This story is a quick extended weekend trip. I ended up planning a mileage and mattress run trip designed to push me over the edge into Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP Status, and for MrsWT73 to re-qualify for Marriott Bonvoy Titanium level status. We were able to take advantage of Marriott Bonvoy’s newest partnership with MGM Collection, which offer Marriott Bonvoy benefits while at MGM Casino properties. While it was a fast paced trip, it met all our objectives and allowed us to get in a little fall sun along the way.

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This post is one chapter on a weekend trip from Canada to Las Vegas Nevada, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Trip Introduction: Spinning through Las Vegas – United States on a Marriott – MGM Collection Tour

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Around fall every year, we take a close look at what is needed to re-qualify for airline and hotel status. By the fall quarter, it’s usually pretty easy to determine what work trips are expected to be completed. At times, I’ve been known to top up work travel with a personal trip to get me over the threshold, into a more comfortable travel environment.

In this case, we combined two separate travel objectives both related to airline and hotel elite status. I have to say it was refreshing doing this earlier in the season in October, versus worrying about it in late November or early December.

The Travel Objectives:

1. MrsWT73 Re-Qualifying for Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Level Elite Status.

MrsWT73 had spent much of the year 2024 commuting to work from Vancouver, Canada to Lisbon, Portugal. She ended up accumulating quite a few frequent flier miles on these quarterly trips into Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. However, she ended up being a little shy of Marriott Bonvoy Elite status.

When she happened to be targeted for a Marriott Bonvoy promotion offering 5 additional elite qualifying nights per stay, up to two times, it seemed to make sense to take advantage of this offer.

Being redeeming the offer, she would earn 10 additional elite qualifying nights, in addition to two paid stay nights, and ultimately be put over the threshold into Marriott Bonvoy Titanium status. Marriott Bonvoy Titanium status remains always useful for upgrades and Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night or Nightly Upgrade Awards .

Planning Hotels:

As a result of the newly announced partnership between MGM Collection and Marriott Bonvoy, with Las Vegas having many hotels within close walking distance of each other, and with MrsWT73 being a lover of all things warm weather, it seemed like Las Vegas was a great fit for this trip.

Having previously stayed at several Las Vegas properties, including The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, the Aria Sky Suites, and the Marriott Grand Château, it was time to try something different.

With deeply discounted weekday rates on Wednesday and Thursday nights, we ended up mattress running our hotels. MrsWT73 had never visited the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. We opted for one night at this property to enjoy the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino hotel, along with the Mandalay Bay Beach at this property.

For our second night, we aimed to enjoy a dinner at the luxurious and contemporary Atelier de Joël Robuchon restaurant, which was located in the MGM Grand Hotel property.

On this night, we opted for convenience and stayed at the nearby The Signature by MGM Grand by MGM Collection. The Signature by MGM Grand is an all suite strata hotel property that offers comfortable long stay alternative that is relatively close to the Las Vegas strip. With a large format room, it was a comfortable stay. It’s location also made it easy to get to our dinner restaurant through covered walkways.

On our last night, we ended up staying over on a Friday night. Since we had booked this trip about three weeks out, we missed all the early booking windows. With most of the strip casino hotels offering rates between $450 – $600 USD, we ended up aiming to save a little money by venturing off strip for our Friday night stay.

We ended up staying at the Las Vegas Monorail accessible Las Vegas Marriott hotel. The Las Vegas Marriott is located near the Las Vegas Convention Centre. While the hotel is located in a bit of a no man’s land, it’s a mere half mile from the north end of the Las Vegas Strip and a fifteen minute walk to the Encore Wynn Hotel and Casino.

With a Las Vegas Marriott rate under $200 USD, an all suite property, no resort fee, and a complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Titanium breakfast, there was nothing not to like about this price point. Other hotels were almost double this amount on a Saturday night. While we did have to walk a little, it was well worth the savings.

We were surprisingly less reliant on the monorail that we expected, using it only once with our luggage to arrive to the property. It also made it convenient to visit the Las Vegas North Premium Outlets at the north end of town.

Planning Activities:

While we didn’t get up to much gambling on this trip, we ended up getting some sun by the Mandalay Bay Beach pool and the MGM Grand hotel pools. While I avoided any ecoli infections from dirty hotel pools, we did make a good re-discovery of the lazy river at the MGM Grand.

We also got the opportunity to enjoy a world class dinner at Atelier de Joël Robuchon. while it wasn’t as fancy as the Joël Robuchon restaurant that I visited two years ago, it would mark a great anniversary dinner for the two of us.

Aside from the mattress running, and the one dinner, we didn’t get up to all too much in the form of activities on this particular trip. Las Vegas is always coming up with something new, so there is never any way that you can see it all.

2. Re-qualifying for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP Status.

Our second goal of this trip was to re-qualify for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan status. Having lost our MBNA Alaska Airlines Mastercard this year, I don’t know how much more I am going to be flying with Alaska Airlines in the future.

It’s hard to go wrong with Alaska Airlines which serves much of the United States from its’ hub in Seattle Tacoma International Airport. It was also a great compliment to Air Canada’s Star Alliance Elite status, as I could often find reward availability within One World when I couldn’t find space within Star Alliance.

I had already re-qualified for Air Canada’s Aeroplan Elite Status for the year. As a result, it made no sense to invest more money with them. Although I had future trips to San Antonio Texas, USA and Maui, Hawaii, USA on Alaska Airlines, I was short about 800 Alaska Mileage Plan Elite Qualifying miles to re-qualify for MVP status.

As a result, we ended up on Alaska Airlines for this trip. After adding a short connecting flight departing from Vancouver – Seattle, which earned the minimum 500 Elite Qualifying Miles, I was well on my way to re-qualification.

It turned out that we’d get a Alaska Mileage Plan MVP Gold upgrade into new first class, which would allow me the opportunity to try out Alaska’s Airlines New First Class Las Vegas – Seattle, on their newest Boeing 737-9 Max cabin.

My Thoughts on Planning Las Vegas:

This was a pretty easy trip to put together, made easier by the fact that we weren’t paying weekend prices that were highly elevated. With a large amount of selection of hotels, it was pretty easy to find something that met our needs.

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Have you fully explored the MGM Collection partnership with Marriott Bonvoy?

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