# Current Promotions



## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

When I logged into my dashboard today and clicked on "Driver Referrals" it says:
-------------------------
*Referrals*
 
*Refer a passenger, earn $100*
*
Refer a driver, earn $250*
Your referral code is [Removed] and your referral link is
https://www.lyft.com/drivers/[Removed]

Earn up to $250 for referring a driver in select cities once they complete 30 rides in their first 30 days.
-------------------------

Anyone else see this? Has anyone gotten $100 for a pax referral??? That would be awesome but seems wayy too good to be true.


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## Bart McCoy (Nov 4, 2014)

ahah i await the answer to this


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Bart McCoy said:


> ahah i await the answer to this


We can figure it out real quick. Sign up for Lyft and I'll send you my code, then just take a trip to no where. I'll mail you a check for half haha


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Yupp typo  logged back in to find this

---------------------------------
*Referrals*
 
*Refer a passenger, earn $10*
*
Refer a driver, earn $250*
----------------------------------

Oh well!


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## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

Right now in Dallas, mine says this. I know the $500 is legit, but the $250 for passenger referrals is kind of crazy. Great if it is true, but I don't believe it. I have emailed support for a confirmation, but nothing so far.

*Referrals*
*REFER A PASSENGER, EARN $250*
*REFER A DRIVER, EARN $500*
Your referral code is *xxxxxxxxx *and your referral link is
https://www.lyft.com/drivers/xxxxxxxxxx
Earn up to $500 for referring a driver in select cities once they complete 30 rides in their first 30 days.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

That would be awesome, if it were true. Take a screenshot of the page and get a couple people to sign up. Maybe they will honor it if you write in with a screenshot.


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

Hey all Lyft Drivers...I believe the passenger referral program is a TOTAL rip off for both us drivers and the pax....I have passed out over 1000 referral codes/cards purchased through VistaPrint using Lyft link and gotten paid twice with the last in September 14. I have written support because I have received over $300 from Uber for about the same number of cards (that would be 30 users). Support told me there is no problem with my referral code. So, a few weeks ago I set up my wife with a Lyft account using my referral code and took two rides...one from Car Dealer after dropping off my car for service and the second to get back to pick the car up.....My referral card I am handing out says "FREE FIRST RIDE CREDIT...$20. Use this to start your first Lyft adventure." We were charged about $13 for each ride...there was no $20 credit. I never got the $10 referral bonus! So, I went to support and here is the answer:

_It looks like when your wife created their Lyft account, three $5 Pioneer credits were added to their account. The first of those two credits were applied to the two rides you mentioned that were taken on 03/31. The total for the first ride was $18.66, with $5 being covered by the credit and the additional $13.66 being charged to the card on file. The second ride total was $18.59, with $5 being covered by the credit and the additional $13.59 being charged to the card on file.

I've ensured that your referral code has been successfully added to your wife's account, and as soon as they take a ride that uses the credit, you will receive the bonus to your own account.

Keep in mind that new users may sign up with your referral code, but you will only receive a bonus when they have successfully taken a ride using the credit.

Feel free to let me know if there are any other questions you have._

I have NEVER heard of a PIONEER CREDIT...have you? When I told them the pax is expecting a $20 free ride for FIRST ride based on my referral code and the card I give them, they said the pax would first have to use each $5 credit and then for the FOURTH RIDE would get my credit...as of right now my wifes account says she has 1 $10 Free Ride credit....where the hell did that come from? No mention of my $20 credit being there!!!!

FROM ALL THIS...I guess what this means is only hand out referral cards that say $20 free first ride if you are not in a Pioneer area...*and they don't tell us what areas are Pioneer*...

Total RIP OFF...I am destroying over 500 referral cards purchased at VistaPrint and will not use them so I don't lie to the customer..

ALSO...did you realize your referral code expires 30 days after it is entered into a person's account? If no ride taken in 30 days then no referral bonus...but the way, the so called Pioneer credits expire in 10 days!!!

So if you hand out a referral please ask the PAX to not use it to set up an account until they are really ready to take a ride...

Here is SD current referrals:

*Referrals*
*REFER A PASSENGER, EARN $10*
*REFER A DRIVER, EARN $50*

I can't tell you have very disturbed I am at these kind of practices by Lyft...


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## Sacto Burbs (Dec 28, 2014)

All offers are limited. I threw away a box of cards too.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Bill Feit said:


> Hey all Lyft Drivers...I believe the passenger referral program is a TOTAL rip off for both us drivers and the pax....I have passed out over 1000 referral codes/cards purchased through VistaPrint using Lyft link and gotten paid twice with the last in September 14. I have written support because I have received over $300 from Uber for about the same number of cards (that would be 30 users). Support told me there is no problem with my referral code. So, a few weeks ago I set up my wife with a Lyft account using my referral code and took two rides...one from Car Dealer after dropping off my car for service and the second to get back to pick the car up.....My referral card I am handing out says "FREE FIRST RIDE CREDIT...$20. Use this to start your first Lyft adventure." We were charged about $13 for each ride...there was no $20 credit. I never got the $10 referral bonus! So, I went to support and here is the answer:
> 
> _It looks like when your wife created their Lyft account, three $5 Pioneer credits were added to their account. The first of those two credits were applied to the two rides you mentioned that were taken on 03/31. The total for the first ride was $18.66, with $5 being covered by the credit and the additional $13.66 being charged to the card on file. The second ride total was $18.59, with $5 being covered by the credit and the additional $13.59 being charged to the card on file.
> 
> ...


I had the complete same thing happen with uber! I passed out a ton of cards, even gave a stack to a girl that worked the front desk of a hotel that's popular with uber and she said that she refers people to uber all the time (she didn't know she could give out her code to get rides for herself) and would be happy to give out my cards. I never got a single referral. I then signed up a friend, sure enough, no bonus. I emailed uber and got the generic "sometimes people enter the code but don't use it", I told them that they said they took a ride, then got the "maybe the code was entered incorrectly". Nope, I entered the code myself... I gave her the person's phone number and viola! she found it! Gave me a $20 credit on uber. She said that the issue was now fixed. I then signed up two more people.. nope, nothing! Went through the same process, same generic replies, then when I gave their phone numbers the rep was able to find it.. shocker.. No more passing out uber cards.

However, with Lyft it was the opposite, I signed someone up and they got $5 off their first three rides for being in the Miami market and then 3 more rides with $5 off for using my promo code. The $10 referral for me showed up that night. Lyft won't pay for your first 500 promo cards like uber did, so I'm just holding off. My Lyft promo code is very easy to remember, so I can just tell people.

With Lyft though the bad part about the $5 off is that they say the min fare is $5, but that doesn't include the $1.5 SRF. So it will still charge the pax $1.5, it beats $6.5 but is confusing for the pax.

I think all of Lyfts promo material says that the promo codes with give the paxs 'up to $20'.


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## rjenkins (Nov 30, 2014)

I had my questions about the referral fees, too. I was pleased to find that Lyft at least has a place where you can go on the portal to see how many people have entered your code (and to create your own custom codes, too). After seeing the additional credits that passengers were getting here in Dallas (it was three, $5 ride credits for a while....then it zipped up to an insane TEN, $20 ride credits for a while, just for downloading the app and signing up), I wondered if those credits would somehow prevent me from getting my referral fee....should the passenger use one of those credits for their first ride, rather than using the credit I gave them.

I didn't know the term "pioneer rides" until I emailed support, but their purpose is fairly obvious. It's a way for Lyft to kind of prime the pump in newer markets. You get people to download the app and give them some rides for free. In the short term, it gives drivers something to do. Longer term, it gets at least some of those passengers to become ongoing customers. In this market, the pioneer credits expire pretty quickly, btw. I believe they are good for only two weeks after downloading the app.

I've pasted my dialogue with customer support below, so you can compare and contrast to your response. Bullet point #2 is the one relevant to this thread. There were a couple of other related issues addressed in this email exchange, which I'll leave in since they might be helpful to someone. I've redacted the actual referral codes.

****************************************

FEB 27, 2015 | 09:50PM PST 
*Lester* replied:

Hey Roy,

Thanks for reaching out to us. I apologize for the delay in response as we are currently dealing with an extremely high volume of emails at the moment.

I've numbered some answers below to match your numbered questions.

1. We recently changed the Lyft app to improve the overall payment and tipping experience. One of the changes was also to our policy; tips are now charged to the card on file. This means that Lyft credits will apply to the ride, but any additional tip to the driver will be paid by the passenger via their payment information on file.

2. If the passenger has pioneer credits and those credits are used for the passenger's first ride, the driver will still receive their $5 bonus. At the end of the first ride, if there is a referral redemption in the referred passenger's account, the referrer will still be bonused!

3. yyyyyyyis not your referral code for driver applicants. We're stoked to hear that you want to refer your friends to join the Lyft driver community! You can do this by visiting lyft.com/drive and clicking on "Referrals". You can send a message right from the portal, or share your unique link directly.

For more information on driver referrals, check out this article: https://www.lyft.com/drive/help/article/1523594

Connect with drivers offline. The Hub has your local calendar of upcoming driver events: http://thehub.lyft.com/events-1/.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Best,
Lester 
Lyft Support Representative

Help Center - lyft.com/help 
Driver Help Center and Q&A - lyft.com/drive/help 
Ask Lyft on Twitter! - twitter.com/asklyft

FEB 25, 2015 | 06:19AM PST 
Original message
*Roy *wrote:

1. I had a question from a passenger who was using a free ride credit. He asked if the tip was deducted from the credit, or if he was paying out of pocket.

That is, if the credit was $20, and his ride was only $10, is the tip covered by the excess credit?

I had to tell him I honestly wasn't sure.

2. With all the free ride credits being given out in Dallas just for downloading the app, how is the credit from my code handled? If a new rider enters my code, but uses the other credits before using my credits, what happens to my referral credit?

3. Lastly, I have created an alternate code in my account, called "yyyyyyyyyy" I prefer this code, and have it printed on business cards. Would a new driver referral be able to use this code to sign up, or do they need to use my original code, "xxxxxxxx" ?

Thanks in advance,

****************************************

So, this particular CSR's response seems to indicate that as long as the passenger has entered my code into their app, I'll get a referral credit as soon as they take their first ride, no matter which credit they apply to that ride.

Is it true? Who knows for sure.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

rjenkins said:


> I had my questions about the referral fees, too. I was pleased to find that Lyft at least has a place where you can go on the portal to see how many people have entered your code (and to create your own custom codes, too). After seeing the additional credits that passengers were getting here in Dallas (it was three, $5 ride credits for a while....then it zipped up to an insane TEN, $20 ride credits for a while, just for downloading the app and signing up), I wondered if those credits would somehow prevent me from getting my referral fee....should the passenger use one of those credits for their first ride, rather than using the credit I gave them.
> 
> I didn't know the term "pioneer rides" until I emailed support, but their purpose is fairly obvious. It's a way for Lyft to kind of prime the pump in newer markets. You get people to download the app and give them some rides for free. In the short term, it gives drivers something to do. Longer term, it gets at least some of those passengers to become ongoing customers. In this market, the pioneer credits expire pretty quickly, btw. I believe they are good for only two weeks after downloading the app.
> 
> ...


1) I did read somewhere on Lyft's site that the tip is charged to the credit card and cannot be counted as the promo code. Makes sense, hopefully paxs will still tip a few extra bucks since their trip was free/reduced.

2) That is how it worked for me. The pax had the "pioneer credits" but I still got my referral bonus after their first ride.

3) That is too bad, but thanks for posting this since I also wondered about it. I also made custom codes and give that out instead of the generic one.


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## benk016 (Mar 31, 2015)

At least you're getting something. Here in Tulsa all passenger referrals are blocked completely. They just say "This promo is unavailable in your city"
Its kind of suprising because Lyft has fallen way behind here. I drive for both and so far have done 35 uber trips, and 1 lyft ride. both apps are always running.


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

Great input everyone..thanks for posting. Still....how hard would it be for Lyft to NOT give the Pioneer rides at $5 ea and give the $20 when the customer has initiated the account with a DRIVER referral??? Should be easy and would still be the right thing to do so the pax knows the driver did give them a worthwhile referral. Also, the Pioneer expires in 10 days here...why? As Posted earlier, the pax must take the first ride within 30 days of account activation for them AND driver to get their money...Not right. Either promote, or don't promote (like Tulsa).

On a new subject...did anyone notice the app changed this week? No longer does the ride request list a time to pick up estimate!!! You have to accept and hit navigate to see...today my first accept turned out to be 28 minutes and 19.8 miles away!!! Bullshit! I had to cancel! Same with rider app...not time for closest driver but how many drivers!! Another big Lyft mistake!!!


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

Bill Feit said:


> Great input everyone..thanks for posting. Still....how hard would it be for Lyft to NOT give the Pioneer rides at $5 ea and give the $20 when the customer has initiated the account with a DRIVER referral??? Should be easy and would still be the right thing to do so the pax knows the driver did give them a worthwhile referral. Also, the Pioneer expires in 10 days here...why? As Posted earlier, the pax must take the first ride within 30 days of account activation for them AND driver to get their money...Not right. Either promote, or don't promote (like Tulsa).
> 
> On a new subject...did anyone notice the app changed this week? No longer does the ride request list a time to pick up estimate!!! You have to accept and hit navigate to see...today my first accept turned out to be 28 minutes and 19.8 miles away!!! Bullshit! I had to cancel! Same with rider app...not time for closest driver but how many drivers!! Another big Lyft mistake!!!


I believe that if you click on promotions or something that it will show you all of your available credits/free trips.

The pioneer credits expire first, so it makes sense to use them first. In my market the pioneer credits are equal to the driver's referral, so the pax wouldn't know which was being used first.

I could see how the pax would be upset though if they thought it was $20 off the first ride just to find out that it was only $5 off if they were doing a long trip.

The pioneer credits are good though, even if they expire in just 10 days. It seems like Lyft is trying to attract the paxs that use uber at least twice a week, throw a ton of $5 off coupons there way and they'll get used to opening the Lyft app before the uber app.

Lyft should make the drivers aware of what the current promos are, the pax I referred was very surprised to see 3x $5 off instead of 1x $20 off. I had no idea that this was the promo.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Tonight lyft is doing 25% pt from 10-12 but it has been 1:15 without a single ping in a busy area.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

limepro said:


> Tonight lyft is doing 25% pt from 10-12 but it has been 1:15 without a single ping in a busy area.


I just laughed when I got that text. 25% for just two hours in an area that is about an hour drive from me?? Not happening.. lol


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

I live in a decently busy area of coconut grove, gables and UM all within throwing distance and not a single ping.


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## UberXinSoFlo (Jan 26, 2015)

limepro said:


> I live in a decently busy area of coconut grove, gables and UM all within throwing distance and not a single ping.


Yeah, I doubt anyone would take Lyft during primetime unless uber is 2x+ surge. I think that Lyft should disable primetime down here and do more with giving drivers guarantees. They need to get a good driver and pax base before they can start charging primetime, imo.

Did you get any guarantees from Lyft this week? I didn't get any, I just stayed logged off and did more work at my main job.

If Lyft would be consistently busy I'd easily do 30+ hours. I emailed them about doing some marketing, offered to pay for it even. I just wanted their approval and to get some artwork. All they would give is just generic replies about their promo items on vistaprint..


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

UberXinSoFlo said:


> *I believe that if you click on promotions or something that it will show you all of your available credits/free trips.*
> 
> I could see how the pax would be upset though if they thought it was $20 off the first ride just to find out that it was only $5 off if they were doing a long trip.
> 
> ...


The above (in red) is my point exactly. Also, the "promotions" area you talk about in your post (in blue) is actually an Uber thing...Lyft is found by clicking "payments" area and any available credits are last item shown below your credit card. I just looked at mine and I have a $5 credit that expires 4-26 don't know where that came from (my account is over 8 months old) unless I am getting rider credit when someone used my referral...do we get rider credits rather than the $10 referral credit I am looking for???? My wife's account I established on 3/31 does not show my $20 referral OR the $5 that should remain from Pioneer credits...it shows $10 expiring 4/28??? figure that out!


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