Inside the Crossroads: reserve airport rides to MCI through a Kansas City office

Five steps from request to receipt

Every ride the office arranges joins one place in the Kansas City metro to MCI, and it can run in either direction. The steps keep the same order every time, and each one leaves something in writing that you can hold on to:

• You send the place, the date, the direction and your flight time, by form or by phone.
• The office asks local car companies to quote that ride in writing.
• One company's written fare comes to you by email, with each line spelled out.
• Your yes sends the reservation on to that company's office.
• The company confirms the pickup to you in writing, does the drive, takes your payment and issues the receipt.

Your payment, and the office's set amount

On every ride you pay one party: the car company whose name is on the written fare. Its figure is a fixed rate for the car, one way, and it holds once you accept it. That figure covers the drive, the fuel, the car for you alone and the waiting time the written fare names. A gratuity is outside that figure; if a company's rate adds one, it is a line of its own on the written fare, shown before your yes.

Anything beyond the plain ride, such as a second stop, waiting past the time the written fare names, the airport trip fee if the company adds one, or a child seat if the company charges for it, appears as a line of its own, and you read every line before your yes. The office earns its income from the companies: for each booking it hands over, the company that receives it pays the office a set amount.

After your yes, a car company's cancellation terms apply

Once you say yes, that company's cancellation terms apply, and they are printed in the written fare you read before that yes. A request about the car itself, such as a vehicle with a ramp or lift, gets the company's written reply before you say yes.

Suite 300 on Main Street, and phone hours

The office works from 1627 Main St, Suite 300, in the Crossroads, south of downtown Kansas City. Calls are taken Monday to Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday is the long day, running from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and all of these times are Central. On Saturday and Sunday the request form carries the whole weekend on its own.

The form takes requests 24/7. A request that lands while the phone is staffed gets a written reply within two hours; one that comes in later is answered by email by 10 a.m. the next morning, weekends included. To talk a ride through instead, call the airport transfer office in Kansas City during those hours, with the place, the date and your flight number at hand.

Complaints about a ride, logged and forwarded

A complaint about a ride, whether the car came late, the charge differed from the written fare or the pickup went to the wrong spot, can reach the office by email, or by phone in its hours. Give the date, the pickup place and the company named on your written fare. The office passes the complaint to that company and keeps a written record of what went where, and when.

Since the company drove you and took the payment, questions about the charge or the receipt are for that company to settle. A request on its own holds no car: a ride is settled only once the company's confirmation reaches you, and before your yes you may withdraw a request at any point and owe nothing. With a place and a date in mind, you can reserve a Kansas City airport transfer from the main page.

Company particulars on file