consumers. Farecast.com goes a step further, using sophisticated data-mining techniques to predict whether prices for a particular trip are likely to go up or down over the next week. Kayak.com now has a feature called Buzz that shows the best prices found by other Kayak users on the most searched destinations over the past 48 hours.

Airlines monkey around with ticket prices as much as three times a day for domestic itineraries and prices can change on international trips as often as five times a day. What’s more, fares on a particular flight can change quickly — up or down — as seats sell or remain empty. A lack of sales can prompt airline computers to offer more seats at a lower price.       

“You need to know what a decent price is,” says Rick Seaney, chief executive and president of FareCompare. “Consumers should be more educated about purchases.”

Booking air travel is increasingly a self-service business, with airline Web sites taking a bigger share of bookings and growing even faster than online agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. They all provide lots of prices, but little historical context. In a way, sites like FareCompare, Farecast and Kayak perform the functions of a good travel agent, who would often track pricing changes and know how to spot deals. Since the Internet has turned many consumers into their own travel agents, the new online tools can help them make better buying decisions.

FareCompare shows the lowest prices offered by month for the next 11 months in any U.S. market, and offers a “Fare Trend” graph showing whether the lowest prices have been increasing, decreasing or holding steady. You can quickly see whether prices in that market bounce around or stay consistent. And with the current prices, FareCompare offers a one-star to four-star rating of how good the offering is compared with past prices. (see below for a sample prediction of how airfares will change for Aug 11, 2006-Aug 14, 2006).

The lowest price available for a round-trip ticket in September between Boston and Miami, for example, was priced yesterday by FareCompare at $198 (not including taxes). That’s expensive compared with last year, when the lowest price available for September 2005 was $158. But prices were higher in April, May and June, according to FareCompare. The Web site showed American dropped its lowest price on that route by $80 two weeks ago.

With FareCompare, it takes a few clicks to get available prices on specific dates since the site first offers lowest price in a month, then prices broken down by week. Drill a bit deeper, and you can break down prices by airline on the same route. While Delta Air Lines has consistently charged about $400 for its lowest advance-purchase round trip between Atlanta and Cincinnati over the past three months, prices at Continental Airlines yo-yoed in that market between $100 and $400 in the same period, according to FareCompare. Delta offers nonstop service between its two biggest hubs; Continental offers only connecting flights.

FareCompare, a Dallas company that started doing sophisticated travel data-crunching for businesses then decided to add a consumer site, has accumulated 22 months of prices. The site also tracks first-class and business-class fares, and is a quick way to find “Y-Up” fares — coach tickets that get you automatic first-class upgrades.

You can’t book tickets at FareCompare, Farecast, Kayak and other such referral sites such as SideStep. One click will send you to an airline Web site or other vendor for booking.

Farecast.com grew out of a University of Washington professor’s research into whether air fares were rational, meaning could they be predicted with data-mining computing that looks at historical patterns and recent changes. It’s like forecasting the weather. While far from perfect, Farecast believes it can make accurate forecasts.

Farecast spent three years developing its system, which crunches huge amounts of data including indicators of airline inventory, pricing history and consumer demand. Farecast doesn’t replicate the “yield management” systems that airplanes run, which try to maximize revenue generated by each airline seat. Instead, Farecast evaluates price movements over time — what happened to the actual prices airlines posted.

“We’ve identified over 100 indicators of what air fares will do, some intuitive and some not so obvious,” says Chief Executive Hugh Crean.

So far, Farecast is running only in a public “beta” test mode, with about 120 markets into or out of either Seattle or Boston. By year end, the Seattle-based company says it will be running with all domestic markets available. Farecast breaks fares down by airlines, as well as by time of day.

Farecast takes into account special events like a convention or graduation, seasonal travel patterns, and both pricing and inventory trends. It doesn’t factor in external pressures like the price of fuel, which has forced airlines to trim flight schedules and raise ticket prices. But it does pick up those trends from the price and inventory changes.

Farecast won’t be able to forecast events like the entry of a low-cost carrier into markets, or retaliatory pricing wars between airlines when one carrier dumps cheap prices into a market trying to punish a competitor, or at least voice displeasure with a sale somewhere else. Mr. Crean notes those are the exceptions and that most pricing is surprisingly rational.

Still, Mr. Seaney of FareCompare says his company has tried data-mining and predictive techniques, and found airfares were difficult to predict. “A lot of times it is just random. Someone does a sale, and that triggers a whole series of events,” he said.

Bob Harrell, president of consulting firm Harrell Associates in New York, says air fares follow the laws of supply and demand, and that consumers can rarely know what demand will be. The sites “address an issue that is quite vexing to travelers: Book now or book later?” he said.