London to Vegas on Star Alliance (finally!)

Booking

This is an annual trip for me and if you’ve read my previous reports you’ll know about other ways I’ve done this trip in the past. Unfortunately, I’ve never quite managed to make it work on Star Alliance. Last year I went on Delta from Dublin to try and make it affordable. Before that was still in my British Airways days with all sorts of unusual routes employed. This year I was determined to make it work on Star Alliance, so I set my filters on Google flights, restricting it to even more than just Star Alliance airlines, but also to very specific airlines I wanted to fly on. I limited it to Swiss, Lufthansa and United. This revealed very quickly that flying to Vegas was going to be very expensive. Not a problem because there’s one thing I always wanted to do and I’ve never managed to do, that is to drive to Vegas from LA. Luckily, flights to LAX were significantly cheaper, so, I decided this was the year to do it, especially since it’s probably the last chance to. Why were they cheaper? Possibly because it’s a more competitive route, there were even options to fly direct on United, at a very reasonable price. However, this decision was taken about a week ago, at time of writing, I hadn’t actually decided to book at this point.  What finally inspired me to actually book was discovering that the hotel prices in Vegas had dropped significantly and this was the time to book and get everything locked in while I could. For reference this was in mid-August, booking for December later that year. Unfortunately, when it came to book the flights, there had been a bit of a change, and I wasn’t going to get to fly exactly the route I wanted. But I found something that worked and I’m quite happy with the final solution I came up with.

Another crazy route

Let’s start with the outbound plan. I’d found that flying to San Francisco was going to be pretty affordable, so I looked for routes there. I could’ve flown direct from London to San Francisco on United, for the same price that I eventually got my ticket for, but the timing wasn’t great. The flight I went for was on Swiss, ticking a major item off my to do list by flying long haul on Swiss. Obviously, this meant flying via Zürich to San Francisco.  So, the outbound was London, Zürich, San Francisco. Of course, I still have to get to LA, but there are numerous flights at very affordable prices from San Francisco to LA at all sorts of times. The main advantage of this flight was landing at 4:30pm rather than late evening, giving me lots of time to catch a flight down to LA.  Leaving fairly early in the morning from London ending up in LA late evening, a long day, but with 3 interesting flights. The other minor change I’ve made on this trip from previous Swiss flights, is I’ll be flying from Heathrow, which I’ve not done with them before, I assume the lounge will be the Lufthansa lounge, so nothing new there. Once in LA I plan to stay in a hotel upon arrival, after my very long day. Then do something fun in LA before driving out to Vegas. I’m looking at stopping part way over night as there’s quite a few things to see and do on the route. I should then arrive in good time for the first day of the show on the Sunday. Another reason I want a car in Vegas is because I very much enjoyed my expedition out to the mountains last time, and I intend to try and do the same thing again if I can find time for it.  After a few days in Vegas, I’ll then drive back to LA, straight to the airport and stay in the airport hotel overnight.

The return trip is much simpler; an early morning flight up to San Francisco. Then a direct flight on United back to London. Making my journey home much simpler. Something I’ve learned in the past is it’s much nicer to have one great big, long flight home at the end of your trip rather than messing about. Last year landing in Dublin was fine, but it was an unnecessary hassle and waste of time that morning to wait in Dublin for a short flight back home again.

Taking a risk

My only issue on this trip is the flights from San Francisco to LA and back again, are not connected to my main long-haul flights. And as I’ve said in the past, this is a big risk to take because if you get a delay, then you risk missing your next flight. For this particular trip I have allowed 4 hours in San Francisco between flights. For the outbound, it’s not so critical if I miss my flight, the next day is a day off, I’ll just pick up a budget flight if I have to. The return is a little bit more critical, so I’ve picked the first flight of the day which is going to leave very early and I’m not going to enjoy that, but it does give me over 5hours at San Francisco where, if it all goes to plan, I’ll have plenty of time to go and enjoy breakfast in the lounge. If it doesn’t go to plan, there are other flights after that one that get me there on time and again there’s always the option of going back onto a budget airline if I need to. I’m pretty confident that I’ll make it ok.

Trip summary

My main flight is booked through Swiss and that is London, Zürich to San Francisco, and then San Francisco back to London direct on United. All booked through the website and in business class. I’ve already chosen my seats and particularly looking forward to flying long haul on Swiss as I’ve heard great things about it. Plus, my return trip is in one of United’s new Polaris seats, so excited to try them long haul for the first time as well. My internal flights from San Francisco are booked directly on the United website, flying down in economy plus, with extra legroom, and back in their “first class “, as it was quite affordable and I thought if I’m going to subject myself to an early morning flight, then can at least fly in comfort.