I agree with Gary about the airfare. I also booked direct for my flight, although I found the difference to be quite a bit less than $100. Might depend on what airport you use. The best deals I saw on the Travelocity, etc., websites were for airfare and hotel combined. Like I said earlier, though, some of the hotels with the best price are off the Strip, but if you saved enough on the rooms, I guess you could afford the shuttle or cab fare between hotels.

For flights, if price is the foremost consideration, I have used Priceline in the past and gotten good deals in the "make your best offer" category. However, since you don't know what time your flight leaves until after booking it, you might want to fly in Thursday. If you booked for Friday, you might arrive late and miss most, if not all, of the Friday night "meet-and-greet". You would still be there for the banquet Saturday, though.

I also found that searching for flights early in the morning usually netted better prices and more seat availability. I have read that since some sites have a 24 hr cancellation policy, some people will book a flight, then cancel if they find something better. These seats then go back up for sale the next day.

A good tool I found is at www.sidestep.com. If you download it, it will pop up and compare prices when you visit other travel websites. Or you can use it independently. I found that it did a pretty good job. You can sort the results by price, flight times or # of stops, so you can see them in the order that is most important to you. It also lists prices at nearby airports. Hoping for a great turnout!

Good luck,
Rosie