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Most frequent visitors to Las Vegas will have a story about how they were ripped off by a taxi driver who picked them up from the airport.
From stories about circuitous routings and stories about drivers deliberately taking the busiest roads to stories of drivers selling nightclub flyers as guest list passes, there are dozens of scams that a select number of Las Vegas taxi drivers have been inflicting on unsuspecting visitors for years.
It was only when I got to know my way around Las Vegas that I realized just how often a taxi driver had taken the scenic route rather than the correct route when ferrying me around the city but, thanks to incoming legislation, that’s going to become scam that’s a little harder to pull off…at least for routes to/from the airport.
Following a unanimous vote by the five-member Nevada Taxicab Authority Board, Las vegas will implement zone-based pricing for trips between Las Vegas Airport (McCarran) and the famous Las Vegas “Strip” as part of a 6-month pilot program which will start on 1 January 2020.
Three pricing zones will be in place with trips between the airport and these zones costing between $19 and $27.
The western boundary of all three zones will be Interstate 15 while the eastern boundary appears to (mostly) run alongside Paradise Red.
Zone 1 – Sunset North to Tropicana North – $19
This zone incorporates properties like Mandalay Bay, the Delano, the Luxor, Excalibur and the Tropicana.
Zone 2 – Tropicana North to Flamingo North – $23
This zone incorporates a wide number of famous Las Vegas landmarks including (but not limited to) The Bellagio, The MGM Grand, New York New York, Paris, and Aria.
Zone 3 – Flamingo North to The Stratosphere – $27
This zone is the largest and takes in the likes of Caesars Palace, The Venetian, and The Wynn.
Bottom Line
Ever since Uber was finally allowed to operate to/from McCarran airport the Las Vegas taxi companies have been taking a beating and this appears to be a more to bring a bit more legitimacy to their operations.
For me personally it will be a long time before I trust a Las Vegas taxi driver again (once burned, twice shy) but at least this is a start to stopping some of the sharper practices that have been going on for far too long.
[HT: The Points Guy]
I go to Las Vegas frequently and these flat fares, while an improvement to avoid driver rip offs, are significantly higher that rides on Uber or Lyft. Combine that with the changes to making catching Uber or Lyft more convenient at LAS and I still won’t be taking a taxi any time soon
I’ve always been intensely curious why the terminal for LAS is on exactly the wrong side of the runways to provide reasonable access to the strip. Insert conspiracy theory here. That said, traffic on the strip is always somewhere between unpleasant and insanely bad. The obvious answer, which anecdotally the taxi lobby stopped, is to have the monorail go to the airport.
Another point missing here is that downtown seems to have been misplaced on this set price chart.
A monorail would completely wipe out Cabbies and Uber/lyft, and drive up Unemployment. The Cabbies and Uber drivers (cabbies Once made 6-figures) are Now Welfare-Riding to barely make ends-meet.
The closest monorail stop to the airport is at the edge of MGM Grand, just sayin’
I could have saved my customer $ 5.30 a trip by Taking the Food Stamp Ramp (Swenson) and sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, Just to get stiffed on the Tip. However, They (You [redacted]) always cried about how long the rides took. If (I) had to listen to a scum bag tourist cry, Id rather make my Book and move on to the Next cheapskate.
You’re not doing much to improve people’s perceptions of Las Vegas taxi drivers with comments like this – you’re just reinforcing some long held views.