Yes, you read that right. Sin City is more than a place to gamble away your life savings (hopefully not) and see Elvis impersonators. Vegas is an ideal gateway airport, especially after returning from Central or South America on Copa Airline’s direct flight from Panama, especially if you are a US citizen.
We were in economy and the majority of the passengers seemed to not be (USA) Americans. Since I had booked these flights so far in advance, I had selected seats as far to the front as I could, row 9. Having only carry-on backpacks meant that we were off and running. When we reached immigration, I told them we had 1 American and 1 Australian with an ESTA and we were directed to the US Citizens line and were through in minutes. There is a shuttle to the rental car building in which all car rental companies are housed.
Las Vegas (LAS) has very few international flights landing so you don’t find the congestion you do at larger airports with lots of international flights such as LAX, JFK, IAH, MIA. Most of the other international flights originate in Canada so they will usually have done pre-clearance in Canada. There are several flights from Mexico, Condor flies from Frankfurt, Korean Airlines has one from Seoul, British Airways & Virgin Atlantic fly from LHR (possible use of Ultimate Rewards points).
Since our final destination was my Mom’s place in central California, I also thought the driving would be easier than taking the heavily trafficked 405 to 101 from LAX. Having a stopover in Vegas opens up some nice opportunities for free accommodation and oddly enough the best choice isn’t using standard hotel points unless you are chasing status on Hyatt with their MLife partnership.
GETTING FREE ROOMS IN VEGAS
If you are a high roller, you have other means of getting free rooms and probably already know about them. This is meant for the casual visitor who is just getting back from an eco-tourism trip and wants to chill for a day or two.
The major hotel chains do have properties in Vegas but this is one time I don’t advise you to use them as they are in most cases inconveniently located off the Strip. I did have a Chase free night certificate to spend and since we were there on Labor Day weekend, I couldn’t get the Venetian or Palazzo so we ended up at the Holiday Inn Desert Club Resort. The rooms were nice, like 1 bedroom apartments but the location was terrible! They supposedly have a shuttle to the Strip but we couldn’t make it work with the show (Ka) and buffets we had planned and I didn’t want to drive since I knew I would be drinking so we got stuck using taxis.
Not to worry, free hotel rooms, buffets & shows on the Strip can still be had for free if you don’t mind Facebook games!
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There is a silly Facebook game called MyVegas that I found out about over a year ago. It’s free and fairly painless to play. Every few hours you can refill your chips and gold coins. You can see by the Santa on the left that I took this screenshot around Christmas time. They have sub-games that vary by time of the year. See their fan page for free chips and updates. You should also join the MyVegas Guides group to learn more details about rules, strategy, free chips and game play.
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You increase your chips, levels & gold coins by playing slot machines. Contrary to what you read on Facebook, you do NOT need to add strangers as friends. My husband and I got our awards (buffets, KA tickets, free drinks) with only each other as friends.
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Since we won’t be back in Vegas for a while, I just cruise by daily to get my free daily spin. When they have double XP days, I play the game in the background while I am otherwise occupied online or watching tv so it isn’t wasting my time.
If I had known about this in advance, I would have planned our quickie visit during the week, as it was we were there over Labor Day weekend so did the best we could. Since I do plan to go back to Central & South America (Peru & Bolivia in 2016) and will do the same thing, enter the USA via that Copa flight to Vegas, I am still collecting more chips. Next time, we will use them on free hotels & buffets. More money in our pockets means more to spend on eco-tours!
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