Drive OR Fly to Las Vegas?

LA to Vegas: Should I 🚘 or ✈️?

I’ve now traveled from LA to Vegas dozens of times, so I know a thing or two about going that route.
 
For the first year of my channel I would only drive. Door to door would take about 4.5 hours depending on traffic. Traffic can really suck at times since there really is only one route in and out – the I-15.
 
The reasons I drove was a mix of ‘I like driving’ and ‘I’m saving money’. That, and door to door flying was not much quicker. The flight itself is 45 minutes only which is awesome, but add in travel time (and cost) to the airport, check in, airport security, wait times, de-boarding, getting your luggage etc. – it was close to 4 hours all in. And that’s IF there were no delays. You can easily get a flight for $60 one way, or $120 round trip plus your Lyft rides to the airport so you’re looking at maybe $150 to fly vs the cost of driving your car ($60 for my sedan). Whichever you choose, below are some of my tricks.
 
WHEN FLYING:

• Book flights well in advance. I ALWAYS book Southwest for the main three reasons:

1) they allow you to check luggage for FREE which is a huge savings. If a competing airline has a ticket that is $20 cheaper, don’t forget you’ll have to pay them $25 per luggage each way on top!
2) you can change or cancel your flight any time free of charge with no change or cancellation fees (only pay more if the new flight price is higher, or get credit if you cancel)
3) they’re just freakin’ awesome to fly. Super friendly and their boarding process is spot on. And if you fly more than 25 times a year with them (I did 30!), you get priority boarding and more!

•  Booking in advance also means you can get the cheapest flights at the $59 or above level. And again, the best thing about Southwest is that if by chance the cost goes down, you can change your ticket and get credit for the difference!
• If you’re flying in for the weekend, like most people do, choose to fly up on the Thursday night or depart the Monday morning. This will always give you a much better rate. I’ve also found that most times I fly out on Fridays and Sundays that the flights are often delayed (I blame drunk Vegas people for holding up the planes haha, it has actually been the cause of two of my delays!), so if you can fly back Monday morning and go straight to work instead – then I say go for it.

 
WHEN DRIVING:

• Avoid driving up on Fridays after 12pm. I made that mistake twice and it can easily add an extra 1-3 hours of drive time. And if there’s an accident – good luck! The Slot Cats were stuck in traffic last month when they close the highway due to an accident. #NotFun. If you drive up a different day, I always found that leaving right after LA rush hour, so 10am, was perfect. And on the return, leaving Vegas at 10am, you’ll always miss rush hour both ways.
• Avoid driving back on Sundays after 11am. Think about it, most people check out of their hotels at 11am and then head to their cars. So if you want to avoid that traffic, aim to leave by 10am. I’ve even tried to wait it out and leave at 7pm – but it was just as busy.
• I would always do my best to drive straight through without stopping, so avoid coffee! At most, I’d stop once after driving around 60% of the way. Then the second run is quicker!

 
For me, the best advantage to driving is the fact that you can come and go whenever you like and you are not dependent on others for that to happen. If you have a change of plans, drive off!
 
And the best advantage to flying is the ease and stress free travel. Since you are reliant on others, I always choose to book my flights to arrive hours before I’m needed for a dinner or live stream because you always have some cushion  to prepare for a delay.
 
And most certainly, never fly to the wrong airport….as I did in THIS VIDEO!

Aside from LA, I've lived in many cities and countries worldwide. More on that next week!

Brian xoxo ❤️

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