Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2014

secretmachines

CM66 wrote: »

Just managed to upgrade my outward Vegas flight to business - now i'm even more excited!

11 days and counting :j

Ooh nice, how did you go about that?

CM66

secretmachines wrote: »

Ooh nice, how did you go about that?

I originally booked premium economy return using my avios miles. have been keeping an eye out in case any business's class seats came up at the last minute which it did.

Cost me an extra 12k in avios and £60 - definitely worth it. Now I'm just hoping I'll be able to do the same on the return......

stoneman

Just managed to use my 241 voucher to get 2 First seats on BA for next March to LAS. We also have Clubworld in June LAS(avios) and Virgin Upper in October LAS via LAX.(flying miles). All of those cost less than you would pay to travel in economy as a couple.
Thank you HFP (raffles), Flyertalk and Tesco.

ferf1223

while we don't normally fly BA every time I read about Avois I think we should switch to Tesco and look into the whole thing.

nvh

What miles plus cash did u need for the Virgin flights stoneman? Thinking of diversifying unless tesco / avios pull their finger out!

debsjc

I've been back from Vegas just over a week now. This was my fifth trip, but I hadn't been for about 4 years.

We had 2 weeks, so plenty of time to relax by the pool, shop, and get out of town a bit. The weather was amazing.

I don't know if it's already been mentioned, probably, but the Las Vegas Advisor coupon book, which you get with membership costing $37 is well worth it. We saved about 3 times that much with ours. Especially if you will be exploring off the strip. The 2 for 1 buffet coupon for The Mirage almost pays for the book on it's own. There is also a 2 for 1 for the Stratosphere Tower, and for the Burger Brasserie at The Paris (great food in there)

If you have a rental car I would recommend visiting Sam Town Casino, for the great free fountain & light show - and the coupon book has a 2 for 1 buffet coupon in it for Sam's Town, and the night we went was t-bone steak night for $13.99 full price (then 2 for 1 on top of that!)

Also Red Rock Canyon, Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, and the Wetlands park .... are all worth a visit if you have time.

We stayed just off strip, near the South Outlet Mall, at The Tahiti Village. Which has a great pool area & lazy river.

If anyone has any questions please shout

Triker

I've looked at Tahiti village myself, for a family of four trip, what are your thoughts? Is this the one with Denny's on site?

John259

The French couple who shot this video stayed at the Tahiti:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzv3X9lHv0s&list=PL2683876FD1B9027B&index=6
That part is mainly Bryce Canyon but at the end they arrive in Vegas and there are some shots of their room and the surroundings. Subsequent parts in the same video series show more of the Tahiti, plus a lot of Las Vegas which those who are familiar with the city will probably want to skip over.

stoneman

nvh wrote: »

What miles plus cash did u need for the Virgin flights stoneman? Thinking of diversifying unless tesco / avios pull their finger out!

Straight miles redemption. Paid 200,000 miles and £500 in fees. These were Tesco points saved up for 2 years, plus there was a 30% bonus on transferring them to Virgin. I had over £900 worth of clubcard vouchers saved up.

Lots of hard work went into getting them, buying phones then reselling on eBay, ditto USB dongles. Reserving DVD etc for a fiver and getting 1000 points, lots of stuff that just isn't available now.

I didn't have any intention really to use them with VS but it's been a long time since I flew with them, and the Heathrow clubhouse is really something special. BA forced my hand by not having any redemption availability for October, so I cashed in £483 worth of CC points to Virgin. Means having to transfer at LAX but it saves me the hassle of driving around the M25

stoneman

CM66 wrote: »

I originally booked premium economy return using my avios miles. have been keeping an eye out in case any business's class seats came up at the last minute which it did.

Cost me an extra 12k in avios and £60 - definitely worth it. Now I'm just hoping I'll be able to do the same on the return......

That upgrade from PE+ to CW using avios used to me called MFU, now called uuA, has to be the best use of a reward mile ever.
The step up in classes is astounding, and for 12.5K one way it's a snip. Well done. Now all you have to do is try and get on the upper deck and you will feel like you are in a private airplane.