Uber are changing how many Avios you earn from 15 June, and it's not in a good way

From 15 June, Uber are changing how many Avios you can collect on rides and takeaways in the UK and Ireland. Book ahead and you'll earn more. Grab a standard UberX across town and you'll earn nothing.

What's changing to Avios earning on Uber

Here's what earns from 15 June in the UK:

Trip type	Avios per £1
Uber Reserve (booked ahead)	3
Airport trips (including UberX)	2
Premium rides - XL, Exec, Lux, Comfort, Exec XXL, Black Cab	2
Train and Eurostar via Uber (journey must touch the UK)	2
Uber Eats (subtotal of £25 or more)	1
UberX - Not booked ahead, or going to an airport	0!

And in Ireland it's the same idea, in euros, but the cars go by different names:

Trip type	Avios per €1
Uber Reserve - Taxi Reserve, Uber Black Reserve	3
Airport trips, Taxi Max, Taxi XL, Uber Black	2
Uber Eats (subtotal of €25 or more)	1
Standard taxi - not via Reserve, and not to an airport	0!

One note: any Uber Eats order in Ireland with alcohol in the basket earns nothing. I had to look this up because I thought it was just Uber being boring, but it's Irish law which has banned loyalty points on alcohol since 2021.

Anyway, the change that matters most is that a standard UberX now earns Avios in only two situations: the trip is to or from an airport, or you booked it through Uber Reserve. A normal UberX across town, on the day, earns nothing.

And Reserve for UberX isn't available everywhere, only in:

• Greater London

• Manchester

• The South-West (including Bristol and Bath)

• Birmingham

• Leeds

• Leicester

• Merseyside

• Nottingham

Three other things worth knowing:

• Avios are worked out on the trip price before any promo is applied. Likewise if you add on a tip, or have to pay a cleaning charge because you've gone a bit too hard on a Friday night, that does not earn Avios.

• If a booking includes more than one trip or order and you cancel any one of them, the whole booking earns nothing.

• For an Uber Eats order, the Avios earned is calculated based on the basket, so a £40 order discounted to £20 still earns on the £40 subtotal, as long as you've cleared the £25 minimum.

What I make of it

I think this is a bad change, simply because almost nobody uses Uber the way this now rewards you (at least not in my circles).

The earn has moved onto trips you plan in advance and runs to the airport. But that's not how most people use Uber. You use it for the casual ride. Home after a night out. The £12 hop you book because it's just started raining and you don't have an umbrella. Those trips are the bulk of what anyone spends with Uber, and from 15 June they earn nothing.

Reserve is the only way to keep earning on a standard non-airport UberX ride, and I wouldn't build a plan around it. I've never found it reliable as the system doesn't actually book you a ride ahead of time. It simply places your order automatically for you, with the hope that a driver will take it.

And look at which rides do still earn: Exec, XL, and Lux. It's quite clearly an upsell. Uber would quite like you to book the pricier car for the sake of a few Avios on the way. Don't. A typical fare earns 20 or 30 Avios, effectively pennies, set against the several extra pounds an Exec adds over an UberX. Book whatever's cheapest, or best for the trip, whether that's an UberX, a Bolt, or a proper black cab driver who already knows the way and is paid properly.

That's not to say I never upgrade the ride I pick. The one time I will trade up from an UberX is in the US, where the standard cars can be a little, uhhh, shonky. In the UK provided you're not allergic to a Toyota Prius then an UberX does the job.

I know earning Avios on an Uber was never going to fund a flight. But there's a difference between a few Avios for getting around and none at all unless you meticulously plan your Friday night like your summer holiday.

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