VIP Arrival and Transfer in London Heathrow with No.1 Traveller

I’ve made it no secret that London is my favourite city in the world…so far! I say so far because it’s good to keep your options open, right? But for 10 years now, no city has surpassed my love for London yet.

For three years in a row, I’ve been heading to London (and I suspect will do in 2015 again, no complaints there!). This is how much I love London: I’m deathly afraid of the cold, yet will gladly endure it to be there!

One of the things I prepare for whenever I head to London is getting from London Heathrow to the city (and vice versa.)

It takes roughly less than an hour (around the 50 minute mark to be exact) by car / taxi from London Heathrow to London central.

On any given day, it’s a pleasure for me to take the Underground  / train but when you’ve just arrived from overseas, and carrying heavy luggage that is not an ideal situation.

So on my most recent London visit last month, I decided to try No.1 Traveller’s VIP Arrival Service and Heathrow Chauffer service.

Flying in from Rome,  we were met by No. 1 Traveller’s representative right after exiting the jet bridge.

After a cordial greeting, he led us to immigration, and on to the carousel to wait for our bags. He even instructed us to look around and freshen up as the bags took quite a while to appear.

When our bags finally came, he placed our heavy bags on the trolley as he shooed my away from helping him (really, those bags were heavy!)

After leading us to the exit and arrivals area, he stayed with us until we were approached by another gentleman, this time from the No.1 Traveller’s Heathrow Chauffer service.

The 4 of us went down to the parking area where the shiniest Mercedes-Benz was waiting for us.

I mean, seriously. This car was so shiny and squeaky clean it looked and felt as though it was just unwrapped from an air-tight seal.

When our driver started loading our bags in the boot, I warned him about the bags being heavy. He looked at me with a knowing eye and said, “I have a wife. No need to explain.” 

Smart man! 🙂

Inside, the car reeked of that marvelous leather and ‘new car’ smell, and was extremely clean.

There was a generous selection of magazines and the day’s newspaper.

Anyone who knows the road well from Heathrow to the city will agree that it takes quite a long time before you get any interesting or picturesque scene.

With a plethora of reading materials and bottles of water on hand, the long journey really felt much shorter and comfortable. Worth mentioning that the car comes with wi-fi too. So great for those wishing to squeeze in a bit of work!

Some airlines now offer complimentary (given a set kilometer radius) limousine transfers from airport to hotel (and vice versa) on their First and Business class passengers. While there’s only a few who offer this, it should also be known that on certain airlines, they only offer this to certain booking classes on First and Business class (usually the higher fares, and non-discounted or non-promo first / business class fares).

It’s good to know that even if you are flying an airline who does not offer these complimentary services, or are flying them but your booking class is not eligible for it, you can have the freedom and option to book a chauffer and transfer very easily.

Their tagline of “Driveway to Runway” (or in my case ‘Runway to Driveway’) is true in every sense. There wasn’t a point at all during the VIP Arrival Service or the transfer that we were left hanging or wondering if we were forgotten.

Would I use No. 1 Traveller again on my next visit to London?

ABSOLUTELY! And would recommend anyone travelling to London to try them out too.

They have services available on other UK Airports and the best part is that they have their own lounge in Terminal 3, which will be for another post 🙂

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We were hosted by No.1 Traveller for this service. As always, all thoughts and opinions of this blog are my own.