Uber JFK Airport Flat Rate Rides Eliminated

Updated: March 29, 2020

Published: October 11, 2015

I’m a big fan of Uber, and use them all the time. Whenever public transportation isn’t good in a city (or isn’t convenient for where I’m coming from/going to), I use Uber.

In NYC I generally try to take the subway from JFK Airport to the city, though sometimes I’ll take Uber if I arrive super-late or leave super-early.

Last December Uber hiked up their UberBLACK flat rate fares between Manhattan and JFK Airport, from $85 to $100. A ~20% increase overnight is quite a bit.

Uber-Flat-Rate-NYC

Less than a year later, it looks like Uber is once again modifying fares between Manhattan and JFK Airport. As of earlier in the week, Uber has discontinued flat rate fares between JFK Airport and Manhattan altogether:

Starting today, Tuesday, October 6, trips between Manhattan and JFK Airport will be calculated based on standard New York City time and distance rates*. Flat rate fares will no longer apply to these rides.

Whether you’re headed out for the three-day weekend or expensing a trip to the airport, you can always estimate your fare in-app before requesting a pickup.

If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to us at [email protected].

Uber-JFK-Pricing

Looking at the fare estimate calculator on Uber’s website, this represents sizable increases in some instances. For example, I often stay at the Andaz 5th Avenue, and the fare calculator now indicates that an UberBLACK would cost you $94-123:

Uber-JFK

Meanwhile when entering the address of the Andaz Wall Street, the fare calculator indicates that it’ll cost you $99-131:

Uber-JFK-1

Ouch!

Bottom line

Over the course of a year, UberBLACK between JFK and Manhattan has gone from being marginally more expensive than a yellow taxi, to potentially being almost double the price.

Uber is still pretty awesome, but this change is enough to prevent me from taking an UberBLACK between JFK and Manhattan.

If you haven’t yet signed up for Uber, they have a pretty lucrative referral program, whereby you can get a free ride of up to $20 by being referred (and the person referring gets the same).

Does Uber eliminating flat rate rides between JFK and Manhattan impact whether you’ll use them?

More discussion »

Conversations (27)

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Mark Guest

February 18, 2016, 5:27 pm

In the month of October a uber driver stole my bag. The uber company did NOTHING beside writing some courteous emails. The police told me it happens often. I don't use uber anymore. Their electronic receipt said to call 311 in case of problems but the night when this happened I did and 311 is not linked to uber. So it's a fraudulent description on uber email. I went back to yellow cabs. And I am using DIAL 7 app. It works well and drivers are very courteous. The nice part is that they give you a price in advance and it doesn't change.

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Frederick Spinoza Guest

December 27, 2015, 3:20 pm

I always tip the uber drivers, they deserve it. They work hard,long hours and some have families. After all, you tip cab driver's, bartender, waitresses, chamber maids. Etc etc.

Tom Guest

October 14, 2015, 10:59 am

This is a dumb move. The only times I always used Uber was from the airport to the city because of the long taxi lines and incompetent taxi handlers at JFK. Uber was always there in less than 5 minutes. Without a flat rate, I will gladly wait the extra few minutes to get a taxi so I can have the $52 flat rate. I'm not going to pay $100 to get to Manhattan because I got stuck in traffic in an Uber. Even Uber's fare estimate says $69 is a best case UberX scenario (no traffic). This will destroy Uber's airport business at JFK.

CraigTPA Guest

October 12, 2015, 11:55 am

Wow, that's ridiculous. I used to live in Lower Manhattan, and even the UberX at $56-75 is higher than used to pay Dial 7 to JFK. Uber is starting to take its customers for granted, and that'll come back to haunt them.

Anthony Diamond

October 12, 2015, 9:22 am

Uber's best use case in New York is intra-city travel in UberX or UberSUV (when you have a lot of people), trips from borough to borough (Uber has made it much easier to get to and from Brooklyn, for example) and special trips such as those to the Hamptons. For Airport travel, it's better to use public transport, yellow cabs or corporate black car service if you have access to it.

Uber JFK Airport Flat Rate Rides Eliminated

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