Weekend Getaway: Las Vegas

Las Vegas is one of the most popular year-round business and pleasure travel destinations for U.S. citizens. If you’ve ever visited Sin City, you know that there are a ton of options in terms of places to stay and things to do. You may also know that each of the “Big 4” major U.S. airlines (American, Delta, Southwest and United) fly into Harry Reid International Airport (formerly known as McCarran International Airport), meaning you have plenty of domestic travel options for getting to the city.

At times, trying to decipher the best way to do your Las Vegas trip, both in terms of having fun and saving money can feel a bit overwhelming. So, in this article, we will explain the best ways to fly to Las Vegas with airline miles, some great places you can stay using hotel points, how to earn these airline miles and hotel points, some great things to do in Las Vegas and more.

So, using the advice in this article, you’ll be able to save a ton of money on your trip to Las Vegas, even if you end up blowing those savings at the gambling tables.

The Best Ways to Fly to Las Vegas with Airline Miles

Regardless of destination, one of the highest travel expenses is airfare. However, the fact that Southwest and Spirit Airlines (two low-cost carriers) operate multiple routes to Las Vegas helps to keep costs down for anyone traveling to the city. Still, you can drastically reduce or even eliminate the cost of your airfare by booking your flight with airline miles.

Southwest Airlines has the biggest footprint at Harry Reid International (LAS) of any airline by a longshot. So, if you’re planning on flying to Las Vegas, there’s a pretty good chance the most reasonable flight will be operated by Southwest. However, American, Delta and United also operate routes to Las Vegas from their hub cities as well as several other cities. And there are a ton of international carriers operating routes to Las Vegas.

Let’s look at some of the cheapest ways to book a flight to Las Vegas with airline miles.

Book Southwest Flights Through Southwest Rapid Rewards

One of the best ways to find award flights to Las Vegas from other cities in the U.S. is to search for Southwest-operated flights through the Southwest Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program. These award flights are priced using a dynamic pricing model, meaning that award rates are tied closely to cash prices.

However, since cash prices for Southwest flights to Las Vegas are low, that means that award rates for these flights through the Rapid Rewards program are also low. For instance, we searched for round-trip economy award flights between Chicago (ORD) and Las Vegas (LAS) in late October 2024 and found round-trip award flights for a little over 10,000 miles.

Southwest also has a “Low Fare Calendar” tool on their website that shows you the award rates on each date, allowing you to find the cheapest possible award flights if you’re flexible with your travel dates.

For travelers hoping to earn enough miles to purchase an award flight to Las Vegas through the Rapid Rewards program, we recommend transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. This is the only major credit card rewards program that allows transfers to Southwest Rapid Rewards.

United Airlines Flights Through Avianca LifeMiles

One option for booking domestic flights to Las Vegas that’s often overlooked is booking United Airlines flights through the Avianca LifeMiles program. The frequent flyer program of this Colombian airline is one of the best of the best places to book Star Alliance partner flights at low rates, including United Airlines.

We searched for round-trip flights from San Francisco (SFO) and Las Vegas (LAS) in late October 2024 and found United-operated flights for 6,500 miles each way. So, a round-trip flight was 13,000 miles (plus taxes and fees).

Taxes and fees for these United-operated domestic flights are just over $5, making booking United award flights to Las Vegas through Avianca LifeMiles one of the best ways to save miles and cash.

United Airlines Flights Through United MileagePlus

Another great place to book United-operated flights to Las Vegas is through the airline’s own frequent flyer program, which uses a dynamic pricing model to price all of its award flights. In general, you’ll be able to get lower award rates on United-operated flights through the Avianca LifeMiles program. However, there’s far greater award availability through the United MileagePlus program. So, if you can’t find an award that matches your travel dates through Avianca LifeMiles, United MileagePlus is a good place to look.

You can also find some very favorable rates through the MileagePlus program as well. For example, we searched for round-trip flights between Los Angeles (LAX) and Las Vegas (LAS) and found some in late March 2025 for just 16,800 miles.

This is a solid deal and the taxes and fees for this award flight are just over $11. Plus, with all the availability in the MileagePlus program, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find an award flight that matches your requirements through this program.

Booking Through Chase Travel℠

Perhaps the easiest option for Chase Ultimate Rewards members looking to book domestic flights to Las Vegas is to book them through the Chase Travel℠ portal. Sometimes, this is the best way to get the best award flight deal available, particularly if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve® ($550 annual fee).

If you have the Sapphire Reserve, then your Chase points are worth 1.5 cents apiece through the Chase Travel℠ portal. And, since you can book flights from all of the “Big 4” U.S. airlines through the Chase Travel℠ portal, it’s easy to find great deals and convenient flights.

If you have either the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, your Chase points will be worth 1.25 cents apiece through the Chase Travel℠ portal. And, in many cases, this may be the best value you can get on an award flight to Las Vegas.

So, if you’re a Chase Ultimate Rewards card member, don’t forget to check the rates available to you through Chase Travel℠ for your award flight to Las Vegas.

Where to Stay in Las Vegas with Hotel Points

You can also save money during your trip to Las Vegas by using hotel points to book your accommodation while in Sin City. Of course, since Las Vegas is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the U.S., every major U.S. hotel chain has properties there. So, no matter which hotel loyalty program you prefer, you should be able to book a stay in Las Vegas using hotel points.

Marriott Bonvoy Hotels in Las Vegas

There are plenty of options for hotels in Las Vegas that can be booked with Marriott Bonvoy points. If you want to stay at an iconic Las Vegas location, you can book a stay at the Bellagio Resort & Casino. We found a room at this legendary Vegas casino for 64,000 points per night in late October 2024.

Unfortunately, booking this stay provides a pretty dismal value per point as the same room on the same night would cost $263. That means that this award stay would give you a poor value of about 0.4 cents per point.

If you’re looking for a more affordable stay on the Vegas Strip, we found a room at the Luxor Hotel & Casino for just 17,000 points for a night in late October 2024.

This redemption also doesn’t provide very good value per point as the cash rate for the same night was $89. So, this award stay would provide a value of slightly over 0.5 cents per point, which is bad. Nonetheless, if you want to stay on the Las Vegas Strip and pay for your stay with Marriott Bonvoy points, this is probably your best option.

These are just two of many options for booking stays in Las Vegas with Marriott Bonvoy points. If you want to see your other options, you can visit the Marriott Bonvoy website and enter “Las Vegas” as your destination.

If you want to earn Marriott Bonvoy points, one of the best ways to do so is to transfer in points from credit card rewards programs. American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards all allow 1:1 transfers to the Marriott Bonvoy program.

Hilton Honors Hotels in Las Vegas

There are also several hotels in Las Vegas that participate in the Hilton Honors program. For those who want to stay in a more upscale property, you can use Hilton points to book a stay at the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas. We found a room at the property in January 2025 for 85,000 Hilton points per night.

Unfortunately, this redemption wouldn’t provide a very impressive value per point. If you were to book the same room on the same night with cash instead of points, you’d pay $513.

This redemption would give you a value of about 0.6 cents per point, which is pretty average for Hilton points. Still, if you want to experience a luxurious stay in Las Vegas without paying cash, staying at the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas is a good way to do so.

If you want to use as few points as possible for your stay in Las Vegas and you want to use the Hilton Honors program, you can look into staying at the Homewood Suites by Hilton North Las Vegas Speedway. We found a room at this location for just 33,000 points per night in January 2025.

Unfortunately, this redemption also provides poor value. If you were to book the same hotel room on the same night with cash, you’d pay $150.

This redemption would give you a value of slightly under 0.5 cents per point, which is just under the typical valuation of Hilton points. In general, you won’t find outstanding value when redeeming Hilton points for stays in Las Vegas.

Nonetheless, if you have a large balance of Hilton Honors points and you want to spend them on a stay in Las Vegas, the two properties listed above are good options.

If you want to transfer points to the Hilton Honors program, you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio from the Bilt Rewards program. However, if you have an American Express Membership Rewards credit card, you can transfer points to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio. That means that if you transfer 10,000 Amex points, you’ll receive 20,000 Hilton points.

If you were to transfer Amex points to the Hilton Honors program and then redeem those Hilton points for the stay at the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas described above, which offered a value of 0.6 cents per Hilton point, you’d be getting a value of 1.2 cents per Amex point with the 1:2 transfer ratio (0.6 x 2 = 1.2). To be clear, you can get much more value out of Amex points in other ways, but getting 1.2 cents per point in value isn’t bad.

World of Hyatt Hotels in Las Vegas

Your best bet for getting the best value per point for your stay in Las Vegas is to book a hotel through the World of Hyatt program. However, your options for hotels are far more limited through the World of Hyatt program than they are through other programs. Right now,, there are only three hotels in Las Vegas that can be booked with Hyatt points:

• Hyatt Place Las Vegas
• Rio Hotel & Casino
• Hyatt Place Las Vegas at Silverton Village

We found award availability at all three of these hotels in April 2025 for 9,000 points, which is a very low rate for any hotel, much less top-rated hotels like Hyatt Place Las Vegas and Hyatt Place Las Vegas at Silverton Village. We also found that these hotels offered some solid value per point.

The Rio Hotel’s cash rate for the same night was $99, which gives you a value of about 1.1 cents per point, the worst value of these three hotels. However, if you want the experience of staying at an iconic Vegas casino, then this may be the best option for you.

The cash rate for the Hyatt Place Las Vegas for the same night was $150, which gives you a value of slightly under 1.7 cents per point, which is pretty good. The cash rate for the same night at the Hyatt Place Las Vegas at Silverton Village was $198, which means this redemption would give you a value of 2.2 cents per point, which is good.

To get the maximum value out of your points, your best bet is to stay at the Hyatt Place Las Vegas at Silverton Village. However, you really can’t go wrong with any of these three locations.

If you want to transfer points into the World of Hyatt program to make one of these redemptions, you can transfer points from either the Bilt Rewards or the Chase Ultimate Rewards program at a 1:1 ratio.

Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham Rewards is another major hotel rewards program through which you can book stays in Las Vegas, although this program doesn’t provide very impressive value most of the time. The lowest price you’ll find for a hotel night in Las Vegas through the Wyndham Rewards program is 15,000 points.

For instance, we found a night at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Las Vegas near the Strip for 15,000 points per night in January 2025.

Unfortunately, this redemption offers pretty lackluster value as the same room at the same hotel on the same night can be booked for just $64.

This means that you’d only get a rather poor 0.4 cents per point out of this redemption.

If you want to use your Wyndham points to book a stay at an iconic Las Vegas casino, you can book a room at the Flamingo Las Vegas for 30,000 points per night (just like the room we found on the Wyndham Rewards website in January).

This redemption also provides poor value, though, as the same room at the Flamingo on the same night costs just about $78 in cash.

This redemption would yield a value of under 0.3 cents per point, which is very bad. Still, if you want to book a stay in a famous casino on the Strip with Wyndham points, this is a decent option.

If you want to transfer points to the Wyndham Rewards program from a credit card program, you’ll have to either have a Capital One Reward card or a Citi ThankYou Rewards card.

All Capital One Rewards cards allow you to transfer points to Wyndham Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. If you have either the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card or the Citi Prestige Card, then you’ll be able to transfer Citi points to Wyndham Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. If you have any other Citi ThankYou Rewards card, you can transfer to the Wyndham Rewards program at a 1:0.8 ratio.

How to Earn Points for Your Weekend Trip to Las Vegas

Now that we’ve discussed how to fly to Las Vegas with airline miles and book a hotel stay in Las Vegas with hotel points, let’s talk about how you can earn those points in the first place. Yes, you could join one of the aforementioned frequent flyer programs, but you shouldn’t rule out joining one of the hotel loyalty programs listed above and crediting paid hotel nights to your account to earn points.

However, these methods of earning points can often take months or years to save up enough for a Las Vegas getaway. If you want to earn points quickly, we’d recommend signing up for one of the following credit cards and earning that card’s welcome bonus. This is the quickest way to earn points that can be transferred to both frequent flyer programs and hotel loyalty programs.

Weekend Trip to Las Vegas with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The first card that we’d recommend for saving up enough points for a weekend trip to Las Vegas is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ($95 annual fee). With this card, you can earn a sizable welcome bonus:

With this bonus, you should easily have enough points for a domestic round-trip economy flight to Las Vegas. Plus, Chase Ultimate Rewards allows transfers to both Southwest Rapid Rewards and United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio. If you have the Sapphire Preferred card, when you redeem Chase points through the Chase Travel℠ portal, those points will be worth 1.25 cents apiece, which is an excellent backup option.

Between these three options for booking flights, you should easily be able to find a domestic round-trip economy flight that costs less than 20,000 points. That means you should have at least 40,000 points left over from the welcome bonus from the Sapphire Preferred card.

Chase Ultimate Rewards allows 1:1 points transfers to IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. As mentioned above, if you want to get the best value out of your points, then you should transfer your Chase points to World of Hyatt. All three of the Las Vegas options available through the World of Hyatt program require 9,000. So with the 40,000 points left over from your welcome bonus, you should easily be able to afford a weekend and more at one of these fine Wyndham hotels.

The Sapphire Preferred card also offers $50 in annual statement credits for hotels booked through the Chase Travel℠ portal. You can also use these statement credits to help pay for your accommodation in Las Vegas.

Weekend Trip to Las Vegas with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a relatively high annual fee of $395. However, if you travel often, this card will pay for itself easily. Plus, you should be able to earn a weekend trip to Las Vegas easily with this card’s welcome bonus:

Capital One Rewards allows 1:1 transfers to Avianca LifeMiles, which is often the cheapest way to book a domestic award flight to Las Vegas on United Airlines. You can also make 1:1 transfers to the British Airways Executive Club program, which often has good deals on domestic round-trip flights to Las Vegas on American Airlines. Regardless, you should be able to fly to and from Las Vegas for under 20,000 miles.

With the current welcome bonus offered by the Venture X card, you should have at least 50,000 Capital One miles left over to use toward your hotel stay. Capital One Rewards allows 1:1 points transfers to Wyndham Rewards. As previously mentioned, the cheapest award nights at hotels in Las Vegas available through the Wyndham Rewards program are 15,000 points per night.

So, with the remaining miles from your Venture X welcome bonus, you should be able to afford at least three nights at a hotel in Las Vegas through the Wyndham Rewards program. And, if you want to stay even longer in Las Vegas (or you want to save your Capital One miles for something else), the Venture X card also comes with $300 in annual travel credits that can be used to purchase flights, hotels and rental cars through the Capital One Travel portal. So, you can also use these credits to help fund your trip to Las Vegas.

As an added bonus, the Capital One Venture X card comes with unlimited complimentary access to Priority Pass airport lounges worldwide, including The Club LAS lounges (operated by Priority Pass) in terminals 1 and 3 at Harry Reid International Airport. So, you can enjoy the comfort of an airport lounge for free as you await your flight home from Las Vegas.

Weekend Trip to Las Vegas with the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card ($95 annual fee) is another good credit card option for funding your trip to Las Vegas. This card offers excellent benefits and spending bonuses for its relatively low annual fee. Plus, the Strata Premier card is also offering an excellent sign-up bonus that should be enough to find your weekend trip to Las Vegas:

Once you earn this welcome bonus, you should have enough points to buy a flight to Las Vegas from anywhere in the United States. The Citi ThankYou Rewards program allows 1:1 transfers to the Avianca LifeMiles program, so buying a United-operated flight through the LifeMiles program could be your best bet for finding a cheap award flight to Vegas.

If you can’t find a good award flight through the LifeMiles program, it may be worth looking at award flights through the JetBlue TrueBlue program. Of course, you can also redeem ThankYou points for flights through the Citi Travel portal (however, this method will always give you a value of exactly 1 cent per point whereas you can potentially get much more value through transfer partners).

Regardless of where you book your flight, you should be able to find a round-trip domestic award flight for under 25,000 points, which leaves you with at least 40,000 points that you can redeem for hotel stays in Las Vegas. With the Citi Strata Premier card, we recommend transferring points to the Choice Privileges program for your hotel stays. That’s because, if you have the Strata Premier card, Citi points transfer to Choice Privileges at a 1:2 ratio.

For instance, if you were to transfer 10,000 Citi points to the Choice Privileges program, you’d receive 20,000 Choice points, which would be enough to book a room at the Circus Circus Hotel, a legendary Las Vegas casino. Or you could transfer 15,000 Citi points and receive 30,000 Choice points, enough for a night at Treasure Island Las Vegas, another famous casino on the Strip.

If you were to pay for the same room at Treasure Island on the same night with cash, it would cost you about $321 (including the taxes and resort fees).

Factoring in these taxes and resort fees, since you redeemed 15,000 Citi points (plus $51 for the resort) for a night at Treasure Island (which would have cost $321 in cash), you’d get a value of about 1.8 cents per point with this redemption, which is fantastic for a hotel award stay redemption.

The Citi Strata Premier card also offers $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) once per calendar year when booked through CitiTravel.com. So, if you’d rather book your accommodation in Las Vegas with cash, this benefit can save you some money.

3 Things to Do in Las Vegas

So, now that you’re aware of the best ways to book an affordable weekend trip to Las Vegas using points and miles, let’s discuss some activities that you can do during your stay in Sin City. Of course, the most common pastime in Las Vegas is to walk the Strip and try your hand in some of the famous casinos, including Bellagio, Flamingo, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, The Venetian, Luxor and more.

However, for the time that you aren’t gambling, let’s look at a few other activities and attractions to check out in Las Vegas.

1. AREA15

Whether you’re traveling alone, as a couple or with kids, AREA15 is guaranteed to be a highlight of your trip to Las Vegas. Located a short walk or cab ride from the Strip, this venue includes an arcade, several bars and food options, a bunch of interactive art installations (including Omega Mart, an installation by famous art collective Meow Wolf), tons of virtual reality games and much more.

AREA15 was designed to light up all of your senses, combining visual art with interactive games and great food and drinks. AREA15 also hosts a wide variety of shows and events from magic shows to wrestling to live music. So, if you plan on visiting Las Vegas, make sure you check the AREA15 event calendar.

2. The Neon Museum

If there’s one image that pops into people’s heads when they think of Las Vegas, it’s probably neon signs. The Neon Museum, located in Downtown Las Vegas, is dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting the iconic neon signs of Las Vegas that have been such a big part of the city’s culture.

The best thing to do at The Neon Museum is simply walk around the Neon Boneyard and the North Gallery and enjoy the eclectic mix of neon signage. You should also make sure to get a few pictures in front of your favorite sign. If you want to learn a bit about the history of Las Vegas and its neon lights, then make sure you sign up for a guided tour.

3. Madame Tussauds

Las Vegas is well-known for celebrity culture, so it’s no surprise that one of the most famous attractions in the city is Madame Tussauds, a massive wax museum full of wax sculptures of your favorite celebrities. This museum, located inside the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip, includes wax figures of legendary people from music, sports and Las Vegas lore.

New additions to Madame Tussauds include Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Travis Barker, Bad Bunny, Jack Harlow, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Lizzo. And, for the more old-school crowd, there are statues of Las Vegas legends such as Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elvis Presley and more.

Favorite Food and Drink Stops in Las Vegas

No matter where you choose to go, one of the most important aspects of any vacation is undoubtedly the food. And, for the casual eater or the traveling gourmand, Las Vegas has endless dining options that will satisfy any diet.

Before you go out to eat in Las Vegas, make sure to link your best dining credit card to a hotel or airline dining rewards program (such as American Airlines AAdvantage Dining or Choice Hotels Eat & Earn). With these programs, you can earn hotel points or airline miles at participating restaurants so that you can start saving up for your next vacation.

Let’s take a look at some of our favorite places to dine and drink in Las Vegas.

1. Mother Wolf

Named after the legend of the founding of the ancient city of Rome, Mother Wolf is dedicated to La Cucina Romana, the culinary heritage of the Italian capital. This world-renowned restaurant is the brainchild of legendary chef Evan Funke, who has attempted to keep the traditions of Roman shepherds, popes, farmers and artisans alive through his cooking. Their rustic menu may be the best Italian food that you try in your entire life.

Of course, diners at Mother Wolf can expect top-quality Italian classics like wood-fired pizza, spaghetti, rigatoni, branzino and more. No Italian meal would be complete without a glass of wine, and luckily Mother Wolf has an expertly curated wine menu to pair with each course. All in all, if you’re into high-class Italian, then Mother Wolf is a must-try restaurant in Las Vegas.

2. Best Friend

For those looking for a more casual dining experience, we recommend Best Friend, located in Park MGM on the Las Vegas Strip. This restaurant is headed by Roy Choi, who designed the concepts used in Best Friend while working in his famous Los Angeles food truck Kogi. Best Friend’s cuisine is a mixture of Korean flavors with dishes from all over the world, using ingredients like kimchi, gochujang, yuzu and ramen noodles and combining them with dishes from other ethnicities such as chicken carbonara, birria, schnitzel, buttermilk fried chicken and more.

To accompany your meal, Best Friend also has an extensive list of wines, draft beers, sakes, cocktails, slushies and non-alcoholic beverages. For those who are looking for an unpretentious, casual restaurant with incredible and creative food, Best Friend is a great option.

3. Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen

Probably the most famous name in the culinary world, Gordon Ramsay has restaurants all over Las Vegas and all of them are incredible. However, if you’ve ever seen the classic reality TV program Hell’s Kitchen, then visiting the Hell’s Kitchen Las Vegas restaurant is a must. Dining at this restaurant will make you feel like you’re actually on the set of the show. Plus, you’ll get to enjoy a delicious menu designed by Gordon Ramsay himself (who’s now earned a total of eight Michelin stars).

Hell’s Kitchen Las Vegas serves some of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dishes, including bone marrow, steak tartare, lobster risotto and more. Plus, you can pair these delicious entrees with a selection from the restaurant’s menu of craft cocktails. Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen Las Vegas is both a great place to get a delicious meal and an experience you won’t forget.

Final Thoughts

Visiting the world-famous city of Las Vegas is something that everyone should experience in their lives. However, for a lot of people, skipping over to Sin City for the weekend just isn’t financially viable with the cash prices of flights and hotels.

However, by using the tips in this article, anyone can afford a weekend trip to Las Vegas by utilizing credit card bonuses, hotel loyalty programs and frequent flyer programs. Generally, by signing up for a new credit card, you can quickly earn a large sum of points from that card’s welcome bonus. Then, you can transfer those points to airline and hotel loyalty programs and book yourself a trip to Vegas with barely any out-of-pocket costs.