Travel

[Merged] Vegas Deals

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Sr. Member
Mar 23, 2015
537 posts
232 upvotes
Westmount, QC
Hi

Going with wife and daughter in October can u recommend a good family show (where to get good price ticket) and is it worth it renting a car

Thanks
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
blackCold wrote: Hi

Going with wife and daughter in October can u recommend a good family show (where to get good price ticket) and is it worth it renting a car

Thanks
Car rental depends entirely on your plans. It is not a town where vacationers NEED one (although if you are in search of more family friendly activities i suppose it could help). So it is mostly a question of whether you would use one for sightseeing (Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Red Rocks, Valley of Fire, etc etc). There can be a lot of benefits to having a car in Vegas, but not only are the rentals themselves expensive, but many strip hotels will also charge for parking on top of the resort fee they already charge you.

One option to consider is going without the car for the bulk of the trip but maybe doing a day rental if you want to go sightseeing one day,


Mac King would be a good family show. I believe he is at Excal now (used to be at Harrahs)
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
nevyn1234 wrote: BTW, my next trip is this September, and I will update on here with details on some of the deals I did. Waiting until after so I can speak to whether some of these things are worth it, plus a few details on coupons downtown are a bit up in the air and i don't want to mislead.
So, many of my hotel deals i changed at the last minute to avoid MGM hack issues, and i was mainly using various travel points for them anyway.


I will say that I spend 5 of my nights at Marriott's Grand Chateau, which I enjoyed. It is just off the strip behind PH and is a timeshare, but Marriott operates extra rooms like it is a hotel so you can often book on points. It cost me 175k points for 5 nights including what would normally be an absurdly expensive weekend for hotel in Vegas. I was in a 1 bedroom villa, so had a separate bedroom and living room, large shower for 2, large soaking tub in the bedroom, and a full kitchen, which helped me offset some trip costs. They do have one set of smaller rooms without the kitchens, but on points the villas tend not to cost much more.

I consider this place a hidden gem. It is not perfect. The parking is valet only (free, but you need to wait.etc). And some people just really want to be in a hotel casino. Or they play enough to get offers from one. But for an occasional/casual visitor there are some big benefits here. Obviously the kitchen if you don't mind cooking. But even if you don't want to cook its nice to have the full size fridge for beverages and any restaurant leftovers (and a microwave to reheat them). If you are frugal but not wanting to cook your own, a quick walk across Harmon brings you to the side entrance of the Miracle Mile at PH, right by the entrance to Ocean One, which has some of the cheapest breakfast/lunch deals on the strip. You are an easy walk to the strip. There are two pool areas, one on the 5th floor and one on the roof. Neither is large, but both have a good mix of loungers with sun and/or shade. And they both have bars. But the REAL feature of them to me, since it is a timeshare, you can bring your own drinks, as long as they are not in glass bottles. Anyone who has seen the prices of beverages at a Vegas pool ought to appreciate that.


In terms of other deals/etc I took advantage of, I always get a Las Vegas Advisor membership well in advance for the Member Rewards Book. This is a coupon book, and the dining coupons are YMMV, but tends to pay for itself in the play coupons if you don't mind casino hopping on Fremont street and doing hit and run.

But in addition to this coupon book and the MyVegas MyKonami freeplay rewards, there were other free promotions I took advantage of:

El Cortez: This casino has a promotion where you show your boarding pass (any airline) within 24 hours of arrival, and they give you a coupon for a free drink, 10 dollars of free play, and a 25 dollar match play. It is important to note that they won't let you use both this and your las vegas advisor coupon on the same day, so if you are downtown another day you can use the other coupon.

Downtown Grand: Not only is this the biggest play coupon in the las vegas advisor (a 50 dollar match play), but they also have a coupon in the free american casino guide app. That used to be a paid physical book with coupons at the back, but they stopped printing amid the pandemic. But the upshot of that is you download the free app, and get a free 50 dollar match play coupon. As with El Cortez you can't use the LVA coupon on the same day as the other one.

Circa: The Derek Stevens casinos (D, Golden Gate, Circa) have experimented in the last year with cross promotion with influencers. There used to be a lot of deals at the D where you would drop names of the various channels for free play, but they are all mostly dead. But one time only you can still do this at Circa. I think there are other name drops which may work but the one I used was "Say Hi to Matthew". Say you want to do that promotion at Circa players club and you get a 25 dollar match play.



Obviously play coupons are YMMV both in terms of variance but also in terms of how comfortable you are with the gambling games in question. I generally do my free play on lower variance video poker and cash out. There can be a lot of variance in the results but if you just play the free play and cash out you ought to get most of the face value of the free play. I do my match plays at blackjack. The way a match play works is you put out a bet with your money, and then match coupon. Then if you lose you still lose your bet, but if you win, you win as if you had bet twice as much. So in a good rules blackjack game the expected value of a 50 dollar match play will be just under 25 dollars. On a single coupon use that will generally be a loss of 50 or a win of 100, aside from cases where you get a blackjack or double down opportunity).

There are a few of these play coupons at off strip places, but most of the value is downtown, which is handy because it is far more walkable between casinos there.


This trip my coupons/promotions were the difference between a fairly significant gambling loss on the trip and a 300 dollar US win. This is an outlier because i had a big hit on my Plaza freeplay from las vegas advisor. But while this was an extreme case I have never lost money on a LVA coupon book. The bigger issue with doing these it comfort with the play, and the willingness to go to all these casinos, sign up for their card, and play 1 hand, or just play your free play and move on.

Your first time doing these promotions you may also get some small perks (extra freeplay/decks of cards/etc) just for signing up for the players cards.
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
Just correcting a prior thing I had posted a few pages back about Resorts World/TRopicana through Hilton. I thought you got 2 points for 1 transferring to Hilton from Amex but it appears to be 1:1 which is an epic rip off and not worth it. The 2-1 seems to be for UK accounts or something.
Member
May 10, 2009
281 posts
128 upvotes
Booked a last min (2.5 weeks from now) trip as a couple. Is this enough time for us to accrue enough points on any of these apps for any freebies?

Going to use Hilton points for hotels and debating between the Waldorf vs. Resort World hotels. Any recommendations?
Deal Addict
Mar 8, 2004
1045 posts
895 upvotes
Kanata
vesatoskala89 wrote: Booked a last min (2.5 weeks from now) trip as a couple. Is this enough time for us to accrue enough points on any of these apps for any freebies?

Going to use Hilton points for hotels and debating between the Waldorf vs. Resort World hotels. Any recommendations?
I can accrue about 10,000 points per day so yes. Have 2 accounts one for each of you.
Deal Addict
Dec 29, 2012
2462 posts
2595 upvotes
Toronto
vesatoskala89 wrote:
Going to use Hilton points for hotels and debating between the Waldorf vs. Resort World hotels. Any recommendations?
Waldorf. There's not much around Resorts World
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
vesatoskala89 wrote: Booked a last min (2.5 weeks from now) trip as a couple. Is this enough time for us to accrue enough points on any of these apps for any freebies?

Going to use Hilton points for hotels and debating between the Waldorf vs. Resort World hotels. Any recommendations?
Ok, before we get into hotel, are you going for the F1 race?

There is an F1 race on Nov 18. So that day and the 2 preceding days the strip will be shut to traffic from Harmon through Spring Mountain and getting around will be a pain.

Even if those are not your dates, be aware that there will be grandstands up and down the strip and general chaos in preparation for the race.

If all that is fine and you still want to go, Waldorf I can't comment on the hotel (i assume oodles of points but very luxurious), but the location is normally good ( although close to the race mess now). Resorts World is down by Wynn/Encore, but still a reasonable walking distance from them. That can make some people feel like they are away from the action, but it has its benefits. It is a nice resort will likely more redemption options on the low end than Waldorf. And being less close to other casinos, it has some nice independent taco places across the street, is near Peppermill (very large portions diner with a fireside lounge).

It would be tough to get a useful amount of points from the apps in 2 weeks.
Member
May 10, 2009
281 posts
128 upvotes
nevyn1234 wrote: Ok, before we get into hotel, are you going for the F1 race?

There is an F1 race on Nov 18. So that day and the 2 preceding days the strip will be shut to traffic from Harmon through Spring Mountain and getting around will be a pain.

Even if those are not your dates, be aware that there will be grandstands up and down the strip and general chaos in preparation for the race.

If all that is fine and you still want to go, Waldorf I can't comment on the hotel (i assume oodles of points but very luxurious), but the location is normally good ( although close to the race mess now). Resorts World is down by Wynn/Encore, but still a reasonable walking distance from them. That can make some people feel like they are away from the action, but it has its benefits. It is a nice resort will likely more redemption options on the low end than Waldorf. And being less close to other casinos, it has some nice independent taco places across the street, is near Peppermill (very large portions diner with a fireside lounge).

It would be tough to get a useful amount of points from the apps in 2 weeks.
We are going the weekend after F1 (24th or 25th is our arrival date). Hopefully everything will be cleaned up by then!

I am leaning towards the WA due to its location. The points cost of the WA is = Conrad @ RW, so I think the $ value leans towards the WA also. Thanks!
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
vesatoskala89 wrote: We are going the weekend after F1 (24th or 25th is our arrival date). Hopefully everything will be cleaned up by then!

I am leaning towards the WA due to its location. The points cost of the WA is = Conrad @ RW, so I think the $ value leans towards the WA also. Thanks!
The traffic should be more sane, but I am expecting it to take weeks to remove the temporary grandstands. Should not affect you much except having to find an alternate viewpoint for the fountains
Deal Addict
Mar 8, 2004
1045 posts
895 upvotes
Kanata
nevyn1234 wrote: The traffic should be more sane, but I am expecting it to take weeks to remove the temporary grandstands. Should not affect you much except having to find an alternate viewpoint for the fountains
Recommend doing the Eiffel Tower to watch the fountains. It's a great perspective being able to see it from up top. And good view of the Sphere.
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
Just a heads up since the game apps are frequently discussed on here.

Currently the myvegas apps seem to have 2 night awards for all of their properties for everyone regardless of spend (but they can be sold out on the more in demand properties), and this is bookable for dates through June of next year.

Previous experience suggests that this won't be permanent, so if you have the LP and want to use this it may be worth redeeming.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jan 12, 2017
23017 posts
6890 upvotes
Scarberia
Myvegas food rewards are all blacked out from dec18 to jan1 of 2024 so it's useless! I'm so pissed! I couldn't use any of my p1/p2 buffets bogo and others.. I had like 30 food rewards to redeem.. I only managed get one in
25 off 50 at taps sports bar at Excalibur.. Ny Steak was nastyAF
*SIG: Ryzen R5 2600 cpu w/ ASrock B450M OCd to 4.0ghz@1.265v stock cooler 16gb ram win10 pro w/radeon rx460 rogers Gigabit<< xb1 gamertag: mikka2017 >>
Member
Oct 17, 2013
231 posts
74 upvotes
Summerside
mikka2017 wrote: Myvegas food rewards are all blacked out from dec18 to jan1 of 2024 so it's useless! I'm so pissed! I couldn't use any of my p1/p2 buffets bogo and others.. I had like 30 food rewards to redeem.. I only managed get one in
25 off 50 at taps sports bar at Excalibur.. Ny Steak was nastyAF
Unfortunately that’s usual for holiday times. It should tell you on the reward before purchasing. It was the same when we were there last Christmas. We were there Thanksgiving and a lot were blocked out. We just used Konami free play and actually made a bit of money. Vegas is thriving at the moment and the hotels don’t need to tempt us with freebies so much anymore.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jan 12, 2017
23017 posts
6890 upvotes
Scarberia
Has anyone from Canada won over 1200$ at a casino in Vegas for a handpay¿?

If yes..did they fill out a tax form and took 30% from the winnings?tia
*SIG: Ryzen R5 2600 cpu w/ ASrock B450M OCd to 4.0ghz@1.265v stock cooler 16gb ram win10 pro w/radeon rx460 rogers Gigabit<< xb1 gamertag: mikka2017 >>
Deal Addict
Nov 28, 2017
1045 posts
1092 upvotes
mikka2017 wrote: Has anyone from Canada won over 1200$ at a casino in Vegas for a handpay¿?

If yes..did they fill out a tax form and took 30% from the winnings?tia
I have not had a handpay personally but that will happen to anyone over $1200, you are not being scammed.

You can file a return claiming any losses against the jackpot and there are services for Canadians to help.

AFAIK Americans also have to fill out the form and it becomes a part of their income tax filing.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jan 12, 2017
23017 posts
6890 upvotes
Scarberia
was able to get 26 different poker chips from the casinos on the strip! im missing these ones...off strip and downtown i need still! got all the main big ones but i did miss some biggies like paris and venetian..i think wynn and encore use the same chips

need to get chips from:

paris
o'sheas
harrah's
OYO
psalms
the RIO
westgate
south point
orleans
durango
encore
palazzo
venetian
virgin
tuscany
circa
el cortez
*SIG: Ryzen R5 2600 cpu w/ ASrock B450M OCd to 4.0ghz@1.265v stock cooler 16gb ram win10 pro w/radeon rx460 rogers Gigabit<< xb1 gamertag: mikka2017 >>

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