Flash forward: it’s Friday, it’s July, and your flight just landed at
McCarran.
Your transportation options:
1. Ninety minutes waiting in an outdoor cab line.
2. The first business-class crusade through the desert on foot.
3. The bus.
Then—suddenly—a cab comes screeching to a halt. At which point, you flash a secret code to an airport worker, tip your hat to the folks in line and... go.
You’ve just met @HackingVegas, a rogue fleet of Vegas cabbies with no regard for the conventions of airport cab pickup whatsoever, available now by tweet.
To understand this outfit, take the razor-punctuality of Ryan Gosling’s character from Drive, sprinkle in the social media savvy of a Kardashian-Odom and add the flight-tracking aptitude of John Cusack from Pushing Tin.
Your job: to send the dispatcher (a former ambulance driver turned Vegas cabbie) a tweet with your flight info. As you circle over the Strip with a martini, he’ll be tracking your progress via flight tracker, enabling him to pinpoint your pickup to within minutes of touchdown (anything beyond that window, you’re on your own).
Your ride: waiting on the other side of door #2 at baggage claim. When you spot an airport employee in a brown shirt, show him the number tweeted to you at confirmation—his cue to whisk you into the leathery chariot that just swooped in.
Possibly with an ad for a gentlemen’s club on top.
Your transportation options:
1. Ninety minutes waiting in an outdoor cab line.
2. The first business-class crusade through the desert on foot.
3. The bus.
Then—suddenly—a cab comes screeching to a halt. At which point, you flash a secret code to an airport worker, tip your hat to the folks in line and... go.
You’ve just met @HackingVegas, a rogue fleet of Vegas cabbies with no regard for the conventions of airport cab pickup whatsoever, available now by tweet.
To understand this outfit, take the razor-punctuality of Ryan Gosling’s character from Drive, sprinkle in the social media savvy of a Kardashian-Odom and add the flight-tracking aptitude of John Cusack from Pushing Tin.
Your job: to send the dispatcher (a former ambulance driver turned Vegas cabbie) a tweet with your flight info. As you circle over the Strip with a martini, he’ll be tracking your progress via flight tracker, enabling him to pinpoint your pickup to within minutes of touchdown (anything beyond that window, you’re on your own).
Your ride: waiting on the other side of door #2 at baggage claim. When you spot an airport employee in a brown shirt, show him the number tweeted to you at confirmation—his cue to whisk you into the leathery chariot that just swooped in.
Possibly with an ad for a gentlemen’s club on top.