Web site helps passengers split fares on costly rides to airport
By: Mike Aldax
November 29, 2008
 |
| A new Web site matches travelers headed to San Francisco International Airport with others searching for a ride, allowing them to split the cost, cruise in a roomy Lincoln Town Car and possibly even make a new friend. (AP) |
SAN FRANCISCO — A Town Car shows up at your door to take you to the airport — and the cost of the fare is only half of what it typically would be.
That’s along the lines of what the new online networking service Hitchsters.com promises.
The Web site matches travelers headed to San Francisco International Airport with others searching for a ride, allowing them to split the cost, cruise in a roomy Lincoln Town Car and possibly even make a new friend.
The idea is basic: Sign up for the service, type in your departure time and specify the gender of the person you’d want to ride with, should you have a preference. The company matches you with a traveler near your home, sends a car for the pick-up, and neither of you will need to worry about who tips the driver, because that’s included in the price paid online with your credit card, said CEO Jason Lin.
Lin said his company struck deals with three local limo companies to offer SFO fares slightly lower than taxicab rates, which can run as much as $50 from The City, $60 from Berkeley and $110 from San Jose.
“[Fliers] save an average of $21 each way to and from the airport,” he said. “And [unlike airport shuttles], you don’t need to wait for eight pickups before getting to the airport.”
Hitchsters currently offers service to residents of San Francisco, the East Bay and South Bay. The company began offering airport rides to New Yorkers two years ago, claiming to have matched more than 1,500 travelers there. SFO is its second market, and the company plans to expand to other cities, he said.
On the return trip, Lin said the company currently tries to match travelers arriving on the same flight to account for possible delays to other flights. The return trip home is with a regular taxicab, he said.
To let you know where to meet your travel buddy upon arrival at SFO, the company shoots a text to your cell phone once you’ve touched down, he said.
Hitchsters is working on real-time technology that would track airport hang-ups such as flight and baggage delays so as to broaden the matching process to all arriving flights, Lin said.
Cost of catching a cab
Average cab fare to SFO:
From East Bay: $50 to $75 (depending on distance)
From San Francisco: $45 to $60
From San Jose: $85 to $110
Source: Cab companies
