Tokyo’s subway is offering vouchers for free soba noodles and tempura to passengers who consistently travel at off peak times.
The Tozai line, which regularly runs at double its capacity between 7:50 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. — over 75,000 people in that hour — is running a promotion through February 1 where commuters who show up ahead of this peak period for 10 straight days get vouchers they can redeem for noodles and for tempura at local restaurants.
Passengers just have to register their metro cards for the promotion and use those cards to pass through their station’s gates before the cut-off.
- If 2000 people signed up everyone got tempura
- If 2500 signed up everyone got soba noodles
- If 3000 registered then it was tempura and noodles
Shinjuku Station, Tokyo
On Tuesday 7000 people participated, responding to the slogan “Let’s get buckwheat noodles together!”
みんなでおそばをゲットしよう！時差Biz期間中、東西線早起きキャンペーンに6,886人（1月22日現在）のお客様に、継続的にご参加いただいています！現在のところ、時差Biz期間全日ご参加いただいたお客様に、めとろ庵で使用できる「かきあげそば引換券」をプレゼント！明日もキャンペーンに参加しよう！ pic.twitter.com/dAIZiwih00
— 東京メトロ【公式】 (@tokyometro_info) January 23, 2019
Let’s get soba by everyone! During the time difference Biz period, customers of 6,886 people (as of January 22) in the Tozai Line early rising campaign have been continuously participating! Currently, customers who participate in the time difference Biz period all day gifts “Kakiage soba exchange tickets” that can be used at Megoroan! Join the campaign tomorrow!
Apparently they have offered “bottles of Coke, cups of coffee and bowls of soup” in the past. The incentive is likely worth only around $5 this time, suggesting it doesn’t take much to move the needle.
Priceline founder Jay Walker started Upside Travel a couple of years ago under the original premise that it would be fairly easy to monetize consumer flexibility, and was offering hundreds of dollars in gift cards to business travelers who would choose less expensive trips. Perhaps they really just needed to offer noodles?
In this case it helps that 1000 employers offered additional flexibility around when to show up for work. However the principle still is applicable fairly broadly. Airlines are just now catching on, offering low dollar compensation and sometimes no compensation at all reaching out to passengers on overbooked flights in advance to get them to travel at less congested times rather than paying out huge sums in denied boarding compensation.
Don’t like surge pricing? Commit to an Uber when pricing drops and get a free UberEATS Starbucks delivery! Though I’d prefer ramen myself.
