In addition to the airline committee suggesting that Terminal 3 be shut down, a $114 million heliport near Sloan is also on the committee's chopping block. That can't be good news for the thousands of Southern Nevada residents in the existing flight path of air tour helicopters that make regular runs to the Grand Canyon. The heliport would move that traffic south of the city, eliminating a big political headache.

Walker said he'd talk to commissioners about the heliport and other capital expense projects at a future meeting. It's possible that a discussion about the Ivanpah airport could come up as well, even though financing that is still a few years away.

The bottom line is that Walker and the county must keep the interests of Southern Nevada ahead of those of the airlines. Even though they work as team to improve the quality of life here, the airlines definitely have a different agenda at this time.

- Here in Las Vegas, we think quite highly of our hotels and resorts, considering them among the best in the world.

Unfortunately, the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine don't think of them as highly.

The magazine's August edition presents its reader poll of the top hotels, spas, cities, islands and airlines.

With travelers staying a little closer to home because of the state of the economy, it comes as no surprise that 11 U.S. properties joined the list of the top 100 hotels in the world, according to the survey.

But not a single Las Vegas property cracked the top 100, which was led this year by Singita Sabi Sand & Kruger National Park in South Africa. The top American property, according to the survey, was the Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Mont., at No. 4. The Little Palm Island Resort and Spa at Little Torch Key, Fla., was No. 12, and Los Angeles' Hotel Bel-Air finished at No. 13.

A number of Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton properties dot the list, but Southern Nevada's properties didn't make it.

However, among the top 100 hotels in the continental United States and Canada, two Las Vegas resorts made the grade.

The Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas was ranked No. 34 on the list, while Bellagio was listed at No. 48.

Las Vegas Sands' new Palazzo made a list of "15 to watch."

"The Venetian's 3,066-suite sister property opened this year to the tune of $1.9 billion," the magazine said. "Each suite has a sunken living room and guests can choose from 15 restaurant options."

Las Vegas didn't make the top 10 cities list for the United States and Canada, either. The list, from one to 10, were New York; San Francisco; Chicago; Charleston, S.C.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Quebec City; Montreal; Vancouver, British Columbia; Savannah, Ga.; and Victoria, British Columbia. The top city worldwide, according to the survey, was Bangkok, Thailand, with New York checking in at No. 8 behind Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Florence, Italy; Cuzco, Peru; and Rome.

McCarran is served by two of the top 10 international air carriers listed in the survey and nine of the 10 domestic carriers.

No. 8 Virgin Atlantic provides nonstop service between Las Vegas and London's Gatwick International Airport, while No. 10 Korean Air has nonstop flights to and from Seoul among the international carriers. Singapore Airlines again tops the list of international fliers.

On the domestic side, there's a new airline on top: Virgin America, which began flying to Las Vegas last year. The rest of the top 10 in descending order: Midwest, JetBlue, Sun Country, Hawaiian, Frontier, Southwest, USA 3000 (the only one that doesn't fly to McCarran), Alaska and Horizon.

- Southwest Airlines has thousands of members of its Rapid Rewards frequent-flier program living in Southern Nevada, so it's important to note when the program gets a new partner.

Beginning this month, Thrifty Car Rental has become a partner in the program that enables members to earn credits toward free travel. Through Oct. 31, Southwest customers who use Thrifty for a weekly rental of five or more days or more can get triple credit toward their free flights.

Thrifty is a sister company of Dollar Rent A Car, which has been a Southwest partner since 1999.

- Airlines have found yet another source of revenue, but at least it won't come out of their customers' pockets.

Beginning this month, Delta Air Lines has begun getting a percentage of the revenue for ad sales on boarding passes. Omaha, Neb.-based Sojern Inc. announced that American, Northwest, US Airways, Continental and United would soon follow.

The airlines own a minority stake in the enterprise and will split the revenue generated, estimated to be in the millions of dollars by Al Lenza, Northwest's vice president of distribution and e-commerce.

Passengers can opt out of getting a boarding pass with advertising, Sojern officials said.

Gordon Whitten, chief executive of Sojern, said the company isn't tailoring ads to individual customers, but he said that could happen in the future.

- The Interbike International Bicycle Expo will return to Las Vegas through 2012, even though some exhibitors at the show don't think Las Vegas is bicycle friendly enough.

Tradeshow Week reported that exhibitors and conventiongoers were surveyed on what city would best meet their business needs. According to the survey, Las Vegas received 45 percent of the votes, Denver 36 percent and Anaheim, Calif., 19 percent.

Interbike, which was ranked No. 76 in Tradeshow Week's Top 200 list of North American trade shows, considered other options when some exhibitors wanted to move to a community that had better bicycling conditions.

The show, which annually draws more than 12,000 people, will be Sept. 24-26 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center.