Picking up someone from the airport is an act of love. It takes effort and planning. It’s twice as much driving, and it involves waiting. You may want to signal how much you care early on in a relationship, but after the need to impress wears off most of the time the answer is just Uber or Lyft.
Choosing between Uber and Lyft usually means pulling up both, comparing price and wait times and considering that there are usually richer rewards with Lyft. I earn 10x Chase points plus a Bilt point and ThanksAgain points on my Lyft rides, but find usually rides take a little longer to confirm. Wait times vary by city.
Uber and Lyft say that their premium services (‘Black’) are special, but they aren’t. It used to be ‘professional drivers’ and there was a real difference in vehicles and service. I’ve found no discernable difference in service, and a defining-down of vehicle quality differences as well.
So what if you really want to make a statement with your airport pickup? There’s the ‘Uber for a security detail with motorcade’ that appears to have launched in New York and Los Angeles. Prices start at $200 an hour for a single vehicle and ‘protector’.
Over the last few months, I’ve been advising @bookprotectors: a new app for ordering an on-demand security detail. Or more simply: Uber with guns.
Today, they’re debuting in Los Angeles and NYC at No. 3 on the App Store.
If you have a hot date this weekend, pick her up in a… pic.twitter.com/zVCH7BkctQ
— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) February 18, 2025
Here’s an actual on-demand bodyguard airport pickup:
@fuzzandfuzz uber could neverrrr #nyc #bodyguard #nycgirl #airportlife #uber ♬ Just A Girl – No Doubt
Meet your driver:
John is a Protector pic.twitter.com/3TqEXOjfsU
— Protector (@bookprotectors) February 18, 2025
If you actually need this you’re either a celebrity, a billionaire with public persona, or just wanting to signal importance and craft that narrative for yourself. It makes sense to hire a security detail, perhaps, in Fallujah or Kandahar I guess, though it also makes you stand out and will your team actually risk their lives for you or just highlight that you’re worth ransoming?
As a business, I have to wonder the extent to which this scales. There are probably enough retired ex-cops, and not enough former Navy SEALs. Most aren’t going to need to hire real mercenaries, though. The app sells that you can even pick the attire of the team you’re hiring, in addition to how many vehicles will travel in your convoy.
This probably works best in L.A. for the signaling, New York for the critical mass of people that can afford it, and Miami because Miami. I wonder how they’ll handle users in Miami using these teams are part of the drug trade. The Miami airport pickup, though, would be a real flex.
By
By
By
