Rex's Las Vegas Lists
Why?
They aren’t even being sold at a discount.
The Las Vegas Monorail Company, in an effort to increase ridership, has taken the bold step of:
1) Making it go places people actually want to go
2) Lowering fares to a reasonable level
3) Selling tickets where nobody in their right mind would buy them
If you answered number 3, then you are obviously familiar with the Las Vegas Monorail.
Apparently, the fact that there is a ticket booth in each station, and several in-station automated vending machines which dispense tickets … is causing ridership problems by presenting the rider with too few ticketing choices.
Naturally, people want to buy Monorail tickets through Travelocity and kiosks located nowhere near the Monorail.
It makes sense. When I lived in New York, I used to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty to buy subway tokens. Sure there were token booths in the stations themselves … but it would be just plain stupid to buy them there.
The fact is, it is stupid to buy Monorail passes in advance. I stocked up when fares were still reasonable, and my passes expired within a year.
That’s right, unlike most major transit systems, your individual public transit rides actually expire. And in a major tourist destination, that is just nasty. They aren’t comps, you actually paid for the tickets.
If you over-buy for your one trip, and don’t use it all … then come back one year and one day later … you’re screwed. The ticket booth people will have no sympathy for you (at least they didn’t for me).
Because of this, it really only makes sense to buy when you absolutely know that you are going to ride.
But still, The Monorail and certain travel sites think selling off-site for full price is a brilliant idea.
Since the travel sites will certainly take a cut of the sales, maybe the Monorail could just cut the damn fare price from $5 each way (making a cab cheaper for parties of 2-4 people) instead of farming out the insane ticket prices to yet more brokers.
I still say that for $5 for a five minute ride, they should put strippers on the poles, but the Monorail has yet to entertain any of my suggestions.
I’m just waiting it out until the thing goes bankrupt so that I can buy the whole system at auction for $25.
Trust me, if I had control of the thing, people would ride it.
The asinine press release follows:
The Las Vegas Monorail Company announced today an official distribution agreement with Travelocity, a world leader in travel commerce. Travelers can now purchase Monorail tickets through the Travelocity call center and on the following Web sites: travelocity.com, travelocityonlocation.com and showtickets.com.
???Working with Travelocity allows the Las Vegas Monorail Company to offer a greater number of visitors the convenience of planning their entire Las Vegas vacation including transportation on the Monorail,??????We???re excited about Travelocity???s distribution channel and look forward to providing travelers with another convenient way to purchase Monorail tickets.??? said Ingrid Reisman, vice president of corporate communication for the Las Vegas Monorail Company.
Fares will be sold through Travelocity???s Web sites, available as stand-alone purchases or as add-ons for customers booking customized vacation packages to Las Vegas. Prices range from $5 to $40 and ticket types offered are single-ride, two-ride, ten-ride, unlimited one-day pass and unlimited three-day pass.
???By offering Monorail tickets through our site, we are giving our travelers one more way to make their vacation planning easier,??? said Glen Harvell, vice president and general manager for Travelocity on Location. ???In addition to the convenience of online shopping, our customers can also purchase Monorail tickets at any of our 14 Travelocity on Location booths up and down the Strip.???
