Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2012

photome wrote: »

No chance!!! of even getting one upgrade for free.

AFAIK no airlines will give free upgrades

My parents have been upgraded for free twice. Once with Continental and once with AA.

Arrived home last night from trip No. 13 to Vegas.

Had a great time, won't do a detailed report as we didn't do anything overly exciting, but here are a few details.

Flew with Air New Zealand via LAX. First time flying with ANZ and would definitely use them again. Went out in economy and returned in Premium economy, thanks to our £180 bid for the upgrade being accepted in their 'one up' bidding offer.

The economy food was good, but the PE food was excellent and well presented. Their entertainment system was superb, with loads of choice and easy to use. You could also use it to order drinks and snacks between meals.

The only downside to ANZ is the late arrival into LAX. Due to this we spent 1 night at the Embassy Suites LAX South. The hotel was fine, with free shuttle from the airport and free cooked to order breakfast. They also have a nightly 2 hour 'managers reception', but we missed that.

Internal flights were with Southwest. No problems with them, out and return were both on time and for about $35 each way, which includes checked luggage, is pretty good value.

Stayed at the Rio this time. Have never visited it on my previous visits, but seeing as 4 out of the 5 nights were comped, decided to try it out. The hotel was quite nice, casino is quite large and a few dining options. We has a room on 16th floor in the Masquerade tower, which had a 'Strip' View. The room was large and clean, so no complaints there. There were a couple of shuttle buses, one took you to Ballys, the other to Harrahs, so getting to the Strip was easy.

The machines at the Rio were very tight though, didn't have any decent wins there. Did pop to the Gold Coast just across the road, another first for me. The slots there were a lot looser, walked out with a $450 profit the first visit and $200 on the next.:beer:

Spent a couple of nights Downtown. I know a lot of people don't like the area, but I do. A couple of good bands playing on the stages in the street, and the Fremont Street lightshow was just as good as ever, although I'm sure they were the same ones as my last visit in March last year.

Visited the 'Titanic' exhibition at the Luxor, which was good, but a little pricey. $35 per adult, but we had a $5 discount bringing it down to $30. Also payed a visit to the newly opened 'Mob Museum', which is downtown. It's nicely laid out over 3 floors, with quite a bit to see and read and pretty good value at $18.

Other than a bit of shopping at the outlets, both north and south, we just spent time wandering around the hotels, eating drinking and a bit of gambling. Didn't bother with any trips, have done the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam etc, plenty of times on previous visits.

Was hoping visit '13' was going to be the lucky one, but it wasn't, but I did come home with a few hundred dollars left in my wallet, ready for next time.

photome wrote: »

How did they get the upgrade?

was it recently

I stand corrected if upgrades are available but I was under the impression that with so many FF programs these days, that they were the ones to get offered upgrades before infrequent flyers.

Unless of course it is an overbooking issue

Free upgrades are still possible, I think it's all down to being at the right place at the right time and who you know. I work at an airport and most of the airlines can arrange upgrades if the flights aren't full.

We are flying with Continental/United for our honeymoon in April. I've spoken nicely to them and they said they will 'see what they can do' to upgrade us, but it will all depend nearer the time. We aren't getting our hopes up and will be happy 'slumming it' in economy as that is what we have booked, it will just be a nice surprise if we do get upgraded.

Other colleagues have had upgrades for free on BA to the US and Carribean, United to the US and Emirates to Dubai etc.

back from our trip and will post some detail (nothing stunning, mind!) later.

but did the smokers know that LAS has a smoking lounge/fishbowl with slots sort of area in the Terminal 1 D-gates area? I didn't...we've always flown out of D gates in the 30s and this time we were D8 so walked past the glassed in room...I was far too excited.