Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2015

vegasvisitor

Well that was easy. Just did the online application for the Clarity card. Got the 12.9% rate. Quite easy to apply online.

stoneman

Lesley, the best use of your small amount of Avios is upgrading seats from WT+ to Clubworld.
Admittly you don't have enough yet but with a little application you can amount a fair stash.
12,500 Avios gets you one way upgrade (but that is changing in the near future) . You would have to do a bit of work and have flexibility to find the flights with redemption ability though.
This isn't the place to go through all the ins and outs so shoot me a DM if you want and I can help out. As it stands I have well in excess of half a million Avios in my account, and I do spend them. We haven't paid full price for flying for years.

stoneman

lesley74 wrote: »

Thanks will look at that too. Is Amex widely accepted? I believe it's disliked because they take so long to pay the retailers. I'll certainly have a look at this too.

Almost all retailers in the US will take Amex, it's much more widespread over there. But then I wouldn't use my Amex because they charge foreign transaction fees. I use my Post Office CC when I have to.

stoneman

StuieUK34 wrote: »

Hey guys, might be useful to some:

Doing my checks for our upcoming trip, I just noticed car rentals with Dollar are looking pretty good, so if u are doing a car this year, maybe worth checking the rentals at the mo!

And despite vowing never to use Dollar again after last year (cos they put an AUTH on my prepaid card for $300, given I had pre-paid for everything inc fuel, so they couldn't bill my card anyway!)
, after seeing this deal, decided to bite the bullet

Mine is 1 way booking for the week, as doing LAS to LAX....
Previously, a 2dr Full size with USrentacar.co.uk had been £141 without fuel, and £171 with fuel....

Today, it is £141 without fuel, and £143 with fuel !!!! (& Xtra drivers)...

So I just booked.. Usual plan will be to tip the garage guy $10 or $20 to get upgrade to Luxury class like I did last year
And yes, Usrentacar link my DE account with the booking, so no front desk queues

Thanks for this Stuie, have just used them to book our SUV for March. I have always used rentalcars.co.uk because they seemed to be the only ones that you could use to get availability from TI, but your tip has saved me £30 and I got a full tank of fuel and the extra driver for £3 more.

Coyledinho

Hi guys,

Going away with work to Vegas next Thursday! So excited! Very lucky that accomodation and flights have all been paid for by my bosses so just looking at spends.
Dont know where we're stying yet but it is one of the hotels in the middle of the strip apparently.

Just looking for advice on how much money to take. Going from Thursday 26th to Monday 2nd. Not a massive gambler so would only be doing bare minimum to gain advantage of casino waittresses bringing drinks with tips.

Not planning to do any shows etc just a few of the various hotel amusements such as the rollercoasters etc.
Not a massive eater or drinker but will obviously want to enjoy myself.

Im thinking of converting £400 would that a good amount?

Many thanks in advance

bobbyhibs

Coyledinho wrote: »

Just looking for advice on how much money to take. Going from Thursday 26th to Monday 2nd. Not a massive gambler so would only be doing bare minimum to gain advantage of casino waittresses bringing drinks with tips.

Not planning to do any shows etc just a few of the various hotel amusements such as the rollercoasters etc.
Not a massive eater or drinker but will obviously want to enjoy myself.

Im thinking of converting £400 would that a good amount?

Many thanks in advance

hi there
vegas is pretty fun and will surely will cater for what you would like to do.

I would say just remeber the taxis cost as well(maybe $20 or so each way unless your work is playing depending where you are on the strip,if you are in the middle that is)

as for drinks,gambling, You could take it very each for example play the slots with low limits, putting $10 for say 1cents a go will take a while(drinks are pretty free $1 a round for 2-3 drinks if you are in a group of 2-3 people)

There was im sure some vouchers which were avaiable(on page 1 on this thread) which could save you some money too.
Also there was a ticket booth thign with half prices tickets(atrractions too?) which sold tickets i think for same day shows.

when my brother and i went last july we took i think $1600 each, though we were/are bigish gamberlers(and eaters!)

i think imo you should maybe plan for $100 per day if you are not serious about gamberling/shows. i would maybe say take an extra$100-$200 just in case sorta thing as they say better go with that bit extra than be skint on the final day !( assuming the rate of £1 to $1.50 £400 would you $600 £500 would get you $740)
hope this helps

pebblesmax

We always tip $1 a drink, not $1 per round. That seems fairer to us.

stoneman

pebblesmax wrote: »

We always tip $1 a drink, not $1 per round. That seems fairer to us.

Yes for sure. $1 a round, if there are 3-4 people in it? I can tell you you won't see that waitress (or any others) again

vegasvisitor

stoneman wrote: »

Lesley, the best use of your small amount of Avios is upgrading seats from WT+ to Clubworld.
Admittly you don't have enough yet but with a little application you can amount a fair stash.
12,500 Avios gets you one way upgrade (but that is changing in the near future) . You would have to do a bit of work and have flexibility to find the flights with redemption ability though.
This isn't the place to go through all the ins and outs so shoot me a DM if you want and I can help out. As it stands I have well in excess of half a million Avios in my account, and I do spend them. We haven't paid full price for flying for years.

Thanks, we don't often fly from them as their prices from Glasgow really make US Airways the only option for us. You never know what fares might come up, but the only time I got a cheap fare with them was by flying to LA. They're not very competitive this year again out of Glasgow, plus we have both trips booked.

I'll just hold the points for now and stick with Clarity. The Avios one is probably a good shout for those who could do 7k spends in the year.

vegasvisitor

Also booked our last 2 nights in May this morning. Going to try Tuscany. I know Pebbles is a fan of Tuscany so hopefully we like it. Platinum was a bit pricey due to Rock In Rio being on over the weekend.

We'll probably stop by Stir for happy hour!