✈️ Uber Just Launched Flight Bookings With 10% Cashback - But There's a Catch
Welcome to Smart With Points, the podcast that helps you travel smarter using miles and points. I'm Jack, your host, and I'm here to help you navigate the wonderful world of frequent flyer programmes, credit card rewards, and travel hacking. Today, I've got some interesting news that might change how you book your next holiday - Uber has just launched flight bookings with a pretty generous cashback offer. Now, before you raise an eyebrow and wonder if I've lost the plot, hear me out. Remember when I wrote about booking trains through Uber for the convenience and occasional perks? Well, Uber's just taken things up a notch - they're now in the flight booking game, and they're launching with a pretty compelling offer for Uber One members. As someone who's always looking for ways to stack value on travel bookings, this caught my attention. Let me break down what's on offer and whether it's worth considering for your next trip. So what's the offer? From now until thirty-first December two thousand and twenty-five, Uber One members can earn ten per cent back in Uber Credits when booking flights through the Uber app. The credits land in your account within ten days of your departure date, and you've got sixty days to use them on rides, Uber Eats, or more travel bookings. Here's what makes this interesting beyond the base cashback. First, there's price drop protection for eligible flights. Uber will monitor your flight price for fourteen days after booking. If the price drops by five pounds or more, they'll refund you the difference in Uber Credits - up to thirty pounds. This only applies when their price prediction tool recommends 'buy', but it's a nice safety net for those worried about post-booking price drops. Second, there's a stacking opportunity with Reserve. Book your flight, then pre-book your ride to the airport with Uber Reserve, and you'll get an additional ten per cent back in Uber Credits on that journey too. Now we're talking about double-dipping. Third, there's frequent flyer integration. You can save your frequent flyer memberships in the app and automatically earn points on your bookings. So if you're booking a British Airways flight, for instance, you'd still earn your Avios and tier points whilst getting the ten per cent Uber Credits back. Fourth, there's streamlined booking. Your payment details and passenger information are already saved in the Uber app, making the booking process fairly painless. Now, my take - is this worth it? I'll be honest - I'm cautiously optimistic but not rushing to make this my primary booking method just yet. Here's my thinking. The good points: ten per cent back is genuinely competitive, especially on expensive long-haul flights where you could be looking at fifty to one hundred pounds plus in credits. The price drop protection is a nice touch for peace of mind. If you're an Uber power user like I am for trains, the credits have real value. You're not sacrificing frequent flyer earnings. The caveats: Uber Credits expire in sixty days, so you need to actually use Uber regularly for this to make sense. Credits are in pounds and can't be used in other currencies - relevant if you travel internationally with Uber. You're limited to whatever inventory Uber's travel partner provides - likely not the full market. No word yet on whether prices are consistently competitive with booking direct or through comparison sites. My strategy: I'm going to take a hybrid approach. For short-haul European flights where I might save ten to twenty pounds in credits, I'll probably price-check Uber against the usual suspects - Skyscanner, Google Flights, booking direct. If Uber's within a few quid of the best price, the ten per cent back tilts the value proposition in their favour. For long-haul flights, I'd be more inclined to book through Uber if the base price is competitive, I can still add my Executive Club number or Aeroplan, Virgin Flying Club, et cetera, and I know I'll actually use one hundred pounds plus in Uber Credits over the next two months. One thing I'm not doing is compromising on frequent flyer earnings. With British Airways Gold status and the various perks that brings, I'm not about to start booking random flights through any platform that doesn't let me credit miles properly. Let me run through the maths on a sample booking. Let's say you're booking a return flight to New York in Premium Economy for eight hundred pounds. With Uber's ten per cent back, that's eighty pounds in Uber Credits. If you then book an Uber Reserve to Heathrow for fifty pounds, that's another five pounds back, bringing your total haul to eighty-five pounds in credits. Over two months, if you use Uber for eight rides to and from the office - say, one hundred and twenty pounds - four Uber Eats orders - sixty pounds - another airport run - fifty pounds - you'd effectively be getting eighty-five pounds off two hundred and thirty pounds of Uber spending you'd probably do anyway. That works out to about thirty-seven per cent off your Uber usage - not too shabby. How to maximise this offer? If you're going to use this, here's how I'd approach it. First, check Uber's prices first, but don't book blind - still compare with your usual booking sites to ensure the base fare is competitive. Second, have an Uber One membership - this offer is exclusively for Uber One members. If you don't have one already, factor that cost into your calculations. Third, plan your credit usage - with only sixty days to use them, make sure you've got realistic Uber spending coming up. Fourth, stack with frequent flyer programmes - make absolutely certain you're adding your membership numbers before completing the booking. Fifth, consider the Reserve bonus - if you're flying from a major UK airport and usually take an Uber anyway, booking Reserve in advance can add another layer of value. Sixth, monitor the price drop protection - if you book an eligible flight, keep an eye on whether prices drop and ensure you get your credits if they do. Looking at the bigger picture, I've written before about how I've shifted to booking trains through Uber for the convenience factor. Flights are obviously a bigger commitment, and I'll need to see how competitive Uber's pricing really is over time. What I do like is that this feels like Uber genuinely trying to become a one-stop travel shop - trains, flights, hotels, and the transportation to get you there. If they can maintain competitive pricing whilst offering these cashback incentives, it could become a legitimate booking option in the travel toolkit. For now, I'm treating this as another option to check rather than a default choice. The ten per cent back is attractive, but only if the base price is right, I can earn my miles and tier points, and I'll actually use the credits before they expire. Should you use this? You should seriously consider it if you're an Uber One member who uses Uber regularly, you can find competitively priced flights on the platform, you're good at using credits before they expire, and you want the price drop protection peace of mind. You might want to skip it if you rarely use Uber - the credits will just go to waste - you can find significantly cheaper fares elsewhere, you're booking complex itineraries that require flexibility, or you're not an Uber One member and don't plan to be. For me, I'll be keeping this in my back pocket and testing it out on a European booking soon. If the experience is smooth and the pricing is competitive, it could become part of my regular booking rotation - especially for trips where I know I'll have plenty of Uber usage over the following two months. I'll report back once I've actually put this through its paces. In the meantime, if you do book flights through Uber, I'd love to hear about your experience - does the pricing stack up? Did you encounter any issues? You can reach out to me on social media. That wraps up today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to Smart With Points. If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. You can also subscribe on our website at smartwithpoints.co.uk. Looking for the best award flights? Use AwardTravelFinder.com to search availability across Qatar Airways, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and more. 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