I cancelled my mini non-rev travel plans this weekend out of PHX (I thought about going to DEN for the 3 day weekend) because ALL the flights were packed coming back on Sunday. SFO, LAX, DEN to PHX... all packed. I was not about to risk it.
Sorry you were not able to make your commute.
As a side note, did you try going PHX-LAS-FAT? I know Skywest runs LAS-FAT and those flights are generally not too full. US Air must run that route too. And PHX-LAS has tons of service.