Date of Occurrence: 02-05-08
Time of Occurrence: approx. 8 a.m.
Location of Occurrence: Las Vegas Hilton/McCarron Airport
Comments:
Two colleagues and myself needed a cab to get to McCarran Airport for our 11:33 a.m., Feb. 5 flight back to Atlanta. We had been staying at the Las Vegas Hilton for five days while attending the SHOT Show at the Convention Center. The bellhop at the Las Vegas Hilton hailed a cab. I remember the driver’s name was Jin Huang. The company was Nellis. I sat in the front seat. D and K sat in the back. Jin asked me where we were going. I said, “The airport.” He started to pull away and asked if we wanted to take the freeway. I said, “I don’t know. Do you recommended that way?” He said, “Do you want to go the fastest way?” I said “yes” but was a little confused. I said I wanted to go “the best way to the airport.” He said OK, and proceeded to get on the interstate at what seemed like the north or northeast end of town. We entered the airport through a tunnel. The trip took about 30 minutes, and my colleagues in the back mentioned how this trip was taking us much longer than the trip from the airport to the hotel five days earlier. The traffic did not seem very heavy this day. We asked the driver about this, and he mumbled but was not answering our questions. Turns out the trip was more than 30 minutes, to the best of recollection, and the fare was more than $32.50. We asked him why it was so much, and still could not get an answer. He seemed to say that he couldn’t speak English well, or at least acted that way, said Dobie, who paid the bill and tried to talk to Jin afterward. In the airport, I asked a woman at an information booth if a 30-minute, $32.50 cab from the Hilton was about right. She said, “No,” and gave me a NTA pamphlet. She asked if I wanted to make a complain right then. She also said I could do it on the Web when I got home. I thanked her and now I am back in Georgia writing the events of that day. end
