V-Flyer

OK I confess, I have got the UC bug big time now, and also the Vegas bug. Now its my old man's big 6-0 in March (dont tell him I said so!) and he has always wanted to do Vegas so thinking a 3-night break would be perfect (with me as his personal tour guide of course).
Looking at flights on VA website (UC of course now), firstly no point in MPM (unlike my previous bargain) as only £50 cheaper. His birthday is start of March so its not Easter, school hols etc, but is midweek - would a weekend be cheaper as the fares are currently eye-watering (think I was spoilt by my LHR-SFO, LAX-LHR late August £1450!).
So when do fares drop, or is it better to book PE and see what price offered online for upgrade? The upgrades offered at LAX one-way seemed a rip-off, and made me feel very quietly smmug, so think that's not an option.
Or if I booked a VH package (hotel+ economy flights) and then enquire as to upgrade costs does that work out cheaper?
OK rambling too much again, so over to you...

Cheap UC fares to Vegas rarely happen due to the small UC cabin and the demand for it. Have a look at LAX/SFO and an internal, almost certainly will work out cheaper, but the days of cheap UC fares, even in sales are long gone it seems.

You obviously got a great fare last time, but they seem to be very rare, and I would think you are looking at £2000+ as an absolute minimum during a sale, but even then it could easily be another £500 the way recent sales/fares have been.

So you have got the UC Bug !

mid-week flights are very expensive as you get caught by the 'saturday night stay' rule and tickets are in the higher fare buckets.

I did a dummy booking for MOn 5th / Thur 8th March = £ 4692 (D)

On Thurs 8th / Tues 13th = £ 2292 (Z)

You could try puting a package together on e.g. expedia to see if that brings the midweek price down - do the flight search first and then add hotel as doing a flight+hotel option from the begining does not bring up the option to choose a premium cabin.

There is also the option of doing a AMS-LHR-LAS which would bring the prices down too (though that involves a seperate flight and a nights stay in AMS too!) On Opodo the 5th/8th March fare came as just under £2100

tontybear wrote:
There is also the option of doing a AMS-LHR-LAS which would bring the prices down too (though that involves a seperate flight and a nights stay in AMS too!) On Opodo the 5th/8th March fare came as just under £2100

Tonty, it would have to be AMS-LGW-LAS.

The OP would have to be aware that they would have to fly to Amsterdam and then back to LGW so that there would be the expense of the flight to Amsterdam and possibly an overnight there and that for the return flight they would need to ensure that their bags are tagged to LGW as they need not do that last leg to AMS. They do have to do the first leg from AMS otherwise the whole ticket would be void.

honey lamb wrote:

tontybear wrote:
There is also the option of doing a AMS-LHR-LAS which would bring the prices down too (though that involves a seperate flight and a nights stay in AMS too!) On Opodo the 5th/8th March fare came as just under £2100

Tonty, it would have to be AMS-LGW-LAS.

The OP would have to be aware that they would have to fly to Amsterdam and then back to LGW so that there would be the expense of the flight to Amsterdam and possibly an overnight there and that for the return flight they would need to ensure that their bags are tagged to LGW as they need not do that last leg to AMS. They do have to do the first leg from AMS otherwise the whole ticket would be void.

Honey Lamb - your reply is one reason out of many why I love this forum y). Attention to detail and doing your best to help the OP out....we're not worthy oo) :$

Petmadness wrote:

honey lamb wrote:

tontybear wrote:
There is also the option of doing a AMS-LHR-LAS which would bring the prices down too (though that involves a seperate flight and a nights stay in AMS too!) On Opodo the 5th/8th March fare came as just under £2100

Tonty, it would have to be AMS-LGW-LAS.

The OP would have to be aware that they would have to fly to Amsterdam and then back to LGW so that there would be the expense of the flight to Amsterdam and possibly an overnight there and that for the return flight they would need to ensure that their bags are tagged to LGW as they need not do that last leg to AMS. They do have to do the first leg from AMS otherwise the whole ticket would be void.

Honey Lamb - your reply is one reason out of many why I love this forum y). Attention to detail and doing your best to help the OP out....we're not worthy oo) :$

We aim to please

I did an ex-Amsterdam in the summer and saved nearly a grand even with the flight to AMS and an overnight stay. The worst part of it was the ghastly BA breakfast :$ which repeated on me through the whole of my VS flight.

Having said that, it does pay to check. I've just booked a UC flight to Dubai via the VS website as it was cheaper than an ex-AMS so it really is a case of swings and roundabouts

It always pays to check the all the options.

Even better if you check the options for the right airport though in my defence I did just put 'London' in the booking engine and not a specific airport.