Las Vegas - Palm Springs to Las Vegas - what time to leave Palm Springs to catch flight at LAS?

We are booked on a flight leaving LAS airport on Sat Jan 6, at 11:20 PM - on Air Canada - bound for Toronto.

We are staying at Palm Springs through to Jan 6. We will be renting a vehicle (from Dollar). What time should we leave Palm Springs, to arrive at the LAS with at least 2 hrs to spare (we would have to fill the vehicle with gas near the Las Vegas airport, and then drop off the vehicle, before taking the Dollar shuttle to the Airport).

I believe that AC flights leave the smaller, older terminal building.

Should we take a special route from Palm Springs to LAS, to minimize any traffic jams/bottlenecks (around Riverside)?

Why not just fly PSP-LAS? HP (USAirways) and US both fly this route. I believe Alegiant and Southwest also fly it.

I would plan to leave at noon and allow time to have dinner in Vegas.

If you must spend every last minute in Palm Springs I would leave no later than 3:30 PM. It's about a 4 hour drive + 1 hour for the possibility of traffic slowing you down (and it will) + 1 hour for a quick stop along the way and stopping for gas and returning the car.

Air Canada will go out of the international terminal 2.

If you plan to cut it too close be sure to have a back-up plan in mind for an alternate flight.

With the Dollar rent-a-car - years ago I drove one way SNA to LAS and happened to ask about the possibility of avoiding the drop charge by returning a car from Nevada or somewhere farther east. They had a "foreign car" available and I saved the drop charge!

My favourite route between PSP and LAS is through the Mojave National Preserve (http://www.nps.gov/moja/) via Twentynine Palms-Amboy-Cima until you hit I-15 at the Nipton Road exit. It's a nice scenic route and there's very little traffic between 29 Palms and the I-15, but it's also in the middle of nowhere. If you decide to take this route, I would suggest to leave PSP early enough to reach I-15 before it gets dark.

It's about 190 miles to the Nipton Road exit and about 240 miles to Vegas. I've done it in less than four hours, however if you don't want to rush through (and plan to respect the speed limit ;)) I would allow at least five hours.

Personally, I would leave Palm Springs early, enjoy the drive through the desert, maybe stop a few times (e.g. at the Kelso depot) and reach LAS early enough to have dinner before heading to the airport.

The good news is that you are not trying to make it here on a Friday...that tends to be a traffic nightmare coming in from California.

Saturday traffic is much better, but still a little heavy and there is some construction going on from the Nevada border into Las Vegas, but it shouldn't delay you much.

Still, I agree with what others said, and getting to Las Vegas early certainly can't be a bad thing, can it? Even if you don't gamble, there are some great places to eat, and just kill some time until your flight leaves.

To be honest, even the airport here isn't boring by any stretch of the imagination, so showing up early would be your best bet...in my humble opinion.

If you're in F, be sure to sample the wonderful shared-airline First Class Lounge in Terminal 2 at LAS

If you're in F, be sure to sample the wonderful shared-airline First Class Lounge in Terminal 2 at LAS

We have upgraded to business class, on Air Canada. When we were in Las Vegas in Feb of this year, that lounge was allowing entry to all business/first class passengers of all airlines, except Air Canada! Has that changed?

Sorry, don't know. :( Have only used it with HA F.