The naive version — pull the scheduled arrival, add fifteen minutes for baggage — breaks the first time a plane lands early. The passenger walks out to an empty kerb; the chauffeur is still on the 405.
Ridezora's live flight watcher subscribes to actual landing events on every tracked arrival. When the plane touches down early, the pickup time on the driver app shifts, a push notification lands, and the passenger sees an updated ETA in their branded app.
The edge cases are where operational teams earn their money. Codeshares — where the passenger booked AA but the operating carrier is BA — need both flight numbers cross-referenced. Diverted arrivals need a decision: do we chase, or do we cancel and re-quote? Missed connections need a re-timed pickup without re-billing.
The tarmac hold is the most annoying: the plane landed thirty minutes ago but hasn't reached the gate. Ridezora treats gate arrival, not wheels-down, as the trigger — because that's when the passenger can actually leave.