Booking a Madrid airport taxi: 8 mistakes to avoid when you book

The most common mistakes when booking a taxi to Madrid airport are getting the date wrong for early-morning pickups, confusing the flight time with the pickup time, giving an incomplete address, choosing the wrong terminal, not mentioning the luggage and forgetting the flight number for pickups at Barajas. All of them can be avoided by checking the booking before you confirm it. We explain each one and how to prevent it.

1. The wrong date for an early-morning pickup

This is the most frequent slip. If your flight leaves on Saturday at 6:00 and the taxi needs to come at 3:30, the booking date is Saturday, even though to you it feels like “Friday night”. It happens the other way round too: some people book Sunday at 0:15 thinking of the end of Sunday, when it is actually the start. If in doubt, write “Friday night into Saturday” in the comments field.

2. Entering the flight time instead of the pickup time

In the booking you give the time you want the taxi to pick you up, not the take-off time. To work it out, take the flight time and subtract how early you need to be at the airport (around 2 hours for European flights and 3 for international ones), the journey from your area and a margin in case of traffic. We go into this in what time to order your airport taxi.

3. Booking online with very little notice

The booking form accepts same-day bookings, but if you have less than 2 hours left, it is best to call 911 76 00 81: it is handled in the same call and any questions are cleared up on the spot.

4. An incomplete address

A street with no number, housing estates with several phases, hotels with two entrances or holiday flats with no obvious front door. Write the street, number, building entrance and town, and add a landmark if the place is hard to find.

5. Choosing the wrong terminal

T4 is in a different building from T1, T2 and T3, so a terminal mistake costs time. Check on your ticket or the airline's website which terminal your flight leaves from, or see which Barajas terminal you need.

6. Forgetting the flight number for a pickup

When you are coming back from a trip, the flight number is the most useful detail in the booking: it is used to check the arrival terminal and confirm the meeting point. We explain this on the airport pickup page.

7. Not counting people and suitcases properly

A standard taxi has room for four passengers and a reasonable amount of luggage. If there are five or more of you, or you have large suitcases, skis or a pushchair, say so: you may need a 7-seater taxi, and it is better to know when you book than at your front door.

8. Not asking for a child seat

If you are travelling with young children, request the seat in the booking itself, stating the child's age, so that availability can be confirmed. You will find more details in the guide to travelling to the airport with children.

Keep the confirmation and have the dispatch office's number to hand. If your flight time changes or it is cancelled, let us know by phone or WhatsApp as soon as you find out. And if you prefer to book in writing, our guide to ordering your taxi on WhatsApp in a single message has templates that already include all these details.

Once everything is clear, you can make your airport taxi booking in three steps: you will see the fixed price for your area before you confirm, you can pay by card at that point or pay the driver, and the price will be the same there and back.