How long after landing should I book my chauffeur for?
Do not book a time at all. Give us the flight number and the collection is built from the actual landing, which removes the guesswork entirely. Immigration queues, a slow carousel and a long walk are absorbed by the arrangement rather than being your problem to estimate.
Category
Airports
Contact
+44 7775 554848 or info@firstclass-chauffeurs.co.uk
01/The short answer
Do not book a time at all. Give us the flight number and the collection is built from the actual landing, which removes the guesswork entirely. Immigration queues, a slow carousel and a long walk are absorbed by the arrangement rather than being your problem to estimate.
If a form insists on a time, the honest answers vary enormously: forty-five minutes after a domestic arrival with hand luggage, and up to two hours for a long-haul flight with checked bags on a busy morning. Which is exactly why the flight number is the better input.
QA-01/What actually happens between touchdown and the kerb
What actually happens between touchdown and the kerb
Landing is not arriving. There is taxiing, which at Heathrow can be fifteen minutes on its own, then the walk to immigration, then the queue, then baggage reclaim, then customs. Each of those has a fat tail, and they do not average out on the morning you need them to.
Hand luggage only, a quiet hour and an e-gate that works can put you in the hall in under half an hour. The same flight at seven in the morning behind three other wide-bodies is a different experience entirely, and no fixed rule covers both.
Domestic or short-haul, hand luggage: often 30 to 45 minutes
Short-haul with checked bags: closer to an hour
Long-haul with checked bags: an hour to two, depending on the bank
Add time at peak arrival hours, particularly early morning
Give the flight number and none of this is your problem
QA-02/Why the flight number solves it
Why the flight number solves it
It turns an estimate into an observation. The arrival is tracked, the chauffeur is in the hall before you clear, and the free waiting allowance starts from the moment you appear rather than from a time somebody guessed a fortnight ago.
It also means an early landing is met early. A booking made for a fixed time will not do that, and there are few things more irritating than clearing customs at half past five for a car booked at six.
QA-03/When you genuinely need a time
When you genuinely need a time
Occasionally there is no flight, only a train, a ferry, or a private arrival where the schedule is your own. In those cases we build the time backwards from what you tell us and add margin at our end rather than yours.
The same applies to a connecting passenger who is being collected landside between flights. There the booking is anchored to the second departure rather than the first arrival, which is a more reliable fixed point.
QA-04/Fast-track, and what it does not change
Fast-track, and what it does not change
Some passengers clear far more quickly than the terminal average because of the route they are on. That helps you and does not complicate the booking: the chauffeur is already in the hall, so an early appearance is simply an early departure.
What no arrangement can shorten is baggage reclaim. If your case is on the aircraft, you are waiting for the carousel like everybody else, and that is the part of an arrival that most reliably eats twenty minutes.
Should I add extra time for a first visit to an unfamiliar airport?
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You do not need to, because the meet happens where you emerge rather than somewhere you have to find. If anything, an unfamiliar airport is the strongest argument for a terminal meet over a kerbside pickup, since the walk to a car park is the confusing part.
What if I am travelling with someone who needs assistance?
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Tell us at the booking stage. Passengers using airport assistance often come through on a different timescale and sometimes through a different route, and the meeting point is set to match rather than being assumed from the flight alone.
Can I ask the chauffeur to wait while I have a coffee?
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Of course, and within the free allowance it costs nothing. Beyond it, the wait is charged at the vehicle's hourly rate. If you know in advance you will want an hour landside, it is cheaper to book the time than to run the allowance down.
Tell us the journey. We will send the price in writing.
Message us the date, the pick-up and where you are going. You will get a fixed written quotation with the vehicle, the chauffeur’s arrival time and what the figure includes — no form to fill in, and no estimate that moves later.
