Uber ticketing

[sot]

I recall when the Uber train ticketing feature started and there was debate as to whether it was fit for purpose and how it passed acceditation.

Does anyone know what system it relies on as I have seen some definite errors on there recently, I have not seen errors (of this type) on any of the other major ticketing platforms, I think they are parsing some of the fares data wrong to try and cut corners.

Has anyone ever been able to buy tickets such as super off peak on there with ease? I always seem to get the absolute max prices showing up (anytimes).

 

[Adam Williams]

I thought it was Omio (who themselves use Assertis).

 

[Mike395]

It is indeed Omio-powered (though didn’t realise they in turn used Assertis)

 

[Adam Williams]

It'll happily sell me a ToD ticket from a station without ToD collection facilities, without any sort of warning.

Really quite poor. How long has it been live for now?

 

[alistairlees]

I recall when the Uber train ticketing feature started and there was debate as to whether it was fit for purpose and how it passed acceditation.

Does anyone know what system it relies on as I have seen some definite errors on there recently, I have not seen errors (of this type) on any of the other major ticketing platforms, I think they are parsing some of the fares data wrong to try and cut corners.

Has anyone ever been able to buy tickets such as super off peak on there with ease? I always seem to get the absolute max prices showing up (anytimes).

If there is a specific issue, please let us know and we'll investigate it and fix it.

 

[Adam Williams]

Anyone know where I can find the power sockets on my next 165?

 

[Edvid]

Has anyone ever been able to buy tickets such as super off peak on there with ease? I always seem to get the absolute max prices showing up (anytimes).

I've purchased most of my rail tickets (typically super off-peak day travelcards - the weekend-only version, with Network Railcard) with relative ease there since I learned of their 10% credit rebate. IMX anytime fares tend to appear more often if you don't pick a specific time.

 

[Trainguy34]

Anyone know where I can find the power sockets on my next 165?

They have WiFi?!

 

[Pemberton]

Yes, 10% back in Uber Credits and until 5th November Tesco giftcards have 15% off Uber gift vouchers e.g. get a £30 Uber giftcard for £25.50, saving £4.50, then spend the £30 Uber giftcard on train tickets through Uber and get a further £3 in Uber credit, 25% saving in total.

 

[sot]

I've purchased most of my rail tickets (typically super off-peak day travelcards - the weekend-only version, with Network Railcard) with relative ease there since I learned of their 10% credit rebate. IMX anytime fares tend to appear more often if you don't pick a specific time.

I suppose my choice of ticket that requires me to drill down into the slower or alternate routes on Trainline is too much for Omio/Uber to handle. A shame really for maximal discounting and money saving.

OT: found out that with the browser.langauge set wrong or to English US this setting link doesn't appear on Trainline either

 

[DeverseSam]

Yes, 10% back in Uber Credits and until 5th November Tesco giftcards have 15% off Uber gift vouchers e.g. get a £30 Uber giftcard for £25.50, saving £4.50, then spend the £30 Uber giftcard on train tickets through Uber and get a further £3 in Uber credit, 25% saving in total.

£33.33 of tickets for £25.50, is 23.5% saving but still impressive

 

[James H]

If you bought a £10 ticket from the Uber app, you'd only need to spend £8.50 up front to get £10 in gift cards, and you'd then get a further £1 back as a rebate in Uber credit.

That's a net outlay of £7.50 for a £10 ticket, representing a 25 per cent saving.

 

[Haywain]

until 5th November Tesco giftcards have 15% off Uber gift vouchers e.g. get a £30 Uber giftcard for £25.50, saving £4.50,

The giftcards can only be purchased in units of £15, you have to add one at a time, and a maximum of 3 per transaction.

 

[James H]

I bought £100 as a single unit when the promotion began.

 

[Bletchleyite]

A useful side on this - it'll let you select ToD for any ticket - most apps won't. Fairly niche to want this, but people buying walk-up paper tickets from planner based TVMs who want to avoid use of the clunky user interface on said TVMs might benefit - buy it on your phone and immediately collect.

 

[SargeNpton]

A useful side on this - it'll let you select ToD for any ticket - most apps won't. Fairly niche to want this, but people buying walk-up paper tickets from planner based TVMs who want to avoid use of the clunky user interface on said TVMs might benefit - buy it on your phone and immediately collect.

If it's allowing ToD on all tickets is it ignoring the RCS data? If so, is it in breach of the TIS accreditation rules?

 

[OscarH]

A useful side on this - it'll let you select ToD for any ticket - most apps won't. Fairly niche to want this, but people buying walk-up paper tickets from planner based TVMs who want to avoid use of the clunky user interface on said TVMs might benefit - buy it on your phone and immediately collect.

Which apps actually completely prevent you picking ToD (ignoring eTicket only ticket types as mentioned by SargeNpton)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Which apps actually completely prevent you picking ToD (ignoring eTicket only ticket types as mentioned by SargeNpton)

The LNR app (and presumably other Trainline white labels) doesn't allow selection of a paper ticket if an e-ticket is available for the requested journey.

If it's allowing ToD on all tickets is it ignoring the RCS data? If so, is it in breach of the TIS accreditation rules?

I don't know - I more meant it didn't block paper if e-ticket was an option as some do.

 

[Adam Williams]

If it's allowing ToD on all tickets is it ignoring the RCS data? If so, is it in breach of the TIS accreditation rules?

There's no evidence it ignores RCS, attempting to buy an E-Ticket-only ticket as ToD is prevented (note that it does show the option):

 

[MrJeeves]

it'll let you select ToD for any ticket - most apps won't.

I see you're not a fan of the TrainSplit app!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I see you're not a fan of the TrainSplit app!

I use Trainsplit on the computer for advance bookings, but no, I don't think the app is very good.

Does that allow selection of ToD? I didn't think it did.

 

[Adam Williams]

I use Trainsplit on the computer for advance bookings, but no, I don't think the app is very good.

Does that allow selection of ToD? I didn't think it did.

It does indeed allow selecting ToD - but (and with no disrespect to the engineers who've inherited the job of maintaining and overhauling the code from the agency that originally wrote it) I agree with you that the app misses the mark in quite a few areas.

It's improved quite a bit recently - try planning a journey on Android today vs a few months ago - but there's still more to do to overhaul it and make it fit-for-purpose. It won't missell you tickets but I wouldn't describe booking them as a completely enjoyable experience yet.

This is perhaps straying slightly off-topic though!

 

[RAPC]

For those of you using the app, you'll start to notice quite a lot of your transactional and journey data may start to be utilised elsewhere. Uber set up a UK advertising team at the start of the year and have now built up some critical mass. There are some rather creative uses of the data that are being bought by agencies for advertising campaigns.

 

[TUC]

For those of you using the app, you'll start to notice quite a lot of your transactional and journey data may start to be utilised elsewhere. Uber set up a UK advertising team at the start of the year and have now built up some critical mass. There are some rather creative uses of the data that are being bought by agencies for advertising campaigns.

That's OK. Always happy to receive offers that are actually useful to myself and my interests rather than random ones.

 

[BlueLeanie]

For those of you using the app, you'll start to notice quite a lot of your transactional and journey data may start to be utilised elsewhere. Uber set up a UK advertising team at the start of the year and have now built up some critical mass. There are some rather creative uses of the data that are being bought by agencies for advertising campaigns.

Along with all the other cashback, I'm currently getting 500 BA Avios for every rail journey booked on the Uber App. There's a max of 5,000 Avios per user.

So at the moment, their advertising team's chat GPT will probably be writing a paper on why someone in Bucks is regularly making one way journeys between stations miles away.

 

[MrJeeves]

writing a paper on why someone in Bucks is regularly making one way journeys between stations miles away.

Some kid really enjoys the journey between Lichfield TV and Lichfield City...

 

[SargeNpton]

Some kid really enjoys the journey between Lichfield TV and Lichfield City...

Enjoying the rail-replacement bus at the moment.

 

[MrJeeves]

Along with all the other cashback, I'm currently getting 500 BA Avios for every rail journey booked on the Uber App. There's a max of 5,000 Avios per user.

So at the moment, their advertising team's chat GPT will probably be writing a paper on why someone in Bucks is regularly making one way journeys between stations miles away.

FWIW, I got a slightly different offer.

With Uber, every business trip, safe travel home or drive to the airport means more Avios. And until 30 November 2023, you can speed up the journey to your dream destination.

Each time you take an Uber Reserve, Exec, Lux, or Uber Travel trip, you’ll collect 1,000 bonus Avios. [1]

You’ll also get 500 bonus Avios for any other Uber ride you take over the next 4 weeks. That means up to 6,000 bonus Avios, from as little as 6 Uber rides, are up for grabs this month. [1]

With this in the fine print:

1 This offer is open to users that are 18 or over, and who have an active British Airways Executive Club (“BAEC”) and a valid Uber account. In order to participate in this offer and collect 1,000 bonus Avios for each eligible ride with Uber Reserve, Uber Travel (including coach, rail and Eurostar, but excluding flights and car hire) or premium Uber Trip (Exec or Lux) in the next 4 weeks and 500 bonus Avios for all other ride types in the next 4 weeks, customers must: 1) receive this offer from BAEC directly 2) have successfully linked their BAEC and Uber accounts, and 3) take an Uber Trip between 1 November 2023 00:01 and 30 November 2023 at 23:59. Only one Uber account can be linked to one BAEC account and the account holder for each account must be the same individual. This offer is non-transferable.

1 The 500 or 1,000 bonus Avios available to be awarded as part of this offer can only be applied to a BAEC account once, and the maximum amount which can be awarded per individual as part of this offer is 6,000 bonus Avios. This offer is valid for booking any Uber trip in mainland UK and Northern Ireland. Eligible Uber Ride categories for 500 Avios are UberX, UberXL, Uber Assist, Uber Access, Uber Comfort, Uber Pet, Uber Green. Eligible Uber Ride categories for 1000 Avios are Uber Reserve, Uber Travel (including coach, rail, and Eurostar) and premium Uber (Exec or Lux) trips. UberX, Uber Green, UberXL, Uber Pet and Uber Comfort trips are eligible for 1000 bonus Avios for this offer when booked using Uber Reserve. Retrospective claims for Avios are not permitted. If the eligibility criteria has been met, the standard Avios will be awarded up to 24 hours after the trip has been taken and bonus Avios will be awarded up to 30 days after the promotional period has ended. For more information about the British Airways Executive Club partnership, see here.

I assume that it should be "1" and "2" rather than "1" and "1"...

I also don't understand how it's "The 500 or 1,000 bonus Avios available to be awarded as part of this offer can only be applied to a BAEC account once" yet also a maximum of 6000 per individual?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I also don't understand how it's "The 500 or 1,000 bonus Avios available to be awarded as part of this offer can only be applied to a BAEC account once" yet also a maximum of 6000 per individual?

I read it as meaning each individual bonus can only be applied once.

 

[MrJeeves]

I read it as meaning each individual bonus can only be applied once.

As in 1000 for my first eligible journey, in addition to 500 for each eligible journey?

That doesn't really explain the "That means up to 6,000 bonus Avios, from as little as 6 Uber rides, are up for grabs this month." which would imply 1000 bonus for each journey up to a maximum of 6000.