How Can I Arrange for a Special Request Such as a Customized Pick-Up or Drop-Off Location?

You arrange a special request — a customized pick-up or drop-off location — by writing the exact address into the notes on JetBlack’s online booking form, or by telling the dispatcher when you call +1-646-214-4828. Either way, the answer comes back as a written, fixed per-trip price before you travel, with no surge and no meter. A customized location is any pickup or drop-off that is not a standard airport, hotel, or Manhattan address: a side entrance, a private driveway, a construction site, a hospital wing, a ferry terminal, or a stop the map does not quite know. Because the price depends on your exact addresses, JetBlack does not publish a flat fare for it — the quote is the price, and it does not move with traffic or demand once it is given.

What counts as a special request

A special request is not a complicated trip — it is a trip where the address needs a human to read it. A standard run has one pickup and one drop-off at addresses any map knows: an airport terminal, a hotel lobby, an office building. A customized location changes one or more of those pieces, and each change is something the quote has to price. If your trip includes any of the items below, it counts as a special request — and asking costs nothing, so there is no penalty for checking.

• A pickup or drop-off at a side entrance, service entrance, or loading dock
• A private driveway, gated community, or address without street parking
• A hospital, school, or campus where the building has several entrances
• A ferry terminal, marina, or waterfront pickup point
• More than one stop — a home, then an office, then the airport
• Child seats, which JetBlack provides for about $35 per seat, confirmed at booking
• A wheelchair-accessible vehicle, which JetBlack provides
• Extra luggage, sports gear, or boxes that need a larger vehicle

The point of the request is to put the driver at the right door the first time. A driver sent to the main entrance of a hospital when you are waiting at the east wing is a missed pickup, and a car that cannot turn into a narrow driveway is a cancelled trip. Saying exactly where you will be standing, in plain words, is what the special request is for.

The 2 ways to arrange it

There are two real channels, and both reach the same 24/7 dispatch team. The online route is the booking form: fill in your pickup, drop-off, date and time, passengers and luggage, then write the customized location in the notes — the exact entrance, the gate code if there is one, and where you will be standing. The phone route is +1-646-214-4828: say the same details out loud and the dispatcher prices it while you talk, and asks the follow-up questions a form cannot. Neither channel charges for the request, and neither one locks you in — the quote is an offer, and you book only if the number works. If your plans are still moving, say so when you ask: a quote built on a rough time can be re-priced in minutes once the time firms up. The transfers from JFK Airport to Manhattan guide shows how the same booking flow works on a standard airport run.

What your fixed price covers — and what it does not

A JetBlack quote is a per-trip price for the car, the driver, and the route you described — fixed once given, with no surge when demand spikes or a flight bank lands. What sits outside it is the same on every car service in New York. Tolls are extra, and on a trip into Manhattan that can include the $9 congestion toll for entering at or below 60th Street in peak hours — the FDR Drive is exempt. Governmental fees are extra. A 20% tip is suggested, not included. Cancellation is free before your booking is confirmed; after confirmation it is $31 in total — $25 plus $5 in fees plus a $1 technology fee.

For scale, the published rates that do exist are the fixed ones: the JFK to Manhattan economy sedan is $65 flat, and the Economy Sedan hourly rate is $45 an hour with a 3-hour minimum. A customized location is priced in the same spirit — one written number, agreed in advance — but it is built for your trip rather than pulled from a table. The JFK to Manhattan budget options page shows the flat-fare side of the same service, and the closest airport to Manhattan guide helps you judge how far your custom location really is from the airport.

Details that make the request work the first time

A special request is only as good as the details behind it, so send the complete picture the first time. Every item below moves the price or the vehicle, and leaving one out is the usual reason a quote comes back twice — once as a guess, once corrected.

• Pickup address and drop-off address, exactly as written, plus the entrance
• Where you will be standing, in plain words — “east wing entrance, by the canopy”
• Gate codes, access codes, or a name to give security, if any
• Date, pickup time, and how firm that time is
• Number of passengers, including children
• Luggage count and size — suitcases, skis, golf bags, boxes
• Every stop, in order, with a rough wait time at each
• Flight number and terminal, if the trip touches an airport
• Child seats needed, and the children’s ages
• Wheelchair or mobility needs, so the right vehicle is sent

Two of those details deserve a second look. The entrance matters more than the street address — a hospital, a campus, and a gated community can all share one address across several doors, and the driver needs the door, not the postcode. And the flight number matters because the driver tracks the flight and times the curb arrival, so a delayed landing does not become a missed pickup.

When a custom location costs more — and when it does not

Here is the honest part: a customized location can cost more than a standard run, and it can also cost exactly the same. If the address is a few blocks off the usual route, the quote is usually the same as the standard fare — the driver is going there anyway. If the location adds real miles, a toll, or a long wait, the quote reflects that, because the car and driver are committed for longer. And if the trip is really a day of errands with several stops and waiting in between, an hourly booking may price better than a per-trip quote: the Economy Sedan hourly rate of $45 an hour with a 3-hour minimum suits a day of stops, while a fixed sequence of stops usually prices better as a single per-trip quote. The trade-off is plain: a special request takes one extra step versus hailing a taxi, but the price is fixed before you travel and the driver is sent to the exact door you named, while a metered taxi keeps running in a jam and cannot be told which entrance to use in advance. A yellow taxi between JFK and Manhattan runs on the TLC’s $70 flat fare, but that flat only covers Manhattan — and a taxi cannot be booked to a side entrance the way a pre-booked car can. The taxi from NYC to JFK reviews lay out the same arithmetic from the rider’s side, and the LaGuardia Airport transfer page shows how a fixed per-trip quote works on another airport route.

So the short version: write the exact location — entrance, gate code, and where you will be standing — in the booking form notes or tell the dispatcher by phone, get one written number back, check that tolls, tip and fees sit outside it, and book only when the number works. A special request is free to ask for, fixed once quoted, and free to walk away from before confirmation.

Sources

• JetBlack Transportation — owner-confirmed service facts (booking channels, customized quotes, cancellation, tip, flat fares, hourly rate, child seats, WAV, flight tracking), confirmed 2026-10-26
• NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission — Taxi Fare (Rate #2 JFK Airport $70 flat to Manhattan; LaGuardia metered), accessed 2026-11-07
• MTA — Congestion Relief Zone toll schedule ($9 peak E-ZPass for passenger vehicles entering Manhattan at or below 60th Street; in effect since 5 January 2025; FDR Drive exempt), reported 2026-10-21