I will admit that I am not a regular user of Uber and almost certainly nowhere near their “target” market. I have 2 cars and live in the suburbs, so when I need to go somewhere, I generally just get in my car and drive there. Even with the $10 monthly credits from my American Express Gold card (which somehow I still continue to get on my account, even though I have long since canceled my card), I just don’t have a use case for Uber in my daily life. When I travel, it’s different, if we don’t rent a car or two
(SEE ALSO: Why we’re a 2 (rental) car family)
I do like to take public transportation when I am traveling, but it’s not always feasible (or even possible). But as part of my recent trip, I had two Uber experiences at opposite ends of the spectrum and it left me wondering whether Uber (or any rideshare company) is ever going to “work”
A Super Cheap Uber Ride To The Airport
First I wanted to talk about my trip to the airport in Cairo, Egypt. My driver picked me up from the Staybridge Suites Cairo Citystars hotel and took me to the airport (about an 8 mile / 20 minute drive). I was blown away when I saw the quote from Uber
Even after I gave a nearly 50% tip, it was EGP124. That is like $4 USD! After this ride, I joked to my wife that I couldn’t even get an Uber to my next door neighbors’ house for $4!
An Expensive Uber Ride From The Airport
A few days later, I didn’t realize how right I would be…
When my son and I landed at CVG after a 30-hour travel day from Japan, the plan had been for us to take an Uber home. My wife was taking another kid somewhere and although we have 2 cars, I had the only other driver with me.
I have taken Uber to/from the airport a few times before (around 25 miles), and the price has always been around $30 or $40, and I was willing to pay that so my wife didn’t have to come pick me up. Plus I do still have that $10 monthly credit…
So after we landed, I pulled up the Uber app and at first, it showed a price of about $34 (expected) but then it quickly jumped up to $84.95!!!
Plus tip of course…
The Economics of Uber
I mean, I get the concepts of supply and demand, and I don’t believe anyone should be required to pick me up whenever I want and take me wherever I want to go at whatever price I want to pay. I also understand that much of Uber’s business model is and has been using cheap VC money to subsidize rates in the hopes of getting people “hooked”, and to some extend it has worked. I also believe that Uber the company is not working or bargaining in good faith with their drivers. I’m sure that I will get angry comments on all sides because people have stroooooong feelings about Uber and Uber drivers.
All I am saying is that any business model where they are relying on people to pay $84.95 for a ride home from the airport is crazy with a capital K. I am never paying that, and while I know that I am way cheaper than the average person, I can’t imagine many people would. I could have PARKED MY CAR AT THE AIRPORT ($9 / day) for cheaper than that, and, knowing what I know now, that’s what I will do in the future.
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What I Did Instead
I kept checking the app and the price floated up and down but still kept being incredibly expensive (IMO). I was talking with my wife in the meantime and we ended up just having her come get us. It wasn’t the most convenient option but it’s the one that worked best for us.
What do you think? Is Uber out of control? What would you have done in this situation? Leave your thoughts in the comments below
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
We had sky high uber prices offered at ATL last week. Usually ride is $20-$25, but uber was offering $55-$60. We waited and waited and waited, rechecked frequently, with no luck. I finally cleared all data and cache from my uber app, and I was immediately offered $27. Something suspicious is going on. I will be clearing my data and cache again in the future.
Hmm that’s an interesting hypothesis. I didn’t think of that but maybe I will try that next time.
I would happily have paid the 84 or for that matter the 100.. I chose the fastest option
They are absolutely ridiculous. The CEO has nearly driven the car off the cliff. In most markets that aren’t San Francisco, they’ve left drivers getting paid about 6 bucks an hour hoping customer tips make up for the slave labor wages. So not only is the customer getting screwed by a 300% surge, they aren’t giving the driver any of it, or if any at all, maybe 1 to 2 dollars of that 50 dollar increase you saw. They aren’t done yet though, now they screw the informed customer one more time. You either have tip them well enough to offset Uber’s greed or be okay with the fact that you just used another human being at slave labor rates. Most Uber drivers outside the very largest metro areas would be better off working for Taco Bell. Uber is a disgusting, unethical, greedy company that none of us should associate with. Lyft is even worse. But soon we might not have the problem. Drivers all over the country have been squeezed to the last drop. There is a day coming when even the most desperate will have finally had their last straw. Uber and Lyft…singlehandedly on the verge of reviving Taxi industry from the dead. I would much rather buy from a locally owned cab than reward bad behavior with more money.
I agree with just about everything you said 🙂
Just the normalization of prices.
A 25 mile cab ride shouldn’t cost $30. It should cost more in the ballpark of $50.
If the driver needs to be paid $50 and Uber needs to make a profit, you will see prices be in this range.
How can the cab ride be $30 and the driver still makes a profit after Uber takes a cut? Not possible. Don’t expect these prices going forward.
I don’t know – The airport advertises $34 taxis from the airport to downtown, though admittedly that’s a bit shorter than the ride to my house. If as you say it’s normalization of prices, then that’s good to know and I’ll be better prepared to either pay that or make alternate plans.
Though I admit that I am not very well-versed on how much a taxi should cost, since as I said in the article, I have 2 cars and live in the suburbs so if I need to go somewhere I pretty much just drive myself
As an Uber driver I’m frustrated with the company as well. While you are paying more for rides, drivers in my area are being paid less. A ride that I would in the past have been paid $12.00-$15.00, is now paying lards than $10.00. Uber used to offer cash perks for drivers who completed 29-50 trips in a four day period. Completing 50 trips could garner a perk of $60.00-$100. Today Uber is offering typically $20.00-$40.00 for the same number of trips. Even driving an electric vehicle, it is difficult to make a decent wage for a weeks work. It’s also important to understand that there is no compensation for returning after dropping off a rider. Where I live (Reno,NV) many rides are to feral destinations with little likelihood of picking up a return fare. As a result, that $10.00 ride that may be 10-12 miles, becomes a 20 mile trip that consumes over 30 minutes.
Yes – driver pay is another component to it. I understand that if the price ends up being lower (where I “expect” it to be), that drives down driver pay, and at some point (which we may already be at), driver pay will be so low that nobody will want to do it. I’m not sure what the answer is, other than if the model is an $80 Uber for the airport, I don’t think that anyone that has any other options will take advantage of it. Like I said in the post, it literally would have been cheaper for me to just leave my car in the airport parking lot for a week.
That’s why I always just rent a car or better turo it. What’s the point of taking Uber when turoing or renting is so much cheaper
Was in Vegas a couple days ago; usually use Lyft (for Chase UR points). Anyways, going to the airport was $69 for Lyft that morning; but Uber was only $22. I think it’s best to check often and check both. You never know…..
Yeah – I did check Lyft as well but it was about the same price in my situation
Some cities charge an extra airport fee for Ubers departing from the airport.
I found a quoted $80 Uber home (15 miles) quickly dropped to ~$30 after I took an airport tram to a parking lot outside the main airport area.
(a) Check Lyft to gauge what demand actually is.
(b) Leave the terminal; walk or catch a rental car/hotel shuttle, and see what the price is for a “non-airport pickup”
(c) See if the taxis have aflat-rate to downtown, and then check Uber prices from there or public transit.
I’m grateful that I don’t need them so much as well despite getting emails to use their services. Only during travel is when I use them and part of that is their rates are ridiculous. This is why I question tipping them on top of that.
Prices have been very unpredictable. I live 10 miles from DFW and have seen quotes from $25 to $75 for the same ride and same time. I check both Uber and Lyft and see which one has the best rate/time. Sometimes I end up taking a taxi home as it costs $35-$40 and does not have surge pricing
Yeah – that is what surprised me so much. It feels like at least in my use case, it only is going to make sense if I can count on a price in a particular range. If I know that it might be “surge pricing” and double what I’m expecting, I’m going to make other plans.
I noticed the very same thing a few months ago and have learned that when I want to price a ride, I do so on the app and then immediately log out if I’m not actually ready to order. I noticed that the price TRIPLES at the least if I leave my info up and simply close the app. They track where you want to go and label it “prime time” or whatever other B. S when you leave your info up. Another way to do it if you don’t want to go through all that is to price your ride on the website and then actually book it on the app.
Drivers don’t make that extra money. We are not getting 40% of most of our trips. I went to driving part time because of this
Right – I tried to reference that in the post. I understand that drivers need to make enough money so it’s worth it to them, but I personally am not willing to pay that much for Uber rides, so I will make other plans. Having said that, I also personally do not believe that driving for Uber / Lyft / Doordash / etc. should be anyone’s full-time career as I don’t believe that is a sustainable full-time job
Take a regular local taxi, the price is always the same and you support the locals
How about give you a ride for free? But first tell your mom pay my bills and gas and car service and feed my kids!