What You Need Before You Book an Airport Transfer

The six

• Route. Airport and destination, chosen from the list rather than typed as a hotel address.
• Direction. One way, or both legs booked together.
• Date and time. For an arrival, the scheduled landing time — not the time you would like to be collected.
• Passenger count. Everyone travelling, infants included.
• Flight number. On a connecting itinerary, the one for the final leg.
• Name, phone, email. The number you will actually have switched on while you travel.

Everything else — a child seat, oversized luggage, a stop on the way — is added in step two and can still be added afterwards. Payment details are never asked for at any point: nothing is charged when you book.

Route and direction

The route is what produces the price, and the price is fixed per vehicle. Two of you or six of you in a VIP van costs the same; it only goes up when the group is larger than the class holds. The full set of fares is in the price list, grouped by airport.

Book the return leg in the same go if you can. That is a planning point rather than a sales one: there is no flight to track on the way back, so the pickup time is agreed with you in advance instead of derived. How that time is worked out is the subject of when to leave your hotel for the airport.

Date and time

For an arrival, enter the scheduled landing time exactly as the ticket states it. Not when you expect to walk out of the terminal, and not a safety margin either — we add both ourselves. If the aircraft lands early or late, the pickup moves with it, because we track the flight by its number.

Passenger count: the one entry that moves the price

The fixed price is per vehicle, and the vehicle class follows from the headcount: up to 6 the VIP van, 7 to 14 the minibus, 15 to 24 the midibus, 25 to 45 the coach. One passenger over a boundary means the next class up, which makes this the one number worth checking twice.

Count infants too, even if they flew on a lap. In a vehicle they need a seat, and their things need somewhere to go.

The flight number

Two letters and three or four digits, at the top of the airline confirmation. It is the reason nobody has to phone you when a landing time moves. On a connecting itinerary the final leg is the one that counts — the details are in giving your flight number correctly.

Hotel or pickup address

The hotel name is enough in almost every case; the properties in our destinations are known to the drivers. If the hotel is not fixed yet, book on the destination and send the name later. When the name is not enough — a holiday apartment, a villa, an old-town lane — and what to put in the notes field instead is in hotel name or address.

Name, phone number, email

The phone number is the most important of the three. It is how the driver reaches you on the day and how you reach him — you get his number before you travel. Give the number that will be switched on abroad, with its country code. A landline at home helps nobody in an arrivals hall.

What you do not need in advance

• Payment details. You pay the driver in cash on the day, or by card in advance if you arrange it. Nothing is due at booking.
• A final luggage count. One suitcase and one piece of hand luggage per person is included. Declare a golf bag, a pushchair or a wheelchair as soon as you know about it.
• A decision on child seats. Seats can be added later; all we need is the age of the child.
• Your room number, passport or tour operator reference. None of these are asked for.

The last look before you submit

Four things that go wrong most often, and take about thirty seconds to check:

1. Is the date right? A night flight lands the following day — leave at 23:40 and you arrive on tomorrow's date.
2. Is the passenger count complete, children included?
3. Does the flight number belong to the flight you actually land on, rather than the first leg?
4. Is the phone number the one that will be switched on while you are away?

After that comes the confirmation, and there is nothing further for you to do. What happens between confirmation and arrivals hall — and the short list of things that do warrant a message — is in what happens after you book.

Common questions