V-Flyer

Hi,
My wife & I go to Vegas at least once a year, usually PE (we’re bubble fans, so have joined the ranks gutted about the refits!). Have never travelled in UC – would love to but if it’s one holiday a year in UC or two in Economy or PE, the latter always wins !

We’re looking to see if we can justify a second Vegas trip later this year, so I’m looking for the cheapest options (in PE if poss). I’ve got an MBNA Amex companion flight ‘qualification’, 2 MBNA Amex economy to PE reward upgrade vouchers but only 41500 miles.

PE

Cheapest regular PE ticket is around £1150 each

Companion ticket: An S fare is approx. £1360, so with the taxes etc. on the companion element, the total cost is £1775ish. Still nearly £900 each, but it doesn’t cost me any of my miles to use, and I’d earn a good few miles off the S fare.

Using miles to upgrade economy to PE seems like poor value – a cheap economy qualifying fare is approx. £1K (and I don’t have 50k miles for the round trip upgrade for 2) .

I can’t use the Amex reward upgrade voucher because I’m a bit short of the 47500 miles for 1 economy reward ticket (though I could buy miles), so I’d be looking at £1400 – 1500 total plus the loss of all my miles

MPM £1000 each.

Economy

Cheapest regular economy ticket is around £780 each. Total £1560

MPM £695 each. Total £1390

Buy 6000 Miles (£105) to get 1 reward ticket & buy a regular ticket – total cost £1200ish

Companion ticket – qualifying economy fare is approx. £980, then there’s the £350 taxes etc. for the companion element. Total £1330

Of those, the companion ticket seems the best option to me as it doesn’t cost me any of my miles.

Am I missing any other options for minimising the cost?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Ian

I'm no expert but I think the companion ticket is going to be the cheapest. What month are you thinking of going? I'm in a similar situation and the fares from September onwards seem quite high at the moment.

I was thinking about flying via LA but it did make for a long journey last time.

Thanks for your reply. I'm surprised that of the choices I've identified, companion option looks best. They don't seem to be very highly regarded, maybe because an S fare plus tax can often be close to 2 kare fares?

Thinking of going Late August or September. Also toyed with idea of LA, but those hours saved by going non-stop are quite valuable.

Subject to availability (which is always going to be tight on the Gatwick route as demand is high) there is a way you could fly Upper, just would have to be one of you on the way out and one on the way back. so if you are a couple who need to be joined at the hip for the flight stop reading here


If however you are happy to do your own thing on the plane, like watching films, reading, etc.........



Still interested? OK, I think it goes like this. Buy your S fare and use the companion. Then use 25k miles to upgrade the S fare to Upper Class G (round trip, or 12.5k one way). Unfortunately the companion fare can't be upgraded, so you would be one in upper and one in PE (or you could be really chivalrous and let the Mrs travel upper both ways)

The benefit of using miles to upgrade is that you would get to use the Clubhouse at Gatwick on your outbound and one of you would get a nice flat bed to sleep in on the way back.

The downside will be that you won't want to go back to PE

The other possibility for you to explore to keep the cost down would be a combi fare. This couples a PE (or upper) reward with a paid economy return, the latter not stupidly priced as one ways usually are. You can only find out what these are by phoning though. Not sure if you could (subject to getting to the 47.5k miles required) book 2 one way economy rewards, use the upgrade vouchers to make them PE, and then travel paid combi Y on the other leg (not sure if you would be able to use your companion ticket against that, I have no idea which fare bucket they book into but I would suspect not.)

One thing to watch out for though - you say YOU have 41k miles, but is that all in your account or do you mean collectively? You can't just pool them for rewards, although you can book legs individually from different accounts.

Thanks RedVee for your comprehensive response ! We would prefer to travel together, but that's certainly an option worth considering.

Yes, I have 41k, my wife has 7k which I've ignored here.

Don't know what your budget is, but if you want to splash out and can afford it, the current UC sale fare to LAS in July and August is, frankly, amazing - £1757 per person (it's normally about £3300).

Only available until next week though ...

LAX, incidentally, is even cheaper at £1590.

Gumshoe, thanks for your reply. I had seen those fares and deliberately didn't mention in my post (I actually saw the BA ones first, and wondered about flying Club to Phoenix for £1390 each then driving), but my original, rather optimistic thinking was around £1500 for flights & a week's hotel stay (Wynn/Bellagio/Aria/Cosmo level). I can get within a few hundred of this if we took the cheapest economy option, but I would love to go UC at least once and it is tempting, even if I'll still be paying for it when we go away next year !

What about 2* miles plus money fares?

7.5k miles each for PE or 15k each for UC (if you can get one in UC one of course)

Hi Tontybear, I checked the MPM fares in PE & in economy and in both cases they work out more expensive than the companion ticket, which also doesn't require the use of any miles. I didn't actually check UC MPM, as I've never seen one available when I've looked before in the booking tool. Now If there were UC MPM on top of the current sale price, it would be hard to resist...

It seems that the price of an M+M fare is what it is and isn't affected when there is a sale.

That is why there are complaints that M+M can cos more than a sale fare.

They can be good value but are not always good value.

Was that £1500 each, or for the two of you? If it was the latter, you were being very optimistic

If you are going soon there are a couple of offers available. The best unrestricted one is the Aria through the Virtuoso programme. Classictravel.com are one agent for this. I've just booked what is probably the most expensive week in July for $1328 including tax and resort fee. In the Virtuoso rate is 2 x $25 breakfast credit each day, a one off $25 resort credit, two one day spa passes per stay @ $30 each, early check in, late check out and a one category space availably upgrade (King to King city view or King city view to Corner Suite - no higher levels included). The cheapest, without extras I found was $1128 (including one free night via the normal Amex Membership Rewards Travel agency). And if you have Amex Plat (or Centurion), there is an offer (WOW12) which gets you a $500 resort credit, but the daily rates are hoicked up a bit meaning its only break even on stays of seven days or less. But if you just book one night, you still get the $500.

There is also an offer of 2 nights absolutely free gratis at the Wynn for Centurions, but this has not been extended to Plats - I did try

The best offer code I found for the Wynn was ONLFALL - 35% discount. Was far better than the Fine Hotel and resorts rate even though that one included $60 of breakfast credit a day.

Good Luck

RedVee - Maybe a little optimistic! I'd started off thinking maybe 2 economy flights for £1000 with some points, then £500 for 6 or 7 nights, which isn't so absurd - I do get some good offers, especially from Wynn, though i don't have anything yet for Aug/Sep.

Going slightly off topic now, but Wynn give me the odd free night & resort or slot credit from time to time. I had 3 nights for 2 plus $200 credit in May, which worked out cheaper than staying at Flamingo. Where flight prices are consistent over a period of weeks, I can shop around for the best hotel prices. Vegashotelspecial.com have a lot of good deals, but we more often than not end up at Wynn (or Encore).

Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out. I was already looking at wynn offer code 35offer, which has some weeknights starting at $116 plus fee & tax to end of Aug.

We're now seriously considering the UC offer, so what if we haven't got the money if we do go for it, I'm sure to have more Qs....

Have you looked at packages? I never normally do, but I bagged 5 nights at the Palazzo and VS return flights in Economy for £1500 for two last year. I booked through Expedia. If you were looking to book separately, http://www.smartervegas.com can be good for Hotels.

Well after much discussion, we decided against the UC sale and then managed to talk ourselves out of going altogether ! Vegas is not a great place to be if you've got no money to spend, and we'd have been on a tight budget. So it looks like next year after all. At least then I'll have some more points, and I can keep an eye out for any good fares for then. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Thanks 747Rich, I occasionally check package prices, for no other reason than to check they're more expensive than going independent. But that's a great price for flights & Palazzo. I've never seen there or Venetian cheap, hence have never stayed there. I'll check out smartervegas too - thanks.