My ride to the airport used to be about $20.

2 days ago, it was $65.

Same airport, same route. Philly is home, so this is the most boring drive in my life. Nothing changed except the number on my screen.

But that is not the part that got me.

I was standing next to a friend. Same trip, same moment, both of us looking at our phones. We got different prices. So we tried Lyft. Different there too.

I did not have anything to point to. I just had a feeling something was off.

Turns out the feeling was right.

In March and April of this year, Consumer Reports had 174 volunteers across 18 states check prices on more than 40 routes, all within about six minutes of each other.

The prices did not match. The median gap between the cheapest and most expensive price for the same trip was 42.4%. On one Kansas City route, the low was under $31 and the high was around $65. They also found about 12% of the discounts shown to riders were not real. The original price had been inflated so the deal would look like a deal.

To be fair, both companies deny this. Uber says it does not personalize base fares, period, and that prices move with real time market conditions.

You can decide what you think about that. I will say I went looking for a boring explanation for my own $65 and could not find one. Uber's own Philadelphia page lists a $3 surcharge leaving the airport and $2.50 going to it. That is not a $45 gap.

Think about why people left taxis.

You never knew what you were going to pay. The meter that ran fast. The long way around. The card reader that was mysteriously broken. And that very specific feeling of being sized up the second they heard your accent.

Uber won because it deleted all of that. You saw the price. You paid that price. Done. The certainty was the whole product.

Now we are back to standing on a curb wondering if we got the same deal as the person next to us. Same feeling, nicer app.

Consumer Reports also found Uber and Lyft keeping between 43% and 49.5% of the fare while driver pay slides. So you pay more, and the person driving you is not the one getting it.

The truth is, the thing people ran from is the thing they ran to.

No.

Being stranded is worse than being overcharged. I have been in cities at midnight with no way back, and in that moment you are not thinking about price fairness.

The fix is not swearing loyalty to a different app. The fix is never having only one way to move.

Download the local app before you land. Bolt across much of Europe and Africa. Grab in Southeast Asia. DiDi in Mexico. 99 in Brazil. Careem in the Gulf and Egypt. inDrive in a lot of price sensitive markets. Often cheaper than Uber, though not always, so check both. Do it at home while you still have wifi and a working phone number. Here are the other apps worth having before you go.

Price the airport run against transit. This is where the biggest money is, and it is the ride people book without thinking. If your hotel is near a train or express bus line, there is no reason to pay $65 for anything.

Know the rate before you get in. Ask your front desk, your host, anyone who lives there. Once the door closes you have no leverage. One note: negotiating is normal in Morocco, Egypt, much of Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia. It is not normal in most of Europe, Japan, or the US, where the meter is the rate. There, a driver who wants to talk price instead of running the meter is the warning sign.

Check the credentials. Fake taxis wait outside airports for tired people with luggage. Look for the medallion and the license. This one is personal. Years ago I got into a taxi that drifted off route. When I said something, the driver pretended he could not understand me. I showed him the map and he kept going the wrong way. I got out by making a scene at a stoplight next to a police car. That story and a few others are here.

Compare two apps every time. This used to be about saving a few dollars. Now it is something else. And if you are traveling with someone, look at both phones before either of you books.

I am not trying to talk you out of Uber. I still use it.

But convenience made a lot of us lazy, myself included. One app, one button, no thinking. That worked great right until it didn't, and most of us missed the moment it turned.

The traveler who knows three ways across a city always pays less than the one who knows one.

Have a backup. Then have a backup for your backup.

Have you and a friend ever checked the same ride and gotten two different prices?

Keep Traveling,

Andrew