Seemingly out of nowhere, this week, Amazon rolled out a new partnership with Uber Eats. The reason why this was surprising was because, until yesterday, Amazon had a deal with Grubhub. Anyway, since I was curious — and because Amazon was offering a good deal to celebrate the launch — I decided to give this new option a try.
First, one of the selling points of this collab is that users don’t have to download the Uber Eats app or even have an Uber account in order to use it. Instead, the whole thing is run through Amazon. That is kind of nice… except that there doesn’t currently seem to be a way to link your Uber account to Amazon if you wanted to. For example, I initially hoped that I could double dip by using the Uber Cash that comes with my Amex Platinum card in addition to the Amazon deal.
As for what that deal was, through November 18th, Prime customers can get $20 off their first two orders of $25 or more on Uber Eats. Although the wording suggests that this discount is only available for delivery orders, it did seem as though I would have been able to use it for pickup. Nevertheless, we were feeling lazy, and I wanted to see how the whole process worked, so we got delivery.
While this $20 off deal is only for a limited time, an ongoing perk of this Prime-Uber Eats partnership is that customers will enjoy $0 delivery fees. If you’re not familiar with Uber Eats, “no delivery fees” may sound like a great deal. Alas, you’ll still be paying quite a premium to have your order brought to your door.
For one, most restaurants inflate their prices on delivery apps to make up for the platform’s cut. On top of that, service fees may apply to your delivery order. For example, service fees for my order (which had a $43 subtotal before a BOGO promo and the $20 off were applied) exceeded $8. And, on top of that, you should tip your driver. All of these elements come together to amount to one expensive meal — even without those pesky delivery fees!
So what was the experience of ordering Uber Eats through Amazon like? Well, the interface was quite familiar, although there were little Amazon Prime logos on the restaurant listing where it noted the $0 delivery fees. Also, when it came time to pay, the only option was Amazon Pay (which just brings up a list of cards you’ve previously added to your Amazon account). Then, after placing my order, the alerts I got — including push alerts and emails — came from Amazon instead of Uber. Other than that, though, the process was pretty much the same.
With that, is this a good deal? Well, that depends. For those who already have benefits like Uber One through a credit card, then this Amazon Prime offer isn’t going to be helpful. However, for those who don’t use Uber Eats often, there is something to be said for being able to place an order through Amazon rather than working on making a new account or keeping track of another password.
Personally, I’m just hoping that we see more great deals like this $20 launch offer. If we do, I’ll definitely be sure to take advantage of them. Short of that, though, I’ll stick with my main Uber Eats account and complimentary Uber One.