Taxi app FREENOW adds an ‘Airport Prebook Promise’

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• masaccio says:

  31 Jan31 January 06:53

  The “no taxi can be found to accept your prebooked ride before the pick-up time” tells me it’s not a pre-booking at all but rather a timed booking request, just like Uber.

  No thanks, I will stick to my current specialist who allocates a driver the night before. Oh, and for trips from the airport checks my arrival time to make sure the car is there.

  • John G says:

    31 Jan31 January 08:03

    My thought exactly. This promo adds more doubt that things could go wrong!

    • Simon Schus says:

      31 Jan31 January 15:45

      With Lyft and Uber in the US, it is prebooking when they can (in my experience, 100% successful at prebooking whether I book it the night before, or a week before). If cannot pre book straight away (or within a few minutes of the booking request), the app keep trying to prebook you up until the time of the ride at which point it becomes an automated timed booking request.

      I assume similar approach with FreeNow but I don’t know.

• Paul says:

  31 Jan31 January 07:50

  Limited to airports around London where there is surely little chance of a taxi not turning up! And who cancels a taxi that’s 5 minutes late…

  • Rob says:

    31 Jan31 January 08:26

    Someone will get £60, that’s who.

• The real Swiss Tony says:

  31 Jan31 January 08:12

  Yep, saw this yesterday and it felt particularly lame. So I miss a flight, have to shell out hundreds to buy a replacement and you’re giving me £60. Didn’t even bother to read the terms – the fact it’s 2x £30 and you only have a month to use means the wastage will be significant.

  • Rob says:

    31 Jan31 January 08:24

    One way of looking at it I suppose. This is how I see it. I can get a replacement taxi 24/7 by walking outside by front door and waiting 60 seconds for one to drive past or I can get an Uber etc to my door within 2 minutes, 24/7, or indeed I can take the 5 minute walk to a Piccadilly Line station from 5am.

    It’s a one way bet in my favour because the inconvenience if they don’t show is nil.

    • memesweeper says:

      31 Jan31 January 11:16

      would work that way for me too — if you’re in the suburbs, a bit more of a risk

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      31 Jan31 January 13:11

      If you would otherwise happily have taken a very convenient public transport option then it’s not a one-way bet – you’re considerably worse off if the taxi turns up for only very marginal gain!

      • The real Swiss Tony says:

        31 Jan31 January 13:46

        Yep, exactly, If you can get an uber on demand AND have public transport as a backup, I really don’t see why you would pre-book as you’re immediately disadvantaging yourself if you are ready 15 mins early (or need an extra 15 mins).

        I guess if you are wholly insensitive to price then it might have an upside, but to me this is a marketing gimmick, not something that will compensate you if they screw up or guarantee they actually deliver the service.

• brian says:

  31 Jan31 January 08:25

  “Sorry a taxi didn’t turn up and you may have missed your flight, here’s two £30 vouchers to use on our platform that failed you P.S. must be used within the next 2 months”.

  It may be an improvement on other similar services but it still doesn’t fill me with enough confidence to rely on them for a trip to the airport.

• Kevin says:

  31 Jan31 January 10:57

  Depends on how much/if they charge extra for “pre booking”.

  Eg for me an uber to Heathrow often costs around £20 but it’s double that or more if I “pre book”

• Cicro says:

  31 Jan31 January 11:25

  It’s a good scheme. If the taxi fails to show pocket the £30×2 and book another. It’s not as if you’re going to miss your flight.

• Simon Schus says:

  31 Jan31 January 15:31

  Same approach as on the Lyft ride sharing app in the US, for scheduled airport rides. The cost is higher to book in advance, usually 10-20% in my experience (still do it as you usually get the driver locked in a day or two before the ride which increases confidence it’ll show up- you get the picture and name of the driver, but not the vehicle type). I have to use it weekly for a 3:30am pickup to airport.

  • Simon Schus says:

    31 Jan31 January 15:36

    Note, never had them late so haven’t ever gotten the compensation! Usually, they turn up 10 minutes early and politely wait for you… and will wait until 5 minutes after your scheduled pick-up time (at which point the app starts charging wait fees, and will presumably cancel at some point). All quite convenient really!

• KT says:

  31 Jan31 January 16:28

  Freenow truly has the worst pre-booking system in the world. Pre-booked a cab to the airport for 04:30 AM, opened my phone at 04:25 AM and there was nothing. No tab showing the prebooking or any booking details. Last time I used the app, could not recommend Freenow less to anyone who actually has to get somewhere!

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