Uber plans to reward frequent riders
Program turns points into perks
If you use Uber frequently, you’ll soon be rewarded for your rides.
The ride-sharing company has launched a Uber Rewards program that will provide perks to riders for using its service. Available first in nine cities in the U.S. before rolling out to all U.S. riders over the coming months, the program is similar to the company’s recently announced rewards program for drivers.
On the list of initial launch cities: Miami; Denver; Tampa, Florida; New York; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Atlanta; San Diego; and parts of New Jersey.
The program, which has been in the works for roughly a year, “started from the premise that Uber today is really different than Uber from 10 years ago or eight years ago,” says Nundu Janakiram, Uber’s director of product for rider experience.
“What we’ve found is that Uber is now this thing that people use every day, and we wanted to find a way to reward our customers who choose Uber every day and build a relationship with them.”
As with the driver program, Uber’s rider rewards will dish out points depending on which Uber service is used, with the points unlocking different levels and the levels opening up perks. Among the notable rewards: discounts on future rides, better customer support and priority pickup at airports.
UberPool and Uber Eats orders will earn you one point per dollar spent while UberX, XL, Select and WAV will get you two points per dollar. Users of the company’s luxury Black and Black SUV services will earn three points per dollar spent.
Janakiram says the company will be adding points for using bikes and scooters in the future.
Points can be earned regardless of whether the rider is using Uber for personal or busi- ness or if they are using Uber gift cards, though there is no additional perk for using Uber’s Visa credit card.
Four levels, different perks
The points will go toward placing you in one of four tiers – Blue, Gold, Platinum and Diamond – that will determine what perks you are eligible for. Blue is the standard level, with every 500 points netting you $5 in Uber Cash, the company’s virtual currency that can be used to pay for Uber rides or Uber Eats deliveries. Using Uber Cash also earns you points.
You will earn $5 for every 500 points you accrue regardless of which tier you are in. Progress can be tracked through the Uber app, which is being updated alongside this launch.
After your first 500 points are earned, you’ll be bumped up to Gold, which will get you faster customer support plus the ability to cancel an Uber ride and get the cancellation fee refunded so long as a new ride is ordered within 15 minutes of canceling. (This does not apply to UberPool or Uber Express Pool orders.)
Once you accrue 2,500 points, you’ll be elevated to Platinum, adding in such perks as priority pickup to help lower wait times at “most airports” around the country, though Uber says this may take a couple of months to fully roll out.
You also will be able to get “price protection” on a particular route of your choosing, allowing you to lock in a set rate for an UberX ride. The rate would be for either direction and won’t be affected by surge pricing caused by traffic or if the ride is taken during the busiest times of the day.
Unlike the company’s Ride Pass service, this perk protects only one particular route and not all rides, though you can change it once per month.
At 7,500 points, you will reach the Diamond level, granting you all the previous perks plus dedicated phone support (something regular Uber users rarely have access to) and an “UberX Diamond” option in the app that will pair you with higher rated drivers on your UberX trips.
Diamond members also will receive waived delivery fees on as many as three Uber Eats orders every six months and free “surprise” upgrades from UberX to Uber Black.
Uber will be covering the cost of the difference between X and Black rides and also will be covering the cancellation fees it refunds to ensure drivers still get paid.
“We consider it an investment from Uber,” says Janakiram. “It’s not drivers paying for Uber Rewards, it is Uber that’s investing in our customers.”
Points are accrued during six -month periods, with the perks you unlock available for the rest of that period plus the following six months. Points do not roll over from one period to the next.
There is no cost to sign up for Rewards, though you will need to opt into it. In a bid to make people more aware of the program, Uber is letting users start at a higher tier by counting all of your rides and food orders from the six-month period before your signing up.
The Lyft battleground
Rewards are just the latest battleground between Uber and chief rival Lyft, which announced a rewards program of its own earlier this week called Lyft Rewards.
At this point, however, few details are known about Lyft’s program, though it will offer occasional savings on future rides and upgrades to more premium vehicles. Like Uber, Lyft’s rewards program will be available in its app.
Lyft says that it will be testing the service for “select riders in various cities” starting in December before expanding the program in 2019.