Why fuss? Ride the bus... to Vegas!

No cheap magnificent bastard trip to Las Vegas is complete without air transportation to get you there.

Unless you want to walk. Or take the bus. Time to explore my options!

Just to be thorough, I looked into it. A return trip from Toronto to Las Vegas by bus will run you $433 CAD including a $4 service fee. A $3 seat selection fee is a cash-grab add on.

A one-way ride from Union Station to downtown Vegas (very convenient!) is an ass-shattering 72 hours. With five transfers.

For $433 I could ride the silver dog limo to Vegas and back for a 7 day trip, including 1 night in Vegas. The rest would be spent fending off my drooling chatty garlic-breathed seat mate's invitations to talk about how the Peruvian matcha cartels secretly run the world's stock exchanges and are planning global domination, as soon as they figure a way down the mountainside.

I gave the bus to Vegas plan all the consideration it is due - none.

From Flusherville, air options are limited since Air FU Canada stopped servicing the Flusherville Regional Aerodrome, the airfield from which I used to take the single-engine Curtiss-Wright Beechfokker Industrie Ditchmaster Flea-flicker Flameliner Tiger Moth Mark 2 Constellation a la Mode (Stretch Version) to Pearson in Toronto.

How I miss the Air Canada Flameliner service from Flusherville!

Fortunately, to keep costs down, I have multiple options.

• $200 WestJet travel bank dollars and $400 WestJet dollars - all still left over from the cancelled pandemic trip of 2020 - enough for a return flight from Toronto
• Enough Avion points for a return flight
• Enough United points from doing online surveys for a one-way flight

For flights, I also have multiple options.

• Fly from Toronto Pearson, 3 hours away
• Fly from Montreal (which has pretty much the same options as Pearson) also 3 hours away
• Fly from Ottawa, 2 hours away, if there are any flights, and there aren't
• Fly from Watertown, NY
• Fly from Syracuse

I immediately tossed out Montreal and Ottawa. Both have the same problems Toronto has (distance, parking, gas) and Ottawa likely has no direct flights. I hear Porter is going to start flying direct from Ottawa to Vegas this fall, but that's no help.

The WestJet option seems like a no-brainer except... I still have to get to Toronto to catch the flight. And that isn't free.

If I'm going to keep this trip down to $86 USD a day for seven days in Vegas, every American dime counts.

Jimmy Poon worked up a spreadsheet with all the options to get to an airport, flight costs, redemption schedules, and some formulas to turn lead into gold, which I deleted because they were in a color I didn't like.

• Drive to Toronto and park for a week - $240 CAD
• Drive to Syracuse and park for a week - $160 CAD
• Take a train to Toronto if I book on a Tuesday - $150 CAD
• Take a bus to Toronto - $80 CAD
• Drive to Watertown, where there is free parking (!!!) - $30 CAD including bridge tolls

That seems pretty clear, but let's take a look at Jimmy Poon's flight options.

• Watertown to Las Vegas on American, purchased ticket - $600 CAD
• Toronto to Las Vegas in Air Canada using Avion points - $170 CAD
• Watertown to Las Vegas on American using Avion points - $89 CAD
• Toronto to Las Vegas on WestJet - $0

Even though I would love to use up those WestJet dollars, the cheapest option is to fly from Watertown using Avion points.

It's an easy drive from Flusherville, and the parking is free. And, it's an easy border crossing, compared to the airport gauntlet. With my NEXUS card, I can drive through the border in as little as 5 minutes.

I'll need to eat in Vegas, so I've budgeted $120 for that to supplement the resort credit and free buffets I'll get with my room bookings.

And, I'll need to get around in Vegas, so on the advice of a savvy reader, I signed up for the senior 50% discount, and budged for two three-day all access passes - $20.

This trip is shaping up! Let's take a look at a Poon-o-matic pie chart.

It's certainly do-able and there is a whopping $191 gambling budget. That's $27 a day!

I have some ideas to improve things even further, which I'll explain in the next scintillating post.