F2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 29 , 2022
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TRAVELRideshare Guy blog for drivers.
“I like to think of it as flying
economy plus.”
Yep, there’s an app for that.
It’s called Up Hail, and it
compares the prices of Uber, Lyft,
a taxi and an airport shuttle. It’s
the brainchild of Avi Wilensky, a
ride-hailing expert who has taken
nearly 3,000 Uber rides since- Wilensky’s insider tip for
people who want to save money
on ride hailing: Check out Waze
Carpool. “Drivers are only able to
charge to cover the cost of gas and
tolls and are not permitted to
make a profit,” he says. UberX
Share and Lyft Shared also offer
carpooling options, but they are a
little pricier.
Never hail a ride from the
airport. An airport pickup can
cost up to twice as much as it
would from the airport hotel
across the street, according to
experts. “Instead, take a free
airport shuttle to a nearby hotel,”
says Michael Alexis, who runs a
team-building company that
coordinates flights and airport
pickups each month. “Your ride
will be significantly cheaper,
sometimes as much as 25 to
50 percent less, and you will also
save the driver from having to
navigate the busy airport pickup.”
That’s a useful tip even if the price
is the same. On my last pickup in
Lisbon, I spent about 15 minutes
looking for my ride. At an airport
hotel, I would have found him
right away.
Sign up for a loyalty program.
Uber Rewards gives frequent
users upgraded rides, highly
rated drivers and priority pickup
at airports. Lyft has Lyft Pink, a
$9.99-per-month program that
offers rewards and other benefits.
“The higher up you are in the
program, the better the cars and
the drivers you get,” says Logan
Freedman, a frequent Uber and
Lyft rider. The loyalty programs
are generous and flexible —
something you don’t typically
find with airline loyalty
programs.
Freedman, a researcher who
works for a lawn-service company
in Austin, has a favorite pro tip: If
you use Uber for your job, set up
an Uber for Business account and
toggle to it when your rides are
work-related. “What this
essentially does is give you double
the number of points toward the
next reward tier,” he says. You’ll
spend less to get a higher loyalty
status on Uber, he says.
Ride-hailing isn’t right for
every trip, as Carnegie Mellon’s
Caldwell says. There are bikes,
scooters and Zipcars available in
many cities. Even Robert
Farrington, who sold his car three
years ago and ride-hails
everywhere, doesn’t always take a
Lyft or Uber. Farrington, who
edits an investment news site in
San Diego, has every reason to
use the two services. His Chase
card gives him five times the
points for each Lyft, and he
regularly gets bonuses and
incentives from the companies
for his loyalty.
And yet, when he’s in a less
urban area that isn’t ride-share-
friendly, Farrington calls a pro. “I
spend slightly more and book a
car service,” he says.
I’m definitely taking some of
these expert ride-hailing tips on
my next trip to the airport. You
can, too, if you’re looking for a
smoother and less expensive ride.
Elliott is a consumer advocate,
journalist and co-founder of the
advocacy group Travelers United.
Email him at [email protected].Most of my
ride-hailing
experiences have
been uneventful —
except for one
recent trip to the
airport. On a rainy
afternoon, I failed
to connect with
my driver, which
precipitated a
soggy 20-minute
delay. That got me thinking:
Maybe I could benefit from some
advice.
I asked academics, travelers
and ride-hailing experts. And
much like the ride-hailing
industry itself, the answers I
received were all over the map.
“The best strategy today is to
have access to many services and
to use each one when it best fits
your trip needs,” says Stan
Caldwell, executive director of
Carnegie Mellon University’s
Traffic21 Institute, which focuses
on transportation issues.
For example, he says savvy
travelers should consider using
Uber or Lyft to get from home to a
transit hub. Or they should use
the ride-hailing services late at
night when mass transit isn’t
running. On other trips, a Zipcar
rental or even a bike share or
scooter might be more
appropriate.
And me? Maybe I should have
taken the train to the airport. A
carpool or the subway would have
been cheaper, experts say. At the
very least, I could have done a
little homework before
summoning a car — like how to
use the location pin on the app.
How did I fail to connect with
my driver and end up soaking wet
and a little irritated? User error. I
didn’t understand how to edit my
pickup location on the app. (It
turns out that you have to drag
your pin to the right location.)
When I tracked down my driver
several blocks away, he said he
hadn’t received a notification
from the ride-hailing company.
The solution? I canceled the
ride, made a new request and —
bing! — my driver received his
hail. I was on my way to the
airport, lesson learned.
Here’s what else I learned:
Look at the fare before you
agree to it. Insiders say this is
particularly important for
visitors to a new city. The practice
of surge pricing, or charging
more if demand is higher, can
make some rides less affordable,
says J.B. Shepard, a Baltimore-
based photographer who has
driven for both major ride-hailing
services. “For whatever reason,
this seems to happen more to
visitors from out of town and
those picked up at or traveling to
hotels,” he says. Shepard recalls a
$72 fare for an out-of-town
passenger on a ride-hailing
platform. Normally, the same ride
would have cost just $22. “I called
the company, thinking that they
billed the passenger in error,” he
remembers. “But they assured me
it wasn’t a bug and that, since the
rate was what the passenger
agreed to pay, that was the bill.”
Pay a little more to get a lot
more. Uber launched a service
called Uber Comfort in 2019. It
guarantees that you get a roomier
car for a small upcharge. And you
also get a top-rated driver. The
upper tier options such as Uber
Black and Uber Select generally
aren’t worth it to travelers who
don’t really care about the make
and model of the car that takes
them there. “But it’s always nice
to have more space,” says Harry
Campbell, author of the popularRide-hailing tips that areworth taking for a spinThe
Navigator
CHRISTOPHER
ELLIOTTThis sign was spotted on Hawaii’s Big Island by Mamta Singh of Vienna, Va.
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or republish them in any form. No purchase necessary.MAMTA SINGHSIGN LANGUAGEPHOTOS BY ILLINOIS OFFICE OF TOURISMBY ANDREA SACHSLast month, Jane Lynch start-
ed appearing in two places at the
same time: in New York City, in
the Broadway revival of “Funny
Girl,” and around the Midwest, in
regional and national ads for the
Illinois Office of Tourism. For the
“Middle of Everything” cam-
paign, the award-winning actor
traipses around the Prairie State
wearing a jaunty blue beret and a
gleeful expression. Playing the
role of official tour guide, the
Illinois native comes face-to-
hologram-face with Honest Abe
at the Abraham Lincoln Presi-
dential Library and Museum in
Springfield, gets her kicks at the
Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame &
Museum in Pontiac and waddles
with penguins at the Shedd
Aquarium in Chicago. In addi-
tion, Lynch, who directed two of
the four ads, assembled a list of
her favorite places to eat, sleep,
soak up culture and, of course,
laugh. We reached out by email
to Lynch, who is temporarily
based in New York City, about her
affections for her home state,
which include an allegiance to
the Chicago Cubs but not to
deep-dish pizza.
The following responses have
been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What is your connection to
Illinois?
A: I was born in Dolton, Ill., and
went to Illinois State University
in Normal, getting an undergrad
degree in theater arts. I did
theater in Chicago after college,
working in a lot of non-equity
theater companies (which
means for free), and finally got
my equity card touring with
Second City and performing in
Steppenwolf Theatre shows.
Q: How did the state shape your
interests, creativity and sense of
humor?
A: In terms of Chicago theater,
it’s an actors’ town. A lot of self-
starters creating their own
companies. Actors come from all
over the country to Chicago to
create their own work and blaze
their own trail. There’s a purity
to the arts and theater in
Chicago. It’s done for art’s sake.
You don’t hear a lot of talk
about, “Oh, I hope this gets me a
sitcom.”
Q: Did you enjoy attending
college a few hours south of
Chicago?
A: I went to school in Normal,
and it’s a little town basically
full of cornfields. It’s quite rural
and simple and a perfect place
for a university. Bucolic and far
enough away from home to feel
almost exotic!
Q: Where do you live now, and
how often do you return to
Illinois?
A: I have lived in Santa Barbara,
Calif., for the past 30 years. My
parents, who have both passed,
never left the south suburbs of
Chicago, and my sister and
brother are raising their families
in the south suburbs. My 91-
year-old Aunt Marge still lives in
the city. I spend every Christmas
in Chicago and get back there to
visit often. My sister and I just
bought a house together in
Hinsdale, about 20 miles west of
downtown Chicago.Q: What makes Illinois such a
special place to visit?
A: Illinois has everything: a big,
beautiful lake that’s almost an
ocean, untouched prairies and a
state capital, Springfield, that is
bursting with Abraham Lincoln
remembrances. Illinois also
contains Chicago, one of the
most beautiful and
cosmopolitan cities on the map.
As opposed to New York and Los
Angeles, Chicago is known for
its down-to-earth people — a
small-town feel in a big city. An
ordinance was created that
forbids building on the beautiful
Lake Michigan shore, so our
beaches are plentiful and stretch
the length of the city.
Some of the most beautiful
architecture is in Chicago. Frank
Lloyd Wright lived and worked
in Oak Park, a nearby suburb,
and many of his famous homes
can be found there. Some of the
most iconic Bauhaus structures
in the world are also in Chicago.
The architecture boat tour along
the Chicago River is
exhilarating. The World’s Fair
was in Chicago in the late 19th
century, and two of the
buildings remain standing,
because they were so beautiful
and it seemed a shame to knock
them down. The fire of that era
also destroyed most of the Near
North Side of the city, meaning
that anything new had to be
built in stone or othernonflammable materials. No
more wood!Q: What misconceptions do
people have about Illinois?
A: That it’s flat prairieland. It’s
not. It’s gorgeous, replete with
rolling hills and breathtaking
bodies of water, plenty of places
to camp and sightsee, some of
the best food in the world and
some really nice people.Q: If Illinois were a person,
what sense of humor or
personality would it have?
Would it be the life of the party,
dancing on the coffee table; the
prankster, pouring booze into
the hot tub; or the polite guest
who cleans up the empties?
A: Illinois has too much variety
to be one person. But one
person could find many
different things to do. It’s
Midwestern. There’s a simplicity
and a gorgeousness to the
landscape. Some of the funniest
people are from Chicago, and
not just from Second City. There
seems to be a really great sense
of humor and lack of
pretentiousness in Chicago and
Illinois. It’s also a virtual
melting pot. I heard once that
Chicago has one of the largest
Polish populations outside of
Warsaw. My grandparents came
to Chicago from Ireland. There
are Swedish neighborhoods and
African American
neighborhoods, Russian
neighborhoods and Chinese
neighborhoods.I asked Lynch to share some
of her favorite Illinois
attractions. Here are her
recommendations:
l Avanti’s Italian Restaurant
on the campus of Illinois StateUniversity. Come for the pizza
bread, stay for the pizza bread
(avantisnormal.com).
l Anderson Japanese Gardens
in Rockford
(andersongardens.org).
l Cahokia Mounds State
Historic Site in Collinsville, a
UNESCO World Heritage site
(cahokiamounds.org).
l The Ulysses S. Grant Home
in Galena. Galena itself is a
quaint, beautiful town, and it’s
well worth a trip
(granthome.org).
l The Frank Lloyd Wright
Home and Studio in Oak Park, a
gorgeous suburb west of
Chicago (flwright.org/visit/
homeandstudio).
l A Chicago architecture boat
tour on the Chicago River
(architecture.org/tours).
l Wrigley Field, home of the
Chicago Cubs. Outdoor baseball
lives at Wrigley, in the heart of
Wrigleyville (mlb.com/cubs/
ballpark).
l Crystal Lake Park, just off
the University of Illinois campus
in Urbana (urbanaparks.org/
parks/crystal-lake-park).
l The Illinois Shakespeare
Festival, live outdoor summer
theater at Ewing Theatre in
Bloomington, just off the
campus of Illinois State
University (illinoisshakes.com).
l Aurelio’s Pizza in Chicago
Heights. The best Chicago-style
pizza is not deep dish. That’s for
the tourists. Real Chicago pizza
is thin crust with tangy, sweet
tomato sauce, and no one does it
like Aurelio’s
(aureliospizza.com).
l The Ann Sather restaurant
on Belmont Avenue in Chicago.
Authentic Swedish cuisine and
an institution on the North Side
(annsather.com).Jane Lynch’s gleeful tour of IllinoisThe actor, who stars in a new tourism ad campaign, shares her favorite places in her home stateTOP: Jane Lynch, who grew up and attended college in Illinois, sits on Lincoln’s Bench in Springfield,
as part of a state tourism campaign. ABOVE: Lynch holds a slice of deep-dish pizza from Giordano’s.