Vegas Trip Information for anyone looking to go this year.

[arbboy]

Folks,

What's the cheapest hotel/closest to terminal for flying out we're literally going to get about 5 hrs kip time our flight arrives from Glasgow and we get to hotel.  So not looking for anything fancy, I've had a look at a few holiday inn's as they offer B&B at reasonable prices but not sure which one is closest.

TA

which airport you flying into kmac?

Gatwick

I have stayed at Hilton and Sofitel (both are have direct access to terminals - one for north the other for south can't remember which is which.  You will pay a premium for staying at these due to quality and ease of access to terminal).  I have also stayed at prem inn round the corner and just got the bus to terminal which arrives every 20 mins.  All depends on how much you want to spend really.

[Kmac84]

Defo looking for cheapest, costs getting out of control now.  FML. 

[Tal]

Hilton was fine. Not special, but did the job. I just needed a bed for the night and it took 10 mins in the morning to get from checking out to baggage drop. All under cover.

That's worth a few quid.

[arbboy]

just go on late rooms and list them in distance order from hotel.  None of the major hotels are more than 2 miles away with shuttle buses.  Given you only have 5 hours to sleep i would just get pissed in the bar at the airport and save on the exs of a hotel and sleep on the plane.

[Marky147]

Just stay at the Hilton, and chuck it on expenses


In all seriousness, it's probably about £30 difference, and you can walk to the airport in the morning...

[Kmac84]

Just stay at the Hilton, and chuck it on expenses


In all seriousness, it's probably about £30 difference, and you can walk to the airport in the morning...

I can get mates rates at the Hilton at £60 so if I can get that sorted it seems like a deal. 

[Doobs]

Just stay at the Hilton, and chuck it on expenses


In all seriousness, it's probably about £30 difference, and you can walk to the airport in the morning...

I can get mates rates at the Hilton at £60 so if I can get that sorted it seems like a deal. 

The Holiday Inn is fine.  The journey to the airport is no time at all, and have done it a few times with kids.  Whenever I had looked once you include paying it is a fair bit cheaper.   

You aren't parking and probably aren't beating £60, so just do the Hilton. 

[Kmac84]

cheers!

[tikay]

"Sale" now on .... don't bother rushing though...

Morning Simon.

I got notification of a "Sale" last night, is this the same thing you referred to?

Don't miss out, you have until midnight on Tuesday to book a Reward Seat in Economy or in Premium Economy to the world's top destinations for 25% less miles*.

But the good news doesn't stop there. You'll also get a 25% bonus** if you top up your account with Buy Miles or Miles Booster by 7 October 2014. So your dream ticket could be closer than ever.


Also, in short words, can you explain the benefits (if any) & cost of "Buy Miles" please?

I doubt I'll use Virgin for anything except Vegas, & I currently appear to have 19,640 miles. I generally fly to & from Vegas PE. I have no plans to go to Vegas until next May or June (fingers crossed). 


Thanks.

[Simon Galloway]

Your email is just letting you know that you are at the arse end of the sale window of the same "sale" opportunity.

The Buy miles promo is a straight maths game:

Let's assume you buy a PE flight and that is £1400.  You will earn ~ 7 tier credits (towards your flying club renewal, or promotion to the next bracket.. eg Red/Silver/Gold) and about 12k miles.

The alternative is to book it using 52.5k miles + tax (~ £400ish)  You won't earn any tier credits or miles on this flight.

Note a few things:

• PE is usually 75k miles so 52.5k is decent, and only a smidge more than the normal economy reward price
• Opportunity cost.. you could spend your miles on Eurostar or a balloon flight instead...
• There are other ways to jump cabin class, but ignoring those as they use longer words
• There is a buy miles promo on at the moment

so in your circumstance, you can compare the cost of acquiring 33k miles in a hurry, versus the full fare.  This assumes you place a $0 value on the 19.6k miles you already have, which I think is reasonable to assume here.

So, courtesy of the Buy Miles promo, you could purchase 27k miles and receive a free bonus of 6.75k miles for £420.

So now your options are:

1) Pay £1400, pick up miles and tier credits, job done.
2) Buy miles for £420, redeem all your miles for a PE reward flight and likely pay £420 more in tax.  You will have flown PE for ~ £840 and have no miles left.

2) seems to be a pretty good option, but of course you aren't guaranteed to get the exact dates you are looking for.  Hope that helps.  Just to make things more fun, when you book, you will also get the option to pay a premium to double or triple boost your miles earning under their miles booster banner.  This is again fairly vanilla maths and iirc, is usually worth doing when there is no 25% Buy Miles promo, but when the promo is on, you would be better off just buying the extra miles and taking the 25% bonus.  I haven't checked the maths of that now, but I seem to recall that's how it looked last year.

[Simon Galloway]

To underline the value of the Buy Miles promo...

Buying 100k miles (80k miles+20k free) = £1215

That is an Upper Class return to Vegas... with about £600 tax.

So well under £2k to go Vegas in Upper, assuming you have zero miles to your name, on a very flexible ticket.  Compared to a regular full fare of typically £3500, it isn't a bad saving.

That's pretty much what I did last year.  This year, I tried and failed as they didn't have good dates, but I did get into PE for 31.5k miles, which wasn't a bad alternative.

[Tal]

Always thought the best way to spend miles was an upgrade. Think it's 12.5k each way for a one level jump. Negative is it's subject to availability, so it's best to buy PE with the hope of getting Upper.

[Simon Galloway]

Aint necessarily so Tal.

First of all, as you point out, you aren't guaranteed to get it.  So, if you like to pack 2 cases when flying PE, now you either are turning up with an economy ticket and 1 case and having to pay excess baggage if you don't get upgraded, or explaining to a loved one that she's in cattle after all..  That is for upgrades on the day, upgrades in advance are usually only permitted on certain ticket codes... and these are never the sale fares.  SO, if you don't mind paying £5k for a full fare economy ticket... you can probably use your miles to upgrade.  I have upgraded on the day, it's fine but no bargain imo.


Las Vegas is currently 31,875 for economy reward, 52,500 for PE and 100k for Upper.

Not sure why you'd want to screw around starting off with an over-priced economy fare (or 31.875k miles) and hoping to spend 25k more miles on scoring a round trip in Premium, when you could have just spent less than that by buying a PE reward ticket straight up.

Cabin upgrades are the best use of the miles imo.  But usually it is better to just book the reward ticket in the class you want to fly in.  Outside of the sale period, the costs are 50k/75k/100k and that is a bad skew.... on that chart Upper is much better value for 100k than Economy is for 50k.  I would never pay 75k for PE when I could buy in 25k miles and fly Upper... it just isn't linear in my view.

[Kmac84]

Last question I promise. 

Whats the weather likely to be like beginning of November, we're going out on the 4th and returning on  15th.   Trying to figure out what to do clothes wise, flying down to London with Easyjet so don't want to go mad with packing too much. 

[tikay]

Last question I promise.  

Whats the weather likely to be like beginning of November, we're going out on the 4th and returning on  15th.   Trying to figure out what to do clothes wise, flying down to London with Easyjet so don't want to go mad with packing too much.  

Jumper weather.

http://www.holiday-weather.com/las_vegas/averages/november/