Surprise Fees

I%26#39;m planning a trip to Vegas in March 09, I see the best package prices I find so far are on Expedia. Anyone else find they had a good experience with Expedia? Any hidden fees come up? Did you get the room you were hoping for? Did you find the hotels ';look down on'; these types of lower price arrangements? This is our first trip together and I don%26#39;t want to run into too many surprises (except for the fact that my date is someone I met on e-Harmony and this is the first time we%26#39;ll be going away together!!).

Surprise Fees

I booked through Expedia, yes they charge fees, but it was wraped in the flight tax/fees. I would book directly through the hotel, as prices have dropped since I booked with expedia. Thankfully I took out the insurance and was able to canel my reservation for the hotel, but kept the air fare. I would never book a package for expedia for Vegas, as I find that hotels are always offering deals. Went 4 years ago and got a deal directly from hotel, but this time, prices are even better.

Surprise Fees

try www.kayak.com and click on the Packages part.

That is what I did, and it came up with Orbitz as having the best deal. Ended up booking a package that was great! We leave in 17 days, so I dont know if the room will be ok. But, the thing with orbitz is, if someone buys the same package as you within 30 days, they will refund you the difference!

I always use either expedia or travelocity.

I have taken many trips with no problems.

Everything has always gone so smooth I felt like it was too easy at some points.

They dont look down their noses at you at all when you check in. Be sure to carefully read everthing and double check names, dates, etc before clicking submit.

Sometimes they will charge your card the entire amount and other times only the first night. It depends on the deal so read before you act.

I wouldn%26#39;t use a travel site to book a Vegas hotel. Often (expecially lately) hotels will drop their prices as your trip approaches. If you book through Expedia, Orbitz, etc. you are stuck with the reservation as-is (plus it%26#39;s pre-paid in most cases). When you book directly with the hotel, you can get your rate lowered if the prices drop. Most hotels these days are really competitive with travel sites, and often offer better ';web promo'; rates that aren%26#39;t offered to the travel brokers.

I%26#39;ve got a reservation with the Mirage that I booked about 3 months ago, and the total price for the 4 nights has dropped $250 since then.

Good luck!

I dont know about you, but flying from Seattle, with 4 nights at NY NY plus parking at the Seattle airport (worth $104 if bought at the airport) plus round trip shuttle to our hotel from the airport for $369 CAD is totally worth it to me.

Just looking at NY NY%26#39;s website, I was quoted $410 CAD for 4 nights in the same kind of room we are getting. That leaves $328 left over for both of our flights from seattle, the parking and shuttle. And looking at kayak.com I see the cheapest flight from seattle is $314 CAD per person.. If we booked all of those things separately that would be.. $571 per person. And that is without the shuttle, cause I dont know how much that is on its own.

I dont think the hotel could possibly come down enough to make up that $202 more I would be paying to book separately.

The rates are usually better if you book the hotels dircet and the flight seperatly, whilst Exepdia is conveinet I ahave never found it to be cheap

Have you priced the trip out by booking hotel and air by yourself? As others have said, it will probably be cheaper. I have used Expedia for hotels a few times when there were HUGE savings over booking directly with the hotel. There were no problems or hidden fees. But I also realized I was very limited in my options if I had to cancel or change the reservation. Unless the savings you found on Expedia are spectacular, I would book directly with hotel and airline.

Giggles, you can run air prices through bestfares.com or ather online sites and they give you the fares fround on the airlines.

Be careful on Expedia, et al. They are good sites, but they are discounters and if you have a problem during your trip you will have a difficult time getting it resloved quickly. You get the lower price by stopovers and swithcing airlines during the trip. When reduced seating and or a delay trying to get your problem solved right then is hard.

As to hotel and going in March you have time to sign up for email specials. Go to MGM/Mirage and Harrah%26#39;s web site and sign up, its free. You will see prices from $29 to $119 per night and many run stay 2 get 2 free. Plus if you show up at the hotel booked via a discounter and have an issue (paid for strip view and got air conditioning equipment view) the hotel will ask you to contact the discounter because they did not receive the instructions. Book through the hotel and they will help and sometimes when you arrive and ask if there is an upgrade available, they do it for free.

Check it out on your own and you have no fees and if rates go down the hotel and airlines will honor the new rate ';IF YOU CALL';. (not automatic)

The third parties may be good for places other than Vegas, and maybe airfare. but your cutting your own throat booking vegas rooms because you have no chance of getting comped rooms from gambling because the room was sold to Expedia, not you.

Yes, the hotels do ';look down'; when it comes to possible comps. Yes, people do have serious problems when expedia, travelocity, priceline screw up the reservation.

Wow, thanks for all the great advice and the websites! I think I need to run the numbers on booking separately, as suggested.