Tristar Worldwide Chauffeur Services

¹⁰⁄₁₀. Great cars, great drivers, great service.

Arrived on time at Heathrow, hoping to meet up quickly with prescheduled driver. Per email confirming time for 2pm, however driver was nowhere to be found. Checked three times for our driver amongst long line of drivers holding signs. Driver was not there. After twenty minutes of waiting called reservations to cancel. Was on hold for five minutes. Rather than apologize, customer service kept me on hold again and disputed the fact that the driver was there and my pickup time. Not wanting to further delay our vacation I told the customer service agent to cancel the reservation. More back and forth about cancellation policy so I just asked to simply have a manager call. Not sure I’ll get my money back, but I hope so because it doesn’t seem right to charge a customer for service not rendered.
Here is an update: despite their driver not showing at the airport Tristar will be charging me for services. Not at the rate quoted either. Instead of $ 110 I am being billed $ 144. This is an awful company. Completely unreasonable and I will be filing a formal complaint.
I do not recommend using this company for transportation services. They are unreliable, unreasonable and unethical.

Fine, reliable cars but their waiting policy /​pricing leaves somewhat to be desired. Last information received in 2014 was that free waiting period was reduced from 1 hour to 45 minutes from landing time and after 46^th minute charged at 9 pounds per every additional 15 minutes. From our most recent invoice it looks as if this may have been increased to 9.50 per additional 15 minutes. Probably better for drop off than pickup as waiting costs in a busy airport can easily escalate.

What do you do when you have to get to the airport before the public transport kicks in? If you’re like me, you probably booked your flight without even considering getting there at that ridiculous hour, then suddenly found yourself in a bit of a pickle.
You see, (at the time of writing) the first Heathrow Express train from Paddington to Heathrow is at 5:10am, if you have one of the first international flights out of Heathrow, that doesn’t leave much time to play with, plus you have the hassle of getting to Paddington to start with.
With all this in mind, I asked around my more jet-​set friends and was recommended Tristar cars. This is no minicab service (which start at about £35), but a chauffeur-​driven service that is used by many of the top airlines.
Including all taxes, I was quoted about £70 for a 4:30am pick-​up in Bloomsbury. This is more than a black cab is likely to cost at that time, but this is more than just a black cab.
I booked over the telephone and they were very professional and helpful. I received a confirmation email, so ticked it off my list and started thinking about beaches and flip-​flops.
On the morning of my trip I received a text message a few minutes before the arranged time of my booking informing me that the driver was here. As soon as I emerged from my door he was out the car assisting me with my luggage.
The car was a brand new Volvo (you can pay more for better cars, such as Mercedes S-​Class), immaculate inside and out and set up for optimum legroom and comfort. The driver was very polite and was just the right level of professional whilst not being too formal.
When we got to Heathrow he patiently waited at the drop-​off area for a good spot to become available and helped me with my luggage, wished me well and I was on my way, pretty much as happy and relaxed as you can be arriving at Heathrow at that hour.
All in all, I’d say that while it’s not cheap, the service is faultless so I still think represents good value vs other alternatives. If I were travelling with a group of people, then it would be my first choice every time and is also a no-​brainer if your company is picking up the tab.
My only slight grumble is that credit card payments have a 3% charge, but if you use the regularly then you won’t need to worry about this as you can arrange an account with them.
I’ll certainly be using them again, not just in London either, they seem to have most major cities covered worldwide by their network.