Heathrow fixed fare: £80 within ~12 miles, £115 further out. Night rate (23:00-06:00) adds 20%. Every trip includes flight tracking and 60 minutes' free waiting.
Arrive at Heathrow T5 about 3 hours before a long-haul flight or 2 hours before short-haul, then add drive time from west London - so a 7am flight usually means leaving home by around 4am to 4.30am.
Journey times are typical, not guaranteed. We plan departure times around live traffic on the day.
| Option | Best for | Main tradeoff | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow run, within ~12 miles | Pickups or drop-offs close to the airport | Fixed regardless of traffic, no meter | £80 |
| Heathrow run, further out | Central London and further-out addresses | Still fixed, just a higher band | £115 |
| Night pickup, 23:00-06:00 | A first flight of the day needing a 4am/5am start | Fixed 20% added to the standard fare | £96-£138 |
| Point-to-point, non-airport | A single local journey rather than the airport run | Priced per trip, not banded by mileage | From £45 |
| Hourly booking, 3-hour minimum | Multiple stops or an uncertain return time | Priced by the hour rather than the trip | £55/h (from £165) |
Heathrow's own guidance is to be at the terminal about 3 hours before a long-haul departure and about 2 hours before a European or domestic short-haul flight. That covers bag drop, security and the walk to the gate. British Airways, the main airline flying from T5, works to the same window.
The extra hour for long-haul exists because more of what happens before the gate is unpredictable, rather than because the terminal is necessarily busier at that exact moment. Long-haul bag drop can involve extra document checks, and security queues build unevenly through the morning depending on how many flights are scheduled around the same time as yours. Treat the 3-hour and 2-hour figures as the time to be through the doors, not the time to leave home - the journey to get there sits on top of that figure, not inside it.
Checking in online the night before does not remove the need to be at the terminal within that window. Bags still need to be dropped by the airline's own cutoff, and the security queue is the same queue whether you checked in on your phone or at a desk. If your flight leaves at 7am, working back from the 2-hour short-haul allowance puts you at the terminal by 5am, and a 7am long-haul departure needs you there by 4am - well before either the roads or the terminal itself have had a chance to get busy.
Weekday mornings are heaviest for traffic heading into London, not out towards the airport, so a run out to catch a morning flight is usually going against the rush rather than into it. Saturday and Sunday mornings are comparatively clear in both directions. The one thing that can still catch you out is a morning that runs later than planned, once general traffic has had time to build.
This matters more than people expect when they are weighing up how early to leave. The worst Heathrow-bound traffic of the week tends to build in the evening, as people finish work and head out towards the airport - the exact opposite of what you are doing on an early-morning departure. That does not mean the roads are empty; it means the heaviest flow that day is running the other way, which generally works in your favour for a 5am or 6am pickup.
None of this is a fixed formula, because traffic on any given morning depends on roadworks, accidents and the time of year as much as the day of the week. Rather than quote a single average journey time that may not hold on the day, your chauffeur checks the roads that morning and gives you a specific collection time to work back from, rather than a generic estimate that could be wrong in either direction. That collection time is confirmed in writing before the day, so there is nothing left to negotiate at 4am.
The fixed fare to or from Heathrow is £80 if your pickup or drop-off is within roughly 12 miles of the airport, and £115 if it is further out, with no meter and no extra charge for luggage or passengers. Pickups between 23:00 and 06:00, including a 4am or 5am collection for a first flight of the day, carry a fixed 20% night rate on top of whichever fare applies.
That means a short-hop pickup within about 12 miles at 4.30am for an early departure would run to roughly £96 once the night rate is added, and a pickup from further out would run to roughly £138, rather than the standard £80 or £115. The price is agreed and confirmed in writing before you travel, so an early start never turns into a surprise figure on the day.
The fare covers the whole electric Mercedes-Benz EQE, for up to three passengers and their luggage, not a per-person rate. Settlement happens at the end of the journey using a card machine carried in the car, which takes Visa, Mastercard and American Express by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay. UK contactless payments are capped at £100, so a £115 or £138 fare needs a PIN or a phone payment rather than a tap. No deposit is taken in advance and no card is held on file beforehand - you only pay once the journey is done.
Every Heathrow journey includes meet and greet, flight tracking and 60 minutes' waiting as standard, which matters most on the way back if your flight lands late. Going out for a morning departure, the same fixed price and the same driver apply whether your pickup is at 4am or 9am.
There is no call centre and no pool of drivers behind the booking - it is one driver and one electric Mercedes-Benz EQE, so the person who confirms your pickup time over WhatsApp is the person who actually turns up. If an early flight means you are coming back through Heathrow a few days later, the same driver can be booked for the return leg, with the flight tracked so a delay or an early landing does not throw off the pickup time.
The 60 minutes' free waiting is built into the fixed price rather than charged on a meter, which is more useful landing back into London than leaving for an early flight, but it reflects the same approach either way: a preference for the driver waiting for you rather than you waiting for the car. Nothing about an early 4am or 5am start changes any of this - it is simply booked and confirmed the same way as a midday pickup, just with the night rate applied.
Send your flight time, pickup address and number of passengers over WhatsApp, and you get a confirmed pickup time back in writing, worked out from your actual departure time rather than a generic rule of thumb. There is no deposit to pay at the time of booking.
Because the booking is confirmed directly with the person driving, there is no need to chase a call centre to double-check a 4am pickup the night before - the confirmation message is the record. If your plans change, the same conversation updates the pickup time rather than starting a new booking from scratch.
Payment is settled at the end of the journey rather than at the time of booking, using the card machine carried in the car. That keeps the early-morning booking process simple: agree the price and the time in writing, travel, then pay on arrival by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay, with a PIN or phone tap needed for anything over the £100 UK contactless limit.
More guides: Chauffeur vs Black Cab from Heathrow: Costs Compared · Flight Delay Pickup: Will Your Chauffeur Still Wait? · Heathrow Chauffeur vs Ride-Hailing Apps: Costs Compared
Weekday mornings favour the Heathrow-bound run. The heaviest weekday traffic builds into London in the morning and out towards the airport in the evening, so an early departure is usually travelling against the rush rather than into it.
A driver cannot go inside Terminal 5, so arriving passengers are met outside the arrivals exit - the Pret a Manger just outside is the landmark drivers use, which matters if your early departure has a return leg a few days later.
Source: driver, first-handAny pickup between 23:00 and 06:00, including a 4am or 5am collection for a morning flight, carries a fixed 20% surcharge on the standard fare.
Source: Crest rate cardFour or more passengers, or two families travelling together. The car is a single electric Mercedes-Benz EQE that seats up to three passengers - there is no second car to call on, so larger groups need a different arrangement entirely.
Work backwards from your departure time: be at the terminal about 3 hours ahead for long-haul or 2 hours ahead for short-haul, then build in whatever time the roads need that morning, confirmed with your chauffeur the night before rather than guessed.
£80 if your pickup or drop-off is within roughly 12 miles of the airport, or £115 if it's further out, with no meter and no extra charge for luggage or for a third passenger.
Yes - pickups between 23:00 and 06:00 are routine for early departures, though they carry a fixed 20% surcharge on top of the standard £80 or £115 fare, agreed in writing before the day.
No - every Heathrow journey includes flight tracking and 60 minutes' free waiting as standard, so a delayed landing does not trigger a waiting charge.
No deposit is taken and no card is held on file - you pay at the end of the journey using the card machine carried in the car, by contactless, chip and PIN, Apple Pay or Google Pay, with a PIN or phone tap needed above the UK's £100 contactless limit.
Get the price above, or send us the journey on WhatsApp. A fixed price comes back in minutes.
WhatsApp for a fixed quoteThe Crest guarantee. If anything about your journey isn’t right, tell us and we’ll put it right before you pay. No deposit, nothing held on your card — you pay at the end.