well...have this batchelor party to go to and have found that i cannot find a decent r/t fare from anyone! the best i can hope for is approx. 300.00 +. Is this the best i can do, or does anyone have any tipe from consolidators....EWR or JFK are find to leave from, i will even connect if i have to but is a fare bargain hiding somewhere? Las Vegas is one of the only destinations that i know of that does not require a saturday night stay and still it routinely has high fares! I was browsing the Bestfares.com sight and they adverise a $164.00 rate...but you must be a member first...recall seeing info about the sight months back and have not heard anything else...had an idea about flying southwest for $99.00 each way but they connect and have limited availability....any ideas will be greatly appreciated. thanks gang!

This sounds like a job for...NJDAVID!

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited 04-03-99).]

Ouch! EWR-LAS is a tough route to get cheep! Very little competition. Here are some general tips:

Check Continental, America West, Delta and Northwest. Often a flight on CO can be purchased for less as an HP codeshare.

Typical V fare is $300-500 US. Red-eye travel is cheaper. If you go CO, purchase the Las Vegas book by Entertainment publications. Good CO discount you can use (not restricted at EWR).

Travel Agents get cheaper fares for booking packages with less popular hotels (Riverria, etc). If you also need hotel, try this....

Then there's always priceline.com.

Good luck

Have you considered Southwest Airlines out of Islip or Baltimore? Maybe they have a cheap fare.

Something to consider... Fly into LAX from EWR and then catch a quick shuttle/southwest flight into vegas. It could be less costly than flying direct.

arturo sey mebe yu can drive car or take bus if yu want cheep fair. $300 seam cheep to arturo for aerplain ride. ef yu knot mind stops soufwest be guud. priselin knot git yu mils but ef you bed lo prise who kere.

Sadly the days of truly great gambler packages are gone, but it still might be worthwhile to check a tour package out--you just never never know. Sometimes it's worth it to get a package and dump the hotel.

Also might check out FRONTIER. They are cheap, and fly LaGuardia/Denver/Las Vegas.

The other thing you could do is find a girlfriend who works for the airline.

Maybe what you can do is take a cross country that's cheap to California or Denver and then take one of those discount fares on Southwest or Frontier or Reno and that could shave off a bit.

You also could try a package tour... airfare with a hotel included (If You need a hotel!)

From my experience... East Coast to Vegas is expense.

After checking around, Frontier, etc., I have to agree with Arturo $300 is cheap. Unless you get very lucky, you probably won't do any better.

Alternatively, you could stay home, rent a questionable movie, get really, really drunk and wake up with a very bad headache and some vague memories you aren't really sure you want to pull into focus. It's an almost identical experience to a bachelor party and twenty years from now, you'll probably be sure you were actually there and everybody else will agree with you, because they won't remember anything either.

Is the wedding in Vegas as well? If it is don't worry, all they will remember is the bride--she's the only star on W-Day.

The Best Fares deal is for Southwest. Southwest may be your best bet.

--J

You might consider going to www.nationalairlines.com This is the new airline starting up in mid-Aptil (?) that will fly from Las Vegas to a few markets, and New York is one of them. They will probably be pretty agressive to start with. You might find air fares on their web site or via their 800#. The guy starting this airline is Mike Conway, one of the orginal founders of America West. I can't vouch for anything other than it might be a shot to save some money....

Well, jms8090, you got it from the "guru" himself. Great suggestion, Randy. Keep up the informative posts.

i guess that i should feel honored....thank you randy! well...as for the other suggestions, you guys are very good...i consider myself pretty crafty when it comes to saving money...remember, i am not a business traveler, and when it comes to what i call "scamming a cheap fare" i will try just about anything! NJ david, thanks for the Entertainment book idea...been there already and it looks like my best route thus far....Randy, I have been monitoring the National Airlines websight for some time now and last time i checked, it was not fully functional yet...no reservations, etc. Again, my thanks to my bulletin board family....