Vegas Trip Information for anyone looking to go this year.

[Woodsey]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

[Marky147]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

Can think of worse places to work away

[arbboy]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

Can think of worse places to work away

Was going to say i would rather spend 6 weeks 'working' in vegas than 6 weeks on the road selling medical drugs in premier inns in the UK!!

[Woodsey]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

Can think of worse places to work away

Was going to say i would rather spend 6 weeks 'working' in vegas than 6 weeks on the road selling medical drugs in premier inns in the UK!!

I'd be skint after 2 weeks mate, I simply wouldn't be able to survive financially for 6 weeks as well as hating the place after a week. Quite looking forward to hopping around Asia for nearly a month in a few weeks though 

[KarmaDope]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night 

Can think of worse places to work away

6 weeks working in Vegas is amazing, as long as you treat it like work and not like a holiday.

[hhyftrftdr]

Still not sure I get it, all this "let's travel East on our way to Vegas and save a couple hundred."

If someone works out they can have a free night out in Frankfurt or Dublin or Oslo or wherever and that really appeals, then I guess fair enough.  But for me I couldn't help feeling as I'm sat in a German airport "ffs I could already be in Vegas if I just went direct" and that tilt would not subside until at least a week after the return leg.

While the reward scheme is changing and that may need a change of attack, I've shown before that economy direct returns on Virgin can be had for £600.  Even if I could go via Calcutta and save £200, surely for those planning trips next year it would be more palatable to just clock up a few hours extra O/T, or set aside a slice of a random bink or whatever, between now and then and be done with it?

Enough people seem to want to do the Ireland shuffle for it to be reasonable for them to do, so I guess it must be a reasonable experience.  A night out in Dublin is always a good one, but for anyone remotely time-poor, like me,  I'll just do the 10 hour version direct, tyvm.

Horses for courses I guess. For me, the savings I can make by starting in Dublin/Scandinavia essentially cover most/all (depends where staying) of the hotel for the week. I can see why this doesn't appeal to people, I have sometimes questioned it myself! But I try to look at it as an opportunity somewhat; I'd never been to Gothenburg before we started there in January so it was a chance to have a mooch around in a city I'd never usually find myself in.

If the difference between direct from London and starting outside the UK is marginal then I'd just pay the extra and be done with it. When we went in January, it was £298 return from Sweden via London, but would've been 4 figures to start in London. For a Yorkshire peasant, that's just way too big a difference to not go for it. It's similar with the Copenhagen example above, BA want over a grand for the direct flights, start in Denmark and those same flights are under £400.

I made it to silver status with BA in September so we have lounge access all the way for our trip from Copenhagen in May, makes it much more bearable

[arbboy]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

Can think of worse places to work away

Was going to say i would rather spend 6 weeks 'working' in vegas than 6 weeks on the road selling medical drugs in premier inns in the UK!!

I'd be skint after 2 weeks mate, I simply wouldn't be able to survive financially for 6 weeks as well as hating the place after a week. Quite looking forward to hopping around Asia for nearly a month in a few weeks though 

Richest man on the site Woodsey since Brexit.  All you talk about is your pension booming!!!   You could live there for a year without it touching the sides of the bank balance!   

[Woodsey]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night 

Can think of worse places to work away

6 weeks working in Vegas is amazing, as long as you treat it like work and not like a holiday.

lol fat chance of me getting more than a few days work done, waaaaaay too many temptations 

[Simon Galloway]

Still not sure I get it, all this "let's travel East on our way to Vegas and save a couple hundred."

If someone works out they can have a free night out in Frankfurt or Dublin or Oslo or wherever and that really appeals, then I guess fair enough.  But for me I couldn't help feeling as I'm sat in a German airport "ffs I could already be in Vegas if I just went direct" and that tilt would not subside until at least a week after the return leg.

While the reward scheme is changing and that may need a change of attack, I've shown before that economy direct returns on Virgin can be had for £600.  Even if I could go via Calcutta and save £200, surely for those planning trips next year it would be more palatable to just clock up a few hours extra O/T, or set aside a slice of a random bink or whatever, between now and then and be done with it?

Enough people seem to want to do the Ireland shuffle for it to be reasonable for them to do, so I guess it must be a reasonable experience.  A night out in Dublin is always a good one, but for anyone remotely time-poor, like me,  I'll just do the 10 hour version direct, tyvm.

Horses for courses I guess. For me, the savings I can make by starting in Dublin/Scandinavia essentially cover most/all (depends where staying) of the hotel for the week. I can see why this doesn't appeal to people, I have sometimes questioned it myself! But I try to look at it as an opportunity somewhat; I'd never been to Gothenburg before we started there in January so it was a chance to have a mooch around in a city I'd never usually find myself in.

If the difference between direct from London and starting outside the UK is marginal then I'd just pay the extra and be done with it. When we went in January, it was £298 return from Sweden via London, but would've been 4 figures to start in London. For a Yorkshire peasant, that's just way too big a difference to not go for it. It's similar with the Copenhagen example above, BA want over a grand for the direct flights, start in Denmark and those same flights are under £400.

I made it to silver status with BA in September so we have lounge access all the way for our trip from Copenhagen in May, makes it much more bearable

Definitely horses for courses.  I'm guilty on the other side of the coin, given the opportunity to shave a couple of days off Vegas and go explore another city, I turn it down flat and go straight to LV and refuse to move.  I'm sure a couple of days in SF or wherever would be very pleasant, but I just can't do it.  I can only spare 7-10 days max, and each and every day is far too precious to spend it travelling indirect, sleeping, further flying, touring or anything else that doesn't involve whooping it up as much as my liver and bank balance will tolerate.

On price comparison, I never see it as a 4 figure alternative, because with simple planning, it never needs to be.  The alternative to flying out of Istanbul is always to spend £600 at the right time for a direct flight.

On the subject of Yorkshiremen, I recently had to beat one around the head with the simple maths of the situation.  He was taking his wife to Vegas, £600 each for the flights, £600 for the hotel room, so pretty much costing him £250 per day to be there.  He asked me how long it would take to walk from the strip to Eastside Cannery (in August!!) because he had a buffet coupon.  When I pointed out that the sunk cost of spending all day walking to the Cannery was going to be £250 and maybe lashing out on Bacchanal instead was better use of his day, he sort of got it, bust still didn't quite get it.  I'm all for a bit of nittery, but some take it so far that it actually backfires.

[EvilPie]

For those going for 6 weeks, sure a night out in Dublin sounds good as a loosener. If I'm going to Vegas for a week though, I'll take 7 nights in Vegas over 5 nights in Vegas and 2 nights in a premier inn.

6 weeks in Vegas?     That sounds like the stuff of nightmares, I'd rather run the gauntlet of being hunted down by that team of snakes on planet earth last night  

Can think of worse places to work away

Was going to say i would rather spend 6 weeks 'working' in vegas than 6 weeks on the road selling medical drugs in premier inns in the UK!!

I'd be skint after 2 weeks mate, I simply wouldn't be able to survive financially for 6 weeks as well as hating the place after a week. Quite looking forward to hopping around Asia for nearly a month in a few weeks though 

I'd rather walk the snake gauntlet than spend a month hopping around Asia.

Each to their own I guess.

[hhyftrftdr]

Still not sure I get it, all this "let's travel East on our way to Vegas and save a couple hundred."

If someone works out they can have a free night out in Frankfurt or Dublin or Oslo or wherever and that really appeals, then I guess fair enough.  But for me I couldn't help feeling as I'm sat in a German airport "ffs I could already be in Vegas if I just went direct" and that tilt would not subside until at least a week after the return leg.

While the reward scheme is changing and that may need a change of attack, I've shown before that economy direct returns on Virgin can be had for £600.  Even if I could go via Calcutta and save £200, surely for those planning trips next year it would be more palatable to just clock up a few hours extra O/T, or set aside a slice of a random bink or whatever, between now and then and be done with it?

Enough people seem to want to do the Ireland shuffle for it to be reasonable for them to do, so I guess it must be a reasonable experience.  A night out in Dublin is always a good one, but for anyone remotely time-poor, like me,  I'll just do the 10 hour version direct, tyvm.

Horses for courses I guess. For me, the savings I can make by starting in Dublin/Scandinavia essentially cover most/all (depends where staying) of the hotel for the week. I can see why this doesn't appeal to people, I have sometimes questioned it myself! But I try to look at it as an opportunity somewhat; I'd never been to Gothenburg before we started there in January so it was a chance to have a mooch around in a city I'd never usually find myself in.

If the difference between direct from London and starting outside the UK is marginal then I'd just pay the extra and be done with it. When we went in January, it was £298 return from Sweden via London, but would've been 4 figures to start in London. For a Yorkshire peasant, that's just way too big a difference to not go for it. It's similar with the Copenhagen example above, BA want over a grand for the direct flights, start in Denmark and those same flights are under £400.

I made it to silver status with BA in September so we have lounge access all the way for our trip from Copenhagen in May, makes it much more bearable

Definitely horses for courses.  I'm guilty on the other side of the coin, given the opportunity to shave a couple of days off Vegas and go explore another city, I turn it down flat and go straight to LV and refuse to move.  I'm sure a couple of days in SF or wherever would be very pleasant, but I just can't do it.  I can only spare 7-10 days max, and each and every day is far too precious to spend it travelling indirect, sleeping, further flying, touring or anything else that doesn't involve whooping it up as much as my liver and bank balance will tolerate.

On price comparison, I never see it as a 4 figure alternative, because with simple planning, it never needs to be.  The alternative to flying out of Istanbul is always to spend £600 at the right time for a direct flight.

On the subject of Yorkshiremen, I recently had to beat one around the head with the simple maths of the situation.  He was taking his wife to Vegas, £600 each for the flights, £600 for the hotel room, so pretty much costing him £250 per day to be there.  He asked me how long it would take to walk from the strip to Eastside Cannery (in August!!) because he had a buffet coupon.  When I pointed out that the sunk cost of spending all day walking to the Cannery was going to be £250 and maybe lashing out on Bacchanal instead was better use of his day, he sort of got it, bust still didn't quite get it.  I'm all for a bit of nittery, but some take it so far that it actually backfires.

I'm not gonna lie, when the alarm went off in Gothenburg at 6am, more than a little part of me thought 'wtf am I doing with my life?'. Fast forward to 3am later that day/night and doing my bollocks at $1 $3 in Luxor and I'd forgotten the day started in Sweden.

I think even I'd draw the line at flying to Istanbul to then fly back on myself very much agreed that some people take the nittery to wild extremes. I don't find a short hop to Dublin/Scandinavia too inconvenient but then I'm a childless 29 yr old in peak physical condition (Tikay will back this up), under different circumstances the chance to save potentially a few hundred on flights but adding extra hassle just wouldn't be worth it.

[tikay]

Still not sure I get it, all this "let's travel East on our way to Vegas and save a couple hundred."

If someone works out they can have a free night out in Frankfurt or Dublin or Oslo or wherever and that really appeals, then I guess fair enough.  But for me I couldn't help feeling as I'm sat in a German airport "ffs I could already be in Vegas if I just went direct" and that tilt would not subside until at least a week after the return leg.

While the reward scheme is changing and that may need a change of attack, I've shown before that economy direct returns on Virgin can be had for £600.  Even if I could go via Calcutta and save £200, surely for those planning trips next year it would be more palatable to just clock up a few hours extra O/T, or set aside a slice of a random bink or whatever, between now and then and be done with it?

Enough people seem to want to do the Ireland shuffle for it to be reasonable for them to do, so I guess it must be a reasonable experience.  A night out in Dublin is always a good one, but for anyone remotely time-poor, like me,  I'll just do the 10 hour version direct, tyvm.

Horses for courses I guess. For me, the savings I can make by starting in Dublin/Scandinavia essentially cover most/all (depends where staying) of the hotel for the week. I can see why this doesn't appeal to people, I have sometimes questioned it myself! But I try to look at it as an opportunity somewhat; I'd never been to Gothenburg before we started there in January so it was a chance to have a mooch around in a city I'd never usually find myself in.

If the difference between direct from London and starting outside the UK is marginal then I'd just pay the extra and be done with it. When we went in January, it was £298 return from Sweden via London, but would've been 4 figures to start in London. For a Yorkshire peasant, that's just way too big a difference to not go for it. It's similar with the Copenhagen example above, BA want over a grand for the direct flights, start in Denmark and those same flights are under £400.

I made it to silver status with BA in September so we have lounge access all the way for our trip from Copenhagen in May, makes it much more bearable

Definitely horses for courses.  I'm guilty on the other side of the coin, given the opportunity to shave a couple of days off Vegas and go explore another city, I turn it down flat and go straight to LV and refuse to move.  I'm sure a couple of days in SF or wherever would be very pleasant, but I just can't do it.  I can only spare 7-10 days max, and each and every day is far too precious to spend it travelling indirect, sleeping, further flying, touring or anything else that doesn't involve whooping it up as much as my liver and bank balance will tolerate.

On price comparison, I never see it as a 4 figure alternative, because with simple planning, it never needs to be.  The alternative to flying out of Istanbul is always to spend £600 at the right time for a direct flight.

On the subject of Yorkshiremen, I recently had to beat one around the head with the simple maths of the situation.  He was taking his wife to Vegas, £600 each for the flights, £600 for the hotel room, so pretty much costing him £250 per day to be there.  He asked me how long it would take to walk from the strip to Eastside Cannery (in August!!) because he had a buffet coupon.  When I pointed out that the sunk cost of spending all day walking to the Cannery was going to be £250 and maybe lashing out on Bacchanal instead was better use of his day, he sort of got it, bust still didn't quite get it.  I'm all for a bit of nittery, but some take it so far that it actually backfires.

I'm not gonna lie, when the alarm went off in Gothenburg at 6am, more than a little part of me thought 'wtf am I doing with my life?'. Fast forward to 3am later that day/night and doing my bollocks at $1 $3 in Luxor and I'd forgotten the day started in Sweden.

I think even I'd draw the line at flying to Istanbul to then fly back on myself very much agreed that some people take the nittery to wild extremes. I don't find a short hop to Dublin/Scandinavia too inconvenient but then I'm a childless 29 yr old in peak physical condition (Tikay will back this up), under different circumstances the chance to save potentially a few hundred on flights but adding extra hassle just wouldn't be worth it.

I already did, in the last 2 days Blogs, in which you were referred to twice in glowing terms.

I just flew to Punta Cana & back, "indirect" both ways. Outbound via Paris, & inbound via New York.

Nightmare. Nightmare.

Had to go through security at both airports outbound & inbound. Even had to collect my luggage in New York, walk through Customs with it, then insta check it back in again.  

I was in JFK for 3 hours, of which 2 hours & 50 minutes was spent queueing.

Chompy is the another oddball - travels to & from Vegas via Vermont, Chicago or whatever as it saves him 2 quid.

Nutjobs the lot of you.  


 

[vegaslover]

Still not sure I get it, all this "let's travel East on our way to Vegas and save a couple hundred."

If someone works out they can have a free night out in Frankfurt or Dublin or Oslo or wherever and that really appeals, then I guess fair enough.  But for me I couldn't help feeling as I'm sat in a German airport "ffs I could already be in Vegas if I just went direct" and that tilt would not subside until at least a week after the return leg.

While the reward scheme is changing and that may need a change of attack, I've shown before that economy direct returns on Virgin can be had for £600.  Even if I could go via Calcutta and save £200, surely for those planning trips next year it would be more palatable to just clock up a few hours extra O/T, or set aside a slice of a random bink or whatever, between now and then and be done with it?

Enough people seem to want to do the Ireland shuffle for it to be reasonable for them to do, so I guess it must be a reasonable experience.  A night out in Dublin is always a good one, but for anyone remotely time-poor, like me,  I'll just do the 10 hour version direct, tyvm.

Horses for courses I guess. For me, the savings I can make by starting in Dublin/Scandinavia essentially cover most/all (depends where staying) of the hotel for the week. I can see why this doesn't appeal to people, I have sometimes questioned it myself! But I try to look at it as an opportunity somewhat; I'd never been to Gothenburg before we started there in January so it was a chance to have a mooch around in a city I'd never usually find myself in.

If the difference between direct from London and starting outside the UK is marginal then I'd just pay the extra and be done with it. When we went in January, it was £298 return from Sweden via London, but would've been 4 figures to start in London. For a Yorkshire peasant, that's just way too big a difference to not go for it. It's similar with the Copenhagen example above, BA want over a grand for the direct flights, start in Denmark and those same flights are under £400.

I made it to silver status with BA in September so we have lounge access all the way for our trip from Copenhagen in May, makes it much more bearable

Definitely horses for courses.  I'm guilty on the other side of the coin, given the opportunity to shave a couple of days off Vegas and go explore another city, I turn it down flat and go straight to LV and refuse to move.  I'm sure a couple of days in SF or wherever would be very pleasant, but I just can't do it.  I can only spare 7-10 days max, and each and every day is far too precious to spend it travelling indirect, sleeping, further flying, touring or anything else that doesn't involve whooping it up as much as my liver and bank balance will tolerate.

On price comparison, I never see it as a 4 figure alternative, because with simple planning, it never needs to be.  The alternative to flying out of Istanbul is always to spend £600 at the right time for a direct flight.

On the subject of Yorkshiremen, I recently had to beat one around the head with the simple maths of the situation.  He was taking his wife to Vegas, £600 each for the flights, £600 for the hotel room, so pretty much costing him £250 per day to be there.  He asked me how long it would take to walk from the strip to Eastside Cannery (in August!!) because he had a buffet coupon.  When I pointed out that the sunk cost of spending all day walking to the Cannery was going to be £250 and maybe lashing out on Bacchanal instead was better use of his day, he sort of got it, bust still didn't quite get it.  I'm all for a bit of nittery, but some take it so far that it actually backfires.

Am with Mr Galloway on this, and i'm a nit who used to always go indirect. Once you have been held up somewhere and missed your connection (thankfully DFW where another flight was going to Vegas an hour later) and see how much earlier you get there going direct, as well as how much later you leave Vegas, it's an extra half a day, which is a hellova lot in Vegas terms imo.
I'm also a family man, so never gonna be going with just carry on luggage.

Book it right and price difference is often negligible. I went to Florida his year, direct with Virgin. Sister-in-law went couple of weeks before with Norwegian Airways, no meals, no hold luggage etc and paid about a tenner less. Vegas is same, book it when sales are on and price is very good.

[Longines]

http://www.tesco.com/direct/special-offer/collect-800-extra-clubcard-points-when-you-spend-40-or-more-on-selected-hasbro-gaming/promo43080095.promo

Handy if you're Chrimbo shopping for kids. 800 Clubcard points = 2000 Virgin miles.

[Doobs]

Did anybody else buy any points for cash in the last year?   Dare say I'll do nothing about it, but it feels a bit wrong to sell something for cash and then reduce the value of it.   

I assume they wouldn't reduce the value of any £200 vouchers to £150 and not get a backlash.  But they have pretty much done the same with my £200 worth of  miles.