How to go to Vegas for FREE

When I started travelling at the end of February, my secondary goal was to earn enough airline miles/hotel points/rental car credits for a free trip to Vegas. I have a friend that lives there who I can stay with, so the room is taken care of. All I need is a flight and a rental car.

I have accumulated about 20,000 airline miles, and enough hotel points to buy the rest of the way up to the 25,000 miles required for a free flight. I have enough free rental car credits for eight days.

So I'm set, right? Oh no...it ain't that easy.

My original plans were to fly to Vegas on Sunday July 2 and return July 9. That way I would only have to use four days of vacation because the 4th is a Holiday, and I'm there for the blogger event on the 8th. That plan went out the window when my travelling companion had to work the first three days of that week. So we changed our plans to Thursday, returning the following Thursday. I talked to my friend who lives in Vegas and he says those days are fine.

I figured those days were good because Thursdays are usually light days for the Airlines and I would be able to get my free flights those days. Incorrect! The only thing close is Tuesday (the 4th!) through Wednesday the 12th. Otherwise I'd need another 20,000 frequent flier miles, which is impossible. (1000 miles cost $27.50 or 6,000 hotel points) A possible alternative is to just buy a flight through a different airline for around $400 (but it's a direct flight. The free one is through Dallas.)

With the new schedule, I'd be on the hook for an extra rental car day that I don't have credits for, but $30 for a rental car sounds a lot better than $400, plus I get an extra day in vegas.

So I think that's the plan. Nine days in Las Vegas for $40 (airline charges $10 for a frequent flyer ticket) is pretty reasonable. That's $4.45 per day.

I'm still there for the blogger event on the 8th, but I will be playing in the $2500 WSOP event on the 7th. It's a two day event, so I sincerely hope to miss the blogger event on Saturday because I am at the final table of the WSOP event. Not that I don't love you all. I really really do. But I'll stab every one of you in the spleen for a bracelet. I'm just sayin'.

Now it may appear kind of strange to be worrying about a $400 plane ticket and dropping $2500 on a poker tournament. Welcome to the convoluted mind of a poker player.