Roundup: Should Las Vegas legalize prostitution? Share cars with Connect by Hertz and Zipcar; Allegiant Air connecting LAX with smaller cities

Las Vegas | The Movable Buffet blogger Richard Abowitz is blogging from the Chicken Ranch, a well-known legal brothel just outside Clark County. His post, “Chicken Ranch: It’s money that matters,” grabs quotes from a worker called Alicia who has been a career prostitute since becoming an adult. She’s 30. She left hooking on the streets after almost five years and has been in legal brothels for the past 11 years. Abowitz’s Chicken Ranch series comes at an interesting time -– Las Vegas is actually considering legalizing prostitution to boost its struggling economy. Would you holiday in Vegas if prostitution was legal? Do you think Vegas would gain or lose tourists because of this change?

Airline news | Allegiant Air is adding service between LAX and a dozen small cities around the country, including Medford, Oregon; Monterey, California; Billings, Montana; Fargo, North Dakota, and Witchita, Kansas. While fares to Monterey will start as low as $39 one way, other destinations will range from $59 to $99 each way, pre-tax. “The airline has also been able to offer low fares by keeping costs down,” the Los Angeles Times reports today. “It flies older, 150-seat MD-80 jets, which were built in Long Beach in the 1990s. It has been able to acquire the jets for a fraction of the cost of buying new jets of similar size.” Read: Allegiant Air to launch LAX service.

Road trip |  Do you love the idea of sharing cars in other cities through services such as Zipcar?  Did you know about a similar pay-as-you-go car membership program under the Hertz brand? It’s called Connect by Hertz. Rent a Toyota Prius, Camry or BMW Mini for as low as $8.50 an hour, or $59.50 a day. For occasional usage there is the $50 annual fee and a $25 application fee, as with Zipcar, but Hertz’s hourly rates are cheaper than Zipcar’s. Hertz starts at $10 an hour daily; Zipcar is $11 on weekdays and $13 on weekends. That said, Zipcar has many more locations — it operates in more than 50 cities across North America and the UK. Both programs come with gas, insurance and 180 miles per day included.

– Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel & Deal blogger

[Photo: Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 10:03 am by Jen Leo and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, Eco-Travel, Good Morning, Las Vegas, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.