Las Vegas - Is your ticket price a TON higher than from 2011?

In Jan 2011, I was able to secure direct (continental) from NJ (EWR) to LAS for about $350 pp for my 2011 August trip.

Since November 2011 (thru now) prices are like $580 pp, and they don't seem to be coming down. And I'm not including the bag fees (I have a CO card but not all my bags are comp'd)

Are prices going to stay so high? For my family of five, I really don't wanna spend $3000 just to fly.

My wife says she wants to go but it's rediculously high for a non first class ticket.

If you can travel on, say, Wed to Wed you can save a couple hundred per person. But weekend travel to LAS is very expensive. I agree that fares are much higher than last year.
Look in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz-370/ and get some miles. You can still get some decent award tix if you can be flexible with flight times/dates.
Good luck.

I did +/- 3 days.. all the prices on the grid are near $580

Even from San Diego I was looking at $178 one way for a flight on a Thursday. Airline pricing is ridiculous. Found a flight on same airline, Southwest, out of SNA on thursday for $66. Flight times were around the same departure.

Agree, from Miami a typical fare last year was between 250 and 300. Couldn't find anything in late July/early August for under $500. Finally ended up "buying up" to an instant upgrade fare of 800. I suppose that is good business for the airline!

Yeah for my family of five it's 3k, but three of us have enough miles to go free 1-way, so it'll be closed to $2100 now, but still...

And just like that.. 48 hours ago a round trip fare dropped from $578 to $472. I expect it to drop futher as the flights are not filling up.

Any thoughts on the auto-price drop, and how it might move in the future, and when?!

I need to book soon.

My wife made us book flights at $485... they dropped to $400 today... gosh I hate her..

Prices are indeed crazy. Flying from ANC for a four-day weekend in Vegas, the best bet I found was with Delta Vacations. Flight and 4 nights at the LVH came to $760, which was several hundred dollars cheaper than Expedia or any other airline/hotel combo I could find.

I've often found that various 'Vacations' sites were able to offer much better deals close in to the date of travel, the exact opposite situation that one finds with airlines.

http://www.yapta.com/airline-refunds/

Keep that in mind for next time.

Yeah it's really a shame how much it's gone up. Even from LA, it should be really cheap it's a 45 minute flight and hard to catch a break for a weekend turn around under $150. When going with friends I lean more towards driving these days just cause the costs are lowered. Though that drive is getting old fast!

Definitely higher and harder to find cheap fares.

I agree with the other posters. My wife and I go to Vegas three or four times a year. I book the flights in advance and almost always pay in the 250-300/ticket range from PBI. We are scrapping one trip this year because we can only find flights in the 470-490/ticket range.

We can afford the extra but I won't pay it out spite. The airlines have trained me what to pay and I'm just not going to pay double.

I book the flights in advance and almost always pay in the 250-300/ticket range from PBI. We are scrapping one trip this year because we can only find flights in the 470-490/ticket range.Kayak.com shows many RT flights sub-$300 for the rest of the year.

Kayak.com shows many RT flights sub-$300 for the rest of the year.

If you are willing to fly the 6pm flight.. for the 9am flight it's now asking $678

I've seen the same thing--I finally bought at about $530, which was a big drop from the $6-700's I was seeing on AA. Much higher than last year.
Sadly, I don't have the flexibility to travel to LAS mid-week.

If you are willing to fly the 6pm flight.. for the 9am flight it's now asking $678
PBI-LAS (via ATL)
Depart 8/26 4:35p
LAS-PBI (via ATL)
Depart 8/30 1p
$258

Most of the <$300 flights require you to take a 6a or 7a flight out of LAS, but there are a few other days with reasonably timed flights.

I am a Canadian who lives not too far from the Peace Arch border into Bellingham. For my husband and I to fly to Vegas from Vancouver for our August 25 - September 1 trip it would cost us $763.24. I booked with Allegiant from Bellingham and it is costing us $433. We always fly from Bellingham because Canada adds a bunch of extra taxes to their ticket costs.

I am a Canadian who lives not too far from the Peace Arch border into Bellingham. For my husband and I to fly to Vegas from Vancouver for our August 25 - September 1 trip it would cost us $763.24. I booked with Allegiant from Bellingham and it is costing us $433. We always fly from Bellingham because Canada adds a bunch of extra taxes to their ticket costs.

I would have told you just go down to Seattle...it would have been cheaper. You could have flown Southwest with no bag fees for around $220pp if not less. Same with Alaska.

Also---west coast has a different route system to Vegas then people from the east..so the prices for them is higher because the airlines send people to their hubs thus filling the plane fast making fares go higher in the sunmmer.

My flight was actually cheaper this year. Paid $330 or so from BHM-DFW-LAS January 2011. Going out in a few weeks BHM-ATL-LAS for $240.