About to take the plunge

Right, after months and months of deliberation and a million dummy bookings I think I am finally ready to take the plunge.......

Despite having 130,000 FF miles, diligently saved over the preceding years I have lost any confidence I may have had in bagging a G so I'm going to book a Virgin Holiday to LAS, PE out UC back, and use the FF miles to buy VH vouchers. Rubbish use of miles I know but unless any expert out there can see another option I'm done trying.

Seems a shame to use the miles for vouchers especially as you've no doubt spent a lot of money acquiring them , can I assume you haven't had much luck with the dummy bookings ?

[Neil]

It really is a rubbish use if miles.

LAS is a hard route to get rewards on, if you haven't already, look at LAX/SFO and an internal flight.

Absolute rubbish use of miles. Zero luck with dummy reward bookings.

The thing is we're leaving the rug rat at home which means we only have 7 days (before he runs out of water). I felt that adding in that extra flight from LAX / SFO would just waste time. Do you think it's worth trying that though?

I am no expert but it sounds like you have saved long and hard for the miles so use them wisely. If you have flexibility with dates (and/or destinations), call up and see what availability they have.

I have only called FC the once for reward bookings but the chap at the other end was more than helpful in sorting out dates. Give them a call and see what they can offer.

Though a week in SFO would be a far better option than Vegas I would say (my favourite US city by a long mile). I would happily live there if it wasn't for the San Andreas fault threatening to destroy the entire Californian coast- but don't let that put you off

Why will your toddler run out of water? Lost me

I would look at LAX SFO or even JFK and then a DL flight before even thinking about vouchers.

[Darren Wheeler]

I've never flown direct to LAS. Always via LAX or SFO. LAX is usually better for connections and it's only a 45 minutes or so hop.

Rachel - what dates are you looking at?

Why will your toddler run out of water? Lost me

I'm hoping it's a pet or a plant being left at home...

Why will your toddler run out of water? Lost me

Presumably more so the babysitter runs out of good will...

Seems an awful waste of miles to me Rachel, sounds like the alternatives put forward might be more availability; let us know how you get on won't you?

Not much of a contributor here, but I have some perspective on this one, different than most of what has been posted so far.

Never flown upper (though I'd love to try it; I'm usually always PE) so we're not really comparing like for like, but having this year flown to Vegas via LAX for the first time (due to LAS exclusion from last reward seat sale), I'd rather fly PE & go direct, non-stop than go upper & have to connect.

My internal flight was with Southwest and actually moving between terminals at LAX was easy. I liked the simplicity of Southwest's operation, but all round I found it to be a hassle I wouldn't want to repeat if possible, especially on the way back. Arriving in Vegas later and having to leave earlier, twice through airport security etc., I felt like I'd lost valuable time from my (9 night) holiday. To be fair I was conservative with my connection times, and ended up sitting around for a while, but rather that than panic at missing the connection.

I found it particularly frustrating that I basically flew past Vegas to then have to fly back. If I had to do it again, I'd look to connect on the eastern side, rather than the west.

I'm a 13 time Vegas veteran, all but two of which have been with Virgin.

I second the advice to speak directly to Flying Club if you haven't already done so.

Cheers

Ian