Watch Out for Hidden Costs

There are 3 major hidden costs:

• Hidden charges on Travel Sites
• Sneaky Airlines
• Driving Costs

Hidden Charges

One of the travel sites we tested appeared to be by far the cheapest source of domestic flights into Las Vegas. They were undercutting Kayak, Priceline, etc. by about 38% on roundtrip flights from LAX.

However, when we tried to book the flight we found they had a hidden fee of over $60 which actually made them more expensive. The major travel websites don’t compare themselves to direct booking but they usually do a good job of telling you what the fees are. The travel website with the huge hidden fees was a less well-known travel site.

USA Today did a very good job on cataloging most sneaky airline fees. Here is a link to that article. We noticed that this article omits overweight/oversized fees which could dramatically affect some travelers to Vegas so we list of all LAS Terminal 1 airlines’ baggage policies. We also included Hawaiian Airlines even though they use Terminal 2 as they are a domestic airline.

Our numbers are worst case fees based on current and coming price increases. For example, in the tables below, if you travel before November 1 and November 10 for Frontier and United respectively, you will pay less as their scheduled increases will not have gone into effect yet. Also, we assume that you have purchased your tickets at the worst possible time and are subject to all increases.

Add the length, height and width to get the linear inch count for baggage. For example, a 9” by 14” by 20” carry-on would be viewed by the airlines as 43 linear inches (9+14+20=43). Most airlines allow carry-on to be 25 lbs. with the exception of Virgin America which is only 16 lbs. Also, in the table above, JetBlue is shown as 50 but they use 2 aircraft into Vegas, one has 56 linear inches for carry-ons.

The standard checked bag size limit is 62 linear inches but some allow you to go over but pay a fee for doing so. Usually the next limit you hit is around 115 inches with another fee. All airlines strictly limit you to 100 lbs, unless Sun Country relaxes their limits on a flight by flight basis.

Also, airlines combine baggage charges. For example, on Delta Airlines your 63 inch, 71 lb. bag that happens to be your 3rd checked bag has a weight penalty of $175 plus $175 over-size fee plus $125 for being the 3rd checked piece or a total of $475 each way--$950 roundtrip. This might be more than your ticket costs even if you are a family.

Sun Country uses the highest charge as the maximum charge. This means if your overweight, oversized, excess bag has one fee that is $90 your total expenses are capped at $90 even though multiple fees may be warranted.

Note that the major travel websites do a good of letting you see airport flexibility (sometimes saving you real money if you can fly from an alternative airport) and date flexibility which also saves money. However, none of the travel sites tell which airline is actually cheaper given your baggage situation.

Those who travel light have no problem—the cheapest flight you find should be the one you book. If you travel heavy, the cheapest flight you find might actually be the most expensive.

Here are the baggage fees, worst case, for the domestic carriers in McCarran’s Terminal 1 with Hawaiian (a Terminal 2 airline) also included.

Knowing the hidden costs is even more important for the international traveler. However, the international traveler is more likely to have legs to their journey as opposed to simple, non-stop direct flights. This means you might be going from one set of expenses to a different set of expenses perhaps several times. We would like to offer a simple solution (we are VegasMadeEasy.com after all) but expenses vary by itinerary and there are no travel sites that consider baggage as a factor.

Visiting Vegas by Car

There may be 90,000 cars on Vegas streets driven by visitors. There is convenience in driving a familiar car and flexibility in seeing the sights in Las Vegas on your own schedule. There are very strong reasons to drive your own car here.

Here are the APPARENT costs of driving to Vegas when you only consider gas. For international visitors to Las Vegas, gas or gasoline is petrol. Pick out what you think will be the mileage you can get along the top line. If you are traveling 540 roundtrip miles, from LA for example, at 21 miles to the gallon then the cost is $97.07 assuming a blended cost per gallon of $3.775.

However, we think that most people are underestimating the cost of driving to Vegas. The IRS updated their standard mileage from $0.505 per mile to $0.585. effective as of July 1, 2008. Overly generous deductions for taxpayers are not likely in the IRS character.

A website estimates both the direct and indirect costs of driving. Their total costs include both direct and indirect. We have adapted their numbers for Las Vegas. Current gas prices are running lower than their $3.992 a gallon estimate. That is why our $1.35 Total costs and $0.92 Direct driver costs are slightly lower than theirs.

Here is a link to Commute Solutions. They add in many other expenses such as maintenance and tires, insurance and registration, depreciation, etc. For Total Costs they also consider the environmental impact of driving, health expenses, road maintenance, etc.

Although their Total and perhaps even Direct costs seem a bit high, the IRS numbers are probably not high at all. Based on the IRS numbers alone, airfares seem reasonable by comparison.

In the table below, we show the true cost of car mileage with miles driven on the left hand side and 3 different sources of estimates of cost per mile across the top. Note that the trip from LA may be over 3-7X as expensive as you would think by only adding up your gasoline receipts.

For example, if you multiply 540 roundtrip miles by $0.585 you get $315.90. A roundtrip using a Direct expense estimate of $0.92 a mile leads to an estimated cost of $496.80. If you add Direct and Indirect together to get Total then the cost could be $729.00.

Other Hidden Costs

Hotel (transient lodging) tax is 11% for Downtown and 9% for the Strip. Henderson is 10%. The sales tax is 8.1% and the LET (Live Entertainment Tax) is 5% if the Fire Marshal rated capacity is over 7,500 for the venue and 10% for 200-7,500.

On July 1, 2009 expect the room tax to go up by 2-4 percentage points to a maximum of 13%. The Strip hotels are now at 12%. Nevada's governor did not veto, and thus tacitly finalized the increase for transient lodging tax on March 18, 2009.

Also, M has a $25 and Green Valley and Red Rock have resort fees of $19.99 a day which they impose even if you don’t use the spa or pool, etc. Aliante Station has a $14.99 fee. At times, there may be energy surcharges that Vegas hotels charge but usually not now due to low visitor counts.

Las Vegas has a typical large U.S. city tipping structure but there are some gambling unique tips. For foreign visitors, tipping is a large adjustment and for Canadians, one of biblical proportions. However, there is no VAT tax and Vegas service workers depend on and expect tips for service that is usually as good as New York City if not better. If you tip well, you will be considered a “George” which is a term of endearment in Las Vegas.

Show tickets come with handling charges that range from as low as $2.00 to over $50. Some very cheap tickets may have an $8.00 service fee while expensive tickets may only have a handling charge of $3.50. Usually the more expensive the ticket, the higher the service charge but not always. You just have to ask for each specific case.

Below is a list of taxes and usual tips for Las Vegas. Note that limos usually embed an 18% or so tip for the driver in their quotes. Also, most waiters and waitresses are hoping for 18% rather than 15% of the total check including tax.