-
Can anyone help with Addison Lee’s excess mileage calculation?
Background is this:
When considering whether to take the offered chauffeur service, we were told additional cost would be calculated on the basis of “driven miles”. We sat down and calculated the excess mileage, applied the cost t&c and decided it was financially sensible to accept the (likely) excess over and above sourcing a car locally or getting the train and holding up for the night at LGW.
When we received the confirmation of the car at on line check in, we received a wee bit of a shock, for whereas we had calculated on the basis of an excess of 36 miles (using Google maps and the AA route finder) the figure given is based on an excess of 75 miles. I have queried this with both EK and Addison Lee, and they are blaming each other. At 48 hours notice it not proved impossible to make alternative arrangements and are stuck with a wince inducing additional cost.
On further queries, Addison Lee tell me;
1. They use “Google Miles” rather than “Google Maps” to calculate the mileage.
2. They use an average of 3 likely routes to deliver the driven miles. Given (by my calculations) 2 of those routes would be 110 miles and 120 miles (M25 clockwise and anti clock wise), the 3rd route would have to be 200+ miles to arrive at 145 miles “average.
Does anyone know what “Google Miles” is?
How can it be fair practise to deliver an average of “driven miles” the basis of an opaque calculation, leaving aside the issue of it being revealed on 48 hours before the flight.
The actual miles driven were 110 (including an extended diversion to avoid traffic), giving Addison Lee an effective additional mileage rate of £5+ per mile, over double that advertised.
Paul
On the positive side, both customer service departments answered the phones, sent emails and communicated with us well in to Sunday evening.
Any help or advice gladly received, and thanks for you
I think you’re missing the preamble here. Emirates gets mentioned part-way in.
Never heard of google miles and google doesn’t seem to have either.
Who charged the excess AL or Emirates, just direct your emails and claim for a refund at that party.
What’s the actual total £ difference between the 115 (average of two routes) and 145 they charged?
Money is paid directly to AL, and the £ difference is £100 (incl VAT).
We got a satisfactory resolution with Addison Lee agreeing our estimate of mileage and refunding the overcharge. From our correspondence with them their “postcode to postcode” pricing is based on the central point of the area designated by the first two letters of your postcode. In our case that is 30 miles north (and further away from LGW) of our actual address.
This was achieved without any suggestion of taking it to the licensing authorities or social media, and the agent we dealt with was always responsive and did appear to be arguing our case within the company.
How delightful but sadly rare to read on here of a simple mistake being fairly and efficiently resolved!
I’m not a newbie here, but i forgot my username and password so had to start again 🙂
Emirates (from Manchester at least) used to use Blacklane/Goldstar Chaffeur services, before the contract switched to Addison Lee. Emirates used to pay the former companies a rate ‘as the crow flies’ between pick up/drop off and the airport. Where i used to live in west yorkshire was over 70 miles from Manchester Airport but according to Emirates in November 2022 it was only 59 miles, so i did not have to pay an excess charge. Come October 2023 I had moved house to north yorkshire (further away) and flew to Tokyo mid October, Addison Lee has taken over from the former but refused to accept Emirates ‘as the crow flies’ straight line distance between point A and point B, so they charge an excess mileage charge above the 70 miles..each way, I had to then pay £36 on the way out and £36 on the way back. Which is fair enough, I drive a 4×4 and cannot drive the return trip distance and get the airport parking for a week for £60 (£72 inc vat). But I have no idea why they cannot just take one payment which would seem more sensible
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
