There are some travel hacks that are 100% on the up-and-up, where everybody wins. And then there are some travel hacks that are, as I like to call them “morally gray.” The person doing the hack will win, but it might be at the expense of someone or something else.
Examples of morally gray hacks
Skiplagging is a good example of morally gray hacking. The person who does it gets to go to the city they want for a whole lot less money, but the airline loses financially (and the person doing the skiplagging could get in trouble too. These people and this kid found that out the hard way).
Some other examples of morally gray hacks are:
- How to bring more liquids through the TSA security checkpoint
- How to fix a hotel shower with low water pressure (the video towards the bottom)
How to get a cheaper Uber from the airport
Not long ago, a TikToker named Chantel shared a hack so that she doesn’t have to pay exorbitant prices when she wants to catch an Uber from the airport.
“If you take Ubers from the airport to your house, here’s a hack to help you save some money. When I open the Uber app and saw that it was $70 just for me to get home, I said nuh-uh,” she said.
She then shows a screenshot of the Uber prices she was quoted. The cheapest option was a whopping $70.91 (there undoubtedly must’ve been some surge pricing going on).
Chantel continued: “What you’re gonna do is grab your bags go outside, and take one of those free hotel shuttles. So, of course, the shuttles are gonna take you to the hotel. But as you can see, the price went from $70 to $27.” That $27 was how much the Uber would be from the hotel, as opposed to $70 from the airport.
“Mind you, I was taking an Uber from DCA back to Maryland,” she added.
And frankly, it doesn’t matter which hotel you go to – you won’t have the surge pricing that’s frequently found at the airport, so the price you’re quoted is significantly lower.
Here’s the video:
@breathlessescapetravels Ubers at the airport are so expensive! You can save money by taking a hotel shittle and catching the uber from there‼️ you’re welcome! #traveltips #travel #airporthack #flighthacks
The responses
The replies varied from how smart this was, to concerns that the hotel shuttle might ask for proof of a reservation (one person mentioned that you might be planning to get the reservation when you arrive at the hotel. Someone else’s response to that is THEY take a shuttle to a car rental company. As long as it’s off airport property, the price will be significantly less). A few people reminded everyone to tip the shuttle driver a couple of dollars, which I thought was nice.
What do you think?
Personally, I could get behind this one. Surge pricing means the driver get paid more, but with their not having to deal with airport traffic, they might even out in the end. What do you think?
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14 comments
The morally gray area to me is the theft of service in taking the shuttle to the hotel or car rental company. But if you’re taking an otherwise empty seat, your theft is actually costing them only the fuel to carry your added weight a short distance, which is negligible. Going to a place where fares are cheaper seems completely fair.
At LAX I will walk from Terminal 7 to the Hyatt Regency LAX instead of to the Uber/Lyft lot—basically, just walking across Sepulveda Boulevard—and take a ride from there.
It’s not just surge pricing: most big airports require some form of concessionaire or transportation fee/surcharge that gets passed on to riders (ride-share and traditional taxi alike). I’m sure the ride-share companies take their cut, too, to pay for the complicated virtual-queue setups they run at busier airports. As a set fee, though, the only way the driver probably comes out ahead is that it increases the base rate used to calculate in-app tip suggestions.
I’m not sure if hotel shuttles are charged the fee; if they are, they probably just factor it in to their room rates as a “cost of operations” thing — possibly making this even more of a gray area, because someone else is paying the fee for those using this “hack.”
(I’ve heard of friends using Lynx at MCO for the same purpose, going just far enough off site to avoid the airport surcharge before ordering their ride home. Not quite free, a bit more inconvenient, but maybe a shade less morally gray.)
I don’t see any moral ambiguity in doing this. Uber is trying to soak people unnecessarily so I don’t see how avoiding that and just paying something like normal rates is wrong.
I tip the shuttle drivers well and go on my way.
I always find it wild that no one looks at the time value of money. Lets see here waste 30 minutes to save 50 bucks. My time is significantly more valuable that 50 bucks for 30 minutes. Life is great when you learn to monetize your time.
It also depends on what someone values more; their time or their money.
Let’s say I’m on my way home. All I’m going to do when I get home is unpack. If spending an extra 20-30 minutes getting a shuttle and riding to a nearby hotel will save me $70, yeah, that’s worth it to me.
Taking the hotel shuttle for a hotel you haven’t booked is way more “morally gray” than skiplagging, which is only a fair reaction to an airline’s GREED. Because there is no moral justification for selling a route with one more flight for less. The only thing a passenger does by not taking that last flight, is gift the airline with some fuel it would need to carry him to the final destination, maybe saving it ome airport charges too. In any case a skiplagging passenger is effectively saving the airline money. Actually it’s morally BLACK to have higher rates for one flight less – but since the airlines can buy politicians, it’s become legally morally white.
Yeah, I’m trying to understand what the writer means by “the airline loses financially” from skiplagging. Huh?
If you add in the time it takes to take the hotel shuttle, it makes very little sense to do this to save like $20.
As I wrote earlier, depends on what someone values more; their time or their money.
Let’s say I’m on my way home. All I’m going to do when I get home is unpack. If spending an extra 20-30 minutes getting a shuttle and riding to a nearby hotel will save me $70, yeah, that’s worth it to me. As the good blog says, YMMV.
Nothing gray about it for me, I’m doing it. Brilliant travel tip.
This is no different than my driving to PVD (Providence, RI) to book a flight at a lower fare than it would be out of BOS. The airline, or in this case Uber, sets the fares. Then we can look for the lowest, perhaps trading off convenience for savings. I see nothing at all wrong with that, and thank you for the suggestion!
For my last Uber out of LAX the driver had to wait an extra @ 26 minutes in line before picking us up, costing him both time and money (he could have picked up extra fares in that time). Ask Uber/Lyft drivers and many will tell you they would rather pick you up at a bus stop (I take free shuttles to leave amusement parks and call Uber from the nearest bus stop), hotel, or rental car facility than queue up and waste time at an airport.
It’s wrong and will probably lead to hotels charging for shuttles, or delaying them to confirm everyone on them has a reservation.