I'll do this one Marky... I think you went a couple of rounds further than I would with some in the recent past.

If you book a hotel direct, (defo check their cancel policy beforehand but in 99.999% of cases) you can cancel and get refunded in full with 48 hours notice.  So you could book any crazy rates you see and cancel as needed.

Note that if you book on hotwire/3rd party sites, you will at best be charged a cancellation/alteration fee and at worst get no refund at all.

Also note that if you book with a hotel directly, they will only charge you the first nights rate as a deposit.  To be picky, you will lose a small amount if you cancel, as the card that you use (unless you have a USD based card) will refund you a few cents on the dollar away from the price they gave you when you booked.

In short then, if you see a fantastic 3rd party rate and your dates are unlikely to change, you can book it up.  If you are playing the Virgin sale fare game, then book at least one hotel on a good rate (offer codes help)  If subsequently that rate goes down, cancel and rebook.  If it goes up, you are locked in and good rates.

That's the reward for a bit of effort and organisation in Vegas.  You can pay less in premium than someone else does in Economy.  When you get there, you can stay in Aria for less than someone paid for Flamingo.

Thats great.  Thanks again.

I'm looking at doing London-Vegas-Orlando-London, June 21st-July 12th probably.

I can do the long haul flights easily enough with Virgin, and shouldn't struggle with an internal flight. However, with the two destinations I  might lose out on package deals. Any suggestions from anyone who's done this before?

 - Is booking flights and accomm separately the only way to go?
 - If so, booking flights asap and accommodation around Easter when there are more deals out there the best idea?

I can't be sure if it's the cheapest/best way, but doing everything separately was definitely easiest for me when I needed to stop in Colorado for a week on the way back from Vegas a few years ago.

I got London-Vegas-Denver-London for a ridiculously good price That said, I did have to go one stop on the way out, but it was direct with BA back from Denver.

My most annoying airline experience ever that trip, when we got diverted to Grand Junction and ended up sat around that long that they had to change the cabin crew 

Flights bit is horses for courses, but if you want to do the flights out/back with Virgin then waiting around seems the best way, and hopefully they'll chuck another sale on.

When I was still staying on the strip, I used to spend 10 minutes every week or so looking for anything decent that was going. I used to end up with about 5 rooms booked before each trip, and then would just cancel the ones I didn't want.

Thanks, that's a good idea - hadn't occurred to me to book, then cancel if a better deal came up as booking separately. Simple things

How easy is it to cancel hotels once booked. Want to book hotel now but im going to wait to see if I can get a bargain virgin flight.

Thanks

I have had the email stating virgin have a 4 day flight sale, though this is not yet reflected in their prices.

Rob_5 : Just had a look on ebookers and 1st sept to the 6th i.e. Monday to Sat is coming back cheaper than the Sun to Fri for most Hotels.

yea saw the sale.  Only flights going feb - march at the moment.

Thats great.  Thanks for the advice. I'll hold of booking for now.

Argh!! Thrown a spanner in the works.

Ha. So do I feel lucky?

Think the right move is to get it booked at around £1000 if I can. Still sounds good value for 5 nights in vegas.

As said might be lucky and save a buy in or 2 but would rather save my run good for when I get there.

So, ill confirm my dates at work on monday and get it booked in the week.

Last bit of advice please guys about hotel recommendations. Mirage, PH or anywhere else around the same sort of price?

Thanks again

Rob

Hi Rob

£1000 for direct flight and 5 nights with no Fri or Sat is a terrible price IMO

I wouldn't want to pay more than £750 tops for that Hotel and that would be for 7 nights inc. Fri and Sat
Unless you gamble a lot (slots/table games) it will very likely be cheaper to go 3rd party for the flight/hotel

Wait until around Easter and you will get it a lot cheaper than £1k

Direct flight is a no brainer too for that length of stay

Ha. So do I feel lucky?

Think the right move is to get it booked at around £1000 if I can. Still sounds good value for 5 nights in vegas.

As said might be lucky and save a buy in or 2 but would rather save my run good for when I get there.

So, ill confirm my dates at work on monday and get it booked in the week.

Last bit of advice please guys about hotel recommendations. Mirage, PH or anywhere else around the same sort of price?

Thanks again

Rob

Yea definitely would prefer the direct route from any London.

Some good advise there thanks all. So, generally would the advise be to wait a while to book?
Are prices likely to go up nearer it gets?

Thanks

31st - 5th avoiding the Saturday sounds ideal.
Forgot to mention that it needs to be from London.
How much hassle are the 1 stop flights? Works out £150 - £200 less than direct.

Thanks

Thanks for reply.
Im of work from Saturday 30 August until 6 September so any 5 nights in that week is ok.
Not stuck on the luxor, just thought it would save a bit of money being a bit further out.
Do want to be on the strip though, not downtown.

Rob

Exact dates would help, it really does make a difference by several hundred ££ a lot of the time.

As for comparing the "book it separate" route, you can do this easily by plugging in the dates on Virgin Atlantic and then adding that to lowcostusa (room only) or smartervegas (probably the best two sources a lot of the time atm)

As a rule of thumb, £750 for a direct flight and ~£50/night for a modest property (won't be exact, but will prolly factor in weekend weighting)

In other words, no need to rush in, its an ok price but nothing special.

As for Luxor, well one man's meat and all that.... so if that is really where you want to stay then ofc you should stay there.  If however, you aren't too bothered, then I think most people here would try and talk you out of it.

Thanks marky.

good luck.

Hi all.

Spent a few days reading pretty much all this thread. Got some great info from it


Im looking to go 1st week of September for 5 nights. It will be my 1st trip and im going solo.
I was looking at the luxor as a base (dont mind walking).

Prices at the moment on lowcostusa are coming out at £940 with klm with a stop or £1070 direct with virgin, inc taxes and resort fees.

So, main question is would you advise booking at these prices or wait a while.  Saw a mention of virgin sale around easter. Alsocan I save much by booking hotel and flight separate?

Thanks in advance

Rob