Vegas Day 1 - cheap flights and free upgrades

Picture above - Bellagio on the night we arrived

A punishing day of travelling ahead of us! We booked through lastminute.com (great deal btw) and in order to squeeze all the costs down to a minimum, we decided to take a transfer at JFK in New York instead of flying directly to Sin City!

So instead of a straight 11 hour flight, we had to endure a 8.5 hour flight, followed by a 3.5 hour stop over at JFK, ending in a 6 hour internal flight to Vegas. It sounded cheap and easy when we booked it, and although nobody admitted it, we all wished we had chosen to fly direct!
Anyway, 18 hours later and £200 richer each (maybe it was worth it...!) we landed in Viva Las Vegas!

I had done a fair amount of research on getting hotel upgrades in Vegas, and as we had opted for the standard room, we were keen to get bumped up! I had read about the 'sandwich' - for anyone that isn't down with Vegas Hotel upgrade lingo - the 'sandwich' is slipping a $20 bill (or more if you want to impress) in-between your passport and CC upon check in, once the clerk spots the $20 you ask if there are any complimentary upgrades available....? This is usually followed by "let me see what I can do sir"...... next thing I know, we are sitting in a Lake-View room, overlooking the fountains in the centre of the 26th floor at the Bellagio!!! (note: this doesn't always work, but always worth a try!)

No-time for dilly-daddling - we were only here for 3 days/ 4 nights, so it was dump the bags and straight out on the strip! We had been up since 4.30am UK time and travelled for over 18 hours, but in Vegas it was only 7pm and the night was still ripe for a smashing!!

Hitting my 'second-wind' after smashing an Italian BMT at Subway, we decided to play some poker in the Bellagio Poker room - pretty special! After playing for almost 3 hours, I cashed up $85 better off!! I had played tight, solid poker and stayed on the water for tonight (1. to stay focussed and 2. because I was dehydrated like a mother-trucker!)

Off to bed at around 4am (Vegas time) - long first day but now for 3 full days and half a morning to enjoy!

Vegas I've missed you....!