Las Vegas & San Francisco

I have looked at the VH brochure and they only seem to offer a twin centre for the above destinations for 14 nights.Do you think if i phoned them they would do it for 7 nights?

I was looking at doing Las Vegas for 4 nights and San Francisco for 3 nights.

Has anyone done this route?

[Bazz]

Done it a couple of times but booked with VS rather than VH connecting on America West. A 4/3 or 3/4 split works well for both cities and is long enough to unwind.

[HighFlyer]

Ger,

I haven't booked a VH for a few years now, i always book directly with VS as Bazz has suggested, however, when i did book with them i would have sworn that they would let you 'build your own itinerary'. I know that of the few trips i booked with them, i always had a list of amendments to the original booking that they always seemed to pull off, albeit some requests taking longer than others. In the end i found it easier to cut out the middle man (VH) and deal with the hotel and flight booking myself.

Give them a call and see what they say, i don't see why they couldn't help you.

Thanks,
Sarah

Originally posted by motherger
I have looked at the VH brochure and they only seem to offer a twin centre for the above destinations for 14 nights.Do you think if i phoned them they would do it for 7 nights?

I was looking at doing Las Vegas for 4 nights and San Francisco for 3 nights.

Has anyone done this route?

The answer is yes!! They would treat the 7 days as a fly drive and then book you the hotels you require for the requisite number of nights using the "extra night rate" for each night.

Virgin will put together any combination from theer brochure as a bespoke" holiday and will even include internal flights if you need them e.g from LAX to SFO if you do not want to drive.

Just give them a call.

[Neil]

Yes, they will do anything you want, I am just in the process of booking something similar but including a "road trip" in the middle, just ring the call centre up and they will sort you out. I have found them really helpful for the trip I am planning.

Neil:)

[Bazz]

Just to follow on from what Mark says, VH Fly Drives can sometimes be very cost effective. I was able to get a UC ticket to LAX including a three day (basic) car from Dollar for less than the discounted Z fare being touted from various sources. Didn't actually use the car hire element coz I had already booked a good deal with Hertz for a two week hire but is still saved me a few hundred quid [y]

Top deal Bazz!! Nice one[y]

Cheers Guys. Going to think about it over weekend as at Edinburgh Festival (V-Flyer Event) so thanks very much for your top tips!

[Neil]

Thats interesting info Bazz, thanks for that, just pricing up a bit of a fly drive to the west coast for next year at the mo so its useful to know how competitive VH are (something to be honest I am finding myself anyway, so well done VH[y])

Neil:)

I am going to SFO/LAS in October and booked it all individually. I found it much cheaper to do this and you can take advantage of cheap hotel deals. However I have been in the situation where the hotel per night was cheaper booking through VH than direct. VH will book hotels without the flight element if that works out cheaper and you still get your 10% if you a FVC or VFF. We have chosen an apartment hotel in LAS just 1 block from the centre of the strip and the white swan inn for SFO part.

Originally posted by Spidey
I am going to SFO/LAS in October and booked it all individually. I found it much cheaper to do this and you can take advantage of cheap hotel deals. However I have been in the situation where the hotel per night was cheaper booking through VH than direct. VH will book hotels without the flight element if that works out cheaper and you still get your 10% if you a FVC or VFF. We have chosen an apartment hotel in LAS just 1 block from the centre of the strip and the white swan inn for SFO part.

The VH choice is perforce limited and occasionally their allocation of rooms will be fully used up when other sources are still showing availability. VH couldn't do anything for us in LAS for Easter this year yet Expedia came up with the goods.

We've used VH sucessfully for many permuations, mixing and matching with direct booking as appropriate; accommodation only, fly drive only, fly drive + some accommodation, full package.

Paul

[Neil]

I am finding this with VH at the mo, 2 of our hotels the rates VH can do are excellent and beat everyone else (especially with the 10% discount), but then on another hotel and the car hire they are more expensive, so we are booking part with VH and part ourselves direct with hotels and other companies, best of both worlds[y]

Neil:)

Originally posted by Attitude23
I am finding this with VH at the mo, 2 of our hotels the rates VH can do are excellent and beat everyone else (especially with the 10% discount), but then on another hotel and the car hire they are more expensive, so we are booking part with VH and part ourselves direct with hotels and other companies, best of both worlds[y]

Neil:)

One other trick I've used before (even with fly drive) is to book first night in a VH hotel (book to collect car the next day) and book last night in a VH hotel (book to drop car previous day). In the past this has generated a VH supplied transfer between airport and hotel. Granted only useful if you can easily access a car hire location from the hotel, but on one trip to San Francisco it led to the four of us having a stretch limo to ourselves between the airport and the city.

Paul

[Neil]

Paul - VH want £19 per person for transfer to hotel from airport each way which sounds a bit pricey to me[n], so just probably going to colelct the car straight from the airport.

Neil:)

Originally posted by Attitude23
Paul - VH want £19 per person for transfer to hotel from airport each way which sounds a bit pricey to me[n], so just probably going to colelct the car straight from the airport.

Neil:)

Mmmm. Perhaps they've changed their policy. Are you doing both flight and hotel through VH ? They certainly don't attempt to be competitive when you're not. A couple of years ago we had Select flights to Barbados through VS and accomodation through VH and when I tried to blag a free transfer enquired about the cost of a transfer through VH the message came back loud and clear that it would be a lot cheaper if I walked out of the terminal and booked a taxi.

Paul

Paul