The fair place to meet is San Antonio, TX — the city closest to the midpoint of New Orleans and Phoenix. From the farther side that’s about 17 hr 45 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
San Antonio, TX
From New Orleans
10 hr 37 min
507 mi to San Antonio
From Phoenix
17 hr 45 min
847 mi to San Antonio
New Orleans has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 7 hr 8 min. The alternatives below can even it out. New Orleans and Phoenix are about 1,313 miles apart.
New Orleans and Phoenix are about 1,313 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near San Antonio, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 10 hr 37 min of driving on the New Orleans side and 17 hr 45 min on the Phoenix side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. San Antonio still makes a fair, central place for New Orleans and Phoenix to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If San Antonio doesn't have what you're after, Austin and Dallas are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between New Orleans and Phoenix.
San Antonio is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seventh-most populous city in the United States, the second-most populous city in Texas, and the second-most populous city in the Southern U.S., with a population of 1.43 million at the 2020 census. Read more →
New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Read more →
Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, Phoenix is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.