point fu

During our month in Mexico City, I refilled my Uber Cash balance several times. Now that I'm back in the states, my Uber Cash balance has two entries: one for US Dollars, and one for Mexican Pesos. For the life of me I cannot seem to make Uber spend any of those Pesos for trips here in NYC. I just finished speaking with Uber customer service and they confirmed for me that this is, in fact, the expected behavior – the virtual purse of Pesos is accessible only when I'm in Mexico . Given the way that Uber Cash works , it's nearly impossible to ever empty the balance down to zero. So if you travel abroad and use Uber Cash, I guess you'll just eventually accumulate a bunch of virtual foreign currency that Uber will hold on to indefinitely. If you'd like to avoid that situation, select a payment method other than Uber Cash when you pay for trips in other countries.

While I do love me a good Amex Offer as much as the next person, I despise how they rely on "breakage" for so many of their card benefits – i.e., they intentionally erect flaming hoops customers have to jump through with the hope that most people won't be bothered. The Platinum card's Uber benefit is a prime example – a $15 credit (with a one-month expiration date) is added to your account at the beginning of each month. Since upgrading to the platinum six-ish months ago, I've had nothing but trouble trying to use this credit. Considering many people only use Uber for expensive rides to the airport, i'd vastly prefer a $90 credit every six months to this ridiculous setup. ( Sidenote: since you can only use this Uber credit for rides in the US, I'd prefer it be a Lyft credit ) UPDATE (25 Oct '18): Ugh, it's worse than I initially thought. Uber required me to "top off" my Uber Cash account with $25 because my estimated ride cost exc...

Uber and Amex launched a holiday promotion where cardholders can get a free trip (up to $65) from select airports during the holidays. Enter the code AMEXAIRPORT into your app (and make sure the app is set to pay with your Amex card) to claim your free trip. The promotion ends December 31st. UPDATE: I used Uber to get home from JFK last night and the discount posted instantly!  If you don't have Uber yet, you can use my signup code ( uberbriankusler ) for even more free rides. Many airports now permit Uber and Lyft to pick you up from the arrivals level Participating airports: LaGuardia Airport (LGA) John F. Kennedy International Airport  (JFK) Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) McCarran International Airport (LAS) George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) Washington Dulles...

It  recently became legal for Uber and Lyft to do pickups at LAX. The big thing to know is that you go upstairs from baggage claim to the departures level and stand at one of the designated pickup points . The points are lettered (A, B, C...) and the drivers are all sitting at a nearby lot waiting to be summoned to the specific pickup point their fare is waiting at.  My driver explained that the driver app is aware when they enter the waiting lot and they're all put into a digital queue system. If they don't reach the head of the queue in 30 minutes they have to exit the lot and try again. Lyft charges a $4 surcharge for LAX pickups. So does Uber . Make sure you take note of your driver's car type and license plate number — it can be quite busy and it'll help make sure you don't get into the wrong car and generally keep things orderly.  This is a nice change from Newark's recent decision to ban the services from both the airport and its train station...

UPDATE (Jan '17): the ban has been lifted and the lawsuit challenging the lifting of the ban has failed.  As a Manhattanite, I hate Newark Airport (EWR). If I take a car I have to crawl through Soho to the tunnel, which can literally take hours if you're flying anywhere near rush hour. Or I schlep my bags to the F train, walk two avenues over to Penn Station (hope it's not raining, snowing, or sweltering hot out!) get on the line for a ticket machine, wait up to 30 minutes for a Newark Airport-bound train, then switch to that verkachte Monorail thing that has a top speed of 7 miles per hour while praying that my terminal isn't at its last stop because it's literally 25 minutes between the first stop and the last stop. And getting back to Manhattan is no picnic, either. Taxi lines are long, there's always some kind of brouhaha between the taxi line manager and several of the cabs, and to top it all off the only way you can pay with a credit card is to pre-p...