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Travel is expensive. While some people like to drive to the airport, park, and pay the fee for the duration they’re away, others find it easier to order a taxi or, more often than not nowadays, an Uber to get to and from the airport. However, pick-ups and drop-offs at the airport include not only the base fare but also an add-on airport tax.
This mandatory fee can range anywhere from $2.50 per pickup or drop-off up to $7 at the most popular and biggest airports. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s up to $14 more for every round trip on top of what could already be a high cost. For someone who travels often, the amount adds up, especially if the fee is hiked even further because of your pick-up location. Paying this fee is easily avoidable with a simple and logical hack that isn’t as challenging to do as you think.
If you simply move far enough away from the airport so the app registers you as being in another location, you won’t have to pay that extra fee. For someone pinching pennies or who loves to share airline travel hacks, it’s a brilliantly simple solution.
Walk away and save
After you get to ground transportation, look for a way to walk safely out of the airport. If there isn’t, take the rental car shuttle to the rental lot. From there, walk to a nearby location, like a bar, restaurant, or hotel, and hail the Uber from there, using that business as your location marker. Provided it’s far enough from the airport, the fee should drop.
Keep in mind that it might not always be safe to walk outside of the airport, so do your research first if you’re leaving from an unfamiliar airport. But usually, a shuttle service to the parking lot or nearby location will get you out of the hustle and bustle of the area and to a safe spot where you can call your Uber for less.
Beyond just saving a few bucks, some people have reported getting the ride for upwards of a third of the price when ordering the Uber from the app from outside of the airport, suggesting fees might be bumped beyond just the airport surcharge. So, you might find that this experiment yields more than just the savings equivalent to a cup of coffee.
How do you know you’re paying these fees?
You might not even realize you’re paying these fees in the first place. The surcharges are placed on rideshare services, but aren’t broken down in the payment summary of your ride. The Tampa airport is one location that is transparent about these fees, outlining them on its website in the section under ground transportation. But many others are not. It’s just worked into the cost. Uber does indicate on its own website where some airports charge this fee and how much. But the information is inconsistent and not listed for every airport.
Try it for yourself. Start the process of ordering a ride from the airport to see the price. Move and try it again from a nearby address. You’ll probably notice the cost has gone down considerably. That’s a good indication that the fee wasn’t necessarily based on distance to your destination or even surge pricing, but that sneaky surcharge added to the total.
This hack is about more than saving you a few bucks. It makes a powerful statement about your disagreement with the lack of transparency. For that reason alone, it’s worth it. The money savings is just the cherry on top.
