A fixed price only means something if it's fixed before you travel, includes the airport's own charges, and doesn't move with traffic, the hour, or demand. Plenty of quotes fail one of the three and confess it in the small print. Here's how a properly pre-booked fixed fare works — and where the sneaky extras usually hide.
Send pickup postcode + airport + date & flight time
Some “fixed” fares are only fixed once the car arrives — priced against demand on the morning. Ours locks the moment you book: quote today for a transfer next month and that's the number, whatever the fuel price, the weather or the school holidays do in between. If a price can still move after you've committed, it isn't fixed; it's floating with a delay.
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton all levy drop-off or access fees, and they're where “cheap” quotes claw the difference back on the day. Our number includes them — and the Dartford Crossing where the route uses it. The test question for any firm: “is that everything I will pay, including the airport's charges?” Watch how long the answer takes.
On return legs, a fixed price that quietly runs a waiting-time meter against a delayed flight isn't fixed where it matters. Give us the flight number: tracking moves the driver to actual touchdown, meet & greet in arrivals is free, and sensible waiting is built in. Your plane being late is the airline's problem — it shouldn't become your fare's.
Straight version: for a very short hop with no booking, a metered black cab off a rank is perfectly rational — the meter barely warms up. Beyond that, the maths flips. Meters climb with every slow mile of motorway; app surge tracks exactly the moments you most need the car — dawn waves, rain, strike days. A pre-booked fixed fare is the only one of the three priced before the pressure, which is the whole trick: you buy the journey when it's calm and ride it when it isn't.
Same-day is usually fine — a quote comes back in minutes. The evening before is the sweet spot for dawn departures, so a driver is allocated with your job planned into their night. For bank holidays, half-terms and Christmas week, a few days ahead buys choice of vehicle. Booking early never costs more: the fare is off the same rate card whenever it's locked. The timing guide covers when to actually leave.
Saloon fares from the rate card — confirmed exactly at booking and identical at every hour. Estate, MPV and executive quoted the same way.
Your run isn't listed? Postcode + airport gets the exact number in minutes.
A fixed quote back in minutes, locked to the penny, airport charges inside. Book it and delete the arithmetic from your travel day.