Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

Brats64

blindman wrote: »

Sorry

Starting your journey outside of the UK, so not from LGW to LAS but say from Dublin, or Amsterdam or Oslo

You still end up on the LGW-LAS flight but you start in (say)

DUBLIN-LGW-LAS-LGW-DUBlin

Trick is you do not need to catch that last flight (LGW-DUB)

I was looking to try and fit in an extra trip next April to Vegas.
Never done a flight to Vegas starting outside of uk...always fly from Manchester.But was looking at Dublin to Vegas,miles cheaper.
If we booked this option,we would also have to book a Dublin return from Manchester.
How does the,not catching the last leg of a flight work ?
Every time we go indirect,your luggage automatically goes through to your final destination..so say we used the DUB-LGW-LAS-LGW-DUB
option...won't your bags just go straight to Dublin,once checked in at Mccarran ?....or do you base your comments on only taking hand luggage with you ?
We couldn't manage in Vegas with only hand luggage,we always have a large case each.that is something I found needs to be factored into flying from Dublin on a cheap flight.The man-dub return only includes hand luggage.Its about £30+ extra for each case...so can start to add up....still cheaper than flying from uk though...have to weigh up if it's worth the extra travelling or not.

ferf1223

Brats64 wrote: »

have to weigh up if it's worth the extra travelling or not.

I think this is the main sticking point for us on the ex-EU flights...we would have to fly to Dublin (or wherever) the night before and stay in a hotel to feel remotely comfortable with doing this. Even including a flight to DUB and overnight hotel, I know there would still be savings to be had, but when it's offset by the hassle and extra time, it's not worth it to us. I get why it is worth it to many.

robtruscott

Brats64 wrote: »

I was looking to try and fit in an extra trip next April to Vegas.
Never done a flight to Vegas starting outside of uk...always fly from Manchester.But was looking at Dublin to Vegas,miles cheaper.
If we booked this option,we would also have to book a Dublin return from Manchester.
How does the,not catching the last leg of a flight work ?
Every time we go indirect,your luggage automatically goes through to your final destination..so say we used the DUB-LGW-LAS-LGW-DUB
option...won't your bags just go straight to Dublin,once checked in at Mccarran ?....or do you base your comments on only taking hand luggage with you ?
We couldn't manage in Vegas with only hand luggage,we always have a large case each.that is something I found needs to be factored into flying from Dublin on a cheap flight.The man-dub return only includes hand luggage.Its about £30+ extra for each case...so can start to add up....still cheaper than flying from uk though...have to weigh up if it's worth the extra travelling or not.

You set up your flights so that the first one is a week or so before your LGW-LAS so say you want to go to Vegas on the 14th you fly the first leg DUB-LGW on the 7th (so have a day trip to Dublin ) then as you have had a week lay-over your can check your bags in at LGW for the LAS leg, on the way back you make sure the LGW-DUB leg is more than 24hrs after you land at LGW that way they have to give you your bags back when you land. They you just go home without taking the last flight

pennylane99

robtruscott wrote: »

You set up your flights so that the first one is a week or so before your LGW-LAS so say you want to go to Vegas on the 14th you fly the first leg DUB-LGW on the 7th (so have a day trip to Dublin ) then as you have had a week lay-over your can check your bags in at LGW for the LAS leg, on the way back you make sure the LGW-DUB leg is more than 24hrs after you land at LGW that way they have to give you your bags back when you land. They you just go home without taking the last flight

Just book the final leg to DUB from LHR, and not LGW. So you get your luggage.

robtruscott

pennylane99 wrote: »

Just book the final leg to DUB from LHR, and not LGW. So you get your luggage.

Or that too

blindman

ferf1223 wrote: »

I think this is the main sticking point for us on the ex-EU flights...we would have to fly to Dublin (or wherever) the night before and stay in a hotel to feel remotely comfortable with doing this. Even including a flight to DUB and overnight hotel, I know there would still be savings to be had, but when it's offset by the hassle and extra time, it's not worth it to us. I get why it is worth it to many.

Doesn't suit every one and the best savings are in the higher classes

robtruscott wrote: »

You set up your flights so that the first one is a week or so before your LGW-LAS

You do not need to do this, but it can be an option so long as the lay over doesn't bump up the price of the ticket too much


On the way back you make sure the LGW-DUB leg is [STRIKE]more than [/STRIKE]overnight but less than 24hrs after you land at LGW that way they have to give you your bags back when you land. They you just go home without taking the last flight

pennylane99 wrote: »

Just book the final leg to DUB from LHR, and not LGW. So you get your luggage.

Last two are options.
Safest one is the the latter.

My trip

AM:- Drive to LHR-Leave my holiday luggage in the car.
LHR-DUB Mid morning :- No luggage at all.
Using a BA reward saver flight (4500 Avios + £17 pperson )

Late Afternoon:- Start the first leg of my holiday DUB-LHR No luggage.
Late evening LHR :- Collect car and drive to LGW
Overnight LGW-Holiday inn points :cool:
Second leg of holiday LGW-LAS Check in Holiday suticases

Return
LAS-LGW
Collect bags-go home in car.
Miss LHR-DUB

2 x UC on Virgin costs about £2.5K for 2 persons
Saving £3K total
Get the Virgin miles for flying Virgin and also the miles for using their Black Credit card
Avoid the huge CC charge (made by Virgin) by booking all this through Expedia

Extra cost :- Est £150 (if paying hotel in £'s and not using points.)
1 day holiday
RFS flights (£35 +9K Avios for 2 people)
6hr parking at LHR-(Park at my place-£4.00)
Hotel overnight + dinner (Holiday Inn points or maybe £60ish)

Worth doing in my book

secretmachines

bobbyhibs wrote: »

hi

I hope you dont mind my butting in but im sure flying to outside the uk, in this case dublin/coperhagen as quoted, would SAVE you money.
but lots of people do sometimes prefer to fly direct so i think its a personal choice, price(maybe saving money) vs conveince(sp) ( paying a bit more but flying from a to b and then c to d) if that makes sense?
some useful articals on the first page if you have time to look?

Do you do alot of flying and maybe have some sorta flying club memebersip card? prehaps you could get deals that way?
hope this may help

not at all
(I'm aware of the front page, I put it together )

ferf1223 wrote: »

I think this is the main sticking point for us on the ex-EU flights...we would have to fly to Dublin (or wherever) the night before and stay in a hotel to feel remotely comfortable with doing this. Even including a flight to DUB and overnight hotel, I know there would still be savings to be had, but when it's offset by the hassle and extra time, it's not worth it to us. I get why it is worth it to many.

ferf actually just saved me the typing, I'm of the same opinion...

the amount of time/hassle taken to include the Dublin element would just be too much. A 10.5 hour direct flight is long enough, let alone the thought of turning into something at least 15hours+ with a Dublin connection.

I'm pretty laid back, but the added potential for stress doesn't make it a relaxing start to the holiday - plus the time you'll lose in Vegas because you're knackered / extra jet-lagged / have used up annual leave on making Dublin connections.

We've only ever flown Virgin for longhaul, so we can rack up airmiles - which we spent on reward seat sale seats for a week in Dubai earlier this year. We've got about 12.5k on the account at the moment, so not much we can do with that right now.

Or maybe we've got too used to twilight check-in, staying the night before at the Gatwick Hilton and strolling through to the gate in the morning. That's of a greater value to us than true money-saving.

duchy

ferf1223 wrote: »

I think this is the main sticking point for us on the ex-EU flights...we would have to fly to Dublin (or wherever) the night before and stay in a hotel to feel remotely comfortable with doing this. Even including a flight to DUB and overnight hotel, I know there would still be savings to be had, but when it's offset by the hassle and extra time, it's not worth it to us. I get why it is worth it to many.

You are looking at it wrong Ferf.
It isn't a diversion it's a day and evening in a fantastic city so an added bonus

Dublin city centre has a good airport shuttle that runs really late so you drop your bags and head out for shopping, for tea and Bewleys , see the book of Kells or even have an afternoon at the beach or visit the Guinness brewery. Nest morning hop on the flight (you don't have to go via London on the way out there's a Dublin Philly connection but can route back via London with a long layover and...whoops miss the last flight) obviously if you prefer Virgin then you can fly via London of course. Often ticketing back to London is nearly as cheap as adding the Dublin flight too if you really don't want to do the whoops tho.

duchy

Um if you lose the afternoon before going to Gatwick for twilight check in I'm not sure why it wouldn't work for you

Travel to Gatwick in the afternoon depending on time twlight opens either check bags for the next day flight or leave in Gatwick left luggage - take a five pound Ryanair flight to Dublin.

Then either stay overnight at Dublin airport (something like Bewleys airport hotel is cheaper than Gatwick and nicer) and fly crack of dawn to Gatwick (As Dublin LGW is the first leg of your main ticket you are covered for misconnects)

OR go a little earlier in the day -and fly back the same evening and stay at Gatwick. If you really want it easy Yotel is spitting distance of the Virgin check in desks even closer than the Hilton. . If you haven't used twilight you can drop the bags off and retire back to your Yotel pod (with TV and free wi-fi) fr another hour or two before going through security. So you'd have your morning stroll AND save money !

Total saving for two after airfares and hotel is probably between four and five hundred pounds (as you already stay overnight the night before I guess it's an even bigger saving as you'd have a hotel either way) - and you still get to fly Virgin if you must ...although it also works with BA/AA.

For me travelling to the airport a couple of hours earlier to save that amount is worth it - but if you calculate you time as worth more than a hundred and fifty pounds per hour per person then maybe it isn't for you !

I honestly don't see where the "extra jetlag" comes from -it's a forty minute flight to Dublin and you still arrive in Vegas at the same time .

I'd do it slight differently to Blindman as I don't have any interest in AVIOS either.

so here is my April version with the overnight in Dublin first

Friday 8 April
Arrive Gatwick and drop bags at twilight check in
Fly Ryanair LGW DUB either 17.30 or 21.30 and stay at an airport hotel at DUB
Cost #27 pp plus airport hotel approx 60 for something decent

Sat 9 April
DUB LGW EI 07.00--08.30
LGW LAS VS 11.20-14.05

return a week later

Ryanair 28 pp Hotel 35 pp EI/VS 324 so total pp 387 compared with the direct flight for the same dates with Virgin is 921 (using google flights)

Wow I had no idea the Virgin flights from London were that bad for April

For me that price difference is a no brainer and I'd happily spend a night in Dublin to save well over a grand for the two of us !!


For the twilighters price is the same (actually slightly less) scheduling the overnight at Gatwick rather than Dublin

Dub 18.50 Gatwick 20.10

then the usual Virgin the next afternoon.

I'm gobsmacked that it's nearly 600 pp difference in early April.

I'd be a bit twitchy about the tight connection on the saturday even though it would be protected so I'd probably treat myself to a really nice dinner in Dublin from my saving and then fly back that night and stay at Yotel or Hilton so no messing about with shuttle buses in the morning.

secretmachines wrote: »

not at all
(I'm aware of the front page, I put it together )



ferf actually just saved me the typing, I'm of the same opinion...

the amount of time/hassle taken to include the Dublin element would just be too much. A 10.5 hour direct flight is long enough, let alone the thought of turning into something at least 15hours+ with a Dublin connection.

I'm pretty laid back, but the added potential for stress doesn't make it a relaxing start to the holiday - plus the time you'll lose in Vegas because you're knackered / extra jet-lagged / have used up annual leave on making Dublin connections.

We've only ever flown Virgin for longhaul, so we can rack up airmiles - which we spent on reward seat sale seats for a week in Dubai earlier this year. We've got about 12.5k on the account at the moment, so not much we can do with that right now.

Or maybe we've got too used to twilight check-in, staying the night before at the Gatwick Hilton and strolling through to the gate in the morning. That's of a greater value to us than true money-saving.

bingo_bango

I'm flying from DUB - LHR - LAS at the end of August. Now I don't have the expense of a flight to Dublin as I'm already on the island, but the total cost for the flights and hotel (Excalibur 10 nights) was £1260 for two of us. I can get Excalibur on booking.com for £270 so it looks like the flights are around £1k with BA (actually checking the BA website it is currently €1220, which is about £862 for two). About an extra £20 to come back via LGW.

For me to fly LHR - LAS would be £1956 according to BA. That's £1100 more to NOT go from Dublin on the same dates (actually the same flight LHR - LAS). No idea how they price it, but there is a minimum £1k saving to be made by flying via Dublin. Certainly looks like it is worth paying for the extra flights to Dublin on the face of it.