Las Vegas podcast #462 includes:
- Vegas Brides opener
- Rose.Rabbit.Lie followup
- Hakkasan exposes nightclub douchiness
- KISS residency announcement
- Route 91 Harvest Festival comes to Vegas
- El Cortez extinguishes The Flame
- Atomic Liquors sells land, bar remains the same
- Fremont Street booze crackdown continues
- Haute Doggery offers cheap shrimp cocktails
- Our sponsor, Viator
- Bell Trans VIP Shuttle review
- Purple Reign review
- Listener calls about Circus Circus, NBA summer league, Sigma Derby, Lion’s Share, Presidential Limo, Palazzo, Postrio, Tag, BurGR, Border Grill and more Vegasy stuff
- Call us at (702) 866-9494
Five Hundy By Midnight 7/20/14 (69 min, 65.9 MB)
I have been thinking about whether or not to post my experience with Bell Trans, and since Tim & Michele did a review of their experience, I thought I would post mine. In a nutshell, my experience was bad and I won’t ever use them again.
When I arrive in Vegas, I usually use the shuttles, because I like the fixed price, and I have been long-hauled too many times by cabbies. That’s just my preference. So, a couple of trips ago, I got a round trip shuttle ticket on Bell Trans. The ride to my hotel was fine. I called a couple of days before the return trip to schedule my return, and no problems there. They tell you to show up 10 minutes before your scheduled pickup, and I was outside and ready about 15 minutes prior to my pickup time. About 10 minutes past my pickup time, I called to see where my shuttle was. I was told they had already picked up for my time at my hotel. I told them that I had been waiting 25 minutes, and no shuttle had been by yet. They hemmed and hawed, and eventually said that I would have to wait until the next pickup time, which was 30 minutes after my original time. Ugh…OK…whatever.
A few minutes later, a couple shows up and they’re waiting on a shuttle. I talked to them, and found out they’re also waiting on a Bell Trans pickup. We wait and wait, and at 5 minutes past the new pickup time, I call to see what’s going on. They give me the runaround at first, but when I told them that they already missed me for my original pickup, they conceded that they didn’t have enough drivers, weren’t going to be able to pick me up that day, and advised me to get a cab. I was pissed, because I had already paid for the round trip. The only good thing was that I was able to share the cab to the airport with the couple that was also getting shafted. (The cab ride back to the airport was just over $40 because we got long hauled going BACK to the airport. Thankfully, the couple split it with me, so I was only out $20.)
When I got home, I contacted the company to try to get reimbursed for $20 for the cab ride. Long story short, all they would reimburse me for was half the amount of my original round trip fare ($8.00). I guess I can sort of see that, but I ended up being the one that paid for their mistake. On my next trip, I was with a different shuttle company with other people, and somehow the subject of Bell Trans came up. Other people mentioned that they have had similar experience with Bell Trans previously as well. So, your mileage may vary.
THAT is why I’ll use the shuttle to the hotel & cab it on the way back, to avoid that type of scenario. Plus, it’s harder to be long hauled to the airport when you tell the driver to take Paradise to McCarran.