Uber and Lyft compete fiercely for business — not just trying to gain market share from other forms of transportation, but they also have to compete against one another. As a result, both companies have membership programs, offering additional perks for a fee, as well as some loyalty program collaborations. This is intended to get people to more consistently be loyal to one company.
A few years back, Lyft Pink launched, which was the ridesharing giant’s subscription service, intended to compete with the Uber One membership option. This was recently relaunched, so I wanted to go over all the details in this post. This is especially worth understanding, given that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® recently added a complimentary Lyft Pink All Access membership perk.
In this post:
Lyft Pink membership details
Lyft Pink is a membership program that offers an elevated Lyft experience across Lyft’s transportation network, including rideshare, bikes, scooters, rental cars, and more. Lyft claims that members save an average of $29 per month, excluding the cost of membership (which is less than that).
Let’s take a look at the pricing and perks.
Lyft Pink membership cost
A Lyft Pink membership costs $9.99 per month, or $99 annually (which comes out to $8.25 per month). Back in the day Lyft Pink cost $19.99 per month, so the price for the base membership has roughly been cut in half. If you get a monthly subscription, you can cancel at anytime, while the annual membership is a commitment for 12 consecutive months.
Benefits of Lyft Pink membership
What does a Lyft Pink membership offer, for the $9.99 per month or $99 per year fee?
- 5% off Lux, Preferred, and XL rides
- Priority pickup upgrades to get picked up faster and save $3-4 per ride on average
- Cancellation forgiveness, where you can cancel up to three times per month for free
- In-app roadside assistance for your own car, free up to four times per year
- Free bike or scooter unlock each month
- Free SIXT car rental upgrades
- Save on food delivery with a complimentary Grubhub+ membership for one year (ordinarily $9.99 per month)
Lyft Pink All Access membership
In addition to a standard Lyft Pink membership, there’s also a Lyft Pink All Access membership. This costs $199 per year, so on an annual basis it’s double the price of a standard Lyft Pink membership, with no monthly subscription option.
What are the incremental perks of Lyft Pink All Access?
- Unlimited 45-minute classic bike rides
- Unlimited electric bike and scooter discounts
- Three free bike or scooter guest passes
- Access to Bike Angels rewards
How to sign-up for Lyft Pink
You can sign-up for a Lyft Pink membership at this link. At that point you can choose whether you want a monthly or annual membership.
Lyft perks with Chase credit cards
Chase & Lyft have a partnership, which is the best way to maximize value with Lyft. First of all, through March 2025, you can earn 5-10x Chase points for your Lyft spending:
- The Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) offers 10x points on Lyft spending
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
- The Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
- The Chase Freedom FlexSM Credit Card (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
- The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
- The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
- The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review) offers 5x points on Lyft spending
As it pertains to Lyft Pink, there’s a further way to maximize value here. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers a two year Lyft Pink All Access membership. You must activate this by December 31, 2024, and once activated, it’s valid for two years. This is a potentially a huge perk, and can help make the Sapphire Reserve worth it.
Is Lyft Pink worth it?
While it’s nice to see Lyft Pink make a comeback at a lower price point, unfortunately it has fewer perks, and less tangible value. Let’s crunch some numbers, based on paying $99 per year:
- You’re getting 5% off Lux, Preferred, and XL rides, so you’d recoup your $8.25 monthly fee after $165 in monthly eligible spending; of course this isn’t helpful if you typically just try to book the cheapest rides, since these are all premium options
- The priority pickup upgrade perk is one that’s tough to assign a value to, since it’s hard to know how often you’re actually being upgraded, and what the value of that would be
- One significant potential benefit is getting three free cancellations per month, since those can otherwise cost $5-10; just cancelling twice per month would recoup your membership fee right there
- If you use Lyft’s bike or scooter feature, that adds even more value
- For some people the biggest perk will be a complimentary Grubhub+ membership, as that ordinarily costs at least as much as a Lyft Pink membership; that’s a very easy way to justify Lyft Pink, and it makes everything else the icing on the cake
Lyft Pink All Access unfortunately doesn’t offer any further ride discounts, though it is useful if you rent bikes or scooters through Lyft. I’d say that’s where the biggest value potentially is.
The way I view it:
- Lyft Pink is worth it for at least a year if you’d otherwise pay for Grubhub+, plain and simple, since it’s potentially cheaper, meaning you save money right there
- Beyond that, if you often take Lyft’s premium ride options, if you frequently cancel rides, and/or if you value the 12 bike or scooter rentals each year (ideally at least two of the three would apply to you)
- Lyft Pink All Access is much harder to justify if paying cash, unless you value the unlimited access to bikes
- As someone who has the the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review), I’ll absolutely take the complimentary Lyft Pink All Access membership for two years; I don’t value it at $199, but between Lyft Pink All Access and earning 10x points on Lyft spending, it will keep my business with Lyft
Bottom line
Lyft Pink has recently relaunched with a lower fee, and two membership tiers. For ~$10 per month or $99 per year, you can receive discounted rides, priority rides, waived cancellation fees, a Grubhub+ membership, and more. If you use Lyft with any frequency, or if you’d otherwise pay for a Grubhub+ membership, then signing up could make sense.
Then there’s Lyft Pink All Access, which is awesome for those with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, as you can receive a complimentary two year membership.
What do you make of the Lyft Pink value proposition?
Its not worth it. They manipulate the price. We did a comparison , my lyft pink quote vs someone without lyft pink and somehow mine was more expensive even with the "discount". When i reached out to Lyft customer service to explain to them, they said if I think I can save more money without a membership then I can cancel. I had paid for the annual membership so I requested them to cancel it...
Its not worth it. They manipulate the price. We did a comparison , my lyft pink quote vs someone without lyft pink and somehow mine was more expensive even with the "discount". When i reached out to Lyft customer service to explain to them, they said if I think I can save more money without a membership then I can cancel. I had paid for the annual membership so I requested them to cancel it and refund me the remaining months. They said they can't issue me a refund. So basically they don't care and know exactly what they're doing.
They may be raising prices to offer a "discount," but it's hard to draw conclusions from just 2 users d/t dynamic pricing. My wife and got Uber quotes a few minutes apart, neither has any discount sub, hers was $19, mine was $23, so we took her Uber. I think we'll keep comparison shopping!
Take too long and you can’t see who they are or their license
I have to use Lyft a lot because I can’t drive because of nisi problem but I try to get the cheapest ride a possible big tennis on the senior. I don’t ride bikes I don’t use the XL. I don’t use their premium services. I don’t use scooters and I don’t use GrubHub because I’m on a health diet, so it would be a waste of time and money for me for the average...
I have to use Lyft a lot because I can’t drive because of nisi problem but I try to get the cheapest ride a possible big tennis on the senior. I don’t ride bikes I don’t use the XL. I don’t use their premium services. I don’t use scooters and I don’t use GrubHub because I’m on a health diet, so it would be a waste of time and money for me for the average person. Even if you spend maybe 15 rides a month it’s still not gonna save me any money because I need to get the cheapest rides I can to get to all my doctors appointments and things like that and get around town , so I even do the ones where I have to wait longer just to get a lift rather than take XL or premium because even if the other faster there also more expensive, so saving money means a lot to me on the services that I actually would use and most of the services I won’t use . they would come up with a separate program for seniors where they could use a little pink blue or whatever the color they want to call it so that we could get some discounts for using Lyft often enough a month and make it worth it that would be fine because seniors don’t ride those bikes and we don’t use our scooters and a lot of us are getting to where we’re very health conscious and want to live longer so we don’t call GrubHub while we’re sitting on her butt because I will do is get cholesterol building up in our guts and our class and our arteries and we usually cook and prepare her own meals at home to save money and most of us are unlimited income so if they had a senior program it would fit a different age group for us to make it worth us, saving some money since we travel and lift a lot it would be nice .
So I can't drive and use lyft to get to work. I will say, if you regularly need to use it and must consistently be on time, lyft gives priority matching to lyft pink members. So, in that case, get it it's worth it. If that's not your situation, don't bother.
Added Lyft Pink pass to help with cost so I could get to work. The first time using it I about had a heart attack when I saw the prices for my 10-15 minute trip! It’s ridiculous! Your NOT saving anything joining Lyft Pink. App wanted to change me $45-$55 for a 10-15 minute ride. That’s highway robbery! I immediately canceled Lyft pink. If I wanted to wait an hour for a car it would cost $13. I would NOT recommend signing up for Lyft pink.
Not worth it with the current state of Lyft Support. It’s all bots with zero recourse possible to a human. As a FF based in Miami, forgiveness for only 3 cancellations a month isn’t enough when nearly every arrival to MIA is met with a scamming driver.
I was loyal to Lyft for years, but they don’t care about scam drivers anymore. I’m forgoing the point earning bonuses to use Uber instead. They’ve actually refunded me for every scam driver I’ve had recently
Here because I got an offer for Lyft Pink for $50 for an annual subscription. After reviewing the benefits, I discovered Lyft Pink isn't for me. I'd only use it for rides making the other perks pointless. Based on previous Lyft rides, I'd need to average 5 rides per month to break even. I don't so this is a soft pass for me.
Today I received an (possibly targeted?) email offering Lyft Pink annual membership for half price ($49.50). Personally, I still don't see any value in it.
Meant to add, the Pink sign up was a Chase sapphire reserve signup. Thanks.
I had the Lyft Pink a few years back, though didn't use it much due to Covid traveling less. Is it a one time benefit, and then gone forever after the first sign-up? Thank you.
Lucky - my view is similar to yours. I immediately added it since “free” with my CSR but set a reminder in my calendar to cancel before I have to pay. Also have Grubhub+ through next July w Amazon Prime and hope I can add the Lift Pink year after that. Hard to justify the expenditure based on benefits of Lyft Pink but no downside if free
"Lyft Pink is only available in the United States"
I tried to sign up from Canada and couldn't.
@Lucky, do you know what happens to the Lyft Pink membership if you downgrade or cancel the Reserve? Am I correct in assuming that somewhere in the terms it'll say that the Lyft membership will be canceled?
I just went into my account this morning and was able to go from a monthly Lyft Pink membership to yearly at a Black Friday special price of $49.50. They also refunded a prorated $9.99 that I just spent for the monthly plan. Pretty amazing deal imo, especially for someone with Amex gold who uses Grubhub and benefits from that and the $10 credit.
@lucky
I agree with your analysis. however, if we factor in the GrubHub membership,which in most major IS cities is as good as door dash and Uber eats. You are paying the same $10 a month and getting all the Lyft benefits in Lyft pink for basically free.
Does that make it a better deal?
@ Talha -- That's an excellent point, I should have called that out more explicitly. I updated the post to reflect that. I think at this point many of us have so many of these food delivery memberships that it can be hard to keep track. But indeed, that could in and of itself justify the fee.