Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2021

stoneman

StuieUK34 said:

as pebbles said, get 2 rooms..
I've had 2bed suites in Luxor & Mandalay Bay, and although comp'd, the value of the rooms for per night is pretty dam high!!!
If wanting to visit anywhere, just hire a car via any UK broker (so u got full insurance, no 10 billion pound excess, blah blah   )

As for car rental, luck of the draw at the mo...
I get a discount with Hertz, but booked the V4 group (muscle car), paid £305 last month for the week..
Muppets had no challenger/stang/camero (V8 engine) in the lot, but they had the Shelby mustangs, so i kindly pointed out i'm not new to renting in Vegas.... i'll take it without paying a penny as its an upgrade car (i said, its got a V8 engine, i booked a V8 engine, done deal!)
We got this:


Although a nice sweet ride, was'nt as good as last years Hertz rental!
I managed to get both to give me average 9mpg!!


As for using GotRentalCars........
Ok, i was apprehensive at 1st using them last year, but did 2 rentals with them last year with Avis, and did 2 rentals this year....
They are owned by BSP-Auto , so depending on the booking, they will book you with Avis via the UK arm, or with Avis via the French arm.......
I signed up to Avis Plus, so your able to link the booking from GotRentalCars as long as you get the 'GB' in the booking, so u can skip the queue and goto the garage.......

That reminds me, i need to write up my trip report on how much money i lost, AGAIN !    (story of my life!   )

Maybe you want to start paying for your rooms and stop chasing the comps😂
We want to Alea in Nottingham last week and Tracy won £850 on a bonus with her 1st £1 spin on lucky lady’s 

photome

StuieUK34 said:

as pebbles said, get 2 rooms..
I've had 2bed suites in Luxor & Mandalay Bay, and although comp'd, the value of the rooms for per night is pretty dam high!!!
If wanting to visit anywhere, just hire a car via any UK broker (so u got full insurance, no 10 billion pound excess, blah blah   )

As for car rental, luck of the draw at the mo...
I get a discount with Hertz, but booked the V4 group (muscle car), paid £305 last month for the week..
Muppets had no challenger/stang/camero (V8 engine) in the lot, but they had the Shelby mustangs, so i kindly pointed out i'm not new to renting in Vegas.... i'll take it without paying a penny as its an upgrade car (i said, its got a V8 engine, i booked a V8 engine, done deal!)
We got this:


Although a nice sweet ride, was'nt as good as last years Hertz rental!
I managed to get both to give me average 9mpg!!


As for using GotRentalCars........
Ok, i was apprehensive at 1st using them last year, but did 2 rentals with them last year with Avis, and did 2 rentals this year....
They are owned by BSP-Auto , so depending on the booking, they will book you with Avis via the UK arm, or with Avis via the French arm.......
I signed up to Avis Plus, so your able to link the booking from GotRentalCars as long as you get the 'GB' in the booking, so u can skip the queue and goto the garage.......

That reminds me, i need to write up my trip report on how much money i lost, AGAIN !    (story of my life!   )

What do you mean by get the GB in the booking

i understand the sign up bit and go direct to car etc as thats what I have done for years

i have rented direct with Alamo for a lot of years ,now but Gotrental are much cheaper ( looks to cheap)  so am considering them for next year

StuieUK34

I dont chase comp's, i get them anyway
I chase wins, and keep chasing! 
Out of 13 nights, i had decent winnings on the last 2 nights, but still spanked through £4200 (i could afford to lose it, just hoped i didnt spend it!    Going back in September, so hopefully i will just win without chasing bigger wins!   )


GotRentalCars:
Yes, there pricing is pretty good, but swings out roundabouts....
This year, i had bookings with GotRentalCars, using AVIS for FFAR rentals...
When the booking info comes through, it showed the AVIS booking rental...
Out of several bookings i made, sometimes the AVIS ref would be 00000000000GB1     -   so with that booking, you could email AVIS  (UK.Reservations@abg.com )   and ask them to link your booking if you have an Avis plus account.....

But GotRentalCars (which is BSP-AUTO.com) is a french firm, so other bookings i made had 00000000000FR0    -  so with that booking, made no difference anyway, but you cant link those bookings to your Avis plus account, so you cant skip the queue.

If you book direct with any rental firm, then yeah, u can do the skip the queue regardless with pre-signup.

As a pointer:   I booked 3 days FFAR (full size SUV / Tahoe) with Alamo, via Virgin Holidays , Gold booking, and it cost £190 for 3 days (LAS - LAX) for my Sep trip.
Thats cheaper than GotRentalCars, and any other small broker that appears on Kayak /skyscanner........
Worth checking out Virgin Holidays for car rental (always with Alamo), just take note, although you can cancel the booking, you gotta jump through hoops to do it!

photome

StuieUK34 said:

I dont chase comp's, i get them anyway
I chase wins, and keep chasing! 
Out of 13 nights, i had decent winnings on the last 2 nights, but still spanked through £4200 (i could afford to lose it, just hoped i didnt spend it!    Going back in September, so hopefully i will just win without chasing bigger wins!   )


GotRentalCars:
Yes, there pricing is pretty good, but swings out roundabouts....
This year, i had bookings with GotRentalCars, using AVIS for FFAR rentals...
When the booking info comes through, it showed the AVIS booking rental...
Out of several bookings i made, sometimes the AVIS ref would be 00000000000GB1     -   so with that booking, you could email AVIS  (UK.Reservations@abg.com )   and ask them to link your booking if you have an Avis plus account.....

But GotRentalCars (which is BSP-AUTO.com) is a french firm, so other bookings i made had 00000000000FR0    -  so with that booking, made no difference anyway, but you cant link those bookings to your Avis plus account, so you cant skip the queue.

If you book direct with any rental firm, then yeah, u can do the skip the queue regardless with pre-signup.

As a pointer:   I booked 3 days FFAR (full size SUV / Tahoe) with Alamo, via Virgin Holidays , Gold booking, and it cost £190 for 3 days (LAS - LAX) for my Sep trip.
Thats cheaper than GotRentalCars, and any other small broker that appears on Kayak /skyscanner........
Worth checking out Virgin Holidays for car rental (always with Alamo), just take note, although you can cancel the booking, you gotta jump through hoops to do it!

Looks like its pot luck then wether you get GB ref with GotR, think I will give it a miss

retiredbanker1

Anybody managed to book Manchester to Vegas with Virgin yet?

The prices I have seen so far are insane!

JadamcB

Trip Report - Glasgow to Las Vegas (The Venetian) Sunday 2nd July - 9th July 2023

Saturday1st July at 22:01 - BA cancelled Gatwick flight to Las Vegas for 11:05 next day.

Never seen the text to 23:30 just before heading to bed, contacted BA and was advised to rebook using manage my booking - nothing available until Thursday from Glasgow but they could not deal with the hotel (booked under BA Holidays) until Sunday at 08:00 onwards.

Amazingly I slept like a log for the 5 hours available.

Thankfully we could move the hotel and flight to the following Sunday - 9th July - BA confirmed this by 10:00 am on the Sunday morning.  Our holidays with work allowed this to be a viable option.

I'll post my trip report later this week with my thoughts once the jetlag diminishes a bit if we still do that.....

JadamcB

Trip Report - Glasgow to Las Vegas (The Venetian) Sunday 9th July - 16th July 2023.     (11th trip for me)

FLIGHTS

Glasgow flight on time, Gatwick delayed by 2 hours, BA kindly text me at 22:00 the night before which caused me to flap a bit.

Both flights were almost full – Gatwick to Vegas was a bit of a chore as my hips are 8 years older since I was last in LV, decent movies selection helped time pass a bit quicker.

 35 minutes at Immigration which wasn’t too bad.

Taxi to Hotel - $30 fixed fee by zone hotel is in, traffic pretty busy due to road works for F1 in November, arrived at hotel 20 minutes later around 5pm, no queue checking and in in room 10 minutes later.

 HOTEL

Hotel Room on the 24th floor of the Venetian facing the strip looking down onto the pools – very good room with a huge bed, dining area and setee and chairs, maybe a bit dark for me but A/C was immense.  Never went to the pools due to the heat but TAO pool parties at weekends looked a blast from our window.

 Food for the week consisted of,

·      Grand Lux Café at the Venetian for breakfast.·       

·      Mateos at the venetian – 3 course tasting lunch menu with wine - $50 each including glass of red.·       

·      Reggiano at the Venetian – dinner one evening – 3 courses, shared starter/dessert - $160 inc tip.·       

·      Excalibur lunch buffet – recent reviews were pretty poor but I thought it more a 7/10 for the $26.99 each we paid.·       

·      Ellis Island Barbecue – Full Rack of Ribsx2/half litre of Red, around $60 plus tip.  Pint of Lite and Michelob was $9 I think.

·      Panda Express on our first night late on, always hits the spot for me

A walking food tour, where we met some nice people, 3 stops in Caesars and two in the Venetian

Lunch in LA as part of our LA/Hollywood trip

 

Shows included.

Love – Loved it when we seen it 10 years ago when we were seated at the front of the 300 section seats, this time we booked about 3 hours before at the box office and we selected seats in section 105 – 5 rows from the front – cost was $209 in total so we saved a few shillings on this one.  I think I preferred these seats but not much in it.

Barry Manilow at Westgate – Fantastic show, seen him at the Paris many years ago, booked tickets before we went £75 aprox for front of balcony – Balcony was way too hot though during the heatwave

 MJ one = paid $310 in total an hour before the show seats in row G – seats 1-2, theatre style seats.  Some very good special effects but I’d have to say not as good as Love in my opinion – maybe 7/10 but I’m not really a fan, my other half liked it more than me.  I probably nodded off just don’t be telling.

 Drinks

 The Mirage – Parlour Lounge Bar had live music and we spent a couple of hours in here over three of the evenings, we purchased several cocktails - $44 inc tip, they did stick in my throat a bit or so it seemed as I made them last longer but they were very strong.

 

Trips – both booked on Tripadvisor and moved with no issues to the next week when flight was cancelled.

LA and Hollywood – Picked up at 5:50 – approximately 4.5 hours to LA with 2 toilet stops, 5 hours in LA and 5 hours return journey. 

Santa Monica Beach – for 2 hours inc lunch on the beach. Enjoyed the Pier/

Rodeo drive/Beverley hills with many photo opportunities

The place where the stars are with a viewing area for the Hollywood sign way, way in the distance (disappointing as we thought going by previous reviews we’d be much closer)

Also the walking food tour mentioned earlier.

 

Didn’t go to the Grand Canyon due to the high temperatures

 

Gambling – Don’t really bother gambling, lost $20-30 and I’m gutted 😊

 

Shopping

FSM/Ross/Marshalls and Premium Outlets North, did well but not as much as in previous years

Hotels

Visited into Conrad Resort world and really liked the hotel, casino and decor especially the Stardust sign at the entrance, maybe try stay a few nights if I go back.

FLIGHTS.

Flight home at 15:30 – due to high temperatures we sat on the runway/tunnel for 4.5 hours before we left, 10 hour flight and  we missed our Gatwick connecting flight to Glasgow – rebooked onto Heathrow at 9PM, got home around 11:45 and back to work the next day.  Bit of jetlag but not too bad.

 

Summing up – Loved the trip as did my other half and it was her first time, we were very busy and should have chilled a bit more.  Vegas is quite a bit more expensive than 8 years ago and with NFL and baseball arriving it’s not likely to come down.      Didn’t enjoy the travelling but never really do, delays don’t help either.

 

We are going on a Virgin Med Cruise in August which is hopefully more relaxing, but have already been looking at Vegas  for either October or Easter next year but wont book to early....

Cheers.

 

 

littlemissbossy

Hi

Just a quick question, can you use your driving licence as ID (when necessary) or does it need to be your passport. 

VWPolecat

You only need your passport at airport check in and for immigration at your first US airport.. A picture driving license works for everything else. usually in conjunction with a credit card. There may be some exceptions if visiting a federal facility (White House etc ). 

photome

littlemissbossy said:

Hi

Just a quick question, can you use your driving licence as ID (when necessary) or does it need to be your passport. 

littlemissbossy said:

Hi

Just a quick question, can you use your driving licence as ID (when necessary) or does it need to be your passport. 

You will need your passport when you win a hand pay.  You may need it when you sign up for any rewards program