An airport transfer booking desk in Raleigh, a short drive from RDU

What the desk does with a request

Every reservation begins the same way: the address, the flight number, the date, how many riders and how many checked bags. The desk takes that request to a car company in the Triangle and asks whether a sedan, an SUV or a van is free for your date and hour. When one is, you receive the fixed rate, the vehicle class and the time the car will be at your door or at your terminal.

Once you confirm, the desk places the ride with that car company. Before the ride you are sent the company's name and telephone number, the vehicle and the driver's first name. The car company then provides the car and the driver and performs the trip.

The desk is run from the Raleigh office by its own reservation specialists and a desk manager, who also agrees the rates with each car company it places rides with.

• From a home or office in the Triangle to a departure at RDU
• From an arrival at RDU to a home or office in the Triangle
• Round trips, reserved as two one-way rides added together

The eleven towns the desk covers, each with its road miles and minutes from the Terminal 2 curb, are listed on the service areas page.

Who pays whom, and at what point

You pay the car company the fixed rate printed in your confirmation, at the end of the ride, by card or cash in the car. Nothing changes hands on this website, and the request form asks for no card details at any step.

The desk earns its income from the car company, which pays it a dispatch fee for each ride it places. Gratuity is optional, sits outside the fixed rate and goes to the driver. Published figures start at $65 per car, one way, for a sedan in Zone 1, and the pricing page lays out all four zones. Those figures are starting points: the exact fixed rate for your ride is confirmed with you before you reserve.

Company details on paper

CCE Global Travels is an independently owned booking desk in Raleigh. It takes your request, finds a Triangle car company free at your time and sends you that company's fixed rate before you say yes. The car company drives you and is paid by you at the end of the ride; the desk is paid by the car company for each ride it places.

Why West Raleigh, just off Wade Avenue

The office sits on a first floor in West Raleigh, off Wade Avenue near I-40, between downtown and the airport. By road it is 8.2 miles and about 15 free-flow minutes to the Terminal 2 curb, a drive we measured rather than guessed.

That position puts downtown Raleigh on one side and Cary and Morrisville on the other, with Durham and Chapel Hill out along I-40 to the west.

When a ride goes wrong on the day

A car running late, a flight landing well ahead of schedule, a rider at the wrong terminal: when a ride slips, telephone the desk, or before 4:00 am the car company's number in your confirmation. Whoever answers has your reservation and the driver's details, and calls the car company to arrange the fix, such as a new pickup time, a second car or a move to the correct zone outside baggage claim.

If the car company cannot cover your time at all, the desk tells you at once and you owe nothing. Changes and cancellations follow the cancellation policy: before the car is dispatched, canceling costs nothing, and the desk itself takes no cancellation charge.