Boraxo

Have not been to Vegas for a few years, and I have some sticker shock at the fares for an upcoming trip in July. WN, VX, UA - all pricing about $350 RT for a Thursday-Sunday trip - yikes! Unfortunately Tu/We is not an option for us working stiffs. But it kills me to pay as much for the Vegas flights as I do to fly to NYC.

So I'm wondering if I should look for AA flights using BA avois, or perhaps buy some placeholder tix on WN and see if the fares drop as the dates get closer? July is not exactly peak season, though I know Fri/Sun are always pretty busy.

What's your secret to finding cheap flights to Vegas?

RevJim

Have you checked JetBlue? They do have direct SFO-LAS flights and might be cheaper, depending on your dates.

Using miles might still present an availability problem with a Sunday flight...

DenverBrian

Also, check AA SFO-LAX-LAS and SFO-PHX-LAS. AA routing through hubs is sometimes cheaper than nonstop.

google.com/flights and southwest.com.

gengar

I'm seeing much lower than $350 RT fares all Thu-Sun in July, even nonstop?

DL is another one-stop option, btw.

Boraxo

Really, what airline?

And yes, I require a nonstop, there is no way I am going to double my flight time with a connection on a journey that can be done in 90 minutes Also not planning to fly at the crack of dawn, or 11pm, which kind of defeats the purpose...

gengar

Pretty fruitless exercise without having been provided your dates of travel.

My prior post was based on a cursory check of google flights. Certainly, if you are not flexible with regard to connections, travel dates, and even travel time of day, it should be no surprise that some flights book out faster / have higher fares than others?

greggarious

Southwest doesn't show up on Kayak and other aggregators, and Vegas is one of their focus cities. Lots of flights.

mikew99

I always find insanely high (to me) prices for flights from the SF Bay Area to Las Vegas, and the cheapest (though still not cheap) flights are usually at awkward times (such midnight arrivals and 6am departures). This flight is just about an hour, and I'm simply not willing to pay more than $125 (or so) to fly there, especially when better values exist to other places that I enjoy. (My last trip to NYC cost less than $300, for example.)

On my last visit to Las Vegas in 2014, I rented a car from Avis in San Jose for a week for $126 (including tax) and made the 10-hour drive instead. This isn't feasible for a Thursday-Sunday trip, of course, but I want to sympathize with your plight. I'd visit Las Vegas a lot more often if I could get there cheaply for a weekend trip, but this seems nearly impossible to do.

greggarious

Trying to book so close may be part of your issue. SF is full of tech bros at happy hour deciding they should, like, totally go to Vegas bro.

bigguyinpasadena

I would set up a price alert on Google flights and also on Airfarewatchdog.com (which does include Southwest in its flight search) I am seeing a lot of sub $200 rt's in July. United actually has a sub $100 rt fare.
It is a bit early for deals. Unless you are looking at 4th of July there will be much better prices.

Zorak

DL also started nonstop service 3x daily SJC-LAS last Feb (2016) or so.

Troopers

Too late now but for future reference, take a look at JetSuiteX from CCR (Concord). One way flights can be as low as $79 when flights are released.

Boraxo

Great advice, particularly as CCR is about a 20m drive. From what I've seen JetSuiteX is making a play to extend their business down beyond the ultra-wealthy level and maybe time to take it for a spin.

100% on target. Yes, I see plenty of flights to Vegas in the $50-100 range, but Tuesday & Wednesdays don't work too well for most of us working stiffs and the 6am Sunday flight kind of defeats the purpose of the trip (though I suppose you could save additional coin by just dispensing with the expensive hotel room for Saturday night )

Excepting for those awkward times, Friday to LAS and Sundays ex-LAS are mostly full fare tix @$150-300 one-way. Thurs pm and Mon am are not much better. If others are willing to pay the toll so be it but I refuse to be gouged. I guess the best course is to book a placeholder on WN and see what materializes as the dates draw closer.

Zorak

Sort of similar, I'm looking at a weekend in mid-June that's fairly expensive but still had 5,500 one-way award tickets on DL, so I booked those but will re-evaluate if fares drop. The first two weekends in July don't look too awful, there are $55-$75 one-ways depending which direction, but I guess that won't help if you're looking at the later weekends.

Boraxo

So to follow up: finally pulled the trigger at T-14 only to find (as suggested) that VX & UA fares actually dropped a few $$ for Thursday. So you may save some $$ if are willing to roll the dice and hold out. However the Sunday fares back from Vegas never dropped so we ended up buying tix on a relatively new charter service JetSuiteX which has excellent reviews. Cheaper than all the other options and closer to our home than SFO or OAK.

BTW WN apparently does not find it necessary to offer competitive fares anymore - at no time did we find WN cheaper than UA or VX and in fact the WN fares went up as we approached ETD vs. the opposite direction for everyone else. Go figure.