What Happens If My Flight Is Delayed? How Airport Pickups Handle Delays
Delayed or early flight? Here is how a pre-booked airport pickup uses flight tracking, what waiting time is included, and what happens if you are diverted.
A delayed flight is stressful enough without worrying whether your car will still be there. With a properly run pre-booked pickup, you should not have to think about it. Here is how it works.
Flight tracking does the work
When you book an airport pickup with your flight number, we monitor that flight. If it:
- lands early — the driver aims to be ready for the earlier time;
- lands late — the driver's schedule shifts to the new landing time;
- is significantly delayed — the driver is re-timed rather than left sitting at the airport for hours.
You do not need to call and update us for normal delays. Tracking handles it.
Included waiting time
After the flight lands, there is a free waiting allowance to cover the walk to immigration, passport control, baggage reclaim and getting to the meeting point. For most airports and most travellers that is comfortably enough.
If you are held up well beyond that — a very long immigration queue, delayed baggage, lost luggage paperwork — extra waiting is charged by the minute, not in large half-hour blocks. A quick text to the driver keeps everyone informed.
What if the flight is diverted or cancelled?
- Diverted to another airport: contact us as soon as you can. Depending on distance and timing we can often send a car to the new airport or re-plan the journey.
- Cancelled: let us know. If it is well before pickup, we simply move or cancel the booking under the normal policy. If a driver has already been dispatched, standard dispatch terms apply — but we would always rather re-book you than charge you.
What you should still do
- Enter the correct flight number at booking — this is what tracking depends on.
- If your plans change (you rebook onto a different flight), update the booking or call us.
- Keep the driver's number handy once it is sent to you, in case you want to send a quick "just landed, 20 minutes at baggage" message.
Book an airport transfer with your flight number and delays become our problem, not yours.
Book with XlineCars. Fixed prices, vetted drivers and flight tracking on every UK airport, seaport and long-distance journey. Get a quote or see the fleet.