Las Vegas sets flat rate taxi fares between the airport and the Strip
Save the gambling for the casinos: By the beginning of next year, you'll no longer have to wonder how much your taxi fare will cost or if you should request the "no tunnel" route between the Las Vegas airport and the Strip.
The five-member Nevada Taxicab Authority board unanimously voted Thursday to implement flat rate fees between McCarran International Airport (LAS) and most destinations on the popular Vegas Strip. The new fare structure will be implemented on a rolling basis, officially going into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
Sign up for the free daily TPG newsletter for more travel tips.
The proposed one way rates are as follows:
• Zone 1 — $19 from Sunset Road north to Tropicana Avenue (think Luxor and Mandalay Bay)
• Zone 2 — $23 from Tropicana Avenue north to Flamingo Road (think Bellagio and Aria)
• Zone 3 — $27 from Flamingo Road north to the Stratosphere Hotel (think Stratosphere and Sahara)
Related: Status matching your way to a Las Vegas trip
Standard pricing will remain in effect for destinations outside of the specified zones. These prices shouldn't be too far off from a normal route now, though may be slightly more budget-friendly in some cases. On a recent trip to Las Vegas, TPG's Summer Hull was charged a $24.42 base fare in a cab from McCarran Airport to the Bellagio, but that amount jumped to around $30 (pre-tip) once all the additional fees were added. A flat $23 fee to that zone would have been an improvement.
Flat-rate airport fares should officially bring an end to the pricing scourge that once plagued Vegas visitors, who often were at the mercy of local cab drivers with a city-wide reputation for padding taxi fares by taking the "scenic" route from the airport to hotels on the Strip.
While the advent of Uber really helped curtail some of the Vegas taxicab shenanigans, the new flat rate pricing should go a long way toward leveling the playing field between traditional cab companies and rideshare drivers, while providing greater pricing transparency for customers across the board.