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The June 2008 issue of Costco Connection has an advertisement for a Costco Travel vacation to Las Vegas. They quote a rate of $627 per person for air travel from Seattle to Las Vegas and three nights in the new Trump International Hotel and Tower. This rate includes taxes and fees on the hotel and flight. It's good for a trip departing on Monday July 21, 2008.

I wanted to see how good of a deal I could get on my own, for comparison. Reading the fine print, the $627 per person requires double occupancy at the hotel. So my goal is to beat $1254 for two people to fly into Las Vegas and stay three nights at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

First, I used Kayak to find the best flight. The absolute best price I find is $259 per person, but that has some bad flight times. (You would have to leave Las Vegas at 7 am returning to Seattle.) A more reasonable flight is going to cost $274 each, for a total of $548. This is on a combination of US Air and Alaska Air, booked at the Alaska Air web site on June 4, 2008.

By going directly to the Trump International Hotel web site, I found the rates for a Studio Suite City View room (the same quality room that I'd get through Costco Travel). The rates were $199, $199, $239 for the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. (Hotel rates in Las Vegas are very dependent on the day of the week.) That's a total of $637 for the hotel, but it goes up to $694 when you include taxes.

The total cost for my vacation when I book it myself is then $694+$548=$1242 for two people. That's $12 less than the Costco Travel price.