Can I pay for someone else's airport limo?

The payer and the passenger are separate people on the booking

A reservation carries two roles that people often assume are one. The passenger's name is what the chauffeur uses — on a name sign at arrivals, and to identify the right person at a hotel lobby. The booking contact is who receives the SMS confirmation, the reminder and the email with the self-serve link, and whose card sits on the ride.

Those can be two different people, and separating them deliberately is the whole trick. If you want your parents met at Terminal 1 without being asked for anything, put their names as passengers and your own number and email as the contact. If you would rather they receive the reminder themselves, put their mobile on the booking instead and keep the email yours.

The one thing to get right is that somebody reachable is on the booking. Flight tracking handles a delayed arrival automatically, but if a plan genuinely changes on the day, the chauffeur's office calls the number on file.

• Passenger name — used for the arrivals name sign
• Booking contact — receives the SMS, reminder and self-serve link
• Card on file — belongs to whoever is paying, not who is riding
• Receipt goes to the email on the booking

Three ways to cover someone else's fare

The simplest is your own card at booking. Nothing is charged at that moment; it is charged once the ride is confirmed, for the quoted total, and the traveller never sees a payment step. This is the right choice when you are booking on their behalf anyway.

The second is a payment link. Book the ride, ask the office to email a secure link, and whoever is paying opens a card page for the exact same total and settles it themselves. That suits the cases where the person paying is not the person arranging — a company covering a candidate's arrival, or one sibling booking while another pays.

The third is cash. Choose it at booking and the passenger pays the chauffeur on the day, which some travellers prefer for their own reasons. Nothing is processed online, and the number is identical to the card path — the payment method never changes the fare.

• Your card at booking — charged once the ride is confirmed
• A secure payment link, emailed to whoever is paying
• Cash to the chauffeur on the day, at the same total
• No third-party fee, no booking fee, no surcharge for any of the three

The situations this comes up in

Parents booking a student's arrival are the most common, particularly in late August and early September when a first-time traveller lands at Pearson with two suitcases and no local phone plan. Meet and greet at $65 is worth its money in that specific case: the chauffeur is inside the arrivals hall with a name sign rather than somewhere along the curb, which removes the part of the journey that actually goes wrong.

Companies booking for a visiting client or a candidate use the same mechanics, usually with a payment link or a corporate account so the ride never touches the traveller's expenses at all. Adult children booking for an elderly parent flying alone tend to keep both the phone number and the email on their own side, so the reminders land where somebody will act on them.

A fourth case is the household one: a partner booking the 4 a.m. departure for the other, which needs nothing special beyond the correct street number and a card on file.

What it costs, and what the traveller can see

The fare is the ordinary fare — a Sedan pickup from the terminals is $132.91 all-in inside the minimum-fare radius, with meet and greet adding $65 if you want it. There is no premium for paying on someone else's behalf and no surcharge for a card that does not match the passenger's name.

As for privacy: the confirmation carries the fare, so if you would rather the traveller did not see what you spent, keep your own email on the booking and give only their name for the sign. If you would rather they had the details, put their address in as the contact instead. It is a choice you make when booking rather than something to unpick afterwards.

If they want to change something on the day — an added stop, a different terminal — it reprices against the card on file, so it is worth telling them to call the office rather than arranging it with the chauffeur directly. The book an airport pickup for someone else page covers the logistics side in more depth.