Last week I had a five-day vacation in Las Vegas. Although I lost money gambling, the total cost of the vacation ended up being very little. I got the flight, hotel room, and rental car for free. I did not note how much cash I had before starting but I think I had roughly $85 in cash with me and had $9 left at the end of the trip. So the trip cost me approximately $80 since I didn’t take out any cash and any credit card purchases were reimbursed.
The flight was free because I have the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Card. The card has a sign up bonus of 50,000 points which is good for at least two round trip flights. I think I’ll end up getting two round trip flights plus a one-way for my points since I got some cheaper flights. One drawback to this card is that they don’t waive the annual fee for the first year. If you would like to sign up for this card you can leave a comment and I’ll send you a referral link. If you sign up through the referral link you will get the 50,000 point bonus offer and I’ll get 5000 points for referring you. If you don’t want to sign up through my referral link it is easy to find the same offer on the web.
The hotel and rental car were free because I used points from my Capital One Venture card. This card gave me 50,000 points worth $500 in travel when I signed up. This card does waive the annual fee for the first year. The link to the Cap 1 card is not an affiliate link and the bonus is smaller at this time. I also recommend the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World MasterCard® which pays an effective $440 bonus.
We didn’t spend any money on visiting any attractions. It was my girlfriend’s first time to Vegas so there was plenty to see. We toured a lot of the casinos and watched the light show at Bellagio and the volcano at the Mirage, but there was still a lot more we didn’t have time to see. I didn’t count money spent on food as a trip expense since it was about the same as it would have been if I were at home. I did eat at In-N-Out Burger a couple of times which I considered to be special meals, but other than that I just had ordinary food. Since I covered the expense of the hotel and rental car my girlfriend covered the $20 in gas for the rental car and the $35 for airport parking.
Overall, I managed to spend four nights and five days in Las Vegas and only spent about $80. I consider that a bargain. My next trip will probably be more expensive, but I’m hoping I’ll have enough credit card points and SW miles to keep it cheap.
$80 is definitely a bargain. You did great!
Thanks. I know you did great on your trip to Vegas too.
You always give me something to aspire towards… but I don’t think $85 in cash would be enough to get me very excited about gambling in Vegas over 5 days. Last time we went I too had to visit In-N-Out. Good stuff and I am fortunate that I have to travel 3,000 miles to get to one! Glad the two of you had fun on a nearly free vacation.
You did pretty well on your Vegas vacation too. I was lucky that I won before I lost or the vacation would have been more expensive.