This was first posted here on 10/11/10. It's about airlines offering late night flights between LAX and Las Vegas or LAX and San Francisco. At the moment, near as I can tell, the last flight one can get from Las Vegas to Los Angeles leaves at 8:20 PM and the latest from S.F. to L.A. is 9:55 PM.

Several of you have written to me to second (or third or fourth or…) my endorsement of Southwest Airlines and most mentioned another nice thing I omitted: No baggage fees for your first two suitcases.

I was thinking the other day about how much simpler air travel used to be. I don't know how much of this was due to deregulation…which, by the way, people credit or blame Reagan for, though the idea of letting airlines do pretty much whatever they want started under Jimmy Carter. Reagan may just have allowed it to go too far. My sense is that deregulation helped in the short run and hurt in the long run. There was a time in eighties when it was a lot easier and cheaper to fly. My main route then was LAX-Las Vegas and it was like taking a taxi to and from Pasadena.

There had been a time — recent enough to impact my comings and goings — when one could not leave Las Vegas after about 10 PM at night. I think the airport there even closed around then…and the rumor was that the hotels insisted on it; that they didn't want you leaving town late. They wanted you to stay and pay for a hotel room and gamble all night. I think the last advertised flight left around 10 and for a brief time, there was one later, unadvertised flight.

This is a vague memory. I remember a casino host at the old Maxim telling me of a flight on one the airlines, Western I think, that left around Midnight or a bit later for Los Angeles but they weren't allowed to advertise it or list it on their schedule. Casino hosts could get you on it if it served the casino's interest to do that…say, if an entertainer was playing their showroom and had to be back in L.A. Or if some high-rolling whale could only squeeze in a Vegas jaunt if he could get back that night. And you could or I could call up and if we specifically asked for the flight by its number, the airline could book us on it. But if you called up and asked, "When's the last flight to Los Angeles?" they would say "10:10." I remember this and I think I even took it at least once.

Then in the mid-eighties, thanks (I guess) to all that deregulation, there were suddenly flights at all hours. My friend Paul Dini and I once went to Vegas for the day. We left my car at the airport, took a 10 AM flight there, lunched at Caesars Palace, gambled and sight-saw all afternoon, dined at the Riviera, went to see shows in the evening, hung out after with a friend of mine who was performing at the Tropicana…and we took a 1 AM flight back to L.A. and my car. You can't do that today. The last direct flight each night from LAS to LAX now leaves at 9:25.

Between that and the time it now takes to get through an airport, you can't even do what I did once — and I swear to you, I actually did this…

Shortly after my father passed away, I took my mother to Las Vegas for a three-night trip — going on Monday, coming back on Thursday afternoon. This would have been June or so of '91. After I'd booked the trip and Mom's heart was set, I was commanded to appear at a network meeting on Wednesday morning at 10 AM and couldn't get out of it. There was no solution but for me to commute.

Tuesday evening, fulfilling a wish of hers, I took my mother to see George Carlin perform at Bally's. Got us great seats, too. The opening act, Dennis Blair, started around 8:05 PM. Carlin took stage around 8:30 and at 9:30, he was still talking. I kissed my mother goodbye. I ran out and hopped in a cab to the airport. It took a bit of running (I mean actual running) but I managed to get on a 10:10 flight to Los Angeles which got in at 11 PM. I grabbed a cab for home and was at this desk, so help me, in time to see the opening of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at 11:30: Two hours from ringside at Bally's in Vegas to my home in Los Angeles.

I slept here, got up in the morning, went to CBS and had the meeting — which of course was a complete waste of time. Then I took a cab to LAX and just got on the next flight (there was one every 30 minutes or so) to Vegas. I was back in my hotel room at the Rio — from which I had not checked out — by 2 PM and the trip resumed as if I'd never left.

Like I said, you couldn't do that today…not with fewer flights and having to get to the airport 90+ minutes in advance, plus it was then possible to get a cheap flight at the last minute. I also don't seem to be able to go to San Francisco for the day as I sometimes did back then.

I used to fly up for business and/or pleasure, and I could spend the evening dining with friends or seeing a show, then leave for the airport around 11 and easily get on a Midnight flight back to Los Angeles…or if I missed that one, there was another around 1 AM. Now, the last direct flight from SFO to LAX leaves at 10:35 and you need to be there 90 minutes early so I'd have to head out around 8:15. Which means I can't have much of an evening in S.F. and then fly back to Los Angeles.

I was going to write that with so many airlines losing money, you'd think they'd experiment with more late flights but I guess they've tried that or done marketing research and it's not cost-feasible. I also guess that due to 9/11, it's going to be a while before you can routinely go to an airport and just hop on a plane…so I guess I'm lamenting the passage of something that won't be coming back soon. But one of these days, someone will make it work. Someday.