Recently, fueled mostly by pandemic isolation invigoration, my husband and I decided to take a 13-hour road trip across the Midwest to Colorado. After a year’s worth of canceled trips and subsequent disappointment, we were ready to have an experience — any experience — outside of our bubble. After some careful research, a week-long road trip getaway was the perfect remedy for the isolation blues and well within our allotted budget.
We finally pulled the trigger after hearing about the newest deal from the BPme app. BP and Amoco announced they are giving all new reward members 15 cents off each gallon of gas through the end of March, simply for downloading and using the free app. We set off on the open road at dawn, prepared to drive across both the states of Missouri and Kansas, highly anticipating the mountainous views that would greet us at the end.
We challenged ourselves to make this trip as much of a “spur of the moment” experience as possible. We determined our immediate destination would be Estes Park, Colorado, and booked the first night of lodging at the infamous Stanley Hotel. Besides that, we did very little advance planning. Although vacationing this way is exciting, my inner Type A was still struggling. Luckily, mostly for my Type B husband, the BPme app and road-tripping tools calmed me. It allowed us to freely navigate our drive with the peace of mind that we wouldn’t run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, weren’t wasting money on fuel, and were taking all the necessary contact-free precautions.
BPme App Benefits
The BPme app was truly a road trip stress-saver throughout our excursion. I had originally downloaded the app simply to take advantage of the 15-cent-per-gallon gas savings but soon discovered the app offered much more.
BPme Station Finder
If you haven’t driven the endless stretch of Highway 70 across Kansas before, let me give you a helpful tip: It is imperative to get gas when you have the opportunity. Childhood road trips to the mountains drilled this into my head. The majority of the drive is flanked by flat farmlands and larger city stops are few and far between. Without proper prior planning, it is very possible to run out of gas along the way, and no one wants to be stranded on the side of this two-lane highway. The BP Station Finder was easily our most used tool. By default, the app uses your real-time location to display the gas stations closest to you, but it also allows you to zoom out and search upcoming areas. We easily mapped out our gas stops and settled back to enjoy the ride.
BPme Rewards
The most obvious advantage of this free app is the Rewards tool. The 15 cent discount offer was immediately applied to my account after I input the promo code “SAVINGS”. As you use the app more, rewards accumulate and are effortlessly applied to each fill-up. Our roundtrip drive was about 1,800 miles. Add that to our winding trips through the mountains once we arrived, and we easily drove about 2,400 miles in the week. That added up to $20 of savings! Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch?
BPme Price Match
Another superbly useful tool within the BPme app is Price Match. This is the only feature that does cost money, but at only $0.99/month, it’s a no-brainer. We stopped in Topeka to stretch, refuel, and grab some snacks. The app navigated us to our selected BP gas station, but we noticed gas was a few cents cheaper at a neighboring station. I pulled up BPme’s Price Match and was able to get the same price at the targeted BP station. It was the easiest haggling I’ve ever accomplished!
Contact-Free Experience
Most notably for the current times, the BPme app provides a contact-free gas station experience. Almost everything that once had to be done outside of the car, including touching germy buttons, can be handled via the app. Simply pull up to an open pump, open the app, input the pump number and pay securely with your saved credit card or PayPal information. We still did have to put the pump into the fuel tank, but the limited interaction with others (and others’ germs left behind) is a priceless benefit right now.