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I visited Las Vegas for a quick weekend getaway with my husband last month. We stayed at a five-star hotel on the Strip, did some pricey activities, and still came out spending just $344 per person per day in cash. Here’s the full breakdown of how I achieved this using rewards from my Chase Sapphire Reserve card:
Hotel
The hotel is usually the biggest cost for Vegas. We wanted to stay on the Strip for convenience, and most of the nicer hotels were at least $250/night during the weekend we were going.
I found that Chase Travel Portal was offering a 2x Points Boost on the The Reserve at Park MGM (formerly known as NoMad), so I booked two nights there:
- Dollar amount: $985.81
- Points redeemed: 49,290 pts
- Redemption rate: $0.02 / point
This was a great deal because points are usually worth 1 cent each, and we received a $100 dining credit that we used across two meals at the resort.
Flight
For the Friday night SFO → LAS flight, we booked on Frontier directly because it was the cheapest option at $208.96 for the both of us. I’m not sure I would book Frontier again though because the seats were too uncomfortable even for the short duration of the flight.
For the Sunday night return flight, the prices were much higher. We didn’t find any airline point deals, but we were able to find a 1.5X Points Boost on a Southwest flight on the Chase Travel Portal:
- Dollar amount: $444.60
- Points redeemed: 29,640 pts
- Redemption rate: $0.015 / point
Entertainment
The activities we wanted weren’t available on the Chase Travel Portal, so we booked elsewhere with cash. Even if they were, I would’ve booked with cash anyway to get 8X in points instead of redeeming points.
| Activity | Cash spent |
|---|---|
| Valley of Fire Tour | $198 |
| Piff the Magic Dragon | $131.30 |
| Dig This | $488 |
| Mob Museum (Deluxe Pass) | $99.90 |
| Total | $917.2 |
Food
Chase offers $300 in annual dining credits when dining at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables, but I forgot to book one ahead of time so didn’t use it on the trip. I did remember to use all of the $100 hotel dining credit:
| Meal | Place | Cash spent | Credits used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday dinner | Panda Express (SFO) | $35.57 | |
| Saturday lunch | Included in tour | $0 | |
| Saturday dinner | Best Friend | $0 | $58.13 hotel dining |
| Saturday late-night snack | Tacos El Gordo | $31.26 | |
| Sunday brunch | Primrose | $24.57 | $41.87 hotel dining |
| Sunday lunch snack | Dirt Dog | $11.42 | |
| Sunday dinner | Popeyes (LAS) | $27.29 | |
| Total | $130.11 | $100 hotel dining |
Transportation
We used a mix of Lyft and Uber depending on price:
| Route | Cash spent | Credits used |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel ↔ LAS | $29.96 | — |
| Getting between activities | $89.16 | $10 Lyft |
| Total | $119.12 | $10 Lyft |
Total
| Category | Cash spent | Points used | Credits used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | $0 | 49,290 ($985.81 value) | — |
| Flight | $208.96 | 29,640 ($444.60 value) | — |
| Entertainment | $917.2 | — | — |
| Food | $130.11 | — | $100 |
| Transportation | $119.12 | — | $10 |
| Total | $1375.39 | 78930 | $110 |
Without any points or credits, the total cost of this trip would have been $2,915.80, or $729 per person per day.
Instead, we spent $344 per person per day in cash, with 67% on entertainment.
Of course, points have real value. Using the baseline value of 1 cent per point, our adjusted total becomes $2,164.69 — or $541 per person per day.
Not bad for a five star hotel and expensive activities for two days!
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