Business travellers rejoice! You will no longer need to walk to Siberia if you want to catch an Uber at Sydney Airport. There is a brand-new pick-up spot, more conveniently located for your weary bones to collapse into a car and be whisked away to whichever conference room is to become your prison for the day.
See, friends, back in the olden times, if you arrived at Sydney airport and only had Uber vouchers, you would have to leave the airport terminal, walk around the carpark, and off to a random spot far enough away from the terminal that it wouldn’t agitate the taxi drivers. That was fine if you wanted to stretch your legs after a long trip, but less fine if you had baggage (either emotional or physical).
But now, if you’ve flown Qantas, you can just walk straight out of the terminal and order your Uber right there.
There are a few catches to this, of course. When I used it last week it was so new that there were Uber workers standing outside who told you to write extra pick up information in a message to your driver so they wouldn’t get lost. I then had to wait for a long time while the driver got super lost, went to departures, then did a lap of the whole airport to get back.
There is also a slightly higher airport fee. When I travelled last year the fee was $5.01, and now it’s $5.68. Not back breaking, but still noteworthy.
If you’re landing at a terminal other than T3, then you will have to either walk to T3, or to the usual spot. But this is yet another sign that taxi ranks are being weakened, following Melbourne airport’s decision to go big with a giant Uber rank, sequestering a tiny taxi rank down one end during the lockdowns. It’ll be interesting to see if more Uber pick up zones are added at other terminals in the near future.