After the flight lands
Landing home: reserve an airport pickup at PHL for New Castle County
When your flight lands at Philadelphia International Airport and home is an address in New Castle County, the last stretch is a private car down I-95. An airport pickup at PHL for New Castle County starts with a request from you: the address, the date, the flight number and how many people are coming. The office finds a local car company with a sedan or SUV free for your landing, and that company sends its own fare in writing. Only your written yes sends the booking on.
Zone 6, outside every baggage claim
Pre-arranged cars at PHL pick up at Zone 6, on South Commercial Roadway, the airport's commercial roadway outside baggage claim. Each baggage claim building has a Zone 6 of its own, and the one you use is the one outside the building where your bags come out:
- A-East, for Terminal A-East and for international arrivals
- B/C, one building for Terminals B and C
- D/E, one building for Terminals D and E
- F, for Terminal F
With your bags in hand, leave baggage claim through the doors on the side away from Arrivals Road. Zones 5 to 8 sit on that side, and Zone 6 is the one kept for pre-arranged cars, sedans and SUVs among them. These zone numbers are the airport's own and can change, so the signs at the doors are worth a look as you walk out.
International arrivals start in A-West
Arriving from overseas, you land in A-West, where international arrivals come in. Your bags come out in another building: take the elevator down and walk through to the A-East baggage claim. Collect them there, then go out by the doors on the side away from Arrivals Road to the Zone 6 outside A-East. On the request, give the flight number and note that you land in A-West.
The walk from A-West to A-East adds minutes between landing and the curb, so keep it in mind when you read the waiting time in the written fare. If that time looks short for the walk, ask the office about it before you say yes.
Want the driver inside baggage claim?
Unless you ask for something else, the car picks you up at Zone 6. To have the driver meet at terminal baggage claim instead, tick "Meet me inside at baggage claim, if the company can" on the request and add your baggage claim building in the note. That meeting takes place only when the car company confirms it in writing for your flight, and that written word is what you go by at the airport.
A driver who comes inside has to leave the car parked, and the company may add a parking or waiting charge for it. If it does, the charge is printed in its written fare, which reaches you before you say yes. You can keep the inside meeting or go back to Zone 6 before anything is settled.
Waiting time is written into the fare
Your flight number lets the car company see an early or late landing. How long the driver waits after you land, and what waiting past that costs, both come from the company in its written fare for your ride. The same fare says whether gratuity is inside it and lists any extra stops, an airport charge if the company adds one, and a toll if the route uses one.
After your written yes, the company confirms the ride in writing, naming itself, the car and the pickup time, and you pay that company as its fare says. Fares follow the ZIP of the home address, and the page on airport transfer from downtown Wilmington, DE to PHL shows one ZIP in full. For the flight out, the page on the ride to Philadelphia airport from New Castle County covers the departures curb.