Is it cheaper to book "hotel + flight" or separately?

[Stebok]

The last time I went to Vegas, I booked with Expedia in August 2011 for both hotel and flight together. It was the basic deluxe rooms at the Wynn with United, 1 stop for a bit lower than 800$. From Montreal.

I thought it was a good deal but some of my friends said its cheaper to book separately, anyone has an opinion on this?

Edit: it was for 3 nights, Thursday to Saturday. Left on Sunday evening.

[bobu]

It really depends. Some hotels like to price things cheaper with flight package. The Wynn is usually one of them. However, that really depends how you book everything and also where you're booking the hotel.

I'd check the price of the package first, write it down, then check price of the flight.

Then find the price of the hotel using either a promo code at www.mycheapvegas.com

Furthermore, you can also try Hotwire and Priceline to further reduce the price.

For the Wynn though, i notice packages are usually cheaper.

[juve63]

I agree with bobu.

I'm currently tracking prices and find it all depends on what hotel you go with.

One example I found is Mirage is cheaper with a package deal but at Planet Hollywood, its cheaper to book separate.

Also, watch out for resort fees. Some places charge resort fees at check in.

[Wolfman142]

ive been checking prices too and i keep finding priceline with the best deal

[Stebok]

Thanks! Great advice.

Wynn charged 20$ per room, per night for Internet and gym. Mandatory.

[atomicbomber]

If you're not absolutely picky about room/hotel, hotwire is where i grabbed my hotels in november and you can actually figure out which hotel they are.

$125 a night for venetian and aria for me.

[theScott]

I usually only do flight separate if I got the hotel comped somewhere. Otherwise I have found packages to be cheapest.

[Har3J0rdan23]

best deals come in packages

[KAM]

Usually packages seem to work out to be less expensive for me, UNLESS I'm booking at casino rate or comped rooms under a players card OR I'm buying my flight with points. Some travel sites have sales that only last x amount of hours and those seem to have the best rates. I was able to find a Palms deal for my friend a couple months ago for $65/night, but the sale had been sold out by the time I had gotten home from work. In addition, he'll get a $50 rebate card for booking through the travel site.

I typically only fly JB, except in rare situations (like when I can get a flight free on another airline), so I build up a lot of JB points. I'm usually always checking air & hotel prices for vegas and there are certain things I always do. First thing I do is check price in dollars & points and JetBlue.com. Then I check flights on Kayak.com to see hot JB compares to others airlines because I'll also consider flying Virgin America. Then I check packages on expedia/orbitz/priceline/hotwire. Then I check for hotel promos with my player's cards and on smartervegas.com/mycheapvegas.com. I also watch airfares for a while and about 8 weeks out is when I tend to see the best deals with very few fare sales sooner [for JB]. Once you get about 4 weeks out though, airfare seems to JUMP through the roof. For example, one flight I was looking at leaving vegas on 11/1 was $128 last Thursday, this Wednesday it had increased to $318. Don't be discouraged if you've waited to long to book your hotel and your hotel price JUMPS through the roof as well. There are usually some sales floating around on the internet. For example, I kept procrastinating on booking my September hotel until about 2 weeks prior. The room had skyrocketed to $800 for Fri & $800 for sat, wtf? So after booking an alternate hotel, but regretting waiting I searched the internet and found a deal right on the hotel's own website that brought the room rate down to about $180 per night with some extra perks.

Being loyal to one "brand" really helps if they have a point system. For my Halloween trip, my total cost for air & hotel is $70 because of points & comped nights. Score.

EDIT: If you do book a package through expedia/orbitz/etc. click through a rebate site to get between 1-3% back. It's not that much, but is the trip costs $2000 you'll be getting $20-60 back just for clicking through a link! I have referral links if anyone needs to join a site, I don't want to spam and post them so message me if you want one to join. I'd appreciate it too. Also, it pays to compare the % rebate given back on different rebate sites.

[bobu]

One more thing, just remember some of the smaller airlines that have the crazy deals aren't on some of the online travel agencies.

Allegiant Air, Frontier Air are a few that I can think of.

[KAM]

I also keep an eye on the flights after I book when I book separately because Jet Blue does price adjustments. I just got a 5000 point refund on my flight for Halloween. That brings me 5000 points closer to my next vegas trip! I keep an eye on hotels too because even if they don't do adjustment it can be super easy to cancel and rebook, if the cancellation policy allows for it.