This post is being written by AJ, our first Jeffsetter correspondent. This is AJ’s first post – hopefully the first of many!
Patience is a virtue, and Uber is proving this point. I am an avid user of Uber, since it first arrived in DC. As an avid user, I am familiar with the infamous (or famous, which ever you prefer) surge pricing. Recently, I noticed a way to avoid paying surge pricing. No, it is not taking Lyft or a cab, but it does take a little bit of patience.
During peak times, Uber users may see this notification screen appear when requesting a ride:
But, have you ever looked closely at this notification? I tend to blindly accept the higher fare, unless it’s one of those rare 7.3x the normal fare surges. Have you ever clicked the “Notify me if surges ends” button? Typically, I miss the notification because of my phone settings. Other times, I just take a cab because I don’t want to wait thirty minutes. However, my Luddite phone knowledge and Uber losing business are not the point of this post.
The point is the fine print. The what? Didn’t you see it on the notification screen shot? The tiny words below the two buttons…..Allow me… “Enhance (click,click,click) Enhance (click,click,click)” – 10 pride points if you can name the movie.
See it now? “This rate expires in 2 min”
Wait what? I wait just two minutes, and I don’t have to pay the surge pricing?! I can wait two minutes.
In this example, I waited two minutes, and no more surge pricing for my ride. “By the power of Greyskull,” it worked! (10 more pride points, if you can name this movie. No, the movie is not He-man. Come on, that would be too easy.)
I have done this several times now, and each time the 2 min warning has worked. This is über amazing!
The rate expiration seems to be personalized. In other words, the surge overall surge continued for other riders. In this example, my friend requested an Uber at the end of my 2 minute warning. My friend still received the notice for surge pricing of 1.3x, even though the surge pricing had expired for me.
Caveat: The wait may depend on the size of the surge, i.e., a longer wait time for higher surges. My surge pricing was in the 1.3x-2.1x range when I tested this hack, observation.
Any different experiences from readers?
Summary of post:
- One observation to save you money (if you have a little bit of patience);
- A possible 20 pride points; and
- One awkward pun.
Welcome to the blog, AJ!
P.S. If you still have not signed up for uber, feel free to use our referral link so we both get a free ride: uberjeffsetter
I know this might be trivial, but I absolutely hate the term ‘hacking’. It makes no sense. Hacking is to gain access to something you aren’t supposed to.
THANK YOU. I opened this article expecting an interesting insight into the unknown. What a colossal waste of time.
As for your “hack,” the rate may expire in 2 minutes but there’s no guarantee that the surge will go down. More often than not for me, the surge rate will often go up.
Couldn’t you argue that getting access to regular pricing is a hack then?
Also, your definition is not the actual definition of hacking, just an impression. I view a hacker as someone who is trying to exploit the weakness in the system. AJ poses the question of whether just by waiting 2 minutes you are exploiting a weakness in Uber’s system. It’s a fair question. From my experience, I actually agree with waiting 2 minutes saving me from surge prices on many occasions.
It doesn’t really work like this; you just got lucky. After the 2 minutes, they just recalculate the fare. Yours luckily went down. I live in DC and do this all the time as well as in Miami a week ago. After the two minutes, it’s just as likely to go up and sometimes by a lot. It’s a complete gamble either way.
Good to know. My experience in San Francisco has been that hitting the 2 minute button will often revert you back to non-surge pricing. Nearly every time. I also happen to live next door to their corporate HQ, so it might be just a proximity thing for employees to beat the system :).
Surely they are experimenting with user behavior to see what they can get away with and optimize revenue per request. Standard fares after 2 minutes are still better than no fare at all.
As Aaron mentioned, you just got very lucky. I’ve checked back many, many times after 2 minutes and the rate has often been higher…again, it only “expires” after 2 minutes because they recalculate the pricing based on their algorithm, not automatically back to normal pricing. And of course your friends will have different experiences, it’s location specific. I gotta say, as Tyler said, this is definitely not a hack of any kind, travel or otherwise. Sorry to be critical, but this is so basic it hurts. Enjoy most of your other posts though!