Pick someone up from the airport or leave them Uber? It’s more complicated than you think
When someone comes to town, do you pick them up at the airport? It’s a lot easier, especially with e-ride requests and you just need to type an address into a phone app (and you don’t even need local currency), to get them just Uber or Lyft. In some parts of the world it is Grab or Didi.
But picking someone up from the airport is an act of love. It takes effort and planning. That’s twice the driving, and it involves waiting. It is precisely because it is more difficult and more expensive that it functions as a signal how much you care.
Picking someone up (or taking them) from the airport is such a sign of intimacy that it has entered popular culture. From “When Harry Met Sally” to “Seinfeld,” transporting someone to or from the airport shows you care. A lot.
I remember those wonderful opening and closing scenes from the movie “Love Actually,” consisting of a long montage of people greeting each other in an airport terminal and – clutching their hearts.
In a male relationship, picking someone up from the airport go all the waylike helping someone move house.
There are several strategies for picking someone up at the airport.
- Mobile phone on hold. Have them call you when they land (or monitor it yourself online) and approach the terminal when they’re ready to be picked up, depending on whether they have checked baggage waiting or not . Call it “the car ride”.
- Pick them up at departures rather than arrivals, as it is often less crowded. Call it “the expert move”. It shows them that you know what you dothey are in good hands.
This is especially useful without checked baggage as they do not need to go to baggage claim. With checked baggage, this usually means going upstairs – with luggage – and is not useful.
- Park and enter the terminal it’s more expensive (parking fees) and more time-consuming, but it’s a more intimate gesture. You greet them earlier and escort them, helping them with their bags. It shows next level attention and that you couldn’t wait to see them. Call it “next level attention”. You need to research where to meet them, know where they’re going to exit from safety, and be careful not to miss them though. It takes extra work if you surprise them, and it’s much easier if you coordinate their meeting via text.
- Meet them at their doorstep. It’s the next level because it’s unexpected in the post-September 11 world and because it takes real effort and therefore is a more powerful signal to the person you meet. Call it “the bold move”.
For this you need a security pass or ticket (in the US). Several airports arrange ahead of time to get through security when you’re not stealing, because they want to spend more concessions. You can get a pass if you rent an American Airlines Admirals Club conference room ($65 for members/$85 for non-members). Or buy a refundable ticket, use it to get through security and cancel the ticket – although constantly buying tickets you don’t intend to use can get you in trouble with the airline.
Here is the next challenge. Say you meet someone at the airport and meet them at the gate, just outside security, or outside the terminal (you want to get out of your vehicle and help them with luggages) how do you greet them because the greeting says it all about your relationship. Is it a hug and how long does it last? A warm handshake? Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander obsessed with airport greetings:
The funny thing is, when riding alone to and from the airport in an Uber, you can work in the back seat. Someone picking you up might be late, and someone taking you to the airport means you’re relying on two people – you and them – to be ready to leave on time. Doesn’t that double the chances of you being late?
From a pure efficiency standpoint, doing the airport trip solo is a winner. But when someone offer to take you or pick you up can you really refuse – precisely because it’s such a grand gesture and such a show of intimacy, to say no is to refuse the person and not just the favor.
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