One of the biggest tasks in a relationship is the airport pickup. Asking someone to pick you up at the airport when your flight arrives can be tricky. A botched airport pickup can kill a friendship. So many things can go wrong. The picker-upper can get stuck in traffic on the way to the airport. The flight can be delayed. Baggage can be lost. There are dozens of things that can happen to undermine an airport pickup. I think that’s why we are so hesitant to ask for or accept a request for the task which on the service seems so benign.
I personally never ask for the pick-up and very rarely accept a request to perform one. When I go to the airport I drive myself, park at Park and Ride and when my flight returns, I drive myself home.
The biggest reason is that I don’t trust anyone but myself to get to the airport on time. No matter the traffic, the time of day, or the weather, I know that when I drive myself to the airport, I will make my flight. I hate relying on anyone else to get me to the airport. Too many things can go wrong.
That being said, many people still count on the airport pickup.
Noted airport pickup expert George Constanza on “Seinfeld” fame describes the perfect airport pickup.
“A perfect airport pickup involves being at the airport terminal exactly 17 minutes after a flight is supposed to land. Giving the passengers just enough time to get off the plane, pick up their bags and be walking out of the terminal as the pickerupper rolls up,” Constanza said in one of my favorite episodes. “I tell you, it’s a thing of beauty. I can not express to you the feeling I get from a perfect airport pickup.”
Technological advances in transportation may make the airport pickup a thing of the past.
Last week, Miguel Southwell, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, announced that the airport is working toward a reversal of a ban that prevents ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft from picking passengers up at the airport.
“There’s really a groundswell of shared-ride type of programs where people carpool,” Southwell said. “And more and more people, of course, are using Uber and Lyft that are made possible by these technologies.”
Southwell is correct. The number of people using the services is climbing and it just makes sense to allow passengers to use the car services at the airport eliminating the need to ask a friend for an airport pickup.
Granted, there are other ways to get to and from the airport, including taxi cabs and MARTA. A MARTA train is still the easiest and least expensive way to get to Hartsfield-Jackson, but many people won’t even consider this as an option for a variety of reasons.
The advantage that Uber and Lyft have over taxi cabs is two-fold; ease of use and cost. Being able to order a car via an app on your phone prevents having to wait on an often long taxi line and generally speaking both Uber and Lyft are less expensive than a traditional cab.
Southwell said airport officials intend to present the plan to the Atlanta City Council on March 30, and that plans call for the ride-sharing services to be allowed by July 1.
