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There was a time when premium airlines offered a complimentary chauffeur service to passengers traveling on any Business and First Class fare. Some airlines, like Etihad, even used to offer chauffeur services on award bookings. Those days are largely over and, if you do find an airline offering you a complimentary chauffeur service, it’s almost certainly because you’ve paid for one of the more expensive premium cabin fares.
Airlines appear to think that customers want a paid for chauffeur service to take the place of the complimentary one that was once offered and, in that vein, Qatar Airways is the latest to announce that it will offer a “luxury global chauffeur service” at “more than 85 Qatar Airways destinations around the world”.
Qatar Airways Chauffeur Service
Qatar Airways has partnered with Blacklane (a global chauffeur service franchise) to offer its passengers a new transportation option before and after they land.
Here’s how the Qatar Airways chauffeur service is being presented by the airline:
This new service provided by Qatar Airways is bookable for a fee online through qatarairways.com and the Qatar Airways app. Qatar Airways passengers, no matter what cabin they are flying in, can choose from a wide-range of high-end vehicles, provided by top auto manufacturers including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac to take them to and from their chosen airport.
Benefits of the new global chauffeur service include access to Blacklane’s modern fleet of high-end vehicles, and highly professional drivers, to ensure a safe, comfortable journey. Customers can choose Business Class, business vans, SUVs or First Class cars.
The fee you’ll pay to hire one of these vehicles includes all taxes, tolls fees and gratuities (all of which are confirmed at the time of booking) and the airline has confirmed that passengers will be given a “complimentary wait time of up to an hour for airport pickups“.
That wait time shouldn’t really be necessary because one of the benefits of the service that Qatar Airways lists is that the service tracks your flight and “ensures your driver is waiting for you when your flight lands, even if it’s early or delayed” (the complimentary wait time for journeys to the airport is just 15 minutes)
This is a cashless service so passengers book online (via the Qatar Airways chauffeur service webpage) and the credit card supplied at the time of booking is charged at the end of the journey.
Interestingly this service offers more than just airport runs – it would appear that you can book the vehicles by the hour too. I guess if you need someone to drive you around a city for a few hours (most of the day?) this would be an option…but I suspect it would be an expensive one!
Qatar Airways Chauffeur Service Cars & Pricing
The service offers three different levels of vehicle:
- Business Class – Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5 series, Cadillac XTS or similar
- Business Van/SUV – Mercedes V-Class, Chevrolet Suburban, Cadillac Escalade, Toyota Alphard or similar
- First Class – Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8 or similar
I played around with various airport/city combinations and these are some of the fare combinations I saw:
New York JFK to Midtown Manhattan
- Business Class – $109.08
- Business Class Van/SUV – $168.42
- First Class – $197.75
Boston Logan Airport – Boston Back Bay
- Business Class – $73.00
- Business Class Van/SUV – $108.00
- First Class – $155.00
Los Angeles LAX – West Hollywood
- Business Class – $84.09
- Business Class Van/SUV – $95.96
- First Class – $121.16
Whilst it’s clearly not the same kind of service, I thought I’d use the Uber Fare estimating tool to see how much the various Uber options would cost for the same routes.
Uber Black Estimated Fares
New York JFK – Andaz 5th Avenue Midtown Manhattan:
Boston Logan Airport – Back Bay:
Los Angles LAX – Andaz West Hollywood:
Hourly Rental
I only checked out one such example and that was for a 10 hour rental from New York JFK (I’m imagining a wealthy individual flying in to town to shop):
I have to confess that I was expecting it to cost more 🙂
Thoughts
It looks as if the Business Class option the Qatar Airways chauffeur service offers sits around the same price level as Uber Black in New York and LA but Uber Black is clearly cheaper in Boston….although admittedly Uber Black isn’t the same as a chauffeur service.
The Business SUV/VAN option offered by Qatar Airways looks reasonable value in JFK and LA but, once again, it looks as if the Uber SUV option in Boston is considerably cheaper than what Qatar/Blacklane are offering.
Uber’s “First Class” equivalent is UberLux but the only fare comparison I could see for this was in LA where the Qatar Airways chauffeur service is charging $121 as compared to $124 – $159 being estimated by Uber.
Bottom Line
If you were planning on ordering an UberLux, UberBlack or UberSUV then it looks like there will be occasions where the Qatar Airways chauffeur service will offer genuine value – it’s a lot more personal than Uber, you get more service and it may even be cheaper.
If, on the other hand, you’re like me and far more likely to take an UberX or maybe even an UberXL then this service really isn’t going to be all that much use to you.
