Group Airport Pickups When Everyone Lands on Different Flights

Getting a group to the same place is easy when everyone is on one flight. It gets harder when the family flies in from three cities, or half the golf group lands at lunchtime and the rest that evening. The main decision is simple: one shared vehicle, or a reservation for each arrival.

Start with the arrival times

List every traveler with their airline, flight number, airport and scheduled arrival. Grouping people by arrival window usually makes the answer obvious. Travelers landing within a short window of each other at the same airport can share a vehicle. People arriving hours apart, or at a different airport, are usually better served by their own pickup.

Why a long gap rarely suits one vehicle

Airport arrivals include a 30-minute complimentary grace period after the posted arrival, and waiting and parking charges begin one hour after the flight arrives. A single vehicle that waits for a second flight several hours later will run up waiting time, and the first travelers will wait too. Two smaller reservations are often simpler and better value than one large vehicle waiting at the curb.

There is also a tracking reason. Flight tracking follows the flight number on each reservation. One reservation for two flights can only track one of them, so give each arrival its own reservation.

Matching the vehicle to each wave

PBI Limos dispatches to these published working limits:

• Luxury Sedan: 1–3 passengers
• Luxury SUV: 1–7 passengers
• Jet Sprinter: 1–6 passengers, for luggage-heavy transfers of a few people
• Executive Sprinter: up to 10 passengers
• Sprinter Van: up to 13 passengers

Size each vehicle for the people and bags in that wave, not the whole group. If a wave is close to a limit, with golf bags, car seats or oversized luggage, book the next class up. The fleet page describes each class.

When the group should travel together

If the group needs to arrive together, for a rehearsal dinner or a tee time, it can make sense for early arrivals to make their own way to the hotel and for one vehicle to collect everyone from there later. For a day with several stops, hourly service (2-hour minimum) keeps one chauffeur with the group throughout.

What to send when booking

• One reservation per arrival, each with its own flight number.
• Passenger names and counts for each vehicle, plus a mobile number for someone in that wave.
• Luggage, especially golf bags or oversized cases.
• The drop-off address for each vehicle, if not everyone is going to the same place.

If plans change

If someone is rebooked onto a different flight, send the new flight number for their reservation; tracking cannot follow a flight it was not given. Our guide to flight delays and pre-booked cars covers this in detail. Sedans and SUVs can be cancelled up to 3 hours before pickup at no charge; Sprinter and specialty vehicles need 24 hours' notice, which matters when a large vehicle is booked for a group.

For help splitting a group across vehicles, call dispatch 24/7 at +1-561-667-9120, or see airport transfers to PBI, FLL and MIA.