UberBoston

Is your Uber addiction breaking your student budget? Can’t wait until mom and dad are around so you can tell them to sign-up and ride under their account? Whether you’re a rising sophomore or a graduating senior, we want to hook you up for the last few days you’re around Boston before heading off for summer.

Our team is kind of bummed we don’t have a student discount yet so here’s the next best thing - 33% off your next three rides. That’s right fill out this Google Form with your student info (only *.edu emails please) and we’ll send you a code good for 33% off your next free rides… that mean you’ll be riding Uber style at less than taxi rates!

Oh yea, we’re still looking for one special Uber intern. Details here. If you’d prefer to skip the wolf drawings just dazzle us with your creative spark and you’re hired.

Been itching for a reason to Uber? Try these or tweet us at @Uber_BOS:

• Because you always leave your cell phone in the car after a night at Mary Ann’s, T’s, or the Kong (that’s right we’ll do our best to track ‘em down).
• First date with a summer fling… maybe someday it’ll be your college sweetheart!
• Putting your parents in a good mood after a long day of battling crowds.

With temperatures soaring well into the 80s on Marathon Monday, runners are going to be hard-pressed to best Geoffrey Mutai’s Boston Marathon record of 02:03:01. While Boston heats up for the Red Sox and the race, we’ll be hitting the street to keep you cool and refreshed!

Whenever you’ve had enough of Sam Adam’s new ‘26.2’ or the crowds lining Kenmore and the finish line, we’ll have plenty of Ubers on hand with air conditioning on full blast to escort you from the madness! As an added bonus, we’re stocking them Vita Coco coconut water for some marathon-worthy hydration.

In case you’re looking for a place to watch the race, we’ll be at Forum (755 Boylston) handing out SWAG (hello ‘Uber’ wristbands) and maybe requesting an Uber or two to get a runner home in style. We’re doing our stretching for a big day on Monday so hope to see you after the Red Sox game or during the race!

If you guys (and gals) are like me, you’re probably feeling like you could do a better job on the field than our boys of summer right now. 

We can’t get you guys out on Fenway (we’re just not that cool… yet), but we can do you one better. It’s time to put together your own Uber team, so here’s the deal.

If you can build a baseball team (8 new Uber users + you =Uber Sandlot) by this weekend (Friday @ 5pm eastern), we’re going to give you a weekend pass of Uber. How do you do it? Simple. Just use your refer-a-friend code (details below) to refer 8 people to Uber by Friday night and we’ll give you a code for free Uber for the weekend. Not sure you can get the bench filled? Not a problem. Hit a triple (refer 3 friends) and we’ll give you an extra $30 of Uber credit in addition to the $10 you’ll get normally when each of them takes their first ride! 

How to use your Refer-A-Friend

Log into your account at www.uber.com and click “invite friends”. You’ll be linked to a personal invite code link that can be shared via Email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Smoke Signals, Pirate Radio Broadcasts, Courrier Pigeon, Messages in Bottles, Stolen Listservs, Billboards, Texting, and AOL Instant Messenger (back when it was, you know, the good stuff). 

Questions? No problem, I’ve got answers. Shoot me an email at nick@uber.com and we’ll work it out :)

So in the lamest, most transparent sports metaphor ever, hit one out of the park (groan).

The finest of fine print:

1. Weekend pass of Uber is capped at $150 Uber credit (no going to Vegas #Sorry)
2. Weekend pass expires at midnight on Sunday (like the pumpkin carriage from that Disney movie) 
3. Uber cannot actually get you playing for the Red Sox (we asked)

Are you a junior or senior at an accredited Boston/Cambridge university?

Do you have mad Photoshop skillz?

Can you photoshop me into a werewolf? (not a twilight werewolf). 

When you craft content, do your parents print out the webpage and put it on their refrigerator? 

Uber Boston is seeking a part-time (for credit) or full-time (we’ll talk) summer intern to help run an early stage start-up on the Boston scene. Must be local, won’t pay for relocation (but we have snacks). Southie accent preferred, but not a deal-breaker. 

Retweet this Tumblr and shoot me an email at nick@uber.com with questions, your resume and my werewolf picture for consideration.  

Here’s the pic. Wolf it up… be gentle. 

One of our favorite shows growing up was the ‘Price is Right’. If you remember, the trick on that show was getting the price just right… without going over!

Here at Uber we do a lot of work and analysis to make sure that prices are ‘just right’ for both riders and Uber drivers. Too low and drivers have trouble paying for the ever-rising costs of filling up their cars. Too high and riders are better off walking - after all, Boston is America’s Walking City!

That’s why today we’re rolling out two changes to pricing: (1) airports and (2) surge pricing on weekend evenings.

Airports Flat Rates now $45 to/from Boston and $55 to/from Cambridge

If you’ve never tried to book an airport transfer in Boston, you know that it’s not cheap. Some range up to $120 to/from downtown Boston to Logan! When we first launched in Boston in October, we thought we were making airport rates ‘Uber’ by bringing fares down to $55 each way from Boston and $65 each way from Cambridge. This was also our way of convincing some of our early partners to work with us, as they’d not yet seen Uber in action on point-to-point routes in the city.

Fast forward several months and based on the feedback we’ve been hearing, there’s been a few times that riders have been surprised by the ‘flat rate’ to the airport. Sometimes flat rates aren’t perfect since they can be over twice the cost of a cab; however we use them because we don’t want to make you read the fine print on airport tolls/surcharges. Uber Boston rates, we’re dropping these fares by $10 each way starting on Monday, March 26th. No surcharges. No surprises. $45 each way to Boston. $55 each way to Cambridge.

If you have any questions about what rate applies to your specific pick up, just shoot us an email at supportboston@uber.com! We’ve also updated our city page here.

Surge Pricing on Weekend Evenings

Boston’s heating up. Quite literally. we don’t like idle small talk talking about the weather, but this week has been been ridiculous (Totally grabbing a pair of white summer pants #ridiculousness)!

When it’s 70+ degrees outside, restaurants are full and bars are packed. If you’ve Ubered on weekends between 12am and 3am, you’ve probably noticed it can get hard to find a car. This is because of a crazy wild demand spike (thanks a lot, last call) coupled with drivers wanting to go home or finding other business as we stay out until the early morning. 

This trend is becoming even more apparent as the thermostat rises, and after weeks of testing we’re rolling out surge pricing on weekend evenings. For the last several weeks we’ve been testing surge pricing for drivers only, and seen a dramatic increase in the number of Ubers available late in the evening. Last week we used it for St. Patrick’s Day. We always want to be a reliable ride, and surge pricing works.

In case you’re not familiar with surge pricing, we’ve covered this topic in-depth in the past during Halloween and NYE. Remember that if surge is active you’ll always see clear and concise messaging in the app or via SMS similar to that below:

We’re delighted to continue to bring efficiency to the world of car service with these pricing updates. Looking forward to more airport transfers and late night Chinatown pickups as the weather continues to heat up!

My town is big
And my town is bright
My town can work and my town can fight
Gonna be a Blackout, Blackout tonight.

~Woodie Guthrie 

Whew, what a crazy 36 hours it’s been. Two days of no power is no fun and living a couple blocks from the Hilton Back Bay myself, I can empathize. Along with 20k+ residents that have been without power, local bars, restaurants, and businesses have been feeling the effects of the outage.

Now that things are back in action we want to make sure you’re getting around Back Bay as conveniently and comfortably as possible. To help Back Bay #powerup, we’re dropping our rates by 50% on any trip to/from the Back Bay tonight from 4pm until 4am tomorrow morning. If you’re worrying about riding the T or finding a cab in Back Bay… DON’T! We’ll get you wherever you need to go safely and in style. 

To get the 50% off, enter the promo code “powerupbos” online or in the app. See the map below for what we’re defining as ‘Back Bay’. 

Let’s pump some love back into the businesses affected by the outage and remind the Back Bay how much it means to us. Please help everyone out by tweeting your support to your favorite Back Bay businesses with the hashtag #PowerUp!

Affected Area:

Ahh, Valentine’s Day. A time for romanticism, red roses, and fancy nights out on the town. Check out some of our favorite Uber love stories here: http://blog.uber.com/2012/02/10/uber_valentines_day/

Uber Boston is ready for Valentine’s Day and we hope y’all are, too! So on February 14th, every Uber you and your date get into after 4pm comes complete with a Complimentary Rose. Furthermore, tweet a picture (You can do it in-app!) of you and the rose to @Uber_BOS and we’ll throw you $5 in Uber credit! Can you feel the love?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E_VeC1XAtY

Uber loves two things. Charities and Galas. Hello two birds, one stone!

We’re pleased to announce that we’re providing FREE rides to VIP party attenders, taking taking them from Newbury Street to the Fairmont Copley plaza between 7:15 and 8:30. All you have to do is download the app and sign up! Though you enter your credit card (for verification purposes) we promise you won’t be charged for your ride from Newbury to Copley :)

Here’s a breakdown of how Uber works!

(1) Sign-up: Download ‘Uber’ on your iPhone or Android device. We take a credit card during sign-up so you don’t worry about billing or tipping. 

(2) Request: Open the app, tag your location, request a driver, and watch your chauffeured black car pull up within 5-10 minutes.

(3) Ride: Sit back, relax, and pull up to the Gala in Uber style.

We’re looking forward to the Gala and know you are as well, so please don’t hesitate to email me at Nick@Uber.com with any questions you may have!

I don’t care if you’re wearing green, yellow, or red… the Socialete Stoplight Party is going to be off the hook!

In “light” of this, we want you all rolling up in style. Black car style, that is. If you haven’t heard of Uber, we’re that hot new Boston startup that gets you a black car complete with private driver just by clicking a button on your phone.

Use our in-app photo service to get your picture taken in an Uber. The best picture uploaded will earn you a free Uber ride to and from Brunch on Sunday (or wherever you need to go :) 

Oh yeah, and we’re giving new users $15 to make the service cheaper than a cab!

“That’s pretty sick, but how do I sign up?”:

Its simple. Just whip out your iPhone/Android and follow these simple steps:

(1) Sign-up: Download ‘Uber’ on your iPhone or Android device. We take a credit card during sign-up so you don’t worry about billing or tipping. 

(2) Pop in the promo code “BlackLight” so we can be sure to toss you that $15 in credit.

(3) Request: Open the app, tag your location, request a driver, and watch your chauffeured black car pull up within 5-10 minutes.

(4) Ride: Sit back, relax, and pull up to the party in Uber style.

No more waiting in the cold, no more strutting down the street in black dress and high heels, only classy, swaggerific Limo Service available at your fingertips.

The wait is almost over! Are you tired of hearing about Gronk’s ankle, Eli’s Hall of Fame credentials, or Brady vs. the Nascar package? So are we! No doubt Boston will be partying hard tomorrow for Super Bowl Sunday and Uber Boston wants to break out the TEAM PRIDE. That’s why we got up this morning and bought as many Pats t-shirts as we could get our hands on.

During the day tomorrow many of our drivers will be trading in their suits for team colors. Gronkowski. Wilfork. Welker. Brady. Whether you’re on your way to your Super Bowl party or need a ride home after your third helping of wings and nachos, Uber has you covered.

As if awesome drivers and awesome t-shirts aren’t enough, we wouldn’t be Uber without a promo. Since it could get crazy all the way through Monday (some folks might be calling in ‘sick’), enter the code ‘BRADY’ on your app and if the Pats win it all your rides in Boston on Monday (4am-midnight) will be $10 off.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can reach us at supportboston@uber.com or @Uber_BOS.