Discounted Show Tickets: where and how

This page tells you how to find the best discounted show tickets for Vegas (but this information can easily be utilized for other cities) and which websites give you the best options; for the actual ‘deals’, please go to our Vegas Deals of the Week page.
1 – If you are in Las Vegas and you realize there is a show you want to see and you have no tickets for it, one of the best way to get the best seats at the lowest prices is to buy those tickets last-minute from a local who’s selling them through ebay or craigslist (we do it all the time), but if it’s not something you are comfortable with, don’t be discouraged, there are many other ways (see below);

if you go through the ebay option, make sure you pay face to face or through a reputable website which has a recourse in case things go wrong, but if you use ebay all you have to do is to make sure the seller has a good reputation.  It happens all the time and we have obtained the very best seats that way for the very best shows.  This because local poker players or even ‘regular locals’ who gamble often receive comps, perks and discounts all the time, and they often put them up for sale for a bargain price.  You can find front-row seats last minute for half the price!

2 – If you want to plan ahead, the first thing you can do is sign up or bookmark the official website of the shows you want to see, such as those by Cirque du Soleil.  Occasionally they offer discounted tickets themselves for a short period of time, as a promotional tool.  Apart from that, some of the better sites for Vegas show deals are smartervegas.com (probably the better one) and perhaps vegasview.com and halfpriceshows.com, for this type of advance purchase.  Once you are in Vegas, unless you use the tips we wrote in point 1 and below, your opportunities to find discount tickets for Vegas shows (especially the limited engagements shows – as opposed to the permanent shows, or the very popular ones) are more limited. Don’t be fooled by the many websites offering ‘Vegas deals’, they’re the same regurgitated deals (at best!) you can find anywhere else.

3 – Find out the prices of the shows you are interested as you plan your trip and then decide if it’s worth while buying a package hotel + show deal from the resort hosting the show. Such package deals are sent to anybody who registers for a players card (online or in person); alternatively, they are advertised on Vegas-deals sites such as i4vegas or smartervegas or even (if you book early) earlyvegas.com. Do your research and do the math before you rush to buy the tickets. Remember that a very popular (limited appearance) show can easily cost 300 dollars at the door.

If you are already in Vegas and your hotel is not hosting your chosen show but one of their affiliated hotels does, ask the hotel where you are staying if they offer discount tickets for the shows presented at the other (affiliated) hotel. So, the associations are mainly 2: MGM Resorts International (Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Aria, Vdara, theHotel, Signature, Luxor, MGM Grand, Signature, Excalibur, Mirage, Skylofts, CityCentre, Park MGM, Circus Circus) and Caesar’s Entertainment (Rio, Bally’s, Paris, Linq, Caesar’s Palace, Planet Hollywood, Harrah’s, Flamingo), although there are other chains such as Boyd Gaming (the ‘Coast’ hotels and casinos and many downtown hotels and casinos).

4 – If you are a group or plan to stay in Vegas for a while and want to see several shows, it may be useful to buy a copy of the ‘Entertainment Book’ (always go for the latest edition): it’s a coupon book where you can find many 2-for-1 tickets and, occasionally, discounted show tickets.

5 – If you are already in Vegas, find out if your chosen show plays in the afternoon (matinee shows are always cheaper than evening shows) or, at least, during the week rather on weekends. Weekend evening shows are always the most expensive.

6 – If you can choose when to go in Vegas, try and avoid the periods when there are major conventions or other major events; the lower the number of visitors, the better chances you have to find discounted show tickets. You can check the conventions calendar on: http://www.lvcva.com/meetings/convention-calendar.jsp

7 – Private Ticket Booths on the Strip and downtown, such as Tix4Tonight (they also have a website, www.tix4tonight.com; here you may be able to find a discounts for several Vegas shows, although these are probably not going to be very top shows with limited appearances nor the ones everybody wants to see, such as ‘O’ by Cirque du Soleil. However, if you just want to see a good show and it does not matter which one, these private ticket booths sometimes offer large discounts, such as half-price tickets for several Vegas shows.

Tix4Tonight is now the most popular discounted booth company in Vegas:  they are now literally scattered all over the Strip (they occupy several locations off-Strip) and are therefore un-missable.  The line-ups are significant but they have large monitors displaying all the discounted show tickets you can buy on the day.  Better if you go earlier in the morning but I’ve seen people show up even later on.  When business is slow (low-traffic periods in Vegas), you are more likely to find good discounted prices, whilst at other times a particular show may not be on offer at all.  However, it may worth a visit and provide an opportunity to see a popular show at a lower price.  However, bear in mind that every time we went we could not find a good deal for one of the very best Vegas shows.

8 – All-Stage-Pass. It’s a fixed price ‘pass’ with which you can see as many as 18 shows in 48 hours (2 days). Your 48 hours begin the moment you buy the pass, so plan wisely before doing so. Make sure you do your math and work out a show-schedule, otherwise it will not be worthwhile. It’s offered by Caesar’s Entertainment and it applies only to their ‘regular’ shows. The pros and cons are very similar to those of their 24-hour-buffet-pass (offered by the same group). In our mind, if all you want to do is see lots of shows, go for it. If not, you may end up watching things which you are just not interested in or, simply put, a lot of ‘plain’ shows. Moreover, sometimes you can get to their matinees for very cheap prices anyway. Last time we checked their stage pass was $119+fees+taxes ($99+fees+taxes for total rewards members), but please double check with them because prices in Vegas change very often without notice. You can buy the ‘all-stage-pass’ at the Box Office of Planet Hollywood, at Show Tickets direct in front of Bally’s, at the Caesars Palace lobby sales desk or, alternatively, check at the box office of the hotel where you are staying if it’s not one of these three).

9 – Special discounts offered to Las Vegas locals: if you are a Vegas local (namely if you have a local identification card) you can purchase discounted show tickets for a large number of Las Vegas events playing at the MGM Resorts Hotels and Casino.

10 – The ‘latest’ website (one of many) offering heavily discounted show tickets is

‘halfpriceshows’.  Before writing about it we have researched it a little and it seems totally legit.  We have even contacted a few people who used it more than once and the feeback was all fine.  If you book ‘last-minute’, there may be a a glitch (it may now show up at box office), but nobody so far seems to have come back empty-handed.

11 – This may seem obvious, but… We have found the very best deals for the very best discounted show tickets in Vegas through ebay, and last-minute!  This because, as you can imagine, some locals are given good deals regularly for many shows (some of them are professional poker players, for example, or heavy casino players), and they put them up for sale on ebay (or similar).  Before you part with your hard-earned money, make sure the seller has a good reputation on ebay (you can check this next to their ID account on top of the page); what will often happen is that the seller will leave the tickets for you at the hotel where you are residing, so it’s convenient and pain-free!  We have even got front-row seats for popular stand-up comedy shows (which are not ‘regular’ shows but occasionally come to Vegas for a few nights) such as Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, Lisa Lampanelli, and so on.  It was great, we paid less than one hundred dollars for front row and less than fifty dollars for 3rd row (both central).

Vegas Deals of the Week (including Shows, regularly updated)

Go to Free Vegas Shows