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Lesley, this might make your Rio deal cheaper.

luci

Thanks Luci. It would save me $3 per night for my first booking, and about $3 total on my other booking. I might change the first one, but then I've already cancelled and rebooked to save $5 ($35 down to $30), can't really complain. It's hard to believe it could be any cheaper. We may end up cancelling the Rio, and now that Nationwide isn't fee free I'm losing a wee bit every time I cancel and rebook so might not be worth it, need to have a think.

Great deal though, and could have worked better for different dates. Definitely worthwhile consideration for anyone else thinking about staying there - now getting rates as low as $27 per night.

I could also get $29 per night for 3 nights plus one night free at The Orleans which was rather tempting too. It's the second week that I can't get the deals for really.

I am amazed that Virgin are wanting over £800 for a flight in Sept... I dont think I will be going ubless they put the price down

Vegasone - is that £800 for Economy??

if it is it makes me feel a whole lot better paying just over £1k for Premium Eco.!!

We booked earlier in the year, but the prices had sat up at £650-£700 for our flights for months, so we gave up the hope of getting it any cheaper. Prices have fluctuated slight since we booked (signed up to Kayak so see it pretty much daily), but we wouldn't really have got a better price. This is with US Airways, and is around £200 more than we have paid in previous years. It seems that's just the prices now - fuel and taxes getting more expensive all the time.

The flight prices jumped this year by around £200 and have remained there. BA are still sitting at almost £800 for next year and I don't expect them to come down as they didn't this year. Two days before we flew this year our flight went up to £5000 per person in economy!

luci

the economy flight to vegas (Virgin) is now £951 they do not even have any miles plus money flights for Sept I am gobsmacked at this price...I have looked at stop flights and found several for £501 it looks like I am going to have no choice this year

It's really not that bad having one stop along the way. We have no option flying from Glasgow, but at £350 less it would be an easy decision anyway for me.

You really want a stop of about 3 hours. That's enough time to clear immigration, customs, hand your luggage back in, get a bite to eat (and avoid food on the plane!!), and maybe even time to have a drink. 2 hours is comfortable if you don't intend to sit and have a drink. I actually find it quite nice to be able to get off and stretch my legs. And sometimes the airport shops aren't too bad either for a wander.

I agree Luci, they seem to have got away with raising the prices so unfortunately this looks to be the way it is! I just hope the dollar doesn't strengthen now though or prices will go up even more.

Anyway...I'm under the 6 week mark now - was 6 weeks on Monday till we go

Flight prices in September have curtailed our trip this year so we are going to Majorca for a week instead. I really did want to go to Vegas but it just can't be done, especially after a two trip already to the US a few months back.

I agree on flight prices fluctuating horrendously. I have been looking at the Kayak updates for end of March/early April 2012 to Vegas and this week the cheapest flight (£423, indirect) is £188 cheaper than the best price last week. In fact, prices were so mad last week that Virgin direct was coming out the cheapest

I disagree slightly with Lesley on the stopover though. I prefer to keep it short and sweet but still allow enough time to get through immigration/customs etc. The shortest we have had is this year 65mins at Houston and we made that comfortably to fly onto Seattle but then again Houston is the best immigration in the US, well out of the airports I have flown into anyway. I would rather have a bit of stress and rush so I can get to my final destination quicker.

Amazingly, two weeks ago I saw a £500 return indirect to Vegas from Norwich (5 mins away from our house) and although there were two connections (Amsterdam and Detroit) the flight still arrived in Vegas at 15.17! Sure it's a 6.15 start in Norwich, but without the hassle of Gatwick/Heathrow then I am sure we would still get to Vegas feeling more refreshed. Unfortunately, finances dictated that we couldn't book that (for end March/April) plus my Wife still needs to get the time off and with it being near Easter, I'm not sure that is going to happen.....

Ju

I agree that a stop isn't the end of the world, but for us it would mean 2 stops which really is a bit of a bind wasting time hanging around airports twice for your connection.

luci

Yes Luci, from your airport it's harder to get a one stop I would think - my friend lives up your way and ends up driving down here when she goes away but that must be about 3 hours - maybe not just as bad as me having to drive to Manchester, but still a pain.

Ju - yes I see what you mean, but I'm a worrier and I'd worry that I'd miss the connection. Almost did in London a couple of years ago, our luggage never made it, and we only just made it (after running!). Paul Daniels was on the plane though which gave us a good laugh when we boarded He didn't manage to magic our luggage on though

I'm very unlikely to get a direct flight from Glasgow, so I'll just have to make the most of the options available. We're used to one stop, and we usually get into Vegas about 6 or 7pm, which is quite nice. Wander round, food, a wee drink, then bed. Then I wake at 3am though I do remember getting a direct from Manchester the first time we went, we got to vegas about lunch time, and ended up in bed early, and awake all night.

The only option we have for a one stop connection is BA and their prices are ridiculous, but we pay it as there is usually less than £100 difference between one stop and two if it is booked early enough.

I agree that landing around 7pm is a better option than a flight that gets in early afternoon. An early landing means you are shattered by 7pm and in bed only to wake at midnight and not be able to get back to sleep. A 7pm landing means bed around 10-11pm and awake around 4-5am which is much more civilised.

However with the flight originating in Aberdeen, 7pm is usually the earliest we could get there anyway.

We wouldn't consider Virgin from Gatwick as the only flight from Aberdeen to connect with it is with FlyBe. As it wouldn't be a through ticket, if the FlyBe flight was cancelled, we would lose the Virgin flight.

luci

yes- we have our flight from Aberdeen which lands at 6.20pm. We are going to try to stay up late enough but might not venture far that night( thinking Ellis Island!!)

Hi guys - new member here.

My and my gf are visiting Vegas for 5 nights in September. We want to do the usual excurcsions (ie the popular ones) and see what Vegas has to offer over the 5 nights. Will proabley spend 2-3 hours each day by the pool etc. That said, how much spending money would normally suffice. (NB we have room only)

Hi Boro22,

Welcome to the forum, you'll find out there are a lot of avid Vegas fans on here!

You ask an impossible question unless you can give us more info please......what do you plan to do whilst you're out there....
Gamble....shows....eat at classy restaurants, eat on a budget,go clubbing, go to bars/lounges, go shopping, go on tours......as you can see, there's an awful lot to do and most of it costs money. I'll try to give you an idea of costs though....

FOOD:
Vegas is fantastic in that you can eat at 'bargain' places and you can eat at michelin starred restaurants. If you're eating on a budget, then the hotel buffets are an option, where you can eat pretty well for not a lot of money. Of course there are plenty of fast food places to eat even cheaper still if so required. You can eat out at decent restaurants for $40-50 a head easily. If you wanted breakfast and dinner only, I would say $100 would see you eat pretty well. If you ate fast food only you could probably have breakfast and dinner for about $30!

DRINK:
Drinking in bars and clubs is expensive with beers around $8 a bottle and shorts and mixers more expensive still. The cheapest way to drink is to sit at a slot machine in a casino and catch the waitress walking round, the drinks are free and you just need to tip her a dollar a drink. You can be clever and just put 1 dollar in the machine as she's walking round and still ask her for two drinks, so you end up with two drinks for $3!

SHOWS:
Worth booking before you go out there if you can to save the hassle. If you like Cirque du Soleil shows, they have a promotion on called 'Summer of Cirque' where you can get half price tickets for some of their shows. Or, you can go to the Tkts4less booths on the strip - there's a few dotted around, where you can buy tickets on the day of the show at reduced prices.
Generally, the top shows are around $80-100+ per ticket (full price) and the cheaper shows are around the $30-50 mark.

SHOPPING:
Some of the hotels have shopping malls built in, they are generally quite pricey but many feature all the top designers and brands. There are two shopping outlets nearby where you can pick up some very good deals, one is out past the airport and the other is close to downtown just off the I15.

GAMBLING:
Depends what you want to gamble on, you can bet on 'penny' slots, meaning your money will go a long way. Table games have minimum bets, during the week some casinos have a $5 minimum bet, some are $10. At weekends only a few of the 'lesser' hotels such as O'Sheas, Excalibur and Tropicana have cheaper minimum tables on the strip. If you go to Downtown, some of the casinos there have low minimums all week, you may even be able to find $3 minimums if you're lucky.

TOURS:
Is this your first time to Vegas or the USA? Personally if it's your first time I would say if you're going to do one trip, go to the Grand Canyon, it's awesome. A helicopter trip (the quickest way to do it) will set you back about $199 each. There are several companies doing it, Maverick and Papillon are the most popular it seems. I went with Maverick and they were excellent.
You could also hire a car and drive there. The south rim is the best to go to and it's about a 4.5hr drive each way so it's a long day, hence on a 5 day holiday, the helicopter is best if you can afford it. Best to book before you go if you can.
Other options range from hiring a car and going to Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, Lake Mead/Hoover Dam (you can jet ski on Lake Mead, I do it every year), to driving out to Primm to go shopping, go to the Gun Store to fire some guns, go to bootleg canyon to do a zipline ride, about a mile long I think it is!.....there's plenty to do!
As I say, let us know if you have anything definite in mind and someone should be able to give you some advice!

Cheers,

TC

Wow TC! Great answer

Ta

Felt I could have gone into a bit more detail.........................

How depressing.........there have been hardly any Vegas trip reports this year!! Normally we have a steady supply of them!
I guess we'll see a little flurry around September/October time.

TC

Sorry TeeCee we didn't go this year....maybe next year though