Why is my airport limo quote higher than the 'from' price?

The from-price is quoting a Sedan

This is the biggest and most common gap, because a from-price has to name one vehicle and the Sedan is the entry point. Six classes serve the same address, and inside the minimum-fare radius a drop-off prices at $112.67 in the Sedan, $186.72 in the SUV, $275.24 in the Premium SUV, $311.20 in the Premium Sedan, $539.42 in the Sprinter Van and $524.20 in the Stretch Limousine.

So a quote of $186.72 against an advertised $112.67 is not a different price for the same thing — it is the SUV you selected, with three more seats and room for the luggage that prompted the choice. The /fleet/ page sets out what each class holds, which is the question actually being answered when the number changes.

Note also that the classes do not rank the way the badges suggest. On short routes the Premium Sedan quotes above the Premium SUV, because its minimum is $225 against the Escalade's $199.

• Sedan drop-off at the minimum: $112.67
• SUV: $186.72 — the usual reason a quote reads higher
• Premium SUV: $275.24, Premium Sedan: $311.20
• Sprinter Van: $539.42, Stretch Limousine: $524.20

The from-price is usually the leaving-for-the-airport direction

Pages built around getting to a flight quote the drop-off fare, because that is the trip being described. If you are pricing the ride home from arrivals instead, the airport pickup fee applies — $15.27 on the four cars, $35 on the Sprinter Van and Stretch — and it joins the base before the surcharges run.

The result is a fixed, knowable gap between directions on any route: $20.24 in the Sedan, $21.12 in the Premium Sedan, SUV and Premium SUV, $48.41 in the Sprinter Van and Stretch. If your quote sits almost exactly $20 above an advertised figure, this is why.

It is not a markup on arriving passengers. The pickup fee exists on the airport side of the transaction, and the why do airport pickups cost more than drop-offs page explains where it comes from.

The from-price was measured to a reference address, not your door

Distances behind published fares are measured to a central point — a city hall, a town centre, a station. Cambridge City Hall is 76.88 km out and prices a Sedan drop-off at $201.77. A house twelve kilometres further into the township is a different measurement, and past the vehicle's minimum each of those kilometres prices at the card rate: $1.98 on the Sedan, $2.65 on the SUV.

Inside the minimum, the opposite is true and pleasantly so. Extra distance is free until the floor runs out at roughly 43 km in a Sedan, which is why Malton at 5.53 km and Oakville Town Hall at 33.27 km produce the identical $112.67. If your suburb is quoted at the minimum, the advertised number is exact for your address rather than approximate.

This also explains quotes that come in lower than expected: an address closer to the terminals than the reference point simply cannot go below the floor, so it lands on the same figure.

• Published distances use a central reference address
• Past the minimum, each extra kilometre prices at the card rate
• Inside the minimum, extra distance costs nothing
• Sedan floor runs out around 43 km

Anything you added is in there too

Optional items are never assumed, so if you selected one it is visible in the difference. Meet and greet is $65 and applies to airport pickups only — the chauffeur waits inside arrivals with a name sign rather than at the curb. An extra stop is $15 flat plus whatever kilometres the detour adds, which on a minimum-fare route is often nothing at all.

Child seats are free and do not touch the total, though needing two of them alongside four suitcases may push you into a larger vehicle, and the vehicle is what carries the price.

None of these is a hidden charge — they are line items you chose, and removing the choice removes the cost. The when is meet and greet worth $65 page is a good sanity check before you keep it.

Rounding, and what a from-price is honestly for

Page titles round down to the dollar for readability, so a heading reading from $229 is describing a fare of $229.19. The body text and the quote engine both carry the cents; the title is the only place a number is shortened.

A from-price is a floor with four conditions attached — Sedan, drop-off, reference address, no extras — and it is genuinely useful for exactly one thing: telling you which order of magnitude a route lives in. It cannot tell you what your trip costs, because it does not know which vehicle you need or which way you are going.

The number that binds is the one your own quote returns at /ride/, and it stops moving the moment you book. From that point it is locked against traffic, weather, demand and the calendar, and it is the figure that appears on your card.