UberPool and Luggage

Old Nov 15, 2015, 2:23 pm
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UberPool and Luggage

I've used UberPool a couple of times and so far it's been fine. Does anyone have experience with using UberPool to or from the airport and having luggage? Sometimes my luggage takes up most of the trunk - if the matched up passenger has luggage too, it might not all fit.
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Old Nov 15, 2015, 4:01 pm
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I guess that's up to the driver. If I were the driver, I would split the trunk space 50/50 and whoever has more than their allotted space gets to sit with it on your lap.

Not sure using Pool is the smartest idea from an airport when you have a goodly amount of luggage.
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 12:40 pm
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Use Uber X if you're in a hurry. You're almost guaranteed to find another passenger on the way to the airport
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 1:42 pm
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I once was 30 seconds away from missing a flight due to a terrible UberPool experience. Don't ever take it *to* the airport. (The driver drove me around for an hour in rush hour traffic in San Francisco, looking for the match. I was about an hour late to the airport.)
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Old Nov 16, 2015, 1:50 pm
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The Uber FAQ says you can bring luggage on UberPool rides but should leave enough room for another passenger.

So if your luggage is likely to fill the whole trunk, taking UberPool isn't a great idea. But if you have just one or two bags, then it's probably fine.
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Old Nov 17, 2015, 3:44 am
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Originally Posted by themicah
The Uber FAQ says you can bring luggage on UberPool rides but should leave enough room for another passenger.

So if your luggage is likely to fill the whole trunk, taking UberPool isn't a great idea. But if you have just one or two bags, then it's probably fine.
I think so too!
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Old Nov 17, 2015, 4:06 pm
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Originally Posted by SeoxyS
I once was 30 seconds away from missing a flight due to a terrible UberPool experience. Don't ever take it *to* the airport. (The driver drove me around for an hour in rush hour traffic in San Francisco, looking for the match. I was about an hour late to the airport.)
Are you saying the Uber driver got lost on the way to finding the other passenger(s)? Because that's not the issue of uberPOOL. That's just a bad driver.
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Old Nov 17, 2015, 6:09 pm
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No, there was traffic, the passenger wasn't where he said it'd be. Just going one block in that traffic takes 15min. It's Uber's fault for poorly matching me with someone out of the way (1hr out of the way with traffic) when I was picking up from right next to the freeway and 15min away from the airport.
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Old Nov 18, 2015, 12:43 pm
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Originally Posted by SeoxyS
No, there was traffic, the passenger wasn't where he said it'd be. Just going one block in that traffic takes 15min. It's Uber's fault for poorly matching me with someone out of the way (1hr out of the way with traffic) when I was picking up from right next to the freeway and 15min away from the airport.
At least UberPool quotes a fixed fare at booking now. When it first launched in NYC, it was just a variable %-off discount (often as little as 20-25% off the regular UberX fare) but if you were the first to pick up and/or last to drop off they would charge you the extra time/distance charges required for fetching/dropping the other pax.

The first time UberPool matched me with another pax it more than doubled my typical travel time and cost $5 more than the average UberX fare I've seen on that route. We had to double back and wait for the other passenger to come out of his building, and had to take all local streets rather than the highway to drop him off.
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Old Nov 21, 2015, 1:25 am
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Originally Posted by themicah
At least UberPool quotes a fixed fare at booking now. When it first launched in NYC, it was just a variable %-off discount (often as little as 20-25% off the regular UberX fare) but if you were the first to pick up and/or last to drop off they would charge you the extra time/distance charges required for fetching/dropping the other pax.

The first time UberPool matched me with another pax it more than doubled my typical travel time and cost $5 more than the average UberX fare I've seen on that route. We had to double back and wait for the other passenger to come out of his building, and had to take all local streets rather than the highway to drop him off.
I'm not sure if UberPool works differently in NYC than it does here in Boston, but in Boston, Uber calculates the route, and charges a flat rate determined by the distance. It's usually a savings of about 2 bucks so I usually forgo it and get an UberX instead.
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Old Nov 23, 2015, 8:28 am
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Originally Posted by diburning
I'm not sure if UberPool works differently in NYC than it does here in Boston, but in Boston, Uber calculates the route, and charges a flat rate determined by the distance. It's usually a savings of about 2 bucks so I usually forgo it and get an UberX instead.
In NYC it's now a flat rate as well, and it's usually 20-25% cheaper than the regular UberX rate. But when it first launched in NYC, it was just a % discount and they calculated the actual time/mileage charges, which was idiotic.
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Old Nov 25, 2015, 7:33 pm
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Don't take it to the airport unless you have hours to spare. The second passenger can take the driver in the wrong direction (away from the airport) as well as require them pick up, and drop off, more than one passenger along the route to the airport. All of that headache to save a few bucks over UberX is not worth it.
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Old Nov 25, 2015, 10:53 pm
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Originally Posted by Dunbar
Don't take it to the airport unless you have hours to spare. The second passenger can take the driver in the wrong direction (away from the airport) as well as require them pick up, and drop off, more than one passenger along the route to the airport. All of that headache to save a few bucks over UberX is not worth it.
That might be true to LAX, but downtown DC to DCA is pretty close (like 10-15 minutes) and even a couple of stops in DC wouldn't add too much time.

(Though I definitely agree that I wouldn't try it when I was running short on time.)
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Old Jan 24, 2017, 11:16 am
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Looking at an Uber X vs pool from Manhattan to LGA today, the difference is $17.56 vs $36.56, so the "just a couple bucks more" comment certainly doesn't apply in NYC.
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Old Jan 25, 2017, 9:23 am
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Pool in my area seems pretty well programmed not to go very far off-route. My SFO experiences have been good. (Once I had a DL employee deciding to pick up a ride on the way to work, and he was thrilled to find out that ride 1 was taking him right to work.)

I would not suggest pool unless (1) having some spare time, and (2) you have nothing more than a carry-on roller.
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