Close, but no booking...yet

Hi everyone,

The 2006 USA and Canada brochure opened today and I was champing at the bit to book my 'Kings of the Road Western Tour' for August. However, I was gutted to find that the Manadalay Bay in Vegas will be 'on request'. Therefore, I have 'confirmed booking' status but it will take 3 working days to come through. I have been waiting patiently after the delays on this brochure and now this! The thing is, last time this happened with my Florida booking, the request came back as a no. But the helpful person at VH did say it might be because they haven't completed all their contracts with the hotels yet, and not because it's full. Hmm, slap bang in the middle of school holidays (teaching really sucks sometimes!), I'm not so sure.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else has had a positive response from a request? Also, what other hotels might anyone suggest for a Vegas first-timer?

And one more thing (sorry): we have chosen to arrange car hire separately so we can get a 4 wheel drive for all that trunking about and sight-seeing. The VH contact said that the car hire is actually free, you just pay for insurance and upgrades. Now I'm torn as I get a free upgrade for being a Frequent Virgin, but Virgin don't do 4WDs, unless you go on spec at the airport and risk seeing what they have to offer (we did this in Florida last year and got an obscene Dodge Durango). Any advice?

Cheers,

Frustrated Jacq [:(]

When ever I have looked at costs for VH car hire or booking direct. By the time you have paid insurance and upgraded the cost have been very similar or booking direct cheeper.

[preiffer]

Try these guys to get an immediate, all inc. price for a 4x4.

I have tried twice before with VH to get rooms at 'on request' hotels. Both times the answer was no. I hope you have better luck but I think you are right to start looking at alternatives just in case.

We hired a 4x4 on our last trip in May and were really glad we did. We got a very good deal at [url][/url]www.airline-network.co.uk. It might be worth doing a quick quote.

I would definitely back up what Lilyjosh says, Airline Network is "the" place to book much cheaper car hire. I saved a fortune using them for this year's car hire rather than VH. Airline Network use Dollar, so you end up using the same car hire agency in the USA. They're also much cheaper than dollar.co.uk.
Cheers, James

Originally posted by preiffer
Try these guys to get an immediate, all inc. price for a 4x4.

Wow, they are expensive! But i spose if I was as 'loaded' as you then I would use these to get the double points on my credit card.[8D]

Paul

[preiffer]

Originally posted by p17blo
Wow, they are expensive! But i spose if I was as 'loaded' as you then I would use these to get the double points on my credit card.[8D]

Paul,

I can guarantee there's nothing 'loaded' about me! I've found them to be a bit strange - sometimes nobody can come even close to their prices - all in, addtl drivers, gas, etc. But sometimes they're expensive.

What they do allow you to do, very easily, is see the exact booking class that's being offered (ie: "MVAR" etc) against all other rental companies.

(Update - Airline Network have just sent a mailshot out detailing 10% off car rentals of more than 10 days...)

Last time I tried to book rooms that were on request was Ritz Carlton in HK last feb, 4 of us all UC total would have been about £8.5k VH never even rang back[:(!].I booked it all up myself for about £5k and 200k VS miles

hi Jacqueline i have just used http://www.yescarhire.com which was a very good saveing . they also use doller or alamo i saved £130.00 including insurance with the all in insurance deal with them and upgraded my car 2 sizes up from my original quote with doller.com.usa for a full size car . on there site they do a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee, Blazer or similar .
hope this may be of some help to you
andy

I know this has kind of changed thread a little, but on the basis that holidy autos do a price match guarentee I always shop around then go to them with the cheapest price and tell them if they want the business to knock a few extra quid off.

autosabroad used to be the cheapest but I never used them as holiday autos always gave me a lower price when I called them

Paul

Thanks guys - that's all great and very helpful advice. It seems that the general consensus is to organise the car hire outside of Virgin. We've decided to go with http://www.uscarhire.co.uk/ for MCO on October so I think I'll see how they handle their customers as it was only £351 for a Jeep Grand Cherokee for 2 weeks, all in with gold insurance, additonal drivers etc. If they fall short of my high standards then I will certainly look at the others suggested, though will perhaps compare them to uscarhire to see what models and prices they can offer.

Any advice on the hotels if this request comes back negative?

Cheers,
Jacq

Originally posted by Jacqueline Lewis
£351 for a Jeep Grand Cherokee for 2 weeks, all in with gold insurance, additonal drivers etc.

Sounds like a good price to me. Do you know who the actual renting company is?

Paul

Oddly enough, it's with Dollar! They do all the VH cars so it's odd that VH don't allow you to take a 4WD.

Get off the plane quick, can you imagine the queue for dollar with 350 odd newly arrived passengers??

Paul

Been there done that - We are always the last off of the plane (Disabled son) so we are always at the back of the queue for car hire etc, so this year I have decided not to bother and I have booked us into the Hyatt for the night. However there is a special queue for VH pax picking cars up, so there are usually plenty of other desks available for the other pax.

I stayed in the Hyatt last year overnight before connecting to SJU. We had a nice large room with the bed at an odd angle and a superb view of the runway, caught the late night VS plane on takeoff.

As you are so close to the terminal, I suggest that if you are not fussed about a knife and fork meal that you pop back down to the terminal and head for the food court.

Paul

I thought the food in McCoys was supposed to be good? Are you suggesting that it's better in the terminal Paul? I was quite looking forward to extending the feeling we will have had travelling UC for the first time, by dumping the bags in the room and heading to the bar for a few alcoholic beverages and watch the planes take off:)

Going back to the crowded desk thing...sorry! Do you think that will be the case if we are PE? I read on someone else's thread that your bags are loaded separately so come off onto a separate conveyer at MCO. Surely this might put us slightly ahead of the hoardes?

The Mandalay Bay is a 4,000 room hotel, and August is Low season in Vegas. I will bet my right arm that they arent full.

However you will now be into VH call centre hell, so I bet my left arm they will either screw it up, or you will give up trying.

Until VH sort out their customer service, I will book everything else independantly from now on.

Originally posted by Jacqueline Lewis
Going back to the crowded desk thing...sorry! Do you think that will be the case if we are PE? I read on someone else's thread that your bags are loaded separately so come off onto a separate conveyer at MCO. Surely this might put us slightly ahead of the hoardes?

Yes you are correct, in MCO arrivals hall there is a seperate conveyor for PE and UC, but even if you get of the plane last your bags will have been going around by themselves for sometime and the hoardes will be ahead of you.

Also some magical fairies, probably rejects from Disney, take your cases of the TSA agent just after customs and move them at random so that when you arrive at the 2nd conveyor your bags may come out at any time. I have waited for 10 minutes to get bags that where loaded on the conveyor belt together.

Still the best advice I can give you for arrival at MCO is to get off the plane quick.

Paul

Thanks Paul, I will try to be as swift as possible.

On another note, here I am in right now in 'call centre hell' as Prof so eloquently put it! The request came back declined [:(] for Mandalay so I've got them checking other 5*: I can have Caesar's Palace or Mirage at no extra cost, or Bellagio at + £76, Venetian at + £112 and Four Seasons at + £201 for strip view room (all -10% of course). Any recommendations?

Disappointed

Go for Four Seasons, it is (or at least was) on the top floors of the Mandalay Bay. Does anyone know if this is still the case??

Paul

Originally posted by Jacqueline Lewis
Thanks Paul, I will try to be as swift as possible.

On another note, here I am in right now in 'call centre hell' as Prof so eloquently put it! The request came back declined [:(] for Mandalay so I've got them checking other 5*: I can have Caesar's Palace or Mirage at no extra cost, or Bellagio at + £76, Venetian at + £112 and Four Seasons at + £201 for strip view room (all -10% of course). Any recommendations?

Disappointed

Jacq just to give you a bit of hope - I originally booked our Silver Wedding trip around 8 months in advance with VH (travelled April 2005). Mandalay Bay or the Bellagio was not available at the time. We booked an upgraded room at MGM but I wasn't happy. Over the course of the next few months various hotels became available (I kept checking on line) including Mandalay Bay - I emailed VH and changed the booking to the Four Seasons in the end which I thought was great(change should be £25 pp but they never charged it).

Paul - yes its the 36-39th Floors with private lift access, private pool (which is fantastic) but still using all the facilities of Mandalay Bay.

Jilly

Thanks, Jilly. After (another) peruse of the brochure and a long spell reading some interesting insights on TripAdvisor, plus the thread on V-Flyer discussing upgrading to a suite at the Bellagio, we have actually plumped for the Bellagio! Lots of people seemed to say that Caesar's looked a bit tired. The Four Seasons was adding a bit too much onto an already expensive trip (going in PE - would never have got into this expensive habit if it weren't for this forum - are you lot on commission? ). The Mirage didn't seem to be able to add anything but the Venetian also looked quite nice. I think the cheesy fountain show won it for me! [:o)] I really like the sound of the possible free upgrade at the VIP check-in, too.

I'm just glad it's all booked now. All that's left to do is work out how the hell we're going to pay for it! I've blindly booked PE as we've never flown out of Economy, but we'll get our first taste in October to MCO Long may the trend continue!

[mitchja]

Glad it's finally sorted Jacqueline [y]

Yeah, wise choice going for the Bellagio I'd say. I didn't like Caesar's at all when I was there. Rooms and staff were not up to much although the Casino was good.

Regards