Keep calm Lesley. I'm hoping this volatile market will settle down and the rates will return to somewhere closer to what we have been used to. We have been to Vegas when the rate was worse than it is now, and still had a great time.

It was worse five years ago.

I am subscribed to fare alerts from Kayak.co.uk they send me a weekly bulletin of the prices from Manchester to Vegas. When it gets nearer to when I want to book, I change to a daily bulletin. That may help you plan ahead.

The dollar will stay strong against the pound for quite a while yet, possibly even until next May or June I reckon.
We will be going next September again hopefully. This time round we plan to stay in cheaper hotels and spend the bit extra on Premium economy flights.

TC

Pebbles...how can you tell me to calm down, then tell me about a great website!!!

TeeCee...September again eh? Next May or June exchange rate improvement will be fine really. I hope you're right though. However I will get impatient and want to book things! I can't help but wonder if 1.60 is more of a normal exchange rate and we've just been benefiting from a good one for a while now.

We're off to Miami for a cruise in 3 weeks time - somehow not as exciting as Vegas, but looking forward to it in a different sort of way. Have already got our dollars!

Have you subscribed for their alerts Lesley?

Yes, sure have. Great website - thank you! Have really got more to think about right now than Vegas, but somehow Vegas is the nice thing to think about!!

Will be funny next year taking some newbies and trying to show them around. I'll definitely be asking for opinions on where to take then when it gets closer!

It certainly gets under your skin.

Im planning to go to Las Vegas with, what will be, my hubby (getting married next may and hope to go to vegas as a belated honeymoon). We are planning to go for 2 weeks over xmas and new year so im guessing its way too soon to start looking for flights etc. Anybody know when or where is the best time/place to look for flights/hotels. Im not sure if it will work our cheaper arranging the flights ourselves or booking through a travel agents?????

I went to vegas about 5 years ago and have wanted to go back since then but its my partners first time. He isnt as excited as me about it but im guessing its cos he just doesnt understand how fab a place it is.

Im guessing everything has changed though since i was last there, the wynn was only just starting to be built!!

Claire xx

Yes, I think you're too early for the flights....but you're still welcome to get excited about going!!!

I'm gutted actually, this year Premium economy to Vegas with Virgin was just under £1400 for September. I looked last week for flights in 2009 and mid-September next year was available for £980 return - Premium.
My missus said book them but to be honest I can't afford to at the mo' so I said let's wait until January for their sale.
Checked again yesterday and looks like pretty much all September flights are back to well over £1000 for Premium, with most around the £1400 mark again.

I should've bitten the bullet and used the credit card

TC

Ok....you will all laugh........guess what I did?????

Yes, I booked for next September. Expedia, £2874 for 6 of us. Flights for 11 nights, September 6th-17th from Glasgow. Orleans 6-11th, leaving us free to book something on the strip (hopefully on a nice offer) for the remaining 6 nights. £479 each!!! I'm amazed! 2 stops though, but I can live with that given the great price!

Pity the $ isn't so good now though.

That's an excellent price Lesley.

I've been holding off booking for May as I was waiting for the bmi sale in January, but now that they are pulling out of Manchester I will have to rethink how we are going to get there.

I was looking yesterday and flights only with 2 stops started at £484. Will have a look at Expedia when I'm in the mood. Not sure if it's worth waiting till January.

luci

That's a great price Lesley!!! Are you excited or concerned about the prospect of taking first timers? I know when we finally convinced our best friends to include Vegas in their Honeymoon plans we were worried they would hate it. Why? I don't know. It clearly isn't everybodys cup of tea (I'm the same with a 2 week beach holiday in the Med) but in the end we needn't have worried, they LOVED IT!!!!

Vegas is out for us next year. Shame, but we have got a trip planned for August to Oregon and Washington State which should satisfy the adventure and outdoors in us. Vegas will have to wait for another year....unless of course I can convince my Wife to have 5 or 6 nights there as a 2nd holiday in 2009. I don't fancy my chances.....

2 stops won't be an issue if you ask me. Just think what is waiting for you when you get there......have fun with the planning.

Ju

I thought it was good too! Not even got a flight that cheap the last few years. I thought it was going to end up costing more next year because of the $.

Ju - I'm probably both nervous and excited! We're going to plan an itinerary for 4 days with a car (need to get a people carrier). We will have 3 newbies, and 1 who has been before but never saw much. We've got a mix of sunbathers/pasty people and also drinkers/non-drinkers, vegetarians/carnivores, shoppers/not so keen shoppers etc, so could be a challenge.

I will of course be needing lots of opinions from you guys about stuff!!! What do you think are must sees/do's/eats etc for newbies? I'm thinking hoover dam (in car), outlets, red rock, boulevard mall, bellagio fountains, sirens TI, Atlantis, Miracle Mile rainstorm, Rio buffet, Fontana bar, stratosphere tower. Some of this we might send them off to do themselves though. At the Orleans I think we'll all enjoy the lounge with entertainment, maybe if we've been out in the car for a while. Also for shows, some want to see Penn & Teller, I want to see Phantom, and I think might be good to do Comedy Stop at Trop.

Well guess who else is booked for next year? It took me a good few days to get over the fact that bmi had pulled out of Manchester and I was going to have to find another route.

Going with Virgin wasn't really an option as we'd have to get FlyBe down from Aberdeen with only 20 kgs baggage allowance and stay overnight. It was getting very expensive and inconvenient.

I had a look at some sites, but I was a bit concerned with some of the results returned by the likes of Expedia, Net Flights and Opodo. They were offering flights with airlines that I know don't partner and therefore we wouldn't be able to check our luggage straight through to Vegas and in some cases wouldn't have had the maximum baggage allowance.

One example was FlyBe to LGW and then Virgin out. FlyBe only have a 20 kgs allowance and we would have had to collect our luggage and check it in again. Another was a bmi flight to LHR and then American Airlines. I don't think I could have checked the luggage straight through with them.

Anyway......... I decided the preferred way to get to Vegas was to do the long hop first and a short hop once we were in the States so looked at going via LA with an hour flight after that rather than go via Chicago, Dallas, etc which would mean we still had a 4 hour flight after landing.

Booked with American Airlines last night to go at the end of April for 14 nights ABZ - LHR -LAX - LAS. I pondered it for a couple of days wondering if I would get it cheaper waiting till January as the price was about the same as we paid for direct flights this year. I did notice that the AA site said they had a sale on which ended at midnight last night and I don't know how often they have sales.

Decided I would be more upset if the price went up than I would be if it went down so went for it. Good move as they went up £60pp today.

I was so impressed with Lesley's price on Expedia that I have had a play around with that too. I used the same dates, etc but going from Aberdeen and it is £100pp dearer.

Will have to start looking out for hotel offers now although it's probably a bit early.

I usually get very excited when I book my flights, but didn't this time and was very apprehensive. I think it's because booking with bmi was so easy as there was just one flight to Manchester and one flight to Vegas on days they flew. With American Airlines there were pages and pages of options for both the outward and return flights and it was very daunting.

Anyway, Vegas here I come! Only another 23 weeks to go.

luci

Nice one Luci

23 weeks really doesn't seem that much, the time will fly by.....

I'm with you on the journey over to the USA. I have been offered countless flights to New York connecting on to my destination in the West but I think it's better to do the majority of the journey in one go. A short journey over is great, 7/8hrs or so to Boston or New York but then another 4hrs+ to the other side of the USA.....no thanks. We flew into LAX for our 2007 trip to Vegas and the flight time to Vegas was advertised at 1hr 10m, but actually took just 45mins. Lovely.

All the regulars booking again for Vegas next year is great but I feel a bit left out this time. Vegas is a non starter for us in 2009, it will be nice to have a rest from it but I will miss it. I love the place. Currently we are looking at a March mini break of 7 or 8 days to Philadelphia/Baltimore/maybe D.C. again and then in August we will be heading to Washington State and Oregon, which has been high up on the list for a number of years now.

I priced up flights into Philly and out of Baltimore in mid March yesterday and Northwest Airlines came back the cheapest connecting both ways in Detroit for the grand sum of £250pp!!!!!!!! I wanted to book it there and then, but at the moment that's not an option so I am hoping they don't increase dramatically in the next few weeks.....bet your bottom dollar they do though!!

Happy planning!!!

Ju

Thanks. 23 weeks doesn't sound too long until you realise it is almost 6 months. However I have a couple of holidays to Benidorm before then which will help the time pass, but it's going to be a long haul from January to April.

Will start looking at Vegas sites when I get back from Beni to see what's new. I did find info on a murder mystery tour this morning which is apparently like CSI and visits various sites, but I didn't have time to read all the details.

luci

Hi Luci

Glad to hear you've booked! Great! Good to be organised, and you've plenty of time to look forward to it! No hotels yet? What's your thoughts? We're doing 5 nights at Orleans then 6 nights we still need to book. I'm thinking North central strip - ie Mirage area. If dollar remains poor we will consider Excalibur widescreen, but might find other good offers. I need to be patient.

We're off to the states on Satruday going to Miami then a cruise and then 4 more nights in Miami. No-one seems to talk about Miami on here so I've been doing my cruise chat on cruise critic website.

Anyway glad you got a good deal Luci!

Ju...are you sure you're not going next year.......:0)

Thanks Lesley. I have just spent over 6 hours catching up on the Las Vegas topic on the Money Saving Expert site that I haven't visited since I went on holiday on 20 September. There were over 50 pages of posts!
There have been some excellent deals lately on hotels. Would have loved to have taken advantage of the Venetian at $119 with $50 per DAY dining credit!

Going to have to remember to look into this MYSTERY ADVEnTURE a bit further, but it looks like fun.

I've just ordered £500 of currency as I expect the rate to drop even further. Much as I haven't have a problem with CCE, I didn't want to risk £1000.

Anyway I'd better get off as I'm off to Benidorm tomorrow and I still have to finish moddding on here.

Have a great cruise Lesley and I hope you can post a review of the ship when you return.

luci

Have a great time in Benidorm Luci - plenty of time to talk Vegas next month!!!