There are situations when a car would be handy to take you home. You are abroad without a car, or you don’t even have a car, it’s night and you don’t want to take the risk using the public transport. Of course there are the taxi companies, but they charge you with a crazy amount of money…I don’t even talk about being a foreigner, because then you might be tricked with double, triple of the normal price.
There is a cheaper option, and this is Uber! I met this app in Los Angeles, we were about leaving a club at 2 am, and a car showed up and took us home, even stopped at a burger place to get some takeaway food. What a nice driver was! In the United States it’s a really famous application, and you can use it in almost every city.
Here is some q&a, and some useful tips about Uber! It’s gonna be super easy to travel in a cheap way around the big cities!
What is Uber?
Your personal driver! But basically normal people with their car circling around the city waiting for a car request as a part/full time job.
What do you need?
A smart phone, internet and a credit/debit card, because Uber works with only cards, no cash.
How to start?
Download the app on your phone, and then sign up to it, activate your card! In every country it’s a different method, in the USA i needed to give only my card datas. If you register now, you get some free credit for your first ride, just give this promotion code: r8ett.
In this case i’ll get some free credit as well. Later you can give your code to your friends, and get 1-2 free rides, so let’s get this good karma flowing :).
How you can request a ride?
You launch the app, and then you give your current location. Tip: Check your correct address, because the navigation of the app isn’t correct always, and then you can run to get to the given address on the map.
If you have the correct place, you can request a car. As soon somebody is coming for you, you’ll get a notification with the driver’s picture, license plate number and the type of the car, then you can follow his/her route on the way to you. Give the destination’s address in the app and then get in the car, enjoy the ride.
How much does it cost?
In case you want to know the estimated price of your future route, it’s really easy to check. Type the address of the starting point, confirm it, and then push the Fare Estimate button, right over on your card’s logo, then you’ll get the estimated amount.
In the end of your journey the exact amount will appear, that they took from your card, and you can rate your driver.
Why I like Uber?
- It’s cheaper than the taxi
- From door to door service
- It’s fast, sometimes you just wait 2-3 minutes
- I don’t need to interact with the dispatcher of the cab company
- I can follow the route of the driver
- No cheat, the system calculates the price
- It’s safe
- When you sign up once, you can use the app wherever it’s available on the world
- In many cars you can find a bottle of water just for you, nice touch
Watch out!
When you request a car, always double check which type you choose, UberX is the standard, cheaper option, Black car and the upper categories are much more expensive, because those cars are more high standard, sometimes they are limousines. In Paris you can find the Uber Pool option, which means, you gonna share your ride with someone, who goes to the same area than you. It’s cheaper with a negative side, that your route will be longer, but it’s also a good opportunity to get to know more people.
Uber introduced some new security options. From now on you can see the license plate number of the car. Tip: Before you get into the car, send this datas to one of your friend, family member, just to make sure, everything is going to be alright.
Always have money on your card, otherwise you can’t use the app!
Where I’ve used Uber already?
In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Barcelona, Budapest, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Manchester so far.
One time i got to the airport with it at 3 am 🙂
I hope it was a useful post, this app helped me a lot. I guess there are some times when you should’t think about save those couple of dollars, but arrive home safely for sure. I did one time, that i ordered a Uber to my sister who was in town at night, so you can work with it too. Maybe good option for parent? Then you can “follow” your child until home 🙂
Take care of yourself Guys! And don’t hesitate to ask question in case of wondering!
