Uber Rewards Program Expansion — What Are The Benefits?

Uber Rewards Program Expansion — What Are The Benefits?

You may have received a notification that you are eligible for Uber’s new rewards program if you’re located in a city that it was rolled out to yesterday.  I received a push notification (live in the Washington D.C.area) last night telling me I was eligible, and I signed up.  At sign up, they gave me gold status under the new program through July 21, 2019.  The sign-up said the status was granted based on my past rides and Uber Eats orders over the last six months.  So what are the details for the program?

Award Tiers

There are four award tiers for the program: blue, gold, platinum, and diamond.  You receive 1 point per dollar spent on UberPool, Express Pool, and Uber Eats.  You get 2 points per dollar spent for UberX, Uber XL, and Uber Select.  Finally, you get 3 points per dollar spent on Uber Black and Black SUV.  Those points accrued go towards the level of status.  Here is a list of points required to obtain each tier:

Blue: 0 points

Gold: 500 points

Platinum:  2,500 points

Diamond:  7,500 points

Every 500 points, you earn $5 in Uber Cash.  My husband and I both received $5 in Uber Cash starting out once we enrolled, so basically $5 out of the gate to use towards our Uber rides.  Once you’ve enrolled, you’ll see your status level at the bottom of the app and the amount you have in Uber Cash available.

It’s now available in Boston, Dallas, Orange County, Houston, New Orleans, Kansas City, Indianapolis, LA, SF, Fort Collins, Rockies, Pittsburgh, Lehigh Valley, Gettysburg, Erie and Western Massachusetts. That’s on top of the launch cities of Miami, Denver, Tampa, New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego and anywhere in New Jersey

Tier Benefits

Here’s a chart of the benefits by tier.  Keep in mind, depending on your spending over the last six months, you may already be put into one of the tiers upon signing up.

The platinum level seems more geared towards business travelers.  It would be a lot to get 7,500 points during a time period to actually meet that status level without traveling on business or for those who may give up car ownership to rely on ride sharing instead.  Tech Crunch calculated the requirements to get to that tier would be UberX 8 times per week, Uber Eats once per week and Uber Black to the airport once per month.

Is it worth it?

It’s definitely worth it since it’s free to join.  I think the intention here might be to try and keep people in the app and going with Uber over choosing other ride sharing companies.  Lyft said they’d be starting a rewards program too, back in November.   But information on that has not been forthcoming.  This is probably an attempt for Uber to keep people in the app and use their service even if other services may be a little cheaper.  I’m not certain if there was a significant price difference it would be enough for me to use Uber over Lyft, but perhaps a couple dollar difference would keep me using Uber over another competitor since I’d be earning points.

How do you join?

You can join the waitlist by visiting the Uber Rewards website if you live in a city where it is not already available.  Otherwise, login to the app and you will see a notification to sign up for the rewards program.