Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2017

pebblesmax

stoneman wrote: »

Well booked up today for April using $4000 of the travel vouchers we got off of AA. Altogether took 2 phone calls and a total of 2 and a half hours to sort out. Lost the will to live.
Good price out of DUB though. 2 Business class seats, quick hop down to LHR and catch the Direct to LAS from there. £1,500 each

We are there from April 8th for six weeks. Let me know if your dates coincide. Hoping to stay at Platinum for part of the trip, if Fernando bothers to reply. It’s been a week now and nothing.

stoneman

pebblesmax wrote: »

We are there from April 8th for six weeks. Let me know if your dates coincide. Hoping to stay at Platinum for part of the trip, if Fernando bothers to reply. It’s been a week now and nothing.

We're there 3rd to the 12th. I need to send him an email, I'll chase him up but he does have quite a bit of time off these days visiting family.

bobbyhibs

hi

I was wondering if anyone advice going to vegas solo,I seem to struggle to find any sorta deals at the moment having checked expedia and thomas cook for a week at the mgm .
So far i ve checked dates in july and august (usually fri-fri) and the best deal i seem to find for flights and hotel ( mgm west wing room only )is for around £1450:eek:

As im in edinburgh i can not go direct so the best i can see if travelling to glasgow to get a direct return flight with thomas cook. or easily get a flight down to london and go direct from there.

I am wondering however if doing the myvegas rewards may be the way to go with the room issue.I see some of the hotels has comp 2 and some have comp 3 nights. am i able to combine 2? for example if the mgm has a comp 2 nigh and say the luxor has a comp 3 night, if i combine them there is 5nights ? ( i see its for selected dates for this month til jan i assume there may be dates for later next year?)

any advice most welcomed just i think anything over £1200 for flight and hotel may put me off going next year

thanks in advance

stevie11

bobbyhibs wrote: »

hi

I was wondering if anyone advice going to vegas solo .............. snip

Bobby, I have done Vegas a few times solo, mainly in Winter months but have been in Summer months with family members.

The best advice I can give to keep costs down is to keep searching for deals, look on Google flights or subscribe to secret flying to get daily emails. There was a London-Las deal on yestedays email update. Flying ex Eu (via Dub) I have had great success with prices to North America. I currently like to fly Oneworld for the points but there are other good deals ex EU. I tend to fly ex Dub and return to Man, then I don't have problems if the flight is delayed or have to pay the return positioning flight and luggage fees.

Now accomodation, as far as I understand you can only redeem one hotel comp every 30 days on Mlife,someone please correct me if I am wrong. I have just returned from a weeks trip and comp'd two nights at Aria, wish I could have comp'd more nights. Keep a look out on Mlife for offers, you can always cancel the reward if you find a better deal elsewhere. Smartervegas sometimes has good deals if you have to pay for accomodation, i.e. daily buffet allowance etc.

All the above requires constant checking of fares until you have the deal you are happy with. If you are happy and confident to put the package together yourself than away you go but some people would rather a travel agent do that or book a package online.

I think the main issue you have with prices is that July and August are higher season. Book in the lower seasons and Dub return flights are usually low as £300's

Good luck.

pebblesmax

My main tip if you’re going solo is book flights and hotels separately. When you book a package, they automatically charge double for the room.

If you are on Facebook there is a Las Vegas Solo group you could join. Itsits mostly US and Canada, but there are several Brits on there too.

bobbyhibs

hi
stevie11- thanks alot for the detailed info!
i have seen ex Eu (via Dub) mentioned a few times- am i right to understand that you get a flight to dublin, prehaps stay overnight,or get a dead early flight to dublin and *then* do dublin-london-vegas on a different ticket?

thanks for the info in regards Smartervegas and secret flying, though i ve never ehard of either but will look into it.
Good idea in reagrds Mlife, sadly i ve been *downgraded* to the basic level after being at pearl i think, though still offers my come my way.
i do understand im looking at high season though my work wanted my holidays booked early and ive been given august and then november (can maybe try looking to vegas then i guess) though i did like the hot weather!
pebblesmax thanks for the advice !, will dif look into Las Vegas Solo!
thanks for reading and thanks for the advice

stevie11

Bobby, you are correct re the flight to Dub, this is known as the positioning flight. I usually fly the last Liv or Man Ryanair flight of the day which usually gets in at 10 or 11pm. I head straight for the messonine level to bed down for the night as to say. I then try to book the main flights early in the morning usually transferring in Heathrow, this will be your main ticket i.e. Dub-Lhr-Las-Lhr-Edi or some variation of that. You could fly from Dub and transfer in the US this way you will go through US immigration pre-clearance at Dub. I don't usually risk the early morning connection to Dub as if anything goes wrong then I am stuck in Manchester. Please note the above comes with an element of risk that if the positioning flight is cancelled/delayed then you may have issues trying to catch the main flights.

If you don't fancy roughing it in the airport overnight as this isn't for everyone, then there are plenty of nearby hotels and you could make a day of it in Dub beforehand.

Remember whenever you go flight prices will vary depending on season and special holidays also hotel prices vary so much especially when major onventions are in town, so before booking your flights it is worth checking the accomodation prices if you are looking at keeping costs down.

Brats64

Brats64 wrote: »

Well we leave Vegas today to head home.

Can honestly say it will be the first time I will be glad to be home.
It's not been a very good trip.Wont do a trip report when I get home but

First weekend started good,Main Street Station hotel was fine as usual,and after 2 days heading for The Orleans Hotel,we had more cash than we came with.
The Orleans has always been my favourite hotel to stay,
This time,we were asked for money for early check in...never been asked before...then when asking for our usual room above floor 9,so you don't see a brick wall,they asked for extra money per day,as they are now classed as premium rooms...the buffet area has been refurbished,and looks lovely,but for some reason they have lowered the quality of the food.

Got to the Monte Carlo hotel,and I had an offer of 2 free buffets per day of stay.Check in said it was a $60 credit for total stay.Wouldnt change it until I could show proof of offer...last time we stayed there they added on early check in fee,when the lady at check in said there would be no fee....won't be staying at Monte Carlo again.

Also we just checked our Post Office card account last night,and have a charge from Guess shop for $108 which we have not made.Wife bought a t-shirt there for $15..which has been added to our account,but the second transaction of $108 is fraudulent,not even sure how they do that..so that'll be hassle when we get home ringing the post office.

Finally I slipped in the bathroom at the Monte Carlo a few days ago,on the hard tiled flooring,my back is all bruised and as painful as hell,can hardly move.
Going to be a fun flight back today.

So...at this particular moment in time,I think our love affair with Las Vegas may be over.I have said to my wife I don't want to come back next year.
Maybe we have done it to death,maybe too many things have gone wrong this trip.
Think we'll leave it 2-3 years and see how I feel about it then.
For all those who still love going or those who have never been yet,but are looking forward to going,I hope you enjoy...but for now at least..I'm out.

Funny how one can make a liar out of one's self.:D

Didn't even even make it out of 2017 without going back on what was written above.
The last week or so we have been discussing were to go on holiday next year,and obviously 2 months was long enough to forget any bad thoughts I had about the last trip.
So.....it's back to Vegas in September next year.
Flights all booked.

The love affair continues.

Brats64

No 2018 thread ?

pennylane99

Brats64 wrote: »

No 2018 thread ?

See post #1575