This Is the Craziest Uber Price I’ve Ever Seen

Imagine. It’s late in the evening, and you’ve just arrived back on the mainland from Hawaii. You have an overnight at LAX at an airport hotel. It’s convenient, the points rate was solid enough, and you just want to get some sleep before you final flight back home in the morning.

Given the convenient location just beyond the airport loop, I figured I’d pay a few bucks for the ride. I was planning to wait for the shuttle. But I decided to open the Uber app. My jaw dropped.

Uber is out of its mind

Uber wanted over $20. Without tip. For one of the shortest rides I’ve ever considered. I thoroughly regret not taking a screen capture. It was insane.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been appalled by Uber’s prices in the past couple years. Nearly every time I’ve opened the app to see what a ride will cost, it’s 2-3x the price I expect. Everything from $55+ from HNL to Waikiki, to $25+ to an airport hotel near SFO, to other intra-city rides that I expect to cost $8-12. Nothing seems reasonable anymore.

Given the distance from Terminal 5, I’d wait for the shuttle. I considered walking. If it was daylight and I wasn’t as tired as I was, it would have been the easy choice. I just wanted to get to bed, though.

But wait, it gets better

It’s been ages since I’ve left LAX, so I was unaware of the new LAX-it system. Yes, it’s been since 2019 that I’ve needed a ride from LAX. Connecting through is how I roll, and I’ll be sticking to that as much as possible. It’s in the solidly worse half of my home state, and I have no desire to visit.

Curious about LAX-it, I pulled up the lot location on my phone. And was in even more disbelief.

Not only was the crazy Uber price way too much from LAX Terminal 5, I had to hop on a bus and then catch the Uber — an Uber ride was going to depart within eyesight of my destination. The Hyatt Regency LAX is literally on the next block.

If I can hop on the LAX-it bus, my walk becomes a stroll of only a couple minutes.

So, the LAX-it bus it was. Those were regular. I could see the hotel as we were pulling up. Less than five minutes later, I was stepping into the lobby.

Maybe I was the insane one, requesting a ride to a location so ridiculously close. Maybe the insane price was warranted, given what I was asking was silly, after factoring in the LAX-it piece.

Final thoughts on crazy Uber prices

Or maybe the pricing algorithm really is out of it’s mind. I’ve used Uber once in the U.S. in the past year. It was an inexpensive option in Santiago, Chile, where I took five rides. And there was one more in South Korea. But other than those international uses, I’ve shied away from it every time I pulled it up to price out a ride.

Lyft has been cheaper almost every other time. Not amazingly cheaper, but often 25% or more. In another instance, I hailed a cab. Usually, I look up mass transit options instead anyway, which is my preferred choice. But in some places, it’s far too inconvenient.

I don’t know what’s gotten into Uber, but I know that they aren’t nearly the go-to option they were only a handful of years ago. Things have changed for the worse, and I don’t see them getting better.

What do you think about the crazy Uber prices? Has you had a similar experience in the past couple years?