The flight from Seoul lands twenty minutes early, which sounds like good news until you're the one waiting.
An 82-year-old woman is behind those doors with two suitcases and no clear picture of what an American arrivals hall looks like. Her daughter is in Irvine, refreshing a flight tracker and texting a number she hopes still works.
Airport meet and greet means a driver waiting inside the terminal, past security for a domestic arrival or past customs for an international one, holding a sign with the passenger's name. The driver takes the bags and walks them to the car. It is not a text that says "I'm outside."
It's the question we field most weeks, usually from a daughter booking airport transfers across Orange County for a parent.
Three products answer to that name, and two of them are cheaper than the one she thinks she's buying.
The three things people call meet and greet
Search the phrase and you'll get quotes for three different products sharing one name.
| What you're buying | Where you meet the driver | What it costs you in time | What it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inside-terminal greet | Arrivals hall, past customs or beside baggage claim, name sign up | Nothing on your side. The driver absorbs the wait. | Anyone who shouldn't be navigating an airport alone |
| Curbside pickup | Outer curb outside baggage claim | A three to eight minute walk with your bags, then loading | A domestic arrival with a carry-on |
| Lot rendezvous | A parking structure or remote lot, found by phone | Ten to twenty minutes, plus phone tag | The cheapest option, and fine if you know the airport |
The time figures are ours, not airport statistics, and they shift with terminal, traffic and luggage. Price follows the same order: greet, then curb, then lot. Sometimes the gap is small enough to decide for you. Sometimes it isn't, so ask whether the greeting is its own line on the quote.
Here's the trap. Most companies offering "meet and greet" quietly offer all three under that label. If the confirmation doesn't say where the driver will physically stand, you don't know what you bought.
What "inside the terminal" actually includes
Five things, worth naming separately because operators include different subsets.
- A position past the secure exit. Not the gate. Gate access is an airline decision, made case by case, and no car service can promise it. Your driver waits at the last door before the curb.
- A name sign. Spelled the way you spelled it, held where a tired person can see it over a crowd. If the name has a hyphen or a diacritic, say so at booking. We once had a driver holding "Soo-Jin" while the ticket said "Soojin," and those two missed each other for eleven minutes.
- Bag help. Carousel to trunk. On two bags it's a courtesy. On six bags, a stroller and a car seat, it's the whole reason you booked.
- The walk. Out the doors, across the roadway, to a staged car. LAX's lower level is a scrum of hotel shuttles, ride-app drop-offs and passengers hunting door numbers, and knowing where your car is saves ten minutes and some temper.
- A different starting line for international arrivals. Customs comes before baggage claim, and your driver can't follow you through it. The greet begins at the exit door on the far side. An honest operator says that up front instead of implying they'll be at the jet bridge.
Notice what isn't on the list: the water bottle, the logo, being called "sir." Nice, not the product. The product is that somebody is expecting you, and the plan doesn't depend on your phone working or your English holding up.
When it is worth paying for
- First-time visitors. They don't know LAX arrivals spill onto a lower roadway with no obvious order, or that "outside baggage claim" covers a hundred yards of curb.
- Elderly parents. Especially the ones who insist they're fine. Not about capability. About not making an 82-year-old manage two suitcases and a curb after twelve hours in the air.
- Non-English speakers. A sign with a name in their own alphabet beats a phone call.
- International arrivals. CBP publishes airport wait times by airport and hour. The averages won't tell you what your particular arrival will do.
- Groups with a lot of bags. Six passengers and eight checked bags is a real load in the Suburban we run.
- Late-night arrivals. Fewer staff, longer walks, and a passenger at their least sharp.
VIPs aren't on that list, and shouldn't be. It's really a list of ways an arrival goes wrong when nobody is standing there.
When it isn't
A consultant flying Burbank to Phoenix twice a month with a roller bag doesn't need a sign. They know the door, and they're in the car four minutes after the jet bridge.
Same for a domestic arrival, carry-on only, daylight, working phone, airport they use often.
On a short, cheap transfer, the greeting can be a big share of the total. Ask what it adds.
What to confirm before booking
Six questions. Get the answers in the confirmation, not on a call.
- The wait window, in writing. Not "we wait." A number and a starting point. Does the clock start at wheels down, at the gate, or at scheduled landing? Three different promises.
- Flight tracking, and who acts on it. Tracking is table stakes. The question is whether a dispatcher moves the driver when your flight jumps two hours.
- What happens if the flight lands early. A driver who planned for 2:15pm may not be in the hall at 1:52pm.
- Whether the greeting is included or separate. Ask for the number, then what it covers. Some bundle it, some add it, and some call the curbside version "meet and greet" and charge anyway.
- Where exactly the driver stands. "At arrivals" is not an address. Ask for terminal, level and landmark.
- How you reach the driver, and what happens if customs runs long. A mobile number that gets answered beats an app notification.
Ask about the tip too. We covered tipping the chauffeur separately.
Meet and greet at LAX and SNA: how pickup actually works
LAX separates traffic by vehicle type. Taxis and standard rideshare don't pick up at the terminal curb. They go to LAX-it, a lot next to Terminal 1 reached by a free shuttle from outside baggage claim. Limousines, town cars and pre-booked chauffeured cars are exempt, and collect at the outermost curb outside baggage claim, per LAX's own ground transportation rules.
Most international carriers at LAX use Tom Bradley, also called Terminal B, though a few arrive at other terminals, which is why the terminal matters on the booking. Customs and immigration come before baggage claim, so an international passenger exits into the public hall well after the plane door opens. That gap is the argument for a greet. A curbside driver is guessing. A greeter inside is not.
LAX's people mover, SkyLink, isn't opening before 2027; the current estimate is February. When it opens, rideshare pickup is expected to move to the new ground transport hub and LAX-it to close. The chauffeured curb isn't part of that fight.
John Wayne is a different animal. Rideshare picks up on the top level of parking structures A2 and B2, plus the upper level of the Terminal C structure next to ticketing. Taxis and pre-arranged shuttles use the Ground Transportation Center on the lower level. What the airport won't allow is a car sitting at the white curb: it's for immediate loading only, and the guidance points drivers to the structures or the free cell phone lot south of Structure C.
That changes the math. At SNA a curbside pickup means loading within seconds of the car arriving, with no room to wait or circle back. Your options are a moving handoff at the white curb, a walk to the roof of a parking structure, or a driver inside the terminal. After 9am the airport itself recommends the Departures level, which is usually quieter than Arrivals. Our John Wayne Airport guide covers the rest of that building, and choosing between SNA, LAX and Long Beach handles the bigger question.
Frequently Asked Questions
For an international arrival, usually. Customs is unpredictable, the exit isn't obvious, and the lower level is crowded. For a domestic arrival with one bag and a working phone, the curb is fine and cheaper.
A tracked flight means the driver adjusts and you don't pay for the airline's problem. Confirm in writing that the wait window starts at actual landing.
Yes. The meeting point is the public arrivals hall past the customs exit, not the gate. Ask for the terminal and landmark in your confirmation.
The first puts a driver inside with a name sign, helping with bags and walking you out. The second means you find the car at the outer curb yourself.
It varies by operator, so get a number rather than an assurance. Ask when the clock starts, and what happens past the window.
It's worth more there than people expect. SNA doesn't allow waiting at either curb, and rideshare pickup is on a parking structure roof.
It's usually either inside the flat airport rate or a fixed add-on per pickup, not an hourly charge. Ask which, and get the number in the confirmation, because a charge that only shows up on the invoice is the one people argue about.
If you're booking for someone who has never done this, call (714) 936-5055 and describe the passenger, not the flight. The passenger decides which service you need. Or request a quote with the flight number and terminal. Landing at SNA? Our John Wayne Airport transfers run the same way.