Uber from airport was great

Now that both Uber & Lyft have authorization to drive to and from the airport, I wanted to post my experience. I have used Uber several times in San Francisco & San Antonio, so I decided to just stick with them this time. Before I left home I got the specific information on where to find them off the McCarran website.

I arrived at terminal 1 and after picking up my bag I took the elevator by door #2 up to Level 2. Then I crossed the pedestrian bridge over to the parking garage, took the elevator to level 2M and turned left and found the staging area. It was much simpler than it sounds. I didn't use the app to call my driver until I found the spot. It took about 6 minutes for my driver to arrive in his very clean, comfortable late mode car. The driver was friendly, polite, safe and answered all the questions I could think of about the service in vegas.

It was $12.54 from the airport to Cosmo. I was very pleased & will use it for my return to the airport, and if I decide to go anywhere I will use them for that. I am done with the Vegas Taxi scam.

 

Here! Here! I still uses taxis sometimes when there are price surges on Uber in other cities but I have no love lost for the LV cabbies. I'll go Uber every time and they have only themselves to blame for people's disgust with them.

 

Play around in the app. When surge happens, there's usually an alternative to whatever type of car you're trying to pick up that isn't surging. I find it's cheaper and often a better car than what surge offers.

 

Thanks for the update!
I plan to use Uber next weekend when I fly in to Vegas.
It'll be my wife's first time Uber'ing..so free trip! hahaha

 

I arrived last Saturday and did not realize Uber was available at McCarran. Walked straight thru the taxi line (7:45 AM), said headed to the Rio. Usual taxi inquiry, have you been here before, I said yes, but he proceeds to aim for the 215. I said please don't take the tunnel, he says it would be quicker & less traffic. I said it's 8 AM on a Saturday morning, no one in Vegas is on the road yet and our plane was only 1/2 full.

He then heads over and gets on Tropicana - we even made it across LV Blvd without stopping, but then he doesn't move over towards freeway ramp. So I ask don't you need to get over and take 15 to Flamingo? He says you wanted regular streets, I said no, I said no tunnel specifically for that reason.

Grumble, grumble but he gets over and we reach the Rio with $14 on the meter. (Even prior trips have been $17-$18 since my first & only tunnel was $29) Granted, I love arriving at the crack of dawn so that always helps the fare, but my last 6 trips since my husband passed have gone the same way. It seems like open season on 60 year old women that are by themselves EVERY time in a taxi and it gets so irritating.

When I moved from the Rio to the Golden Nugget $11, the next trip was GN to Paris $14. I'm loving Uber in Vegas.

The only problem, and it will be settled with time, is the lack of information between hotels and drivers regarding pickup areas. I have learned:
Rio - white marked curb outside the poker room entrance
Golden Nugget - Carson Tower entrance
Paris - shuttle bus pickup area

Enjoy your trip, I'm headed home tomorrow night - Uber from Paris to McCarran!

Paris to McCarran was $11

 

How about the availability of uber or lyfte for the early departure flights? Right now the flights to my area are quite limited, in early Dec my flight left at about 7 am, so I left the hotel around 5am, are there many ride sharing vehicles around at that time of morning?

 

I don't know about Uber, but I am at home right now and can plug in McCarran as my pick up point and it will show me what cars are in the area, even though I'm not even there. It should be pretty easy to pull that info up a few days or weeks ahead of time to see if there are a few patrolling the hotels in the mornings. I'm pretty sure there will always be a few staging at McCarran though.

 

Thanks nhcris for posting your great experience with Uber.

I think most of us have had a least one horrid experience with the LV taxi/tunnel tour companies and hopefully the new competition will do everyone some good.

 

Ok I'm new to this Uber stuff. My Friend and I in April will be staying at Ballys. Do you have to call ahead? When we go downtown how do we do this and where from Ballys.. We will probably take a cab from airport, but would like to take Uber from Ballys to Airport. I need help on this. Lol

 

You may want to look at both Uber and Lyft as an alternative to expensive LV taxis.

You may want to Google both and decide which one or if both will work for you. You can then load their apps on your phone and order a car through the app.

They typically arrive within five minutes and most people have been reporting a great experience with them.

 

Each hotel is set up slightly differently. At Cosmo, the pick up point was right at Valet. You will need to ask where it is at Bally's, unless someone that has used them there chimes in.

I don't call ahead. I summoned them on the app when I got to the pickup point, and both times I used them from Cosmo it was under 5 minutes. The second time was almost instantaneous. It will vary depending on whether or not there are drivers nearby. It's not like the cabs with a huge taxi line just waiting to load up.

 

I was going to take uber in January but then realized there will be four of us with luggage. I wonder if it's possible to request a bigger vehicle. Maybe I should just stick with a van cab

 

Split four ways the fare difference will be much less noticeable; split a cab or look at limo services. The big winners are singles and couples; McCarran to downtown in a cab is around thirty dollars, lyft was about twenty-two. Four guys aren't gonna notice eight dollars like one will.

 

Yes, there are different levels of service available. UberXL can accommodate up to six passengers: https://newsroom.uber.com/vegas/vegas-your-uberxl-is-arriving-now/

You'll be able to see the available options (UberX, UberXL, etc.) on the bottom of the app.