Day +1393 : More on airport taxi booking

I am fine today.

A reader commented yesterday that the Airport Limo only accepts booking 5 hours before departure. This is true. I believe the rationale behind is to give 2 hours allowance for the taxi driver to pick up the passenger. However, it is best to book a day earlier.

On the issue of picking up a passenger at least 3 hours before departure, Richard provided me with more detail as written below.

I further verify with call center regarding the pickup time issue and got the following information.

For Airport Limo, they ask for departure time and they fix for you when the taxi should pick you up.

For international flight, the pickup time is 3 hours before departure and for domestic flight, it is 2.30 hours before. One thing puzzling me is that they didn't consider where is the location they need to pick you up. For example, Kepong and Putra Jaya are of great difference in terms of distance to the airport and thus the traveling time. However, the rule is that the driver will pick you up 3 hours in advance for international flight whether you are in Kepong or Putrajaya.

When I asked about the rational of fixing the 3 hours departure time without considering the location and whether you have the boarding pass or not, they asked me to call the complaint department with the telephone number 03-87874502.

I called and talked to Puan Natihah but she couldn’t explain why they need to impose the pick-up time restriction for passengers. Passengers should be responsible for their travel and they should know how to estimate the pick-up time accurately. I estimated my pick-up time over 100 times over the past and there was no problem at all. She said she will ask her manager to call me back regarding this issue.

Basically we can easily calculate how long we need to wait in the airport before departure. I give you an example below.

Let say you have a trip to Singapore using MAS at KLIA with departure time of 8:00am, and you have already holding the the boarding pass through web check-in. The airport Limo will then pick you up at 5:00am (of course you have to pay the midnight rate) and you will reach the airport at 5:40am, and wait for 2:20 hours at KLIA before departure.

In fact you can arrange the pick up immediately after 6:00am which allow you to reach the airport at 6:40am. With this you waited for 1:20 hours to board the plane and do not need to pay midnight taxi fare. However, if you don’t follow my tip as mentioned in yesterday post, you have no way to have pickup time after 6:00am.

Most occasion traveler would normally don’t mind of long waiting time and paying more, but for a seasoned traveler, this is most likely is not the case.

See you next post :-)