Lyft to Pay Passengers If Drivers Are Late to Scheduled Pickups

There’s nothing more anxiety-inducing than standing outside in the extremely early hours of the morning, watching your rideshare app search for nearby drivers to no avail, despite having scheduled a ride 24 hours in advance, when you have a flight to catch. It’s enough to make even the most seasoned traveler sweat.

Fortunately, rideshare app Lyft is now offering users a little more reassurance where scheduled pickups are involved. According to Travel + Leisure, the company will now pay passengers as much as $100 in Lyft Cash to be used on future rides, if their scheduled ride is late.

Here’s how it works: If the driver is more than 10 minutes late, Lyft will pay the rider $20 in these Lyft credits. Riders who are not automatically matched with a driver in 10 minutes after their scheduled pickup time will then receive a total of $50 in Lyft Cash. Those who are not matched with a driver and are then forced to schedule another ride to the airport with a different company altogether (read: Uber) can then request up to an additional $50 in Lyft Cash, by submitting a receipt of the other ride, for a total of $100.

Lyft Adds Wait Time Fees for All Rides

Wait time fees may be charged at a per-minute rate if your driver has been waiting for more than two minutes

“Every minute counts when you’re on the way to the airport,” Lyft’s CEO David Risher said in a statement. “We’re so confident that we can get you there on time that if we’re more than ten minutes late for your scheduled pick-up, we’ll give you up to $100 in Lyft credits to make up for it — even if you take an Uber.”

There’s a catch. As T+L writes, the new promise will only be available in 22 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Newark, San Francisco, Washington, Boston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Seattle, Tacoma, Orlando, Houston, Minneapolis/St.Paul, Portland, San Jose and Salt Lake City.

It’s a nice incentive to travel via Lyft to be sure, though if you qualify for that incentive, it means you’re already late to the airport (or wherever else it is that you’re going), which is obviously not ideal. That said, while Lyft quietly added wait time fees for all rides earlier this year, scheduling a ride automatically also absolves you of having to pay those (both Uber and Lyft grant more wait time for scheduled rides). So, theoretically, you stand to benefit from scheduling your ride in advance either way.