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Old Apr 24, 2016, 2:03 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: RichardInSF
Uber recently added functionality to tip in-app after rides are completed.

Your driver will appreciate it.

I'm sure they would -- but what percentage of people (outside of NYC where everyone bribes, uh, tips, for everything) are doing it?
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Old Mar 4, 2019, 9:04 am
  #391  
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The Lyft app likes to play games with the tip amount. Sometimes your choices are $1-$2-$3 and other times it's random amounts. (Not a whole dollar amount and not an obvious set percentage, like 15%-18%-20%)

One time it was random, but the lowest option was over 20%, so I did not tip at all. When it's $1-$2-$3 (or $5, or whatever), I try to hit the one that is 15%-ish or a little more.

I like that Lyft can then send me a ride report with one total amount for all of my rides in a given city. I can then submit 1 receipt on an expense report with a total amount, even if there were 10+ rides. Also helps to show that almost every time, using Lyft for a business trip is cheaper than a rental car.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 4:22 pm
  #392  
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Originally Posted by Soccerdad1995
I recently took my first ever Uber trip. I used Uber Black mainly because I had my SO with me. The ride to the airport cost around $120, which is comparable to a taxi fare for that route.

As it was my first trip, I asked the driver a few questions about Uber and how the payment system worked, etc. He made a point of telling me 3 times that tips are not included in the fare. At the end of the trip I tipped him $20.

From reading on here, it appears that a lot of folks do not tip Uber drivers. I'm not trying to start a philosophical debate and I know that tipping is a personal decision, but I am curious to understand the norm on this as compared to say a traditional taxi. Obviously, this is more relevant in areas (such as the US) where tipping is more common.

Thanks in advance.
I now never tip Uber; I always tip Lyft.

A tip on Uber appears as a separate charge on my credit card receipt. Since I travel for business, it makes expense reporting challenging—it gets flagged. Lyft embeds the tip in a single charge. I seldom use Uber, because of this tipping issue.
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Old Mar 5, 2019, 8:33 pm
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Originally Posted by ContinentalFan


I now never tip Uber; I always tip Lyft.

A tip on Uber appears as a separate charge on my credit card receipt. Since I travel for business, it makes expense reporting challenging—it gets flagged. Lyft embeds the tip in a single charge. I seldom use Uber, because of this tipping issue.
Is there a reason you don’t use the receipt from Uber for your expense report?

Both the emailed and in app receipts show the charge with tip. (Emailed receipt as a total, in app receipt as fare plus tip similar to a restaurant receipt.). My employer actually prefers it as the Uber receipts show “To” / “From” detail.
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Old Mar 6, 2019, 1:45 am
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Originally Posted by Segments


Is there a reason you don’t use the receipt from Uber for your expense report?

Both the emailed and in app receipts show the charge with tip. (Emailed receipt as a total, in app receipt as fare plus tip similar to a restaurant receipt.). My employer actually prefers it as the Uber receipts show “To” / “From” detail.
My company card would automatically pull each charge that is made as a separate line item. Then we have to explain and expense each item.
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Old Mar 6, 2019, 5:22 am
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Originally Posted by RedElmo


My company card would automatically pull each charge that is made as a separate line item. Then we have to explain and expense each item.
Yes, if required to use a company card then that makes sense.
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Old Mar 6, 2019, 10:34 am
  #396  
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Originally Posted by Segments


Is there a reason you don’t use the receipt from Uber for your expense report?

Both the emailed and in app receipts show the charge with tip. (Emailed receipt as a total, in app receipt as fare plus tip similar to a restaurant receipt.). My employer actually prefers it as the Uber receipts show “To” / “From” detail.
I wish Uber had ride reports. (If they do, I can't find them.)

Last week, one business trip, 6 Lyfts and 3 Ubers. 1 Lyft receipt, 3 Uber receipts. The Lyft Ride Report shows all of the To/From info as well.

Our company just matches the total on the receipt to the total on the expense report: they don't know or care how it hits the credit card.
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Old Mar 6, 2019, 11:30 am
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Uber has weekly ride reports if you set up a Business profile. Unfortunately they only send it on Mondays and my expense reports are due EOB Friday.

Uber has no option for when the weekly and monthly reports are sent making them useless (to me).

The business profile option is nice though if you need default payments to be different (corporate card requirements or saving AMEX credits for personal rides).
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Old Mar 7, 2019, 11:58 am
  #398  
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For those of you who do not tip Uber drivers, have you noticed a plummet in your rider rating?
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Old Mar 9, 2019, 6:00 am
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I came to read this thread to see how others tip. I tip $5 for a ride from/ to airport that costs $22-$25. Pay tips in cash. Pay close to 20% on most rides. Use both Uber and Lyft. Many drivers drive for both. Been taking Lyft, lately, because of discount offers.
===
My main complaint is that many airports make it hard to find where to go to get picked up. FLL is hard to know where to go first time AND you always have to wait 5-8 min. for a car. SAN has easy to follow direction signs and car arrives in 2 minutes. (FLL has gotten better w. signage in recent months. Still long wait for car.)
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Old Mar 9, 2019, 6:51 am
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Originally Posted by Points Scrounger
For those of you who do not tip Uber drivers, have you noticed a plummet in your rider rating?
No, not at all.
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Old Mar 9, 2019, 12:22 pm
  #401  
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Originally Posted by snidely
I came to read this thread to see how others tip. I tip $5 for a ride from/ to airport that costs $22-$25. Pay tips in cash. Pay close to 20% on most rides. Use both Uber and Lyft. Many drivers drive for both. Been taking Lyft, lately, because of discount offers.
===
My main complaint is that many airports make it hard to find where to go to get picked up. FLL is hard to know where to go first time AND you always have to wait 5-8 min. for a car. SAN has easy to follow direction signs and car arrives in 2 minutes. (FLL has gotten better w. signage in recent months. Still long wait for car.)
I've only had one trip to FLL in the Uber/Lyft era - a couple months ago - and it was an 11 minute wait for cars. Everybody around me was also waiting a long time.

Yet the fare for a long ride (about halfway to Miami along the coast) seemed crazy cheap. This is a case where I wish the fare was higher and more drivers were available for airport pickups. My fare was like $30 w/tip, a friend going to the same meeting took a cab and paid $80. I know cabs are an outrageous ripoff, but it seems like Lyft/Uber are going too low here. I don't think I had any unusual discounts working beyond the ubiquitous 10% that seems to show up on most of my rides.
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Old Mar 9, 2019, 2:47 pm
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I have 30% right now, and have had 50% in the past, although those have a $6.00 maximum discount.
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Old Mar 10, 2019, 10:49 am
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Originally Posted by pinniped
The Lyft app likes to play games with the tip amount. Sometimes your choices are $1-$2-$3 and other times it's random amounts. (Not a whole dollar amount and not an obvious set percentage, like 15%-18%-20%)

One time it was random, but the lowest option was over 20%, so I did not tip at all. When it's $1-$2-$3 (or $5, or whatever), I try to hit the one that is 15%-ish or a little more.
I haven't noticed any "game playing" at all. What would even be the point of that? I used to get suggestions for 3 different whole dollar amounts, now I get suggestions for three different percentages (clearly labeled both as the absolute dollar amount and the percentage, so it's perfectly clear).

In BOTH cases, I've always had the option to specify the amount I'd like to tip rather than take one of the app's suggestions.
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Old Mar 14, 2019, 9:58 am
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Originally Posted by Points Scrounger
For those of you who do not tip Uber drivers, have you noticed a plummet in your rider rating?
Maybe about a year ago, there were reports of Uber ratings going lower if you didn't obviously tip a driver (in come cases, drivers only rated customers that handed them cash tips). Over the past few months, my Uber rating has stabilized, rising from the high 4.6 range to about 4.75 stars. My tipping behavior hasn't changed - I usually tip, but often a day or two later. It seems like Uber has found a way to limit the ability for drivers to rate customers poorly for their tipping practices.
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Old Mar 14, 2019, 12:27 pm
  #405  
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Originally Posted by WillBarrett_68
I haven't noticed any "game playing" at all. What would even be the point of that? I used to get suggestions for 3 different whole dollar amounts, now I get suggestions for three different percentages (clearly labeled both as the absolute dollar amount and the percentage, so it's perfectly clear).

In BOTH cases, I've always had the option to specify the amount I'd like to tip rather than take one of the app's suggestions.
Mine sometimes shifts back and forth. The "game" being played is that we're being conditioned to accept the fact that tipping is normal, and tipping in increasingly-higher-amount is normal.

What's the point for Lyft? Right now, Uber and Lyft aren't measured by profitability - it's purely a market-share game. So they can use this twofold to capture more share: (1) they always had a head start on Uber in terms of allowing tipping, so that helped them attract drivers. Now, they can continue edging the tipping amounts up and try to remain popular, even though Uber now also has tipping. (2) By conditioning people to the acceptability of tipping, it allows them to post artificially-low upfront rates, increasing market share with riders.

There's probably more to it than that, and the fact that the format is constantly changing makes me almost certain that they're collecting data about behaviors when it's a fixed amount vs. random amount vs. amount that is an exact percentage of the base fare. We're being tested. There are occasions when I don't tip, hoping that's at least one data point to suggest that all three options given to me are too high.

I had hoped that ridesharing would eliminate the third-world scourge of tipping, but that did not happen.
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