It’s Saturday and a lot of you are about to end your night by taking a $50 Lyft back home. Not a fun expense, but saving 20% on it would make it feel a bit better.
This isn’t a limited time discount — turns out you can get at least 20% off any time on your Lyfts. It just requires a bit of girl math.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns a whopping 10x points on Lyft rides. Last year I flew a $10000 business class itinerary in United Polaris business class by transferring 99k Chase points to United MileagePlus, garnering a value of 10¢/point. I definitely had some of my Lyfts contribute to those 99k points, and since I earned 10x points and redeemed those points for 10¢ a point, I effectively got $1 back for every $1 I spent on a Lyft. In other words, my Lyfts were free.
Now a 10¢/point redemption isn’t super common and mostly exists when flying premium cabins, but even if you just redeem on economy flights, you can still get a pretty sizable discount on your Lyfts. At the very least, you can redeem Chase points in the Chase portal directly for 1.5¢/point. But if you transfer those points into airlines, you can easily and routinely get at least 2¢/point. That means you’re effectively earning 20¢ per dollar you spend on Lyft — 20% off!
So next time it’s late at night and you’re Lyfting back home, know that if you girl math it, you’re at least getting it at a discount.
(Unfortunately for my Uber loyalists, this arbitrage is a Lyft only thing. The Capital One Savor cards will give you 10% off Ubers, but 10% isn’t the same as 10x points.)
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