Ola – $20 off your first 2x (or 3x?) Rides in SYD/MEL/PER

Disclaimer: This post contains a referral code: A0R509U. This code will give you $20 off your first ride, and give me $20 credit off my future rides when you take your first ride. This referral can be combined with the deal outlined below.

Summary/TL;DR

• $20 off your first ride when using my referral code A0R509U. This also gives me $20 credit for future rides once you take your first ride.
• $20 off your first 2x or 3x Ola rides to be used within a week!

The ridesharing market is heating up in the major Australian capital cities. Uber have dominated for years. GoCatch are relatively unknown, despite having been around for so long and they have never been able to wrestle any sort of market share from Uber. Then Taxify from Eastern Europe came along in late 2017, and now Ola has come from India.

I know it’s still early days, but Taxify and Ola are looking relatively good so far. I’ve used both and am finding both to be absolutely viable alternatives to Uber. In addition, because both are new, you can only expect that there’ll be plenty of promotions coming up for both Ola and Taxify.

Read on for a bit more detail about the deal, my tips for using the deal most effectively, and a brief “review” or comparison between Uber, GoCatch, Taxify and Ola.

$20 off your first 2x Rides in SYD/MEL/PER

I first noticed this posted on Ozbargain (click on the link to view the originally posted deal).

To be honest, I’m not sure why this has only received 22 upvotes (and 2 negatives) whilst a similar Taxify deal got 178 positive votes. The only thing worse about the Ola deal is that you only have a week to use up your credit, but you get 2.. or 3 of the $20 credits!

The deal says 2x lots of $20, but I managed to get 3x. I didn’t do anything differently, and others who have commented also seem to have been able to get 3x lots of $20.

How to Use This Deal Efficiently

With ridesharing prices in Australia (Sydney in particular) $20 really doesn’t get you that far. Here are my ideas for how to use this most efficiently/effectively:

• When you really intended to use Uber or call a taxi anyway – think of trips to the Airport, a night out in the city, or major sporting events/concerts
• Wanting to go somewhere somewhat far? Break your trip up into 2 to be able to use the credit “fully”
  • If the fare estimate is $40ish, then do 2x trips of $20. You’re going to have to get out of the car and wait for another Ola though, so keep that in mind.

Ola vs Uber vs Taxify (vs GoCatch)? Review/Pros/Cons

What I am going to say is based on assumptions. I have no stats to back what I say up.

Uber is still a clear market leader. They have the most drivers, the largest userbase, the most recognisable brand and they probably have the most polished/refined app. You are also able to earn Qantas points on Uber for trips to/from eligible Australian airports.

Uber is best for the reasons above, plus their newly launched (in Sydney) fixed price Uber fares and UberPOOL are also features that none of their competitors offer.

The app experience across all of them is not too different, but Uber still has this more refined feel to it. GoCatch is probably last out of the 4 when it comes to user interface.

Taxify, Ola, and GoCatch still only offer price ranges and none of them offer a pooling feature like Uber do in Sydney.

Is offering a price range a bad thing? Fixed pricing is obviously clearer and better for the customer, but don’t forget that Uber only showed price ranges for many years until they realised competitors were coming along!

Ultimately, I would probably have to say Uber is probably still going to be a tad better. Just keep in mind both Ola and Taxify are new, and I would bet that they’d be offering plenty of promotions over the next few months and maybe years to come.

Taxify are offering 15% off fares in Sydney at the time of writing. Ola are offering 50% off fares (up to $10 discount). GoCatch are offering 25% GoCatch credit for the value of your rides. What are Uber offering? Nothing.

Keep this all in mind next time you’re thinking of booking a rideshare. Remember, competition is never a bad thing for consumers!

Have you tried Ola? Have you got any positive or negative experiences to share? Leave a comment below!