Last time I bought an Uber ride pass the math worked out pretty well in my favor.

This time they suckered me into buying a pass, called a Route Pass, that isn’t nearly as good:

How does it work?

Basically they have you enter two locations.

For $10 you can purchase a pass that allows you to take 20 UberX rides between those two locations for a flat rate.

The flat rate depends upon the distance of the ride.

How do I sign up?

Uber offers flat fare promos in various cities, often targeting users with the offers by email, and it’s a mystery how they decide who to email.

I live about twenty miles south of San Francisco, so I was hoping to buy a pass that would let me travel cheaply up to the nearest SF train station and back home.

When I did the math, the flat rate they were offering per trip ($22) was more expensive than the ride costed ($19) when I checked, meaning the pass would be a complete waste and a ripoff.

My favorite food/drink place in my area typically costs ~$18 to get to from my home with UberX, and the flat rate offer with a route pass was $7.99, so I went for it.

Good deal?

For people who frequently take Uber between the same two locations, this could be an awesome deal.

It depends on the route though, so do the math to see if the flat rate they offer you is even cheaper than the normal rate.

In my case, I’ll probably just end up spending way more on Uber and German food/drink than I would’ve if the pass hadn’t lured me in.

Here is some fine print:

For more info on the much better version of Uber’s flat rate pass, check out this post.

Doctor of Credit also posted this week about those passes being available again in a few cities.