Addison Lee – anyone actually able to get a booking?!

[can]

Amex is advertising the AL credit as a real benefit, but I am having some serious trouble to use it.

I live within the Circular Road in London, and I cannot book one at all. I tried to book for 2-3 days ahead, and they always say they are fully booked. I know they need drivers, brexit et all, but I suspect if they blocked me because I raised few complaints in the past, but they were somewhat internal complaints, nothing serious.

[can]

I meant Amex Plat

[meta]

It’s not just you. There are reports here in the forum here. I haven’t been able to use my monthly credit for 6 months now. Drivers unavailable all the time.

[Cranzle]

Yes, it’s now a useless offer.

I wonder if anyone has tried to book without Amex and see if they manage to book.

[Aston100]

Oddly, the one and only time I needed to use them (December in London), I was able to book a week ahead and all went well.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

They subcontract in Manchester so it’s not the typical AL cars/drivers but it doew generally mean I can pre-book an airport run for less than £25. I have no idea how to tip in AL app though, is it possible?

[Rob]

Aston100 wrote:

Oddly, the one and only time I needed to use them (December in London), I was able to book a week ahead and all went well.

Most people don’t book taxis a week ahead though 🙂

I tried to get one two days in advance for a Heathrow run last week and couldn’t.

[SamG]

Rather surprisingly I used them for a run from Buckinghamshire to Heathrow a couple of weeks ago and they were cheaper than even my most dodgy local taxi firm and no problem prebooking. Otherwise whenever I check the app for prebook or on the spot there is nothing available for credit card. You can get one on account (at a higher price) so I guess they are preferring to do less jobs and maintain availability for those types of customers

[Cranzle]

SamG wrote:

Rather surprisingly I used them for a run from Buckinghamshire to Heathrow a couple of weeks ago and they were cheaper than even my most dodgy local taxi firm and no problem prebooking. Otherwise whenever I check the app for prebook or on the spot there is nothing available for credit card. You can get one on account (at a higher price) so I guess they are preferring to do less jobs and maintain availability for those types of customers

Or one could conclude that they don’t want to honour the Amex discount unless they are really desperate for jobs.

[can]

For whatever it’s worth I wrote to Amex about it

[Ryanfozzie]

can wrote:

For whatever it’s worth I wrote to Amex about it

Did they get back to you?

[SteC]

Last year I pre-booked a taxi in Manchester (They use a “partner” company here) for a 3am pickup for after a night out with over a weeks notice. when it came time to pick us up, they never showed. after waiting over half an hour after the pickup time I still didn’t have a driver assigned so I cancelled. (to which I got a notice saying I would be charged a cancellation fee… I didnt in the end after contacting their customer support though) I ended up having to order an Uber at nearly double the cost. Even with the £10 credit I will never use them again in Manchester

I have mentioned this to Amex in the chat a couple of times now (once when I was thinking of cancelling) and they said they would pass it on. hopefully if we all complain it might get switched for something thats actually useful.

[Lady London]

Well Amex hasn’t sorted the problem of holders of their Priority Pass constantly being refused entry to Priority Pass lounges at major UK airports as other types of customer are being given er…Priority at these lounges.

Why would Addison Lee’s denial of service be sorted by Amex then?

If Amex wanted to provide a meaningful benefit in exchange for their very high card fee – and not just offer spend-based deals where you can be sure the merchant and not Amex is sponsoring at least half or maybe all of the discount – then I am sure they would have already sorted out Priority Pass and Addison Lee.

[can]

Lady London wrote:

Well Amex hasn’t sorted the problem of holders of their Priority Pass constantly being refused entry to Priority Pass lounges at major UK airports as other types of customer are being given er…Priority at these lounges.

Why would Addison Lee’s denial of service be sorted by Amex then?

If Amex wanted to provide a meaningful benefit in exchange for their very high card fee – and not just offer spend-based deals where you can be sure the merchant and not Amex is sponsoring at least half or maybe all of the discount – then I am sure they would have already sorted out Priority Pass and Addison Lee.

Yeah, if Amex wanted to sort it out, they would’ve. But, this does not mean that if a critical mass of Platinums write to them, there won’t be any change. One can hope…

[can]

Ryanfozzie wrote:

can wrote:

For whatever it’s worth I wrote to Amex about it

Did they get back to you?

no.

[strickers]

A few days ago from the Thistle to T5, app said 12 minutes, took 35 for it to arrive. Wish I’d used Uber. Need one from T3 to the Premier Inn T5 in a couple of weeks, if the service is no better then I’m going to lodge a complaint to Amex. Not sure it will achieve much apart from making me feel better.

[George K]

I’ve firmly used it for prebooked cabs to Heathrow. Usually book about a week in advance but even then, there was once that showed no availability for a taxi to come 7 days later. It really beggars belief that a taxi company can’t find a driver with 7 days notice, so I did try to speak to someone about it, especially after realising that if I tweaked the pick up time by 45 minutes, it’d accept the booking.

Long story short, AddLee said they are really busy, trying their best, but what you see in the app is what you get. Anyway, I took the earlier booking so not to lose the £10 (and let’s face it, an hour earlier in the lounge is no hardship) and told the driver what had transpired. He was baffled, because according to him, they aren’t actually that busy… I asked if he had any jobs after mine and he said no. I asked if he was finishing up his shift and he said that I was his first customer for the day. Hard to understand why the service wouldn’t let me book him for an hour later based on all this.

[Cranzle]

George K wrote:

I’ve firmly used it for prebooked cabs to Heathrow. Usually book about a week in advance but even then, there was once that showed no availability for a taxi to come 7 days later. It really beggars belief that a taxi company can’t find a driver with 7 days notice, so I did try to speak to someone about it, especially after realising that if I tweaked the pick up time by 45 minutes, it’d accept the booking.

Long story short, AddLee said they are really busy, trying their best, but what you see in the app is what you get. Anyway, I took the earlier booking so not to lose the £10 (and let’s face it, an hour earlier in the lounge is no hardship) and told the driver what had transpired. He was baffled, because according to him, they aren’t actually that busy… I asked if he had any jobs after mine and he said no. I asked if he was finishing up his shift and he said that I was his first customer for the day. Hard to understand why the service wouldn’t let me book him for an hour later based on all this.

My theory is they are restricting app bookings, perhaps where Amex is the preauth card.
They are very IT savvy.

[can]

George K wrote:

I’ve firmly used it for prebooked cabs to Heathrow. Usually book about a week in advance but even then, there was once that showed no availability for a taxi to come 7 days later. It really beggars belief that a taxi company can’t find a driver with 7 days notice, so I did try to speak to someone about it, especially after realising that if I tweaked the pick up time by 45 minutes, it’d accept the booking.

Long story short, AddLee said they are really busy, trying their best, but what you see in the app is what you get. Anyway, I took the earlier booking so not to lose the £10 (and let’s face it, an hour earlier in the lounge is no hardship) and told the driver what had transpired. He was baffled, because according to him, they aren’t actually that busy… I asked if he had any jobs after mine and he said no. I asked if he was finishing up his shift and he said that I was his first customer for the day. Hard to understand why the service wouldn’t let me book him for an hour later based on all this.

Thanks for this.

I have a feeling that if they restrict Plat bookings
1. They must know which amex cards are Plat so someone 🙂 must tell them
2. If they don’t want Plat bookings this means that they have little incentive for Plat
3. That means either Plat users don’t bring more money as perhaps expected
4. Which means that Amex was the initiator for this and AL regretted.
5. Then why would they still keep it?

I think the whole thing defeats reason.

[andeh3]

Any other Manchester users on here? Prices for AL seem to have doubled in the last few months here. AL used to be a couple of pounds more expensive than local firms/Uber so for short trips I could still use the £10 off and get a little bit of value once a month, however, recently the rates have shot up. Even after the £10 off it’s still quite a bit more than Uber/bolt now so pointless.

[Carlos]

Still cheaper to use a local cab as opposed to AL and it can still be bookable in the future.
Complain to Amex and say you are not getting their full benefit and demand MR points as compensation?

[Supergers49]

In Edinburgh they sub-contract. Twice in the last 4 months I have pre-booked (approx. 1 week in advance) an airport taxi (home to EDI). On both occassions the driver has failed to turn-up, AL customers services have left me on the phone for 10 minutes+ (time is generally of the essence) and then agreed to cancel the reservation with no charge. However, on both occassions they have subsequently charged me. On both occassions I’ve received grovelling apologies anda full refund but it is a useless Amex Plat offer with a company that does the Amex Plat brand no good at all.

[jj]

Utterly useless in my part of Wales due to extraordinary pricing. These prices are for 1200 tomorrow.

– AL to office: £25. Local taxi firm: c£10 metered.
– AL to airport: £45. Local taxi firm: £10 fixed price.

I need more than the Platinum offer to swing me toward AL.

[andeh3]

Yep same. You can understand it when they sub-contract that they would charge a little extra due to commission.

The annoying thing is it was pretty reasonable in Manchester before recently, but the pricing has now shot up, I suspect their main customers here will be Londoners with the app installed that try it outside London not knowing they are being fleeced. Anyway I’ve deleted it now, just a shame another benefit that I can’t use along with the limited airport lounges.

[cats_are_best]

I’ve found AL significantly improved compared to late last year through into this year, couldn’t make bookings even 6-8 weeks ahead, let alone get one on demand. Gave up even trying to use them.

But I’ve now used AL for transfers central London to/from LGW in July and August (both triggering Amex credit).

No issue booking, also was surprised to get a ‘pick-up now’ without delay last Saturday night in the West end.

For the last LGW pickup, my flight was c. three hours late and it was well past 0300 by the time baggage appeared and I exited reclaim, I’d expected problems, but AL tracked the delay and within a few minutes the driver arranged to meet me at the pick-up point rather than the usual rigmarole of trundling baggage into short-term parking.