Planning the $1000 Las Vegas Vacation - part 5 Golden at the Nugget

"Jimmy Poon," I said to my pal Jimmy Poon, the tech genius who pretty much runs all things Flusher on the internet, not to mention my bootleg B.U.D. (big ugly dish) 70s satellite setup that still picks up the odd late night 1970's big bush booby movie feed coming out of Miami.

"Jimmy Poon, why is it that a quarter of my onions are always wasted?"

We'd cooked up some grub, hot fresh omelettes loaded with green onions, mushrooms, peppers, embracing five or six slices of processed cheese as orange as Donald Prunt's spray on tan, and smothered with microwaved La Victoria hot enchilada sauce from a can.

Jimmy Poon grinned wide, so wide his ears appeared to grow into little points. "Heeeee heeeeheeeee heeeeee," he went, laughing his trademarked elfin laugh.

"Royal, don't you know that in every onion, there is always a root. A strong, fleshy, crunch, juicy root."

Jimmy Poon looked at me.

"Gosh, Jimmy Poon," I said.

Jimmy Poon took a big bite of omelette, oozing crayola cheese. He plunged the mouthful in, just before the goop hit anything launderable.

"Every onion has this root and two or three wonderful green, firm stalks, full of flavor. So fresh you only have to waste the top quarter inch or so."

He paused.

"Gosh, Jimmy Poon," I said again.

"And so, every onion has one worn out stalk, hanging down on one side that looks like a bridegrooms dick the morning after the wedding night - limp, lifeless, and useless. Heeeeee heeee!!!!!" Jimmy Poon's eyebrows reached for the sky in pointed delight as he giggled.

"It's true, Jimmy Poon. About the onion. That's my point, there's always this useless hanging part of the onion that looks like an onion, smells like an onion, but isn't of any use. Is this a Walmart conspiracy to make us pay more for the onions?"

"Royal. Get a grip. It's part of the wing and wang of the onion. You can't have a good part of the onion without the limp part. You pull down the limp part of the onion, it strips away the dirt and grime on the root. But if it weren't there, one of the better parts of the onion would be limp and dirty in its place."

"Jimmy Poon," I said, "you are a fuckin' onion genius."

We got talking about the up-coming Scrounge trip and I told him the good news. An offer from the Nugget had come in that I could use on the trip. Even better, said offer includes free play! (And the Quad Queen has free play too that will somehow get magically played...)

And I told him about the Plaza and how I didn't like them not disclosing the resort fees.

The question was, should I book the Nugget, low play them, and lose future offers, or should I stick with the still pretty inexpensive Plaza. It really wasn't much of a question but it bore scrutiny.

"Nugget. Plaza," said Jimmy Poon, measuring his hands up and down like a weigh scale. "Nugget. Plaza.... the onion."

"Oh my God Jimmy Poon! Are you intimating that metaphorically, and possibly financially speaking, the Nugget is the 3/4 of the onion with the firm root and frisky stalks, and the Plaza is the limp, dirty, dick part of the onion?"

"Royal, there is hope for you yet. Peel away the limp, dirty, dick."

He was right, of course. Later that night, I got on the blower and yammered my deets at the smooth-sounding Golden Nugget Sheila. I qualified for a Rush Tower room. (I could also have Carson Tower, or Gold Tower if I wanted, but fuck that noise!) Even better - with a comped room, NO RESORT FEE. I also get two tickets to Gordie Brown. I'm not sure if I should add a value for these. I may or may not go. I may go twice. I may sell the tickets in an alley for $10 and a half can of Krylon.

I booked that mother faster than a cop writing a March 31 quota-meeting speeding ticket.

Thank you Golden Nugget for this picture of who (including Sheilas) might be in my Cabana. Should I rent one. I might!

Now, I am not one to act hastily. I next blew electrons at the shrieking Plaza ops, telling them to shove the first three nights and their limp onion stalk resort fees up their pool deck.

But I also sweetly told them I'd happily do them a favor and keep the fourth night.

I have a pal stumbling in to (down)town that night and together we are going to viciously button-fuck the Four Queens, in a most visceral manner, and with extreme savvy prejudice, out of all of their cash, gold, silver, and merr mhhr myhhr oh make it amber. As in beer. And then we are going to have comped Chicago Brewing Company pizzas. Because THAT'S how we dinner roll.

And is that weren't enough good news... I got an email a couple of days later inviting me to a tournament at the Golden Nugget - and it coincides with my stay! Do you realize what it would mean to this Scrounge trip if I could pull off a tournament win of significant free play or cash prize proportions? I spun the crank on the Flusher kitchen wall phone, sweet-talked the phone Sheilas at the Nugget, and got the tournament tacked on to my stay. Absolutely Wizard!

Additionally, in the bankroll stretching department, I've had a few great suggestions from readers and top of the list is to get a membership in the Las Vegas Advisor. I did this once years ago but didn't put much stock in it lately. Maybe because I wasn't as savvy then... With a car, I can really make the coupon book that you get with the membership pay off.

The membership with Member Rewards Book including shipping to Canada costs $42 US. Realistically, with a car, I can take advantage of $175 worth of free play and match play coupons. I value the match plays at 50% of their face value. I'll pick some even money bet and stick with it for the whole trip, for example, red on roulette. If I do that, I'll win slightly less than 50% of the time (fuck you 0, and 00). Or maybe pass line at the craps table, or maybe blackjack. We'll see.

The upshot is, my bankroll has taken quite a boost, for very little cash outlay.

(Did I mention I finished 2nd in my hockey pool? That $60 CAD is going to Vegas as a win!)

(Did I mention I have some old Silver Strikes I'm going to cash in at the Four Queens? Not the .999 silver ones. Dai Lun if you are reading, I have a blue cap and a red cap and a couple of .999s I'd sell for a very attractive degenerate cheap bastard scroungy price.)

(Did I mention I probably will get some Four Queens and Binions free play? Because I did for April and May.)

Here are the bankroll scrounges I've got to date.

Bankroll Scrounges	Notes	US Hard Cost	US Bankroll Added
Hockey Pool	Hockey Pool Winnings	$0	$47
Luxor Freeplay		$0	$75
Mandalay Bay Freeplay		$0	$75
Binions Freeplay		$0	$20
Four Queens Freeplay		$0	$60
Golden Nugget Freeplay	ESTIMATED	$0	$150
D match play	$10 match play	$0	$5
Las Vegas Advisor	Match plays and free slot play add up to about $175	$42	$175
Silver Strikes	Four Queens Silver Strikes	$0	$30
Totals		$42	$637

That brings my total available bankroll to $1,647 US for an outlay of $1042 US.

Savvy?

Planning the $1000 Las Vegas Vacation - part 4 Plaza Las Vegas Hides Resort Fees

The Scrounge trip is shaping up. I've got airfare booked, and I've got stays with freeplay book-ending the trip, start and finish.

There were still lots of details to be taken care of. I still had to find 7 out of the 12 nights I'm in Vegas. I needed to find a car rate. And I needed to look in to more scroungy ideas to extend my bankroll.

I wanted to stay downtown some more but the Downtown Grand isn't offering anything, I've sworn off staying at the Four Queens, the ElCo offers the Quad Queen comped nights but not me, and Boyd (MSS, Fremont, Cal) is out, because I want to keep my daily average at $10K coin in a day. And that ain't happening this trip. Never stayed at the D so no good offers there.

I got an email from the Plaza touting a 20% discount for Canadians. Sounded interesting. I'd enjoyed playing there last trip, although I hadn't won anything. They have full pay quarter Boner Deluxe (which, according to my guidelines, I won't be playing, because volatility). They have full pay quarter other things though, including Jacks and Bonus. And Double Bonus. And Joker's Wild. Neither of which I've learned how to play. But that's another story.

It's also a super easy move from the Rush Tower to the Plaza - not even a block away.

So I looked at the rates and they were really cheap. Super cheap. Like $22 a night cheap. I loaded the ticky boxes up for 4 nights and it looked like the entire stay would cost me $88.70 plus room tax.

That is an outstanding room rate. I stopped to wonder, what about resort fees? Does the Plaza have one? I didn't know. But I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere.

I clicked through all of the booking dialog boxes and was greeted with a Rate Breakdown which totaled $88.70. Sweet! I put in the credit card and all the other information and booked it.

Doing a Googlygoogle search I found out that the Plaza does have a resort fee. $15 a night. Whaaaat???? Why hadn't it been mentioned?

I got a confirmation email from the Plaza and glanced through it.

And here's what I found:

Guest Name: ROYAL FLUSHER
Number of Rooms:     1

Daily Room Rates:
____________________
06/06/16 = $23.20
06/07/16 = $23.20
06/08/16 = $23.20
06/09/16 = $23.20

Total:       $ $92.80
Tax:         $ $11.12
Final Total: $ $103.92

Wonderful right? Wrong. ABOVE this in the fine print I found this.

We are pleased that you have selected The Plaza Hotel & Casino for
your upcoming visit to Downtown Las Vegas.  If we at The Plaza Hotel
can be of further assistance, please contact us at 800-634-6575.

* You must be 21 years of age to reserve a room and/or register.
* A valid picture i.d. must be presented upon check in.
* The 1st nights room & tax will be charged to the credit card on the
   reservation.
* Check in begins at 4:00 p.m.
* Non-confirmed rates are subject to change without notice.
* Rates are based on double occupancy.
* Additional guests (12 and older) are $20 per person, per night.
* The maximum number allowed in one room is 4.
* Reservations must be canceled 48 hours prior to arrival date for a
  full refund.
* To cancel this reservation, please call 800-634-6575.
* Rates are subject to change if you alter your arrival and/or change
   your length of stay.
* Room types, room locations, and requests are based upon availability
   at time of check in.
* Rollaways are an additional $20 per night and are based upon
   availability.
* Plaza guest will incur a $10 plus tax daily Resort Fee.
  Upon Check-In a $50 security deposit is due.
 REAL PEOPLE, REAL VALUE, REAL FUN, REAL VEGAS, THE REAL DOWNTOWN

Note the 3rd line from the bottom: * Plaza guest will incur a $10 plus tax daily Resort Fee.

OK, now I was steamed.

When I see Final Total I take that to mean just what it says - the final total for the stay would be $103.92. But they buried the resort fee above it.

And, being the Plaza, they got it wrong in the email and cited $10 a day, not $15.

I looked on their website and the resort fee is indeed mentioned. But its $15 not $10. And the path I took into the site from their marketing email never mentioned it.

Just to prove to myself I hadn't missed anything, I went through a pretend reservation again for one night to see if the resort fee is ever mentioned.

Here's the full offer - much as I love the Plaza Pool Booby Girl, there is no mention of a resort fee.

Here's the next screen:

On the next screen, you select a room.

I did so, and clicked the handy Rate Breakdown button. I figured this is where they would mention the resort fee.

Nope.

I entered all my personal information, just as I had before, and the total never reflected the resort fee - a fee which, with taxes, almost doubles the amount I'd pay for the room in total.

Note the Reservation Total in this next screen still does not include the resort fee.

And when you put your credit card info in (last chance) the resort fees are still hidden. Not until you have booked and paid your deposit do they mention it, buried in the fine print of an email, and incorrect.

The real cost of the four nights I booked is $171.12 with the resort fee added and the tax on top. Not the $103.92 mentioned in my 'Final Total' in the email confirmation.

But the Plaza never tells you that.

I think it is deceptive, unfair, and pretty damn lousy.

So, do I keep the Plaza reservation or not?! Forty bucks a night is still pretty cheap for Vegas, but I do not like how the Plaza hid the resort fee. It's the principle of the thing.

By comparison, look at the rate screen I was shown for Luxor:

Right there in the price breakdown, they state it, crystal clear. "A daily resort fee of $29.12 (tax inclusive) is added to all room reservations upon check-in."

Armed with that, you can take it or leave it.

Shame on you Plaza!

Planning the $1000 Las Vegas Vacation - part 3 Return to the Jizzcuzzi

I love it when you get that message on the screen that your flight is confirmed for Vegas.

That means that the trip is on. That is the moment it all really begins. That is the moment your Vegas obsession turn from a general longing to a real thing. You have new life, and new hope again, and new adventures just over the horizon.

"That's it. I'm going!!!"

Having booked the flight on AeroPlan points, I now have some work to do if I am going to have any kind of a chance of having a good time on a $1000 gambling budget. That works out to $84 a day.

This is the budget I had 20 years ago, when everything was coin droppers and the slot club cards had holes in them like 50s IBM punch cards. In fact, slot clubs had only just been invented.

I was a proud member of the Gold Chamber at Luxor. Remember that?

OK, so I had a bunch of offers in my mailbox. I looked them over and started to piece together an itinerary.

The beauty of offers is that they include free rooms. And if those rooms are free, they include resort fees (except sometimes). And if the rooms are free, there is no 12% room tax on the cost of the room.

Well, maybe there is, but 12% of $0.00 is sweet fuck all.

And the best part of offers is they usually include some free play. And free play means a bigger gambling budget beyond the exactly $1000-worth of gambling that $1000 cash will buy.

Jimmy Poon moved his computer mouse in swirls and swoops so graceful they would have made Elvis Stojko look like Tie Domi trying to execute a triple Lutz in a furry Easter bunny suit. Before I knew it, he'd created a spreadsheet to track offers and benefits.

First stop, the MLife MILF site to see what was on tap there.

And it looked good. Very good.

I had an offer for Luxor.

I know what you're thinking. Never again after the pubic hair jizzcuzzi incident in the Luxor Pyramid suite.

But I happen to know that the Tower rooms are quite nice indeed.

And my offer is for 3 nights in a Tower Deluxe room, with $75 freeplay and $100 resort credit. (See, all that money I lost before is paying dividends now!)

Now, the resort hostage fee at Luxor is about $30 a day, but the resort credit covers that for the three days, making the stay really and truly free. In fact, I'll have an extra $10 left over for actual resort items like a toothpick or a bag of peanuts. And I get the free play to boot. I'll have to figure out some inexpensive food options.

Does the TSA object to cans of tuna in your luggage?

Weekends are always trickier for cheap bastard trips. Thing happen on weekends like fights and other sports events, and they are just busier. This translates into higher rates. I got busy and the Luxor offer was available for one of the weekends I'll need.

I booked it! And look at the money I saved! $752.64!!! (That's against the El Stupido Rack Rate, which nobody would ever pay unless the Free Beer convention was in town.)

Going back through the offers in MLife MILF, I saw there was also one for Mandalay Bay for 2 nights, $50 resort credit, and $75 free play.

It wasn't good for a weekend, but if I went out far enough from the Luxor stay, it looked like I could book it.

Done!!! The $50 resort credit almost covers the $67 in resort fees.

So now I have 5 of my needed dozen nights booked.

More exciting than that, I've expanded my gambling bankroll footprint by $150.

I had Jimmy Poon set up some spreadsheets so we can track stuff in excruciatingly boring detail. I had him convert everything into US dollars, since this will all happen in the US - and frankly, most of you degenerate readers are American. So let's keep it simple and get that crazy Canadian loonie out of there.

Bankroll Scrounges	Notes	US Hard Cost				US Bankroll
Luxor Freeplay		$0				$75
Mandalay Bay Freeplay		$0				$75
Totals		$0		$0	$0.00	$150

Here's a quick summary of where I stand on costs and comps for this trip.

	US
Hard Costs	$1,693
Value Received	$2,648
Savvy Comps Gained	$955
Bankroll cash	$1,000
Bankroll scrounges	$150
Total bankroll	$1,150

As you can see I'm in for $1693 of which $1000 is my cash bankroll, and $330 is cash for expenses. Like tipping. And eating.

For value received, I didn't take the ridiculous room night prices cited on the MILF site. Instead I pegged Mandalay Bay at $100 US a night, and Luxor at $75 US a night, both including resort fee. I think that's a pretty realistic amount that I would actually pay out of pocket for these rooms.

By using some a couple of offers, flying on points, and a couple of other things, I'm getting $955 more in value than the $1,693 I'm spending so far.

Here are the detail on it, if you care. Don't shout at me if the math is wrong, Jimmy Poon hates what I do to him when he fumbles the math.

Scrounges	Notes	US Hard Cost	US Value
Bankroll		$1,000	$1,000
Bankroll Scrounges		$0	$150
Airfare	Air FU Canada on Points from Flusherville	$190	$544
Seat Upgrade	Air FU Canada Slaveship Seat to Normal Loser Seat	$33	$33
Expense Money		$330	$330
VISA Gift Card	From Golden Nugget promotion	$0	$25
Luxor Room	Rack Rate $765. RCs cover resort fee	$0	$225
Mandalay Bay Room	Rack Rate $630. RCs cover resort fee	$0	$200
Car Rental	Have $200 CAD credit on VISA rewards card	$141	$141
Totals		$1,693	$2,648

The more numbers I crunch, the more I forget how degenerate this is going to be!!!

Lot's more to come.

Planning the $1000 Las Vegas Vacation - part 2 Aeroplan - Pick and Click 'n Wait

Using the Air Canada Aeroplan AeroFail site is an exercise in frustration. It's a good thing I could use some exercise.

You tell it your destination and dates and click 'n wait while the AeroFail servers grind away like a six beers until cute refinery-town truckstop bar fly. Then it will propose some horrible impossible connections for you for your points flights.

Want to go from Flusherville to Vegas? Get ready to see Toronto, Montreal on the way. Oh, and by the way, you're spending the night in the Montreal airport. Or how about Toronto and Denver? Or Vancouver and LAX? Travel time 29 hours.

It has this insulting thing called the 'availability calendar'. This is a calendar which shows you the 99% of dates that have no available points flights.

AeroPlan Annoyability Calendar

They should call it the 'you're fucked calendar'.

Ok, so you can't find a decent departure, and your return is a red-eye. So you want to try another date.

Pick another day on the 'irritability calendar' and using the Search With New Futile Dates button, click 'n wait.

The return doesn't work. Choose yet another day on the 'annoyability calendar' and click 'n wait.

Meanwhile the fat is rendering from your body into glassine pools at your feet, your nails have grown, and the cobwebs have completely obscured your view of the screen.

Flights are typically 25,000 points return. But there's another option! Market Fare! What that means is you can use more - usually a LOT more - points to maybe get a flight. It's a way they have of screwing you out of your rightfully earned free trip.

As if that weren't enough, there are hard cash fees that must be paid on a points ticket, including a cleverly disguised 'carrier surcharge' which used to be a 'fuel surcharge' which is basically a 'put the jailhouse shiv into your gut and break the handle off' surcharge.

Free flights isn't free. Or should I say, a free flight aren't free.

So AeroFail has brought me a certain amount of frustration and brought you, the reader, a certain amount of ranty entertainment.

If you happen to be a customer of AC like me, I'm happy to say... there's a better way.

That better way is an online tool called ExpertFlyer. ExpertFlyer is a flight search engine on mind-bending synthetic steroids. It provides all kinds of search and alert capabilities for most airlines, including Air Canada, and most importantly, it provides Award seat availability information.

I gave the free trial version a shot some time ago but the AeroPlan stuff wasn't working. Long story short, I sprung for the Pro version for a month ($10) because it allows multi-day searches (+- 3 days) which solves the biggest shortcoming of the AeroFail site, the amount of time it takes to find flight options. (I'll can it after the month is up, and sign up again if and when I have more AeroFail points.)

On ExpertFlyer, I could see a week of departure flights and a week of return flights all in one page. Plus searches can be saved, and modified. It's pretty great.

So, using ExpertFlyer I played around with dates and options. I had three things in mind:

• flight out
• flight back
• weekends

I really prefer to fly during the day, but the morning flights to Vegas are usually not available. The evening option gets me into Sin City around 1:30am my time, and if the flight is late... it can get really, really late. That makes for a very long tiring day.

My other preference is not to fly home on a red eye. You have a long day in Vegas with departure around midnight, then you try to grab a few hours sleep if you can, then you are up and at 'em 4 hours later, hanging around Pearson, then you get on to your hopper to FlusherVille just in time to head to work. It's gruelling, and frankly, I'm just not as young as I was, say, 5 minutes ago.

Finally, weekends. The best time to head out on vacation is, of course, at the start of a weekend. You get more for your money by not burning as many vacation days. If you can roll two weekends into the trip, even better.

Using ExpertFlyer, I located a flight out that seemed to work. It's on a Friday, so the weekend strategy is in play. And of course, many other Vegaddicts have the same idea. It's the evening sortie out, but getting the weekend is huge.

I kept poking around, looking for a possible return about 10 days out from the Friday departure.

And all of a sudden... there it was.

A Wednesday return was available.

And oh my God.... it was NOT A RED EYE! BOOK! BOOK! BOOK IT NOW!!!!!

I had to tab back over to the AeroFail site. Hand shaking with excitement, I put in the matching dates and locations and Click 'n Waited.

Yes, the departure was showing, yes, it was available for 25,000 points. I had enough.

And the return...

... not there.

I ran over to the Quad Queen to whine. I whined and fussed and moaned. She made me some cocoa and put on a cartoon, to calm me down.

On a hunch, I went back to the computer, logged out, logged back in and just tried it all again.

I GOT IT.

Yes, I, Royal Flusher, Savvy Gambler Extraordinaire, Flushypants the self-promoting, self-deprecating, selfie avoiding Vegas Degenerate... actually booked a points flight that does not have a return on a red eye through 9 cities taking six days in total with two of the legs on Air Canada's desert camel service.

The return flight leaves at a very savvy noon, and I'm home a little after midnight Eastern time.

Unbelievable!

So it's on, people, I'm going. Yes, I am going back to Vegas, and I am going to do this $1000 challenge trip.

Now, don't think I didn't get a totally free flight here - Air FU Canada extracted a total of $241.85 CAD in fees, taxes, and surcharges from me. And this is why we hate AeroPlan up here. That is fucking outrageous and is quite a bit higher than normal. Usually it's about $90 each way for a total of $180.

Still, the upshot is for $241.85, I have a trip to Vegas. Just for fun, I went into Air FU Canada's regular site to see how much it would be to buy the same ticket. It came out to about $1300. Now, I would never pay that, but that's what it was - partly because of no availability in the cheapest class of fare for the FLV to YYZ leg.

So I changed the FLV flight to a later flight the same day that would still get me into YYZ on time for the Vegas leg. That's what I would have purchased, if I wasn't broke.

The retail value of my flight is $689.47. So I reckon I got a good deal. Feeling chuffed, I paid an extra $42 for a Premium seat on the return leg. (None were available on the outbound.)

I'm in for $284 on a $690 flight, a savings of $406.

So far, so good. And I'm going to Vegas!

Now it's time to start hunting for room and freeplay offers.

Planning the $1000 Las Vegas Vacation - part 1 (are you kidding me?)

After working from Vegas for almost two weeks and getting my ass kicked for pretty much the whole time, I've taken time to think about what I did.

It was expensive, I lost back most (but not all) of the money I won on a hot streak last fall, it was annoying, and it wasn't any fun.

I am bruised and beaten. I had terrible luck the entire trip, pretty much. I went from four royals in one trip to none.

After carefully considering all the alternatives, I can only come up with one conclusion.

And that is, I am going to go back.

You, the reader, are probably saying aloud, "you must be out of your fucking tree, F.P.".

But it makes sense if you consider my nature, which oscillates between degenerate and savvy, and all points in between.

There's nothing like a lickin' to get your clock tickin' and get you thinking about righting some wrongs.

Here's what I'm thinking.

• I want to be on vacation - no half-assed work/night off trip bullshit
• I should shake up the gambling and seriously limit high volatility play (Video Poker, your number is up)
• Every savvy tip and technique I've ever learned should be used to be a cheap bastard frugal
• Royal Flusher World needs content, so I want to research a bunch of articles and take on a number of new experiences that need writing about
• Time to call in a bunch of the comps I've generated in my higher coin-in trips, damn the torpedoes
• A car is needed so I can go places in Vegas. I would have had a better trip with more independence
• Having a limited budget would be a challenge, and the ridiculous things I'd have to endure, the various hardships and shortfalls... would make entertaining reading for everyone else
• I want to spend more time relaxing and doing zen-like relaxation things (that are free) rather than worrying about losing thousands of dollars and playing hour upon hour of wonderful video poker

So I am looking at a super-cheap trip, and trying to find ways to make that fun. I used to low roll all the time, why not now?

My remaining IRS refunds are nowhere to be seen, so I can't count on those to pump up the US dollar budget. This means getting creative and low rolling.

I took a look around and figured out all the things I have at my disposal. Here's what I've got.

• In my Stash of Las Vegas Things I have $500 in US traveller's cheques, and $1334 in US cash.
• 33,000 AeroFuckyouPlan Aeropeso points
• 640 Westjet Dollars
• a $25 Visa gift card from a Golden Nugget promo last trip
• a $200 credit on a TD travel Visa card
• $30 in Four Queens silver strikes (the non .999 fine ones, no red or blue caps)

I'll need some expense money, so it looks like my gambling stake for the entire trip would be $1000 US.

That would leave $334 for cash expenses.

I'd have to get cracking to see if it is even possible to get an Air FU Canada flight on points that doesn't involve six airport changes and two red-eyes. Because the return from Vegas on points on Air Canada or should I say Air Canada Rouge is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a red-eye.

Air Canada has a state of the art local fleet.

Should I do it or not?

Let me know - there's a poll in the sidebar.

Meanwhile... I'll be on the AeroFUPlan site.

But wait... there's MORE!

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