Flights run late constantly, and any chauffeur arrangement that only works when they do not is a poor arrangement. The question is not whether your flight might be delayed but how the collection is built so that a delay is absorbed rather than becoming a crisis at the arrivals barrier with nobody there and no clear idea who to call. That is the question worth answering before you book rather than after you land.
This explains how it actually works: why a flight number is the most useful thing you can send, how short delays differ from long ones in practice, what happens with a diversion or a cancellation, and what you should do at your end. It is also honest about the limits, because nobody can hold a car indefinitely and pretending otherwise helps no one.
The short answer
Send the flight number and terminal when you book. The collection is then planned around the published schedule for that flight and the clearance time that terminal usually needs, with a margin built in. If the flight moves, the plan moves with it, and for anything substantial we will talk to you rather than silently holding a car for hours.
What that is not is real-time tracking, and we would rather say so than imply a capability nobody should promise. A flight number lets a collection be planned intelligently around published information. It does not mean an aircraft is being followed second by second, and any operator suggesting it does is selling reassurance rather than describing a process, and reassurance is the one thing that does not help at midnight in an arrivals hall.
Why the flight number matters so much
It carries far more information than the arrival time you would otherwise type. It confirms the terminal, which is easy to get wrong at multi-terminal airports and is the single commonest cause of a passenger and a chauffeur standing several hundred metres apart. It identifies whether the arrival is domestic or international, which changes the expected clearance time entirely, since a domestic arrival and a long-haul one behave nothing alike.
It also lets the schedule be checked before the day rather than at it. Airlines move flights, change terminals and reschedule at short notice, and a booking made three weeks earlier against a time you typed manually will not know that. A flight number is a handful of characters that removes an entire category of avoidable error, and it takes a moment to include.
Short delays and long ones behave differently
A modest delay is usually invisible to you. The collection was planned with a margin, the chauffeur adjusts, and you emerge to find the car exactly where you were told it would be. Nothing needs to be discussed and nothing changes about the arrangement, which is precisely how it ought to feel from the passenger's side of the arrangement. Most delays fall into this category and pass entirely unremarked.
A long delay is a different conversation, and it should be a conversation. Several hours changes what the chauffeur can reasonably do, whether their regulated hours still permit the drive at the far end, and whether the same person can cover it at all. We will talk to you about the options rather than making an assumption, because the right answer depends on your circumstances rather than ours.
- The published schedule for your flight, checked before the day
- The usual clearance time for that terminal and type of arrival
- How long the chauffeur can hold before their permitted hours are affected
- Whether the vehicle is committed to anything after your booking
- Whether a substitute chauffeur would be needed for a very late landing
- What you would prefer if the delay becomes substantial
Diversions, cancellations and rebooking
Occasionally an aircraft lands somewhere else entirely, or the flight is cancelled and you are rebooked onto something the following morning. Neither of those is a variation on a delay; they are different journeys. Tell us as soon as you know, because a collection at a different airport, on a different day, is a new arrangement rather than an adjustment to the existing one.
We will always try to help, and frequently can, but it depends on what is available at the new airport at the new time. If you are being rebooked while standing in a queue, a two-line message is enough to start with. The details can follow once you know them; what matters is that we are working on it rather than waiting at the original terminal.
What you should do
Very little, and none of it urgent. The most useful habit is a short message when you land, or when you know something has changed, because information from the passenger is more current than anything published. A message saying you have cleared immigration and are waiting for bags is worth more than any published schedule, because it tells us where you actually are rather than where an airline believes you ought to be.
Keep the chauffeur's contact details somewhere you can reach them without wifi, and make sure we have a mobile number that works when you land. A passenger with a dead phone and a chauffeur waiting at a barrier is the one scenario that no amount of planning fixes, and a short message before you board solves it entirely. It is the single most useful habit a frequent traveller can adopt.
- Send the flight number and terminal at the booking stage
- Tell us as soon as you learn of a cancellation, rebooking or diversion
- Message when you land, and again if the queue is unusually long
- Keep the chauffeur contact details available offline
- Give us a mobile number that will be reachable on arrival
- Say in advance whether you want to be met inside or at the kerb
Departures work differently
A delay to your outbound flight is much less disruptive, because by then you are already at the airport. What matters on a departure is the collection time, and the useful instruction is to tell us when you want to be at the terminal rather than when you would like to leave the house. We will work backwards from that.
If you learn of a delay before you have left, tell us, and we will discuss whether moving the collection makes sense. Sometimes it does and sometimes it is better to go anyway and wait somewhere comfortable rather than risk a road problem later. Either way, it is a decision to make together rather than one to make alone at the front door.
