Uber-owned Careem introduced a new paid loyalty programme on April 5 that offers users benefits across services from ride-hailing to food delivery.
The new subscription programme will cost Dh39 per month in return for a range of benefits, providing monthly savings of more than double the price of the subscription, Careem said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We wanted to create a programme that's simple to use and unlocks value across all of our services," Clemence Dutertre, Careem’s vice president of customer, said in an interview. "It's a discovery programme for users to explore services that they did not try in the past."
The Careem Plus subscription will be available on the company's Super App that combines different offers – such as ride hailing, food and grocery delivery, digital payments, bike sharing and inter-city travel – on a single platform. About 48 million users have registered for the Super App since its launch in April 2020, Careem said in December.
Subscribers to the programme will benefit from 10 per cent instant cashback on all Careem rides and 5 per cent on all Hala rides using RTA taxis, the statement said.
Other benefits include free food delivery from a variety of restaurants and shops, unlimited access to Careem Bike services at launch and priority care support, the Dubai-based tech company said.
Careem Plus will initially be available to users in Dubai and those who sign up will get the first 30 days for free, the company said.
It will gradually introduce the subscription model to all 100 cities where it operates. Riyadh will be the next city to get the Careem Plus option in the summer followed by Amman, Ms Dutertre said.
Careem will also add more features to the programme as it spreads to more cities, she said, noting that these will depend on customer feedback.
A potential new feature will be a savings tracker that allows users to monitor how much they saved by using the paid loyalty programme.
Another possibility is the auto-reimbursement feature that allows customers who saved less than the monthly value of the programme to be compensated for that.
Careem began developing the programme in December before introducing it to Dubai users this week on its Super App.
"We have a strategy to move to a multi-service app and the subscription programme is a pillar to that," Ms Dutertre said.
The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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more from Janine di Giovanni
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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FA Cup quarter-final draw
The matches will be played across the weekend of 21 and 22 March
Sheffield United v Arsenal
Newcastle v Manchester City
Norwich v Derby/Manchester United
Leicester City v Chelsea
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
