How to Group Travelers Arriving at Different Terminals

At many airports, "share a ride" sounds simple until you realize that Terminal 1 and Terminal 7 are a mile apart with completely different rideshare pickup areas.

At LAX, each terminal has its own pickup zone. At JFK, Terminal 4 and Terminal 8 are on opposite sides of the airport. At O'Hare, the international terminal (Terminal 5) is a separate building from the domestic terminals.

If you group travelers without considering terminals, half the group will be waiting at the wrong curb.

SeatMax maintains terminal-level pickup zone data for 60+ airports. Each airport has one of three configurations:

Centralized — One pickup area for the whole airport. Terminal doesn't matter for grouping. Examples: Denver (DEN), Nashville (BNA), Austin (AUS).

Per-terminal — Each terminal has its own pickup zone. Travelers at different terminals cannot share a ride. Examples: LAX, JFK, Toronto Pearson (YYZ).

Terminal groups — Terminals are grouped into zones that share a pickup area. For example, at SFO, Terminals 1-3 share a domestic pickup zone while the International Terminal is separate. At O'Hare, Terminals 1-3 share a domestic zone while Terminal 5 (international) is separate.

SeatMax applies the right rule automatically based on the airport code and terminal data from the flight API.

For cities served by multiple airports, SeatMax handles each airport independently. When you create an event in New York, you can allow JFK, EWR, and LGA. Travelers at each airport are grouped separately — a JFK traveler and an EWR traveler will never be assigned to the same vehicle.

This works the same way for Toronto (YYZ + YTZ), Chicago (ORD + MDW), San Francisco (SFO + OAK + SJC), and every other multi-airport metro area.

For the return trip (venue → airport), terminal separation isn't relevant because everyone is departing from the same location: your event venue.

SeatMax groups outgoing travelers by departure time and airport only. If four people are heading to JFK and leaving at similar times, they share one ride from the hotel to JFK — regardless of which terminal they're departing from. They'll split up after being dropped off.

This is a key optimization that many planners miss: outgoing rides can be grouped more aggressively than incoming rides.