A few years ago we went away for a month.   As always, we made a reservation with a car service to take us to the airport.  I always worried about these guys showing up; I had occasionally experienced no-shows or late arrivals.  So I was grew nervous as the pickup time approached.  

I grew very tense when the pickup time passed with no driver. 

Tedd of Uber, April 2017

I grew extremely tense when my call to the dispatcher went to voice mail. 

At 10 minutes past the pickup time, and with no answer at dispatch, we loaded our luggage into the car and drove to JFK long term parking.  The parking fee for the month was $16/day, or $480.  

Last year I started using Uber (like so many of you).  Mostly, it’s been a good experience, with lower costs, clean cars and pleasant drivers.   On our last trip I had trouble getting a ride; apparently none of the drivers in the area wanted to make the 1:30 trip to JFK.  

So this time I decided to try Lyft.  I had been told that many drivers were abandoning Uber for Lyft, so we gave a try.   I even used the scheduling feature to set the pickup for 4:00pm.  Sure enough, a few minutes before 4:00, I got an alert that a driver had picked up the call and would be there in 14 minutes.  Cool!

Except that I watched as he drove in the wrong direction, the arrival time stretched to 23 minutes, and then the car icon stopped moving.  After a text and voice call yielded nothing, I cancelled the call and switched over to Uber.  Tedd (pictured above) immediately grabbed the call and was at our house in 7 minutes.  

So now we’re on our way to the airport, with an ETA of 5:40 for our 8:07 departure.  Plenty of time.