I love Las Vegas. With the larger than life hotels and resorts, the shopping, the people watching, the pools, the gambling, and amazing restaurants, it’s tough to not love it. What’s even better is getting free breakfast, upgrades, and resort credits at Las Vegas hotels.
Surprisingly Las Vegas is one of the places that I rarely use hotel points for free stays. I’m obsessed with getting a good value when redeeming my hard earned points. And while Saturday night stays are usually the most expensive – Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights have reasonable cash rates. Three nights in Vegas in plenty.
I’m also kind of a hotel snob when it come to Vegas. There are 5 places that I love to stay at – Bellagio, Aria, Wynn/Encore, Cosmopolitan, or Palazzo. And I love to get a great deal. Here are the 4 different websites I check before booking.
American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts
I start my searches at American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts. This website is only for American Express Platinum card members and can give you some pretty amazing perks at over 1000 luxury hotels and resorts throughout the world.
Here’s how it works, just head over to https://www.americanexpressfhr.com and perform a search. With each booking you receive the following perks:
- Daily breakfast for two people
- A unique property amenity – typically a $100 spa or food/beverage credit
- Noon check-in, when available
- Guaranteed 4PM late check-out
- Room upgrade, when available
- Complimentary WI-FI
When you check-in to the hotel, they will give you a letter explaining how to use the credits and breakfast benefits. Here is a letter from the Wynn/Encore.
Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection
Now if you don’t have an American Express Platinum card don’t worry, Visa has a similar program called the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection.
Not all Visa’s cards can access this program, only ‘Signature’ Visas. Just check on your Visa card – below the logo on the front of the card, it will say “Signature”.
The benefits are similar to American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts but not as good. Instead of a $100 credit, Visa provides a $25 food or beverage credit.
The breakfast for two is also just a continental breakfast instead of a full hot breakfast – but usually the Las Vegas hotels don’t have a continental breakfast so they provide a $20/$25 daily credit per person – which is a few dollars less than American Express.
Virtuoso
If you don’t have the American Express Platinum card or a Visa Signature card, there is another service that can get you the same benefits – Virtuoso.
Virtuoso provides the following amenities:
- Daily breakfast for two people
- A $100 resort credit- typically food/beverage or spa
- Noon check-in, when available
- Guaranteed 4PM late check-out
- Priority check-in line
- Room upgrade, when available
- Complimentary WI-FI
Virtuoso is a little different than American Express or Visa in respect that you are assigned a travel advisor/agent. You can still search at their site and they will assign you an advisor. My advisor is Kristy Adler and she is always quick to reply to my emails and make sure everything gets booked.
If you don’t want to deal with a travel agent directly, apparently you can book everything online through www.classictravel.com to receive the Virtuoso amenities.
Hotel Website
Finally I also check the hotel’s website directly for any special promotions, prepaid rates, etc. And since I’m an Mlife Platinum member (from matching my Hyatt status) I usually get discounted rates at Mlife.com.
The rates at the above three websites will typically be more expensive than booking directly at the hotel’s website but doesn’t include all the ‘extras’. So you will need to determine if the free breakfast, credit and other extras are worth the extra cost.
The Results
One thing to be careful of when checking these sites – resort fees and taxes. Resort fees at Vegas hotels keep going up and up – here is are the 2018 fees.
You need to make sure you are comparing the ‘all-in’ costs. Visa’s website includes the resort fee in the rate while others don’t.
So how did my search for Memorial Day weekend turn out? Here are the results:
Wynn/Encore
| Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts | Virtuoso | Visa Signature Luxury Hotels | Wynn.com Rate (Promo) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Rate | $233 | $269 | $233 | |
| Saturday Rate | $368 | $449 | $368 | |
| Sunday Rate | $233 | $269 | $233 | |
| Resort Fees ($39/night) | $117 | $117 | $117 | |
| Taxes (13.38%) | $127 | $153 | $127 | |
| Breakfast | Two $40 breakfast credits per day | Two $30 breakfast credits per day | Two $35 breakfast credits per day | |
| Amenity | $100 spa credit | $100 food & beverage credit | None | |
| Perks | ~ Noon early check-in ~ 4pm late check out | ~ Noon early check-in ~ 4pm late check out ~ Priority check-in line | None | |
| Upgrade | Room upgrade when available | (1) category upgrade (based on availability) | None | |
| Total Cost | $1,078 | $1,293 | Not Available | $1078 |
While Wynn.com had a very good rate that included breakfast, American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts is the winner since it also includes a $100 spa credit along with the additional perks.
Bellagio
| Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts | Virtuoso | Visa Signature Luxury Hotels | MLife Rate (Platinum) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Rate | $242 | $272 | $185 | |
| Saturday Rate | $474 | $501 | $347 | |
| Sunday Rate | $224 | $267 | $169 | |
| Resort Fees ($39/night) | $117 | $117 | $117 | |
| Taxes (13.38%) | $141 | $155 | $111 | |
| Breakfast | Two $30 breakfast credits per room | Two $30 breakfast credits per room | None | |
| Amenity | $100 food & beverage credit | $100 food & beverage credit | None | |
| Perks | ~ Noon early check-in ~ 4pm late check out ~ Priority check-in line | ~ Noon early check-in ~ 4pm late check out ~ Priority check-in line | Priority check-in line | |
| Upgrade | Room upgrade when available | (1) category upgrade (based on availability) | None | |
| Total Cost | $1,198 | $1,312 | Not Available | $928 |
MLife.com is $270 less than American Express at the Bellagio – here’s a situation where you have to determine if it’s worth paying $270 extra for the $100 food & beverage credit, $180 worth of breakfast credits, and the other perks.
Aria
| Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts | Virtuoso | Visa Signature Luxury Hotels | MLife Rate (Platinum) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Rate | $187 | $188 | $142 | |
| Saturday Rate | $408 | $459 | $344 | |
| Sunday Rate | $222 | $224 | $156 | |
| Resort Fees ($39/night) | $117 | $117 | $117 | |
| Taxes (13.38%) | $125 | $132 | $102 | |
| Breakfast | Two $30 breakfast credits per room | $20 daily credit per person | None | |
| Amenity | $100 food & beverage credit | $25 food & beverage credit | None | |
| Perks | ~ Noon early check-in ~ 4pm late check out ~ Priority check-in line | ~ Priority check-in line ~ Late check out when available | Priority check-in line | |
| Upgrade | (1) category upgrade (based on availability) | upgrade based on availability | None | |
| Total Cost | Not Available | $1059 | $1,120 | $861 |
Unfortunately American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts didn’t have any of the standard Aria rooms available – just the $1200/night Sky Suites. MLife.com is $198 less expensive than Virtuoso but with no extras (other than priority check-in line due to my MLife Platinum status).
My Choice
Ultimately I ended up choosing the Aria with Virtuoso – it turned out to be the best value for me (and I stayed at the Wynn/Encore last November with American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts). I love the restaurants at Aria and will no doubt easily use the $100 food and beverage credit along with the daily breakfast credits. It’s also closer to the concert venue (my wife’s loves Ricky Martin).
Have you ever used any of these sites? Which do you find usually overs the best deal?
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