Richard Branson celebrates ten years of Virgin Atlantic flights to Las Vegas

Super entrepreneur Richard Branson just celebrated ten years of his airline flying to Las Vegas. And when Richard Branson celebrates, he does it the only way he knows how – with a hot model, a plane full of VIP’s and the mayor of Las Vegas.

Virgin Atlantic started flying to Las Vegas in June 2000, and since then, they have flown two million passengers to Las Vegas. Next year, the airline will add non-stop flights from Manchester airport, flying an additional 40,000 people a year to the local hotels and casinos.

To mark this major milestone, Virgin unveiled a one-off Las Vegas “Flying Lady” on one of their aircraft – inspired by Dita Von Teese (being held by Branson in the photo you see above). Von Teese commented on the artwork:

“It’s fantastic to be invited to mark this occasion. The pinup girl as aircraft “nose art” is a classic part of aviation history, so it is amazing for me to see myself depicted on an aircraft! I hope passengers around the world who fly onboard this plane enjoy seeing me as Virgin’s flying lady pinup!”

Full size versions of the photos are in the gallery below.

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Take the Vegas buffet to the next level with the Planet Hollywood buffet of buffets pass

Do you really like to feast on a Vegas buffet? I mean really, really love the buffet? How about spending three nights at the Planet Hollywood resort and casino along with a couple of all-access buffet passes for seven different buffets?

The deal is being offered by Harrah’s for guests who book 3 nights at Planet Hollywood. Rates start at just $122/night and the buffet passes offer 24 hours of unlimited access to Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Imperial Palace, Paris, Planet Hollywood, and Rio.

Just imagine the insane amount of food you could tackle in a 24 hour period – breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon snack, tea time, dinner time and midnight snack. 24 hours, 7 buffet locations.

Of course, nobody would force you to visit all seven locations, but if you have the pass, why not turn it into a challenge? This isn’t the first “all day buffet pass” being offered, but it is the first I’ve ever heard of that offers food between all properties within the same chain.

Interested in a couple of days of food and gambling? Check out the deal over at the Planet Hollywood booking site.
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NYC tops U.S. list of most expensive cities

It’s not exactly shocking to see that New York City is the most expensive city in the United States. Groceries, gasoline and other items tend to run a tad more than twice the national average. Whether you rent or buy, you’ll spend a fortune in this city, where the average price for a home is $1.1 million and an apartment, on average, will cost $3,400 a month.

So, how can so many bloggers live here? Remember: these are averages. That means someone has to be on the underside of them.

Housing prices were also among the reasons why San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. worked their way into top spots on the list. Average home prices shot past $600,000 in all four of these cities. In Austin, the average home price is a much more modest $226,998, and it’s even more comfortable in Nashville, at $201,020.

The measure used to determine the cost of leaving in each of the cities is based on expenses in six categories: groceries, housing (rent/mortgage), healthcare, utilities, transportation and miscellaneous items. The prices of 57 goods in these categories were used.Six of the most expensive cities in the country are in California, with four of them among the top 10. Texas has four – Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. Most of the costliest cities are on the two coasts, though Chicago (14), Las Vegas (18), Phoenix (25) and St. Louis (35) made the top 40.

The most surprising appearance on the list of most expensive places to live is Detroit. Even though it’s plagued by unemployment of 16.7 percent, utilities are expensive. Electricity costs an average of $243.56 a month, compared to a mere $141.64 in Atlanta.

The ten most expensive cities on the list are:

  1. New York City
  2. San Francisco
  3. San Jose
  4. Los Angeles
  5. Washington DC
  6. San Diego
  7. Boston
  8. Philadeplhia
  9. Seattle
  10. Baltimore

Check out the full list here.

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[Photo via MigrantBlogger]

Stripper truck stopped in Sin City

Commercials don’t work any more, and print ads are all but dead. So, how do you get the word out? If you’re Larry Beard, you have a couple of girls grind in the back of a truck with clear plastic sides while driving around Las Vegas. This isn’t for everyone. After all, Beard is the marketing director at Deja Vu Showgirls — which is exactly what you’d think it is.

Now, he has to stop.

Sin City authorities made him stop toting the strippers around, but the club is ready to fight. His vehicle rolled up and down the strip from 10 PM to 2 AM. Strippers inside gave a taste of what goes on inside the club. And yes, in case you were wondering, the truck had poles for the ladies to work.

Some hotel futures at risk

The number of hotels defaulting on their loans surged 125 percent in May and June this year. Travel is down (no shit), which has an obvious effect on the top line. When there’s no money coming in, it’s hard to send cash out to meet some pretty hefty obligations. So, if none comes in, none can go out … and defaults start to rise.

Some high-profile properties have defaulted already, including the Four Seasons and Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel – both in San Francisco – and the W Hotel in San Diego. Nobody’s safe in this market. Outside California, 13 hotel loans adding up to $596 million became delinquent in June alone. Most of the carnage came from Phoenix, Las Vegas and New York City.

Of course, the defaults don’t spell the end for these properties. There is always the chance that the loan terms can be changed or the hotels can be sold. There’s a long way between defaulting loans and closed doors.