V-Flyer

Have been trying to get somewhere to go away for March after all my teeth have been fitted (some will remember last September). Its been a long hard slog waiting for it all to come together, final measuring is on the 11th Feb and fitting is booked for the 4th March.

Hubby not wanting to goto any Arab country, so have been looking at east coast USA constantly with VS and BA. As its our anniversary early March (not a big one ) thought why not.

Its quite nice temps in Vegas and Death Valley end of March, anything better than staying here. So up popped 2 x G's on the 16th March from Gatwick, could not get any reward spaces back only economy (not big enough seat space), so booked WT+ back on BA for the 26th March, landing back at Gatwick.

Have not been from Gatwick with Virgin for over 4 years (pre re fit) and never UC from there, so am really looking forward to the experience, any advice please give. Went into choose seats and only 2 had been reserved the rest of the cabin empty , went for 7 and 8 K. Have booked us into the Hilton day before, what time does the lounge open? Is it worth doing twilight check in or will it be quiet on the morning?

Been on the internet booking hotel rooms, in Vegas and Death Valley and looking at car hire seems to have got really expensive recently.

Did the UC get a re fit or was it only the premium and what type of IFE, as am only used to the 340's to LAX.

Well done!

UC didn't really get a refit on the LGW 747s, more a sprucing up but they did put in Vera Touch IFE which is a big step up from the A340s.

Whether to do twilight check in is really up to you - the queue for the very smart UC desks in the morning won't be huge so it's really down to what's convenient.

I'd get to LGW as early as you can on the day - ideally between 7 & 8 - to take full advantage of the Clubhouse and book any treatments you may want before it gets busy.

Congratulations....

I think the CH opens at 6.30.

Debate on the Twilight vs morning experience here

Thanks Gumshoe, as we are in the Hilton just got to wander through, as we are normally early risers and I can never sleep in hotel night before a trip. So if it opens at 7 we will be there.

Well done you, just shows it is possible to get them. Did you look at returns from SFO or LAX for alternative G's? Sometimes a cheap flight to one of those would get you back in style.

On car hire search for non airport or non hotel locations in the city - they are often a lot cheaper for the sake of a taxi ride.

Will do Slinky, hubby just wanted a straight in and out flight nothing with connections, must be an age thing, can't be bothered with all the checking in and transferring. It will be enough from North to South terminal at Gatwick, although the little train looks good nothing to strenuous with cases, anything for the least hassle.

its a good time to go to vegas
Its March Madness - lots of spring breakers around, so expect it to be busy.

I was there 2 years ago & all the beer, etc. are much cheaper because of the basketball tournament. I also played the myvegas facebook game - it had only just been released when I started & managed to grab all sort of freebies. Best was probably the Beatles show as the ticket prices on them was $350 each!

As for Car Hire - I always find it cheaper to look on the american sites.
You could also try Priceline where you can name your own price.

Take some eggs to death valley & cook your dinner

Well done with the G tickets

March madness - that's an understatement

We was in LV from 14th to 18th March a couple of years back. The crowds were incredible and to add to the problem it was St Patrick's Day whilst we was there.
Boy they celebrated that big time looks like you'll arrive by 17th too - enjoy

mallin wrote:Thanks Gumshoe, as we are in the Hilton just got to wander through, as we are normally early risers and I can never sleep in hotel night before a trip. So if it opens at 7 we will be there.

Congrats on your booking.
We are flying this month from Gatwick and staying at the Hilton. Have already decided to skip their rubbish breakfast and go straight to the clubhouse.
If you haven't already booked an executive room it's worth considering as you can use the lounge in the evening with an open bar and hot and cold snacks. After a couple of hours there and a bottle of bubbly in the room I seem to sleep OK.
Just to make it clear, we take the bubbly. Its not part of the executive deal. It just feels like we have really started the holiday when we crack open a bottle.
Dick D

For the Hilton lounge (ie: if you are upgrade or have booked executive lounge), I think its 6pm-9pm for alcohol and snacks. It's open other times, but no alcohol, and not been there early enough at Gatwick, but they often have things like afternoon tea 3pm-6pm or something, with scones and finger sandwiches.

We did twilight check in when it was open from noon, way back. But last year we looked around 5pm and it had a massive queue. We did come back later and the queue had gone. There's no separate queues there, its all as if you are economy...

In the morning, the Upper desks were empty, so I'd not bother with twilight now if going Upper...

Congratulations on both the G's and your upcoming anniversary. I use the Hilton executive lounge in the morning not to eat breakfast but to fire up my caffeine level and also to check out. Have never had any problems with suitcases on the train to /from North Terminal.

Have a great trip !

Congratulations on getting your tickets. We are going later this week, can't wait.

In my opinion you have booked the best seats on the plane, either rows 7 or 8 out and back are good, and just far enough away from the bar. The entertainment system is great and the food is really good in UC, although I wasn't that hungry when it was served but ate my way through the cheese trolley later

Booked my car with Alamo through Virgin at a good rate for 10 days and also did the online check in with Alamo - I remember the URL was a bit tricky to find last time I looked a couple of years ago so I saved the URL
https://v1.alamo.com/index.do?action=/h ... amo-virgin

I usually get to the lounge by about 8.30 and there is plenty of seating and still places left for the free spa treatments.

Congratulations Linda on both anniversary and G's to Las Vegas.
We will be in the LGW CH on the 9th March for a BGI flight ( So will not have missed you by much ) also staying at the Hilton the night before.
We always make use of the twilight check in, it means your can head straight for security and the CH on the morning of the flight.
We like hiljil give the Hilton's breakfast a miss and have it at the CH. Have a fabulous time in Nevada and be lucky!

Smid wrote:We did twilight check in when it was open from noon, way back. But last year we looked around 5pm and it had a massive queue. We did come back later and the queue had gone. There's no separate queues there, its all as if you are economy.

I did Twilight check in a couple of weeks ago, about 8pm on a Saturday, no queues at all and there was a dedicated UC desk.

These days there's really no advantage to using it though, unless it's more convenient for you. The advent of OLCI and automated kiosks at the airport mean the bag drop process is much quicker and the horrendous queues you used to see at check in on the morning are no more.

Thanks Marie , Hillary and all the others for advice. It was quite a busy day organising yesterday think I was on the phone for hours. Sorry to be missing you Marie would have been nice to meet.

Have booked the evening meal as it was discounted with Holiday Extras, went through Topcashback and got £25 off the booking as well, the executive was a bit pricey at £60 extra so gave that a miss DDC, I am only a basic HH so probably no chance of any upgrade.

Tha car hire prices are very erratic, from £280 with Virgin to £215 with Argus still may have a look around as have a few weeks left. Think we will give Twilight a miss ( I also only recall it being open from midday) and go early in the morning not sure what time check in opens at Gatwick?
Can't wait now fed up with these cold days and no where to go , nice to be not working, though remember the days of waiting for the car to warm up. Linda

gumshoe wrote:
I did Twilight check in a couple of weeks ago, about 8pm on a Saturday, no queues at all and there was a dedicated UC desk.

These days there's really no advantage to using it though, unless it's more convenient for you.

When we used it last summer we queued with everyone else, to be asked by the agent "why did you not use the end desk - that's for Upper". Errrr...possibly because it wasn't signed as such as ?

I have to admit we use the twilight bag drop so we can make the journey from the hotel with hand luggage only and go some way to our fantasy of one day turning up at the airport with just hand luggage and no planning and buying a ticket there and then...

I don't know if it's just me - but a big perk of VS AU is being able to wander in at 8-9am watching the massive Y queus, and swan past using UC checkin.

Given our next LGW flight is MCO in Oct, it'll sadly likely be the last time though as chance of AU renewal this year are pretty close to nil (shouldn't have booked G's!). How I wish VS gave TP on G's.