I was kind of curious because I’ve often felt the same about cheap Uber/Lyft rides. So I checked. I initially signed up with Lyft sometime in late 2015. The first airport ride I got from my house in Austin was in December of that year and they billed me $38 base fare and $1.50 airport surcharge. This was before tipping was available in the app as well.
I just took Lyft again to the airport earlier this month same location and I was billed $49 USD, and a $1.30 “Texas Surcharge”.
An inflation calculator says that $38 usd in 2015 is equivalent to $49 in 2023. Color me surprised. I thought the prices had significantly increased since I signed up but it looks like actually no they didn’t.
Trawling back through those old emails I do see constant “50% off all weekday rides” offers from the time I signed up until about March 2016, at which point they stopped. So there were some subsidized incentives when they were early in Austin but it looks like they stopped sometime in early 2016. So if the money train existed, it happened before that, at least in Austin.
I just took Lyft again to the airport earlier this month same location and I was billed $49 USD, and a $1.30 “Texas Surcharge”.
An inflation calculator says that $38 usd in 2015 is equivalent to $49 in 2023. Color me surprised. I thought the prices had significantly increased since I signed up but it looks like actually no they didn’t.
Trawling back through those old emails I do see constant “50% off all weekday rides” offers from the time I signed up until about March 2016, at which point they stopped. So there were some subsidized incentives when they were early in Austin but it looks like they stopped sometime in early 2016. So if the money train existed, it happened before that, at least in Austin.