Meeting points

Two ways to be found, and the case for each

Every arrival booking makes this choice, most people make it on price alone, and about one in five of them chooses wrong for their own circumstances.

3 July 20264 minute read

01The two options, described plainly

Kerbside pickup. The driver waits away from the terminal, in a holding area or circling. You collect your luggage, walk out to the arrivals kerb, telephone the driver or send the message, and the vehicle comes round. You are usually in the car within five minutes of that call.

Meet at terminal. The driver parks in the structure, walks into the arrivals hall and waits at the exit from baggage reclaim with a card showing your name. You walk out, they take a bag, and you walk together to the vehicle.

Both are offered at all three airports. The booking form asks which you want, and the answer changes the quote.

02What each costs

Kerbside is the cheaper of the two and is the default. Meet at terminal costs more, and the reason is unglamorous: somebody has to pay for the parking, and somebody has to pay for the twenty minutes the driver spends walking in and standing there.

The exact difference sits in your quote rather than on a rate card, because it varies by airport and by how long the aircraft keeps the driver waiting inside.

03What each costs in time

Kerbside is faster at the end. You are already outside, the vehicle comes to you, and there is no garage to escape from.

Meet at terminal adds ten to fifteen minutes at the finish, because getting a vehicle out of an airport parking structure at a busy hour is its own small ordeal. It saves nothing at the front either. What it buys is certainty rather than speed.

A covered arrivals walkway at an airport at night, concrete columns beside a painted roadway with puddles reflecting the lights, completely empty — The kerb at the quiet end of the night. At six in the evening the same length of pavement is the whole argument for meeting inside.

04When to choose meet at terminal

Children. Standing at a kerb with two tired children while you telephone a driver is worse than the extra cost, every time.
A lot of luggage. Six cases and a trolley do not move gracefully across an arrivals kerb.
A first visit. Airports are legible once you know them and confusing when you do not. A person holding a card removes the entire problem.
Somebody travelling alone who would rather not stand outside late at night.
Anyone with limited mobility. The accessibility page says more, and this is usually the right choice.
A group arriving together who need somebody to gather them in one place before anybody wanders off.

05When kerbside is plainly better

Two people with a cabin bag each, on a route they have flown twenty times.
Any arrival where you want to be moving quickly and know exactly which door you are coming out of.
Late night arrivals when the terminals are quiet and the kerbs are empty. There is nothing to fight for at that hour.
A tight connection to somewhere else, where the parking exit is the last thing you want in the way.

06The thing that matters more than either

Your telephone. Whichever you choose, the driver has your number and you have theirs, and one message when you land shortens every version of this.

If your telephone will not work on arrival, say so when you book. It changes the advice completely: without a working number, meet at terminal stops being a preference and becomes the only reliable option.

A wrong meeting choice costs a few minutes and some irritation. A wrong telephone number costs the whole booking, and it is the more common failure of the two.

07The wrong reason to choose kerbside

Because it is cheaper, when your circumstances say otherwise. The gap between the two is not large in the context of an airport transfer, and it is very small compared with the cost of a bad half hour at the end of a long flight with people who have run out of patience.

Choose the one that fits the arrival you are actually going to have, not the one that looks tidier on a quote.

08Set it on the booking

The meeting preference is a field on the booking form and you can change it up to the day before by calling +1 (646) 559-3082. If you are unsure, choose the option that asks the operator to advise and put the details in the notes. Monday to Friday 6:30 am to 8:30 pm, Saturday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Eastern Time.