I am thinking of booking my own flight and hotel for our next trip instead of using a package deal.
How do those who book their own flights etc do this? Do you have a favorite travel website like orbitz or travelocity or do you go to the different airline websites and check fares.

After staying at the IP for a week and spending a few days at Harrahs in Atlantic city a few months ago would it be reasonable to expect some kind of free room offers?

I live about the same distance from Toronto airport and Buffalo airport so can leave from either.

Any advice or tips are appreciated.

RUkiding,

I don't know how others do it, but I'll give you how I go about it. First I check places like Travelocity and expedia. Sometimes they have special offers on airfare just for that site (a special). Then no matter what the price for the airfare is, I go directly to the air carriers site and check price there. At the very least you save to $15 booking fee the travel sites charge, by booking directly with the carrier. This will sound kinda weird, and I am a bit odd about somethings. I swear, I've gotten my best deals on a Wednesday. Not all Wednesdays, but for some reason I have caught more cheap sales or deals on Wednesdays. This all from a guy who also swears new socks bring him luck! LOL

I don't think just staying at those hotels will get you anything of any substance. Playing at them will however. I have no real idea of how big you gamble, and just cause you might play pennies or nickles means nothing...it all adds up.
Here is what I suggest, go to Harrahs.com and sign in and find out what your tier score is under Total rewards box. Once your signed in under your total rewards number, just for fun, hit the reservations button, plug in your days of travel (I always hit the button, all vegas hotels) and see if they will comp any or all of your trip. Sharon is Diamond status at Harrahs, I'm lowly gold, beleive it or not, I can get free rooms sometimes.
Another idea is to use the 800 number on the back of your slot cards and just call around. It never hurts to ask. Also, as my father used to say, "if you don't ask, you don't get"!

Always check both airports!!! You never know when some airline will have a special trying to drum up business!

Sometimes this works for me.....

I call reservations at a couple of hotels and ask for their room rates.

Then I mentioned that I can get a comparable room down the street for "X" amount and, "Can you beat that price?"

Sometimes it works to my financial advantage, but never on the weekends so far.

Ok then. Thanks to you both for the info and suggestions. I'll try them after I give time for Harrahs to update my profile.

Getting back to Vegas 101, there are very few reasons not to sign up for a players card in every hotel that you visit. You just never know when they might decide to send you a deal. Once your name is their database, it might be picked out from the hotel to help fill the rooms, it might be picked by casino marketing for tournaments, or it might be picked by another department just to get you in the door.

Most of my discounted hotel rates come from casinos where I played.

Most of my free rooms come from places where I never or almost never played.

So my question is, are you signing up for cards when you visit various hotels?

On multi casino properties like Stations and Boyd, I have forgotten/lost my card and got a replacement at a different property. Almost every time, they give me a bonus of some kind. It ranges from points, to meals, to upgrade status, to current new customer promo, to new mailing list, etc. You just never know what you might get.

I have to book a package deal. First I don't gamble enough to get the cheap rooms so the next best bet is taking the package. In addition, we here in MSP have little competition to choose from. Southwest, etc. don't come here because NorthWest controls 85% of the gates.
The city on Minneapolis gave the airport to them because they were headquartered here and always threatened to leave when they wanted something like a big loan. Thus, we got screwed.

While I can book on-line with Northwest Vacations, I think it works best to call their 1 800 number and ask for deals. I learned a little secret from one of their agents. When you book online you and everyone else, can hold your reservation for 24 hours before consumating the deal. If you do nothing, the seats go back into general population but at the price you reserved.
If you were on line searching prices this price may not pop up because it doesn't happen automatically. Thus the agent may be holding cheap seats that your not seeing on line.

A few years ago I booked on line and for some reason went back about an hour later and rechecked the prices and the same trip was like $200 less. I called to question how that could happen and they spilled the beans that the seats in question just were put back into the bank of seats but at the price the day before.

Last, package deals usually mean run of the house rooms. I usually get upgraded for free by knowing the type of view that I wouuld like, stip, pool, etc. I watch the eyes of the teller and when I see them searching the database for the rooms, once they've entered my credit card info, I ask "Gee would you have something on the 11th floor with a view of the stip and I need to have that mini fridge'.
Its only failed me once and that person was apologetic and gave me a large corner room with a partial view of the strip and the pool. The key is you have to do it before they've found you the run of the house room. They want to be done with you and move to the next person in line so its just easy for them to do it while they are searching. Were not talking spa and jacussi rooms here though.

All very interesting and informative comments and thank you very much. We did sign up for players cards wherever we went so I have a total rewards card, mgm mirage card, wynn, venetian etc.

When we went to the players booth at mirage Terry signed up for a card and when it was my turn and I gave the girl my info she looked at her screen and said "oh yes sir, you have signed up 6 times."
I said how can that be when I haven't been here in 16 years. She reminded me that I had done it on the computer over the years lol. I guess I had forgotten.
I said it was odd that someone didn't tell me I have already been signed up but she said they are paid to get sign ups so they didn't care as long as it showed up as a sign up for whoever was doing it that time.
She also said that when we get 1000 pts they will give us a buffet and the card is good at any of the casinos listed on the back. Well when we went to mandaly bay to see Momma mia I noticed we had just over 1000 pts so I went to the players booth and the girl there said we needed 1500 pts. I said I was sure the girl at the mirage said 1000 and she told me that that may be at the mirage but here we need 1500 and each property has their own requirement.
They all had their own promotions that misdirected you to play their machines to get it and I guess that's marketing for you.

Chris,

While Southwest is not here yet. They are coming. March they will begin flying out of HHH terminal. While no direct flight to Las Vegas, they will fly to Chicago Midway, where there are 8 flights a day to LAS.
That was announced the day before Sun Country filed for bankruptcy. Let's hope Sun Country emerges okay and we can create a little competition here at MSP.

Daniel