uber

Tag Archives for uber.

Why Uber Is Great And Airbnb Is Awful

by Gary Leff on June 12, 2022

person holding phone near steering wheel

Jun 12 2022

It’s easy to forget how awful taxis were when Uber burst onto the scene. You couldn’t request cars by app, you couldn’t see where they were or know when they’d arrive, and you couldn’t track your rides. Cabs were usually in terrible condition (with regulated prices and limited numbers of cabs, it made no sense to invest in the product because doing so didn’t help a business earn more). And you had the whole payment process thing at the end of the ride rather than just getting out of the car.

4620 American Airlines Elite Status And Redeemable Miles For Using Uber

by Gary Leff on April 23, 2022

Apr 23 2022

At the start of April I wrote about an offer to earn 465 American AAdvantage miles – and elite status miles – per Uber trip up to 4 times via SimplyMiles. That’s 1,860 elite status miles for taking Uber and charging the trip to a Mastercard registered on the SimplyMiles site by May 31, 2022.

I now see that I have two other Uber offers as well, which I’ve now activated.

Earn American Airlines Status Credits With Uber

by Gary Leff on April 8, 2022

Apr 08 2022

If you’ll pay for up to 4 Uber charges using a Mastercard you can earn American Airlines redeemable miles and loyalty (elite qualifying) points for the transactions.

Your Uber Driver May Be Using A Fake Account Created With A Stolen Identity

by Gary Leff on March 27, 2022

Mar 27 2022

Federal prosecutors describe a “nationwide scheme that used stolen identities to fool ride-hailing and delivery service companies into hiring unqualified drivers.”

A Trick That May Save You Money On Uber At New York LaGuardia

by Gary Leff on October 5, 2021

Oct 05 2021

A friend had given me a tip that if you wait to request an Uber until you’re actually in the garage where you meet your ride, you’ll often pay $20 less for the same trip. That seemed odd, but I decided to give it a try.

Uber Still Extending Elite Status

by Gary Leff on August 29, 2021

Aug 29 2021

The odd thing is that Uber hasn’t told me they’ve extended my status. It’s a great opportunity to capture loyalty with members but the program doesn’t bother to communicate. Which is just another sign that Uber has largely given up and is almost indifferent to its loyalty program. They know they have good customers they want to keep, but they’ve consistently devalued the elite program which was only modestly rewarding to start with.

Uber Visa Being Discontinued, Shows How Uber Gave Up On Its Vision Of World Domination

by Gary Leff on August 10, 2021

Aug 10 2021

The Uber credit card was supposed to be the centerpiece of Uber’s strategy to build its own currency, Uber credits, which would become ubiquitous as a payment system not just for Uber products but outside of the Uber ecosystem. The primary way these credits would be generated would be through the co-brand credit card, and they’d hopefully become spendable everywhere at retail.

Just as the refresh was reaching the finish line, Uber laid off a large portion of its marketing staff, including people responsible for the card.

Uber Was Once The Underdog, Now They Use Regulators To Quash Competition

by Gary Leff on July 1, 2021

Jul 01 2021

New Yorkers thought that when the city capped the number of licenses for for-hire vehicles ‘to prevent traffic congestion’ they were regulating Uber. The truth is they were doing Uber’s bidding by handing the ridesharing giant a tool to keep out competitors.

In New York there are a limited number of licenses, and those are busy working for Uber. New competitors have a hard time entering the market. Startup Revel thought they found a loophole that would allow them to compete against Uber in New York. But they were shut down by regulators in a bizarre process.

Uber Now Lets You Rent Cars, And Will Soon Deliver Them

by Gary Leff on April 29, 2021

Apr 29 2021

When Uber started letting you order food and eat it at the restaurant it seemed like something out of The Onion. But they saw themselves as a platform for food, and an opportunity (they thought) to monetize eyeballs.

Now they’re introducing a new service that should make Uber’s drivers furious: encouraging customers to book rental cars in the app as a substitute for ride-sharing.

Uber Visa Not Currently Available To New Customers

by Gary Leff on June 14, 2020

Jun 14 2020

The Uber Visa is no longer mentioned in the Uber app and the application has been removed from the Barclays website. If you go to the Barclays page for current Uber Visa cardmembers and choose ‘not a current cardmember’ you’re taken to a page’s expired,

Here’s the deal.