Did you know that you can schedule an Uber up to 90 days in advance?
The scheduling feature on Uber is called Uber Reserve, and it comes in handy when you want to book a ride ahead of time.
When you schedule a ride, you get a guaranteed upfront price, and you can often match you with a driver ahead of your pickup time.
But reservations can be more expensive than regular on-demand Uber rides because of the Uber reservation fee and other pricing practices.
Read on to learn how scheduled rides work, how much they cost, and how you can make sure that your scheduled ride actually arrives.
What you need to know
- To schedule an Uber ride, tap the clock icon in the destination entry box
- Reservations include a reservation fee, which may make the ride more expensive than expected
- You can cancel a reserved ride for free up to 60 minutes before your reservation
- Reservations aren’t 100% reliable. Keep an eye on your phone 20 minutes before your reservation to confirm that you match with a driver
How to schedule an Uber ride
On the home screen of the Uber app, tap the clock icon in the “Where to?” search bar. Then, select a time for your reservation from the dropdown menu and input your pickup & drop-off locations.
You can also find the clock icon after you enter a destination.
After you select a date and time, select a ride type and confirm your reservation. Finally, you’ll see a confirmation screen and the ride will appear in your upcoming trips.
Tap the clock icon to begin scheduling a ride
You can also find the clock icon after you enter a destination
During the scheduling process, you’ll see an option to enable or disable ‘auto rematch.’ Auto rematch will match you with a new driver if your scheduled driver is late.
Auto rematch finds you a new driver if yours is running late
Drivers can see and accept your reservation in advance. You will get a notification to confirm that you are matched with a driver.
If you aren’t matched with a driver far in advance, you will still be matched with a driver around 20 minutes before your reservation.
Drivers can accept your reservation in advance
How to manage or cancel a reserved ride
To manage your reserved ride:
From the home screen: Tap Activity, then find your ride under the Upcoming section at the top of the screen.
You can’t edit your ride after making the reservation. If you made a mistake, you need to cancel the ride and start over.
There is no cancellation fee if you cancel more than 60 minutes before the reserved time, so there’s no penalty for adjusting your ride when your plans change.
Find your scheduled ride in the Activity section of the app
How much do reserved rides cost?
You will see an upfront price estimate when you book your reservation. The system creates a price for your ride by using market data to predict the appropriate cost on the day and time that you schedule.
Reserved rides also include a ‘reservation fee.’ The reservation fee is a variable charge that riders pay to compensate drivers for the additional wait time with reservations.
Your upfront price will only change if your trip ends up being much longer than expected, or if you change the destination.
Typically the upfront price will stay the same as long as the ride isn’t significantly longer than the initial estimate.
Does it cost more to reserve a ride?
If your scheduled ride seems more expensive than expected, it’s because of the reservation fee that is added to every scheduled ride.
Uber doesn’t say exactly how reservation fees or upfront prices are calculated, so there’s not much you can do to figure out how to get a better price.
If your reserved ride seems expensive, try placing the reservation at different times of the day to see if the price changes.
The old scheduling system (still active in some markets)
In the past, Uber had a scheduling feature that only sent out an automated request a few minutes before your scheduled time. Uber did not attempt to match you with a driver when you first scheduled the ride.
That scheduling system is still active in some markets. You’ll know if you’re using the older system if there’s no information about upfront driver matching.
Under the older system, there was a greater chance that no drivers would accept your ride during a busy time. Driver rematching with Uber Reserve has proved to be more reliable for passengers.
Cancel fees and wait time for reserved rides
You can cancel a reserved ride for free up to 60 minutes before your reservation. You will be charged a cancellation fee if you cancel less than 60 minutes before your reservation.
You can also cancel for free if your driver is going to be 10+ minutes late when they are matched with you.
Example of cancel fees & wait times in Los Angeles
| Ride Type | Cancel Fee | Wait Time |
|---|---|---|
| UberX | $25 | 5 minutes |
| UberXL | $28 | 5 minutes |
| Uber Comfort | $37 | 5 minutes |
| Uber Black and SUV | Cost of the full fare | 15 minutes |
How reliable are Uber reservations?
There’s an important section in the terms and conditions for Uber reservations: “Uber doesn’t guarantee a driver will accept your ride request. Your ride is confirmed once you receive your driver details.”
If Uber doesn’t guarantee that a driver will accept your request, how reliable can reservations be?
There’s a very good chance that the driver will show up if you reserve a ride and get pre-matched with a driver.
But remember that Uber drivers are independent contractors and are free to cancel your ride with little or no penalty.
It’s easy to find stories from upset passengers who had drivers cancel reservations at the last minute. What’s going on?
Some Uber drivers don’t like reservations: Why your reservation is getting cancelled
The benefits of Uber Reserve come with some drawbacks for drivers. Some drivers cancel reservations or never accept them to begin with.
One reason is that the reservation pricing system may not correctly predict the best market price at the time of the ride, resulting in a scheduled ride that doesn’t pay the driver as much as other rides.
Let’s say your upfront reservation price was $25. If there is unexpected surge pricing at the time of your ride, it might mean that your driver could get paid more for another ride that uses the current market price.
Another reason is the excessive wait time for drivers. Reservations sometimes send drivers to the pickup location up to 25 minutes before the reservation, and drivers aren’t paid for that wait time.
Any additional unpaid wait time is frustrating for drivers, so many choose to cancel the ride or skip reservations altogether.
This driver might have to wait nearly half an hour. Unpaid!
Keep an eye on your phone when you have a reservation coming up!
To ensure you get a ride, keep an eye on your Uber app at least 20 minutes before your reservation time.
If you aren’t matched with a driver and there are only a few minutes until your reservation, consider cancelling the reservation and manually requesting another ride.
You can cancel the reservation at no charge if your driver is going to be 10+ minutes late when they are matched with you.
More about Uber
John says
Are Reserved rides any cheaper, say weeks in advance, than a day or 2 before?
Doug H says
Not usually. But you can check by trying to reserve the same ride twice, once for tomorrow and once for a few weeks out
Judith says
Can I schedule 3 diff rides at one time for same day or two days
Also how to get rideshare at bush airport to take you to a hotel?
I’m new at this.
How much average to go from houston medical center md Anderson to the greater heights 6:30am
Then back around 12:30 afternoon
Doug H says
Yes, you can schedule multiple rides.They will all show up in the “Activity” section of the app. For the airport ride, you’ll have to follow directions in the app to find the rideshare pickup area. When you land, open the Uber app and input the hotel as your destination. For more info, here is a page specifically about IAH. In terms of the cost, you can input the ride into the Uber app any time to get a general sense for how much it will be. Because you’re new to the app, I would recommend taking a test ride or two to get familiar with the app. You don’t want an important trip like an airport ride to be your very first trip.