Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

duchy

"Darling to save money we are flying via Dublin"

"Darling to enhance the holiday Im treating you to dinner in Dublin before we go to Vegas "

Seriously that last flight the night before makes it really tiring as well as risky with no back up if the plane went tech. I'd be saying no too.

I'm guessing you are trying to save a day of annual leave but I think that's the trade off a day or half day of holiday versus the hundreds that you save.

traveller

duchy wrote: »

"Darling to save money we are flying via Dublin"

"Darling to enhance the holiday Im treating you to dinner in Dublin before we go to Vegas "

Seriously that last flight the night before makes it really tiring as well as risky with no back up if the plane went tech. I'd be saying no too.

I'm guessing you are trying to save a day of annual leave but I think that's the trade off a day or half day of holiday versus the hundreds that you save.

Totally agree!That's how I would do it too.

silvercar

To avoid the risk of the plane going tech, you could fly out on the plane that will be the flight back to Heathrow. I don't know how that effects your departure time, but it reduces the risks.

The upside of an early start is that you will be tired enough to sleep on the plane, useful for a long haul daytime flight.

duchy

silvercar wrote: »

To avoid the risk of the plane going tech, you could fly out on the plane that will be the flight back to Heathrow. I don't know how that effects your departure time, but it reduces the risks.

The upside of an early start is that you will be tired enough to sleep on the plane, useful for a long haul daytime flight.

I think Stuie was using Ryanair on the OB
Nonetheless both Gatwick and Dublin close to incoming flights at night so a delay to the last flight to Dublin could mean not flying til the next morning and missing the flight back to Gatwick - and invalidating the whole transatlantic ticket. Huge risk for no good reason IMO.

StuieUK34

1 way ticket to Dublin will be a standalone ticket, but yes, out of Gatwick, got several flights to choose from, so as u say, can fly there early on the Saturday and see a bit of Dublin (about 6 flights to choose from), kinda!
then get to airport for 5am, ready to use the ticket which is DUB-LAS (via LGW)


£387 for the inconvenience of flying to Dublin first = waaaaaaaay better than paying the £550 I was gonna pay to fly with Westjet (1stop flight).....
Still gotta wait till Monday/Tues for the evil wife to give me an answer as to whether I can book it...
It will be booked with Lastminute.com (£327 is there price)
on that note, how does this work:

Aer Lingus flight with baggage - Rtn - DUB-LGW (well, LHR to DUB)
+
LGW-LAS with Virgin & baggage = £327

Yet, I look at same flight with Virgin on same day, etc, and it cost £916 ?????????????? (LGW-LAS)
How the hell does that work ?!!!!!!

gamboller

Awaiting cyber Monday deals that are cancellable for next May. Going to vegas in less than 3 weeks for UFC194

duchy

StuieUK34 wrote: »

1 way ticket to Dublin will be a standalone ticket, but yes, out of Gatwick, got several flights to choose from, so as u say, can fly there early on the Saturday and see a bit of Dublin (about 6 flights to choose from), kinda!
then get to airport for 5am, ready to use the ticket which is DUB-LAS (via LGW)


£387 for the inconvenience of flying to Dublin first = waaaaaaaay better than paying the £550 I was gonna pay to fly with Westjet (1stop flight).....
Still gotta wait till Monday/Tues for the evil wife to give me an answer as to whether I can book it...
It will be booked with Lastminute.com (£327 is there price)
on that note, how does this work:

Aer Lingus flight with baggage - Rtn - DUB-LGW (well, LHR to DUB)
+
LGW-LAS with Virgin & baggage = £327

Yet, I look at same flight with Virgin on same day, etc, and it cost £916 ?????????????? (LGW-LAS)
How the hell does that work ?!!!!!!

Not sure why you are bringing Heathrow into the mix. Last minute have connections through Gatwick.

Personally I'd negate that 5am nightmare start and book
Ryanair mid morning LGW DUB treat the missus to lunch in Dublin and a bit of a wander then fly back to Gatwick at 1850 arriving 20.10.
Overnight at say Bloc hotel (built onto the North Terminal )and usually cheaper than the Hilton at the South Terminal (remember you dont need to lug your bags to Dublin but can leave them at the hotel in the morning before you fly to Dublin or just use Gatwick left luggage- so no baggage charge to Dublin ).

Catch the Virgin at 11 am so no need for a stupid early start in the morning as you'll already be staying at the Gatwick terminal.

This connection does show up on last minute just remember you are starting the last minute ticket a day earlier

Winter_Jasmine

StuieUK34 wrote: »

1 way ticket to Dublin will be a standalone ticket, but yes, out of Gatwick, got several flights to choose from, so as u say, can fly there early on the Saturday and see a bit of Dublin (about 6 flights to choose from), kinda!
then get to airport for 5am, ready to use the ticket which is DUB-LAS (via LGW)


£387 for the inconvenience of flying to Dublin first = waaaaaaaay better than paying the £550 I was gonna pay to fly with Westjet (1stop flight).....
Still gotta wait till Monday/Tues for the evil wife to give me an answer as to whether I can book it...
It will be booked with Lastminute.com (£327 is there price)
on that note, how does this work:

Aer Lingus flight with baggage - Rtn - DUB-LGW (well, LHR to DUB)
+
LGW-LAS with Virgin & baggage = £327

Yet, I look at same flight with Virgin on same day, etc, and it cost £916 ?????????????? (LGW-LAS)
How the hell does that work ?!!!!!!

Good luck with convincing Mrs Stuie but seriously dude - get collecting Virgin miles!! We paid £222 this year, £226 next year and already have enough miles for the 2017 flights assuming (hoping) they do the same flight sale in Sept 2016 that they've done for the last few years.

We've done it mainly through Tesco - we don't shop there much anymore but have used their credit card for everything and convert our Topcashback to Tesco points - then to Virgin miles obvs. Tesco mileage redemption (not including the TCB, which is still fantastic) has now sunk to .62 of a mile per £1 spent according to Head For Points so I'm just about to apply for a Preferred Gold Rewards Amex (20,000 mile sign up bonus + 1 mile per £1 + two free lounge passes). This should get us at least halfway sorted for 2018. Again, this is assuming the schemes don't change but, if they do, we won't have spent a penny that we otherwise wouldn't have done so all's good

And of course this gives direct flights from the UK with no need to use excess annual leave or worry about missed connections. If you can be reasonably flexible with dates you're on to a winner

Winter_Jasmine

nvh wrote: »

I believe Tesco Visa (for me) / Mastercard is still the best (free) Visa / Mastercard out there for earning points, however this is beaten by Amex in my opinion, and the PRG is one of the best due to its signup bonus.

I would take out the Amex through TopCashback / Quidco (unless there's any significantly better deals on ebay) and hammer the Amex to get the bonus, only using my Tesco card in places that don't accept Amex.

I would have Mrs.NVH as the supplementary card member for the Amex to help me hit target (... she is good at spending money )

After I'd hit the target (and dependant if I'd used the benefits I thought I would, such as the lounge pass), I'd refer Mrs.NVH for her own card to attain more points for myself, and a higher referral bonus for her. I'd spend my Membership Rewards, and close my account (so it's closed for over 6 months and I can be referred after that point).

I'd then be added as a supplementary on her card, and we'd go for the bonus again.

Once my account / card has been closed for 6 months, I'd get Mrs.NVH to refer me for a card and we go round and round and round (note - do not take the pee with this, I actually do the churn for a lot longer than 6 months - it's a generous offer so I wouldn't go overboard as it's one I don't want closing! )

Have a read here - I know it's Avios but it should give you enough information for you to do the maths yourself: http://www.headforpoints.com/2015/09/03/best-avios-visa-or-mastercard/

Just remember that the Amex PRG is a charge card (though anyone who uses a credit card as an actual credit card would probably not be wise to be juggling cards based on points and should be looking at 0% balance transfers instead )

Thank you so much for your detailed and excellent advice! Going to apply now and will probably follow your suggestion more or less to the letter. We pay off our balance in full each month anyway so the charge card thing is fine and we always book into the lounge so there's a genuine £30+ saving for us too :beer:

Winter_Jasmine

Thanks to everyone else who gave advice re VS miles too - very much appreciated xx