What Happens If My Flight Is Delayed?

If your flight is delayed and you have booked a chauffeur, the short answer is that nothing needs to happen at your end — provided you gave your flight number when you booked. Your airport transfer is monitored against the live arrival status rather than the time you originally requested, and the pickup is moved to match the aircraft.

The complimentary waiting allowance then runs from the revised arrival, not from the booking time you can no longer meet. At a commercial London airport that allowance is 60 minutes.

The one situation that causes problems is a delay on a booking made without a flight number. Below is exactly what happens in each case, drawn from our published terms and conditions.

The Short Answer

• Give your flight number when booking. This is what activates arrival monitoring — everything else follows from it
• The pickup time moves automatically to match the live arrival status; you do not need to call and rebook
• 60 minutes of complimentary waiting applies at commercial airports, counted from the updated arrival
• Waiting beyond the allowance may be charged at the applicable hourly rate
• Without a flight number, the waiting clock starts at your originally scheduled pickup time — the risky scenario
• If you cannot find your chauffeur, call the company rather than leaving the meeting point

The One Thing That Decides Everything: Your Flight Number

Almost every delay problem traces back to a single field on the booking form.

Where arrival details such as a flight number are provided at the time of booking, we monitor the arrival status and adjust the pickup time accordingly. The chauffeur is dispatched against the aircraft, not against a time typed in three days earlier.

Where those details are not provided, waiting time begins at the originally scheduled pickup time. A three-hour delay on a booking with no flight number means the vehicle arrives, waits out its allowance, and the journey is treated as a no-show — while you are still in the air.

This is also why the flight number needs to be the correct, final one. If you are rebooked onto a different flight, that new number matters more than any other message you could send us.

How Much Waiting Time Is Included?

Complimentary waiting time allowances are published rather than discretionary, and they vary by pickup type:

• Commercial airports — 60 minutes. Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City
• Private airports and FBOs — 30 minutes. See private jet terminals
• Train stations — 30 minutes
• Cruise ports — 30 minutes
• Heliports — 30 minutes
• All other pickups — 15 minutes

The 60 minutes at a commercial airport is deliberately generous, because it is not really waiting time for the aircraft — it is time for immigration, baggage reclaim and the walk out to the meeting point. Those can easily consume an hour at Heathrow on a busy morning even when the flight lands on schedule.

Two conditions attach to it. The allowance applies only where accurate arrival details were provided at booking, and where waiting exceeds the allowance, additional time may be charged at the applicable hourly rate.

What If the Delay Is Longer Than the Allowance?

A long delay and a long wait are different things. Because the pickup is rescheduled to the live arrival, a four-hour delay does not consume four hours of waiting allowance — the chauffeur is simply dispatched later. The vehicle is normally scheduled to arrive around 15 minutes before the revised pickup time.

The allowance is only consumed after the aircraft is on the ground. So the practical question is not how late the flight is, but how long it takes you to get from the gate to the door.

If you can see that clearing the airport will take longer than an hour — a lost bag, a long immigration queue, a passenger needing assistance — a short message to the company at that point is worth more than an apology afterwards. Waiting beyond the allowance may be chargeable, but a chauffeur who knows why they are waiting will wait.

What If My Flight Is Diverted?

Diversions are the case where you should make contact rather than rely on monitoring alone. Arrival monitoring tracks your flight's status, but a diversion changes the destination of the whole journey — a Heathrow booking becoming a Stansted or Birmingham collection is a different route, a different distance and, usually, a different price.

Tell us as soon as the diversion is confirmed and we will quote the revised journey. If the airline coaches passengers back to the original airport instead, say so — in that case the original pickup usually still stands, just much later.

What If My Flight Is Cancelled?

A cancellation is a booking question rather than a waiting-time question, and the timing of your message is what matters:

• More than 24 hours before the scheduled pickup — the booking can be cancelled without charge
• Less than 24 hours before — the full booking charge applies
• Rebooked onto a later flight — send the new flight number and we will move the booking rather than cancel it

Moving a booking is almost always better than cancelling and rebooking, particularly inside the 24-hour window. Some bookings carry alternative cancellation terms depending on the nature of the service; where they apply, they are set out at the time of quotation.

Delayed on the Way Out: Departure Transfers

Everything above concerns arrivals. Departures work differently, because the risk is not waiting — it is missing the aircraft.

Responsibility for choosing the pickup time sits with the customer, and we cannot be responsible for a missed flight where insufficient journey time was allowed. That said, we are always happy to advise on a sensible departure time for a given flight and airport, and it is worth asking rather than guessing.

If your outbound flight is delayed while you are still at home or the hotel, you have a genuine choice: travel as planned and wait airside, or push the pickup back. Airlines do sometimes recover time, and a delay showing three hours in the morning can shrink by afternoon, so the safer option is usually a modest push rather than a large one. For guidance on lead times, see how early you should book a chauffeur.

What to Do the Moment You Know You Are Delayed

• Check the booking has your flight number. If it does, the transfer is already adjusting
• If you were rebooked, send the new flight number — this is the single most useful message you can send
• If the flight is diverted, say where you will actually land
• Do not cancel a transfer for a delay. A delayed flight still needs collecting; cancelling inside 24 hours is chargeable
• On landing, message if the airport itself is slow — held at immigration, delayed baggage, assistance required
• If you cannot see your chauffeur, call us. Do not leave the meeting point and do not assume nobody came

What Counts as a No-Show

Worth understanding, because a delayed passenger occasionally worries they have been marked as one. A booking is treated as a no-show only where two things are true together: the included waiting time has expired, and reasonable attempts to contact the passenger or customer have been unsuccessful. Where that happens, the full booking charge applies.

Contactable passengers are the ones who do not get caught by this. A working mobile number on the booking, and a phone switched on when you land, is most of the protection you need.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to tell my chauffeur if my flight is delayed?

Not if you provided your flight number when booking. Where arrival details are given, the arrival status is monitored and the pickup time is adjusted automatically. You should make contact if you have been rebooked onto a different flight, if your flight has been diverted to another airport, or if clearing the airport is taking longer than the included waiting time.

How much waiting time is included with an airport transfer?

Sixty minutes of complimentary waiting time is included at commercial airports. Private airports and FBOs, train stations, cruise ports and heliports include 30 minutes, and all other pickups include 15 minutes. The allowance applies where accurate arrival details were provided at the time of booking.

Will I be charged extra if my flight is delayed?

Not for the delay itself. Because the pickup time is moved to match the live arrival, a delayed flight does not consume the waiting allowance while the aircraft is still in the air. Charges arise only where waiting after landing exceeds the included allowance, in which case additional waiting may be charged at the applicable hourly rate.

What happens if my flight is delayed and I did not give a flight number?

Waiting time begins at the originally scheduled pickup time, because there is nothing to monitor the booking against. Once the allowance expires and contact attempts are unsuccessful, the booking may be treated as a no-show and the full charge applies. Adding your flight number at any point before the pickup avoids this entirely.

What if my flight is diverted to a different airport?

Contact the company as soon as the diversion is confirmed. A different arrival airport is a different journey, so the transfer needs to be re-quoted and re-routed rather than simply delayed. If the airline transports passengers back to the original airport, the existing booking normally stands, with a later pickup.

Should I cancel my transfer if my flight is delayed?

No. A delayed flight still needs collecting, and the booking will adjust to the new arrival time. Cancelling less than 24 hours before the scheduled pickup incurs the full booking charge, so amending is both cheaper and simpler than cancelling and rebooking.

The Point of Booking a Chauffeur

Flight delays are the situation a chauffeur transfer is actually designed for. A taxi rank does not know your flight is three hours late; a ride-hailing app will not be there when you finally walk out at one in the morning. A booked transfer with your flight number attached simply moves with you.

If you have a flight into or out of London coming up, send us the flight details and we will handle the timing — including the version where the airline does not.