So it seems like Citibike/Lyft has pulled another fast one on us–instead of Bike Angels getting the previous $200 worth of value (obviously not actually cash anymore) when we redeem 1000 points, starting this month you seem to have lowered it to us getting only $150 worth of E-gift cards.And as usual, you have not sent an email informing the Bike Angels of this change, you have posted nothing official on this blog, nor did you do anything to make us aware of it, so the only way anyone would have found out is at the end of February, after they spent the whole month accumulating points when they went to redeem them, and suddenly discovered that they were now worth 25% less in value!This is reminiscence of many of the changes Citibike/Lyft has made to the Bike Angels program, most recently when you decided to stop letting us redeem our hard earned points for ACH, changing your long-standing arrangement, with no communication to members, only some fine print if they redeemed their points that month, that many people missed. And if anyone was banking their points, thinking they could redeem them later for cash, well they were just out of luck!I just found out about this most recent change yesterday because someone shared it with me, otherwise I would’ve been in the dark until I went to redeem my points at the end of February. I really feel that Citibike/Lyft does not care about the Bike Angels, and it’s doing everything in it’s power to destroy the system and any goodwill that they had left with us. Pretty soon no one is going to want to be a Bike Angel, and Citibike/Lyft will have to spend all the money (and likely more) that they think they are saving by making these changes, and hire more employees to move all the bikes. And again, this lack of notification, of transparency, along with last year’s long delays in receiving our rewards after we redeemed our points, speaks volumes to how Citibike/Lyft really feels about their dedicated Bike Angels.

Is there any way you can go into Tremendous and enable some more giftcard options? None of them really work for me (I'm on the Bezos boycott train, don't use Disney, AirBnB, DoorDash, no Walmarts nearby etc.).I only see 6 gift card options and 8 charities, but I checked out the Tremendous catalog of options and filtered by the U.S. and they have got 168 gift card options and 50 charities. For sure I'm not expecting you to enable gift cards for Uber😝 but they've got airlines, Home Depot, Lowe's, Apple, Starbucks, Harris Teeter, Kroger, H&M, Macy's, Spotify ... I could go on but you get the picture. Maybe just enable them all?That would make it a lot easier for me to use the cards or give them as gifts to people who I know shop at certain places, I would really appreciate it.In general, the ability to get ACH was so much better. I don't give gift cards as gifts personally either (I put cash in a red envelope Lunar New Year style) because I know how annoying they are for people to use up without just feeling like they were spent on crap. I'm sure there was fraud in NYC (I've moved enough bikes to know what's feasible in the leaderboard by a normal human who is actually trying to help the system) and those people suck, the whole point is to make the system better. I don't know if that and the NYT article are the reasons for these program changes, just putting 2 and 2 together, but if it is, wouldn't it be better to stop the cheating? Based on their leaderboards it looked like it was maybe ~12 bad people each month. There are so many more Angels nationwide than that!

As you can see...bike angels do not perceive this to be "fair." While you may have "intended to create community" that is not the only reason people invest their time in the program. What does that even mean?..."Create community?" You do not want people moving bikes in groups and have deemed that "gaming the system." You may be excited to offer membership extensions, bike they are of no value to those who have no desire to ride ebikes and/or those who are using the bikes for business travel (for which they can write off the expense). You clearly do not know your customers and are not paying attention to the feedback you are seeing here. Again...what would you say if Lyft paid you 25% less than you had earned after you had worked your butt off to help them reduce expenses? That is why they developed the program...not to "create community."

I agree, Lyft should have the decency to inform bike angels of this change and explain it. The fact no advanced notification was given implies they either have a terrible communication process (or none at all) or they purposefully decided to roll this change out without any heads-up to existing bike angels which shows how little they care about this program.Furthermore, here's the reply I received when asking if they'd honor my most recent $200 point redemption:We regularly review the program’s reward offerings to ensure the health and fairness of the program. Bike Angels rewards are being/were updated to align with the spirit of the program. They lowered the top reward "to align with the spirit of the program".

Hi Jess, the change itself is one thing, but the complete lack of communication is what irritates many committed Bike Angels like myself that were blindsided by this update. I worked hard and fair for my recent 1000 points only for the reward to suddenly, and without notice be reduced by 25% before I was able to exchange my points.It is only right to provide advanced communication of this change, especially for effort rendered under the previous reward structure - it's a classic bait and switch. Advanced notice was given prior to the removal of the ACH option, but not for this change, much to our dismay.I'd like to request to have the $200 e-gift card option for my most recent 1000 points because those were the terms and expectations I rendered the work under. I understand that going forward it will be lower and accept that, but not for my previous points.Update: Lyft honored my request and credited me 300 points today via a customer service request (https://lyft-bikes-scooters.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000807254).

They clearly don't care. I received my Tremendous email today and got to select from a number of gift cards. I am extremely upset that Lyft has seen fit to no longer to provide cash incentives to Angels. I'm mostly just participating in the program to extend my membership and/or for e-bike credits. It's obviously what they deemed best for Lyft. Zero consideration for the Bike Angels who were playing by the rules. I suppose that's just how it goes. Nothing we can do about it. I feel so much anger towards the Bike Angels who were gaming the system. Clearly, they (Lyft) felt compelled to do something after that article in the NYT. So, everyone else gets the shaft due to th actions of a few rogue Bike Angels. Not okay.I used the extra cash I got from the program for luxuries; I can't imagine what people are going through who relied on the extra cash to help pay bills. It's not fair at all that the only solution that Lyft could devise was to force everyone to accept gift cards and/or donate to charities.Terrible.

Citibike/Lyft again makes a change to the program with no notification!

Gflynyc
Casual Commenter
18 days ago
It would be interesting to read their annual shareholder report. Definitely want to see what, if anything, they've said about Citibike/Bike Angels.
Wim
Resourceful Rider
18 days ago
Chicago bike angels watching the recent ACH / gift card grumbles..
Here, our redemption options are only Lyft credits or membership extensions 😢
- Leslie52
  Steady Solver
  18 days ago
  YES! Likely because there needed to be a greater incentive in NYC and the expense of moving the bikes with employees was far too expensive. But the fact of the matter is that gift cards are great for those who do not need the income and simply earn points as a fringe benefit of being a member but those people are not really contributing enough to make a difference for commuters. They are likely not the ones who are rebalancing the system late at night (as a means of making ends meet with additional income). Also, I am just realizing how ridiculous Lyft's decision to de-incentivize bike angels at this time...given the fact that they just implemented congestion pricing in midtown Manhattan, which means their costs to move bikes with employees and vans is going to increase dramatically. I cannot imagine why they would reduce the compensation at a time when inflation is sky high and wages have increased in general. Perhaps they decided to eliminate the cash payments to discourage the immigrants who were participating or something like that but clearly they do not comprehend that the majority of the work is being done by public servants, retirees, and/or those who are expecting to encounter additional expenses due to the political decisions currently being presented.
  - Wim
    Resourceful Rider
    18 days ago
    The cynic in me thinks Lyft could be reducing incentives for bike angels, with no intentions to replace that labor by increasing employee-based rebalancing. They'll just leave the bike system more unbalanced.
    Why do I think that? Because there is a clear conflict of interest in having a ride-sharing company managing a bike share system: if the bike share is inherently unprofitable, then letting it degrade further will cause more people to choose a ride share (with a better profit margin for the company).
    If the bikes don't work (poor maintenance) or are unavailable (unbalanced system), cars seem more reasonable option in comparison. I've definitely called an Uber or Lyft because the nearest dock happened to be empty or, more commonly, only had a handful of broken e-bikes with the red light.
Gflynyc
Casual Commenter
22 days ago
They clearly don't care. I received my Tremendous email today and got to select from a number of gift cards. I am extremely upset that Lyft has seen fit to no longer to provide cash incentives to Angels. I'm mostly just participating in the program to extend my membership and/or for e-bike credits. It's obviously what they deemed best for Lyft. Zero consideration for the Bike Angels who were playing by the rules. I suppose that's just how it goes. Nothing we can do about it. I feel so much anger towards the Bike Angels who were gaming the system. Clearly, they (Lyft) felt compelled to do something after that article in the NYT.
So, everyone else gets the shaft due to th actions of a few rogue Bike Angels. Not okay.
I used the extra cash I got from the program for luxuries; I can't imagine what people are going through who relied on the extra cash to help pay bills. It's not fair at all that the only solution that Lyft could devise was to force everyone to accept gift cards and/or donate to charities.
Terrible.
Jess
Bike Angels Team
22 days ago
Thank you for participating in the Bike Angels rewards program. Changes to point values for claiming a gift card reward are in line with our efforts to ensure the health and fairness of the program for all Bike Angels. Bike Angel rewards are intended to create community while helping out fellow riders. In addition to new gift card and charitable contribution reward options, we’re excited to continue offering valuable membership extensions, ebike minutes, and Lyft rideshare credits to Bike Angels.
- Leslie52
  Steady Solver
  21 days ago
  As you can see...bike angels do not perceive this to be "fair." While you may have "intended to create community" that is not the only reason people invest their time in the program. What does that even mean?..."Create community?" You do not want people moving bikes in groups and have deemed that "gaming the system." You may be excited to offer membership extensions, bike they are of no value to those who have no desire to ride ebikes and/or those who are using the bikes for business travel (for which they can write off the expense). You clearly do not know your customers and are not paying attention to the feedback you are seeing here. Again...what would you say if Lyft paid you 25% less than you had earned after you had worked your butt off to help them reduce expenses? That is why they developed the program...not to "create community."
- RedDragon
  Resourceful Rider
  22 days ago
  Hi Jess, the change itself is one thing, but the complete lack of communication is what irritates many committed Bike Angels like myself that were blindsided by this update. I worked hard and fair for my recent 1000 points only for the reward to suddenly, and without notice be reduced by 25% before I was able to exchange my points.
  It is only right to provide advanced communication of this change, especially for effort rendered under the previous reward structure - it's a classic bait and switch. Advanced notice was given prior to the removal of the ACH option, but not for this change, much to our dismay.
  I'd like to request to have the $200 e-gift card option for my most recent 1000 points because those were the terms and expectations I rendered the work under. I understand that going forward it will be lower and accept that, but not for my previous points.
  Update: Lyft honored my request and credited me 300 points today via a customer service request (https://lyft-bikes-scooters.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000807254).
  - Leslie52
    Steady Solver
    22 days ago
    Exactly! Not to mention the fact that people have different financial situations and cashing in last year would have cost me money. There are tax considerations. It would be one thing to reduce the payment structure moving forward, but I earned far more than Red Dragon did...and worked my butt off to earn that compensation for dental work that I am going to need (which will offset the tax expenses). What would your response be if Citi bike paid you 25% less than you were expecting in your paycheck Jess? It would have been fair if you would have said the compensation (or available points) would be going down (which we have noticed as well over the past few months), however...to promise 20 cents per point when points were earned over the past year and a half and not compensate us as promised is completely oligarchical. Citi Bike is not a non-profit organization and to position itself as such is fraudulent.
- Classic4Eva
  Resourceful Rider
  22 days ago
  Is there any way you can go into Tremendous and enable some more giftcard options? None of them really work for me (I'm on the Bezos boycott train, don't use Disney, AirBnB, DoorDash, no Walmarts nearby etc.).
  I only see 6 gift card options and 8 charities, but I checked out the Tremendous catalog of options and filtered by the U.S. and they have got 168 gift card options and 50 charities. For sure I'm not expecting you to enable gift cards for Uber😝 but they've got airlines, Home Depot, Lowe's, Apple, Starbucks, Harris Teeter, Kroger, H&M, Macy's, Spotify ... I could go on but you get the picture. Maybe just enable them all?
  That would make it a lot easier for me to use the cards or give them as gifts to people who I know shop at certain places, I would really appreciate it.
  In general, the ability to get ACH was so much better. I don't give gift cards as gifts personally either (I put cash in a red envelope Lunar New Year style) because I know how annoying they are for people to use up without just feeling like they were spent on crap. I'm sure there was fraud in NYC (I've moved enough bikes to know what's feasible in the leaderboard by a normal human who is actually trying to help the system) and those people suck, the whole point is to make the system better. I don't know if that and the NYT article are the reasons for these program changes, just putting 2 and 2 together, but if it is, wouldn't it be better to stop the cheating? Based on their leaderboards it looked like it was maybe ~12 bad people each month. There are so many more Angels nationwide than that!
  - Leslie52
    Steady Solver
    21 days ago
    Most of the people on the leaderboard are working their butts off in the middle of the night. They are not cheating.
RedDragon
Resourceful Rider
23 days ago
I agree, Lyft should have the decency to inform bike angels of this change and explain it. The fact no advanced notification was given implies they either have a terrible communication process (or none at all) or they purposefully decided to roll this change out without any heads-up to existing bike angels which shows how little they care about this program.
Furthermore, here's the reply I received when asking if they'd honor my most recent $200 point redemption:
We regularly review the program’s reward offerings to ensure the health and fairness of the program. Bike Angels rewards are being/were updated to align with the spirit of the program.
They lowered the top reward "to align with the spirit of the program".
hkoellin
Resourceful Rider
23 days ago
Wow, I wouldn’t have even known about this change if not for this post—so thanks for sharing.
I’ve been a loyal Bike Angel for over a year, actively helping to balance stations in my neighborhood because I care about the system working well. The cash rewards were a big part of that motivation, and it’s incredibly frustrating that Citibike/Lyft quietly devalued them without any announcement.
This lack of transparency is unacceptable. If you’re going to make changes that affect your most engaged riders, the least you can do is communicate them openly. It’s hard to trust a company that operates this way.