How I Went To Vegas For $150 (And How You Can Too!)

Looking to enjoy the lavish life of luxury in Vegas? Want to truly ball on a budget? This anecdote may be for you.

Well, this article has been a long time in the making! At the time of writing, this had been my 5th trip to Las Vegas since 2017 (I mean, who doesn’t like getting paid to drink!). After my friends backed out pretty last minute, I found myself with an ultimatum: abandon my plans of what would become a solo trip, or embark on to a Covid-riddled tourist trap.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am probably the most price-conscious person I know. I’m talking I only buy produce and meat that are in the clearance section. I recently spent over two hours agonizing over two identical products with similar reviews, only to save a measly $6. I’ve been known to occasionally bring a flask into bars so I don’t have to pay for overpriced shots (I know, I know, I should be supporting small businesses in these difficult times).

Anyhow, with Covid running rampant, I took advantage of the hurting airline and hotel industries. This was done through a combination of good luck, proper timing, and minor credit card rewards.

Before I go into the details, I need to cover the categories for what makes a Vegas trip great, for me: Getting paid to drink, amusement of tourist traps, commercialized everything, and the fact that just about any vice can be found within walking distance. These are what make Vegas so appealing to the masses; just about anyone can find something they like in this city.

Now we come to the actual cost of each item, and how I was able to accomplish it. Let’s think about all the expenses that go into a typical trip: Expenses to and from the airport, flights, luggage, transportation to and from the airport and hotel, dining, entertainment, souvenirs, etc. There are a lot of categories that can quickly eat up your budget. However, the overall key is to be flexible. Without further ado, my breakdown of spending can be seen below.

Gas to and from Minneapolis from Fargo: $30

Pretty self explanatory.

3 day transit pass: $20.

When I say I am price conscious, this is a perfect example of my extreme. Instead of getting an Uber for $15 directly to my hotel, I decided I would buy this bus pass. As it turns out, I got on the southbound bus, instead of the northbound bus. I had never really ridden city buses before, so this was not only a needed culture shock, but also taught me some basic navigation skills. What should have been a 15 minute Uber turned into an almost 2 hour excursion on the outskirts of the Henderson Valley. Luckily, this pass did pay for itself as I used it about 5 times throughout my 4 days.

Flight: $77 round trip on Delta from Minneapolis - $77 credit on Capital One Venture card.

Total cumulative cost: $30

With airlines being decimated by Covid, I sprang at this opportunity. I mean, seriously? Free carry on luggage, window seat with no one in the middle, and non-stop!? Someone please tell me how you could beat it.

I was able to get this flight paid for using my Capital One Venture Card. Basically I put $3000 in 3 months of my regular spending (plus a couple grad school courses) on the card, and they awarded me with essentially a $500 voucher for travel. My referral link is here.

3 Hotels over 4 nights: $46 (Should have been $0)

Total cumulative cost: $76

Nights 1 and 2: Golden Nugget Hotel in Downtown Las Vegas - $46 (Should have been free with my Capital One Venture card but I accidentally used the wrong one). I’m still heated about this.

During the summer months this hotel waives the “resort fee”, which is around $45 per night, and does not even include the price of the actual room. This is how hotels really make their money, because they advertise insanely low prices per night. Because they waived the resort fee, I paid for two nights in a regular room, which came out to $23 a night.

Night 3: Aria hotel. - $0

By playing the MyVegas free casino slot games, I was able to earn enough mythical coins to redeem a free night at the Aria. The price of a regular night during the week here is about $120, plus a $45 resort fee. I was charged for the $45 resort fee, but after some slight research, I discovered that resort fees are technically illegal in Las Vegas. I then researched ways to get this $45 refunded, and I ended up sending an email to the North Dakota Attorney General. They did all the leg work on contacting the Aria, and 30 days later I got my $45 credit back on my credit card! It sounds like an intimidating process but it took me about 20 minutes.

Night 4: Hyatt Place Las Vegas - $0. I opened a World of Hyatt credit card, spent $6,000 over 6 months, and earned 50,000 mythical points. In Vegas you can use these points for free nights, and not even pay the resort fee! Instead of using 25,000 points on one night at a fancy hotel (when I really just needed a place to crash before my flight left in the morning), I redeemed 8,000 points for a night at the Hyatt Place in Las Vegas. Nothing special, but it was a nice clean hotel with a pool, very close to the airport for the morning flight back to Minneapolis.

Therapy Bar - $14. This was a nice restaurant near the Golden Nugget and downtown Las Vegas. Got a couple appetizers and a PBR during happy hour.

Starbucks Tip: $1. I used my Starbucks rewards stars for a free drink when my flight landed.

Convenience Store Booze: $14. The best part about Vegas is that you can legally have open containers. Nothing like cracking a cold Bud Light in the street at 9:00 AM on a Tuesday.

Groupon For Thai Restaurant: $17. Enjoyed my vices, took the city bus (putting my 3 day transit pass to work), and ate $30 worth of Thai food in a strip mall food court.

Booze, Cigars and Chew: $29. Walked a mile to a Native American reservation in 100 degree dry heat and bought more beer. I also bought a couple cans of chew, which were only a couple dollars a piece, as opposed to the $10 a can here in Minnesota. I also rarely smoke anything, if ever. However, because of the mask mandate at the time in Las Vegas, I essentially bought some cheap cigars so that I could have my mask off at the slot machines.

McDonald’s Breakfast: $4. A couple McMuffins for the McWin.

Booze on Fremont: $5. Gotta love double fisting cheap, cold, domestic beer in the Fremont Experience at night.

BOGO Meal at Fremont Hotel: $12. Using a coupon I got for signing up for the Fremont Hotel’s slot card, I bought two meals for myself as I was starving and pretty drunk.

Uber to Hyatt: $10. I was not quite willing to walk the two miles down a main drag with luggage in 100+ degree weather.

Gambling Losses at Silver Sevens: $4. Got just lucky enough to walk away only $4 down.

Gordon Biersch Tip: $5. I walked from Silver Sevens to the Gordon Biersch restaurant and used up some old gift cards, so my whole meal was free.

Performer Tip: $1. When you see a guy doing headstands on broken glass for money, you can’t not give them something.

Uber tip from Hyatt to hotel: $1. The ride was “free” because I had leftover Uber “cash” from my trip to Boston months prior.

Drink Tips: $46. I try to average at least a dollar tip per drink when I gamble. This keeps the server coming back and shows good faith toward them. Which is pretty impressive, relatively speaking. To pay only $46 for 40ish drinks is pretty great, especially because they ranged everywhere from domestic bottled beer to margaritas to old fashioneds.

Casino Net Winnings: $90. By playing the MyKonami slot game on my phone (for free), I was able to get a total of $75 of free slot play, spread across three different casinos on the Strip. Thanks to this allowance, I was able to play the $1 per spin games rather than the penny slots, which have terrible odds compared to the $1 machines. In the end I ended up getting lucky and won on a couple bigger spins, which led to subsidizing my losses across the board.

Overall, this was a splendid four days in the hot sun. I relaxed, won some money, and had some good food. It felt good to get away, especially on a tight budget!

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Link to the Google Doc Article