Stranded Passengers at Harry Reid Airport Can Get Free Lap Dance While Waiting for Flight

Posted on: December 28, 2022, 09:42h. 

Last updated on: December 28, 2022, 12:05h.

The passengers waiting at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas after canceled or delayed flights this week have some new options. Rest at someone’s house or go to a Vegas strip club.

A flight board shows canceled Southwest Airlines flights
A flight board shows canceled Southwest Airlines flights to Las Vegas and other destinations. Many passengers remain stranded. (Image: AP/Eugene Garcia)

The alternatives arose after several hundred flights at the airport were either canceled or delayed starting late last week.

On Wednesday, as of 6:30 a.m. PT, 209 flights at Reid were canceled, FlightAware, a flight tracking site, reported. Some 46 flights were delayed at the airport by 6:30 a.m., too. More cancellations and delays are likely as the day progresses. The disruptions are largely blamed on winter storms.

Nap on Couch

To make it easier for visitors, a Las Vegas resident is letting travelers stop off at her home.

Sharlene Cribbs said they can come by to rest or even use the shower, according to KLAS, a local TV station.

If I got a floor that they can lay on, or a couch, then they can come rest their head and take a shower,” Cribbs told KLAS. “Get out of that mess down there at the airport.”

Free Drink, Lap Dance

A very different option involves a promotion at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club Las Vegas. The club will give a verified stranded passenger a free ride, first drink, and a complimentary lap dance. There is no cover charge. The promotion runs through January 1.

Ralph James, the club’s general manager, explained, “We are doing our part by opening our doors to travelers who are most affected to ensure their extended stay in Las Vegas is a memorable one.”

The option to rent a car to drive home is challenging for many of these travelers, too. The sheer number of people looking for alternative means of transportation means the demand — and prices — for rental cars in Las Vegas, and elsewhere around the country, are escalating.

Passenger Nightmares

Despite the options listed above, most travelers in Las Vegas remain at the airport waiting for the next flight. Among them was Reina Bravo, a Denver resident who arrived there after taking a flight from Maryland, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Bravo was supposed to have a quick layover in Vegas on Tuesday morning. But the airline with the most cancellations nationally, Southwest, canceled her second flight to Colorado. She likely will not be able to board a plane until Friday.

She has been in tears and has gotten angry at the airline.

“I just want to go home to be with my boyfriend and fur-babies,” Bravo told the Sun.

Another passenger, Ted Snyder, and his wife got a ride to Las Vegas from Fresno, Calif., after their flight was canceled. He was waiting at Harry Reid Airport to speak with a Southwest agent in an attempt to get a refund.

The couple luckily was able to get a flight back to California on another airline. The Southwest experience was negative for them.

“No one called. No one texted me,” Snyder recalled. “We walked into the airport in Fresno, and they said, ‘Your flight is canceled.’”,

If you run a business, stuff happens and things get canceled,” he told the Sun. “But when stuff happens you need a plan to deal with the fallout. They don’t have a plan.”

As of 6:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, 2,781 flights nationally were canceled. There were 1,304 delays nationally. Many were on Southwest Airlines flights. The airline has apologized.