Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

bobbyhibs

jadamcp wrote: »

Glasgow to Las Vegas direct flights in November for around £400 - With Thomas Cook for 2nd and 9th November for 7 nights. Hopefully this might be of interest to someone.

hi there

I was soo pretty close to booking with thomas cook the day i saw a few of the ads on the window!
I tihnk the deal i saw in the window was for luxor for something like £640

we went in and asked about the mgm for that week and it came to like £800 odd

however we have decided not to book and opt for NEXT year.
still trying to figure out if the deal we got is good, im chekcign around a ferw places and the quote i have beats thomas cook and braehead travel.

Winter_Jasmine

bobbyhibs wrote: »

thanks very much for the trip report winter jasmine, its always lovely to read other peoples experinces n what not and to try see if there is anytihng people do that we have not considered and should consider for next time!
Im guessing you flew with virgin atlantic. prehaps premuim economy?(if it is not too rude to ask)

I ve seen social rewards mentioned and have not gotten around to doing it, is it easy to do? are the rewards each to reach?redeeming them okay/easy?


May i ask how the tesco clubcard work in regards flights?
I know my mum has a tesco club card and the only thing i know you can get is money off petrol !, so any info most welcomed please!
thanks again for writing your trip report, its always nice seeing vegas from someones else viewpoint !:D

Hi Bobby, sorry it's taken me so long to reply!

Virgin Miles/Tesco Clubcard
Yes, we flew Virgin Atlantic but only economy. I know people say it's not the best value to buy economy flights with your miles (better value to pay for a fully flexible economy ticket and then use miles to upgrade to PE or Upper Class). However, as I mentioned, we're working hard to clear our mortgage and using points to fly economy probably saved us at least £500 each compared to buying a fully flexible ticket. Neither of us are tall so the leg room's not an issue. I'm a fidget and a whinger when I'm uncomfortable but I've got myself sorted now - noise cancelling headphones and an inflatable footrest and I'm golden in an economy seat

We get the majority of our Virgin miles through Tesco - we buy absolutely everything on a Tesco credit card* (paying off in full each month, so no interest) and then when they have a special offer on (usually 25-30% bonus) we swap our Club Card points for Virgin miles. We've been saving properly for around 2-3 years and as well as the flights we've just had, we've already got over 70,000 miles each. We will aim to book when there's a reward seat sale on (as we did last year) so the flights will cost around 36,000 miles - so we've pretty much got two more return flights in the bag already. That of course, is assuming that Virgin don't alter the scheme!

*We've had our Tesco card for almost ten years so think we get a slightly better spend to points value than is now offered to new customers though

We're also both members of Topcashback - they allow you to convert up to £50 a year into Tesco club card points. This gives you 5,000 points - with the standard conversion rate of £2.50 Club Card to 625 Virgin miles, this gives you 12,500 miles - almost half way to Vegas when there's a reward seat sale on. It's even better if you convert to miles when there's an offer on.

We're conscious that any of these deals could change at any moment, so always convert when there's a club card offer on to try and protect ourselves as much as we can

Social Rewards
These were so easy to use - the pessimist in me always assumes that something will go wrong but nothing did! The conversion from Social Rewards to Total Rewards took about a week each time - during which I of course became convinced that I'd stuffed something up haha! All went through ok though. We used them as full payment at the Spice Market Buffet and part payment at the Sterling Brunch with absolutely no issues - it feels no different than paying with cash

I've not been hitting it very hard since I got back - I've remembered maybe once or twice a week but between us we've probably got $10 so far! 1,000 Social Rewards points can be converted to $10 Total Rewards credits but I believe they expire 12 months after conversion (anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!) so I wouldn't convert until you've got a visit booked fairly soon

bobbyhibs

hi
thank you very very much for the detailed feedback winter jasmine!

I often try use sites like these to try save a bit of money here and there and i have found alot of users very helpful. despite my limited knowledge in regards vegas atleast!

so reading your post you can swap your tesco points for virgin miles, though you use the tesco credit card to help(mostly?)

For some reason i do like the branding of virgin and someone else mentioned a few pages back about *seat plus*.
When we fly for long periods, the worst thing is to get stuck beside somone(my brother and i are NOT slim but a lil chubby !) so a seatplus seat would suit us perfectly, though a good idea someone mentioned was isle seats, another idea which i never ever thought about !!

thanks for the info in regards the Social Rewards

thanks again !

Winter_Jasmine

You're very welcome!

Yes, we use Tesco points - we don't shop that much in Tesco any more but, when we do I think we get two points for every pound spent using the credit card, rather than the one we'd get by using a standalone credit card. Plus we get (i think) a point for every £2 we spend elsewhere. We always use any extra points coupons they send us, plus we get points from our gas & electricity supplier - every little really does help haha!

The only thing I'd say about seat plus is that we found the majority of the arm rests for the central seat don't come up all the way. So you couldn't make your three seats into a proper 'couch'. We did see a few that looked like they went up all the way so maybe those are used for seat plus? Worth checking before you pay! We did ask one of the cabin crew and she said none go right up though

Hovis91

Winter Jasmine......I am loving the sound of an inflatable foot rest ,where did you get it from??I too am a terrible fidget so much so that after every flight OH says never again,but fortunately he always forgets until we are actually boarding the plane again!!

Hovis91

jadamcp wrote: »

Glasgow to Las Vegas direct flights in November for around £400 - With Thomas Cook for 2nd and 9th November for 7 nights. Hopefully this might be of interest to someone.


We booked for Thanksgiving again a few months ago, staying at the Mirage for the 3rd time, mostly shopping and hopefully some headliners might be there for 1 off concerts.

I don't know if she is what you like but Diana Ross is on at the Venetian from 4/11 till about 14/11.We fly home on the 4/11 so we miss her again by one day,she is my OH 's ultimate person he wants to see in concert and this is the second time we miss her by a day.....We had already booked before the concerts were listed

nvh

Winter_Jasmine wrote: »

1,000 Social Rewards points can be converted to $10 Total Rewards credits but I believe they expire 12 months after conversion (anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!) so I wouldn't convert until you've got a visit booked fairly soon

Total Reward accounts are 'reset' if there is no activity on the account within a 6 month rolling window.

In practice, this means if you transfer from Social Rewards (SR) over to Total Rewards (TR) every few months, they will keep your TR account active and your points alive (and it also reduces the small risk of the SR programme going 'bust' or out of service, and taking all your well earned points with it! )

So your practice of when you convert can be based on your next trip is planned but it does mean that people who didn't 'spend' all their credits on their last trip, can ensure they keep their TR account active ready for their next trip, even if it's 18 months away

jadamcp

I don't know if she is what you like but Diana Ross is on at the Venetian from 4/11 till about 14/11.We fly home on the 4/11 so we miss her again by one day,she is my OH 's ultimate person he wants to see in concert and this is the second time we miss her by a day.....We had already booked before the concerts were listed


We arrive on Monday 23rd and she finishes on the Saturday before Pity as we'd have went if we could get tickets. It would be great if she'd extend her 9 nights by a couple

Winter_Jasmine

nvh wrote: »

Total Reward accounts are 'reset' if there is no activity on the account within a 6 month rolling window.

In practice, this means if you transfer from Social Rewards (SR) over to Total Rewards (TR) every few months, they will keep your TR account active and your points alive (and it also reduces the small risk of the SR programme going 'bust' or out of service, and taking all your well earned points with it! )

So your practice of when you convert can be based on your next trip is planned but it does mean that people who didn't 'spend' all their credits on their last trip, can ensure they keep their TR account active ready for their next trip, even if it's 18 months away

Thanks NVH - that's really useful! I'll make a point of converting whenever I get to 1,000 points

parking_question_chap

Hi

Does anybody know if its the norm to get indirect flights? I keep looking for holidays and they all seem to have at least 1 stop?

Looking for direct from Birmingham or Stanstead ideally. Failing that Gatwick or Heathrow.

Mid September would be ideal

Thanks