Uber Hack to the Airport

As we've written before, my family and I have been big fans of UberX, but only when we're not in Manhattan.

Inside the city, we find hailing a cab to be much quicker than waiting for a driver to circle the block. However, my parents would use it often to get to/from the airport because UberX had a flat rate of $65 to JFK and/or EWR.

But that changed this week (October 6th), when they moved back to the traditional variable pricing based on distance and time.

So now, when we estimate the fare using the UberX NYC website, the ride from our Manhattan apartment to Newark Liberty Airport now runs $71-81!!! That's the same price as the Carmel / Dial 7 cars that we used to use.

But interestingly enough, much of that cost comes from the distance between our apartment to New Jersey. After that point, the ride would be just $39-51, shaving about $30 (37%-42%) off the full price.

So by just hopping the PATH train from our apartment for $2.75/adult and coming up in Jersey City, we'd save about $25 in airport transportation costs each way.

But as you savvy LCD readers may know, the PATH doesn't end in Jersey City, but actually continues all the way to Newark Penn Station (just 5 miles away from Newark Airport).

So as long we my family is OK with staying on the train (and transferring at Journal Square), then we can pick up an UberX at Newark Penn Station which would only cost about $10 total. That'd save another $30-40!  So for our family of 3, instead of paying $81, we'd only be about $16 out of pocket ($2.75 per adult for the Path Train ride and $10 for the UberX).

We also looked at taking the AirTran Express from Newark Penn Station to the Airport, but that would run $8.50/adult, so more expensive for a family traveling together than just grabbing the UberX.

Our PATH/Uber travel time door to door took about an hour. So not as quick as taking a car service (30 min), but worth it for my family to save $55-65 which we'd rather spend in Phoenix this weekend.