Tbilisi International sells a paid premium layer on top of the ordinary arrival. Its Fast Track and Meet & Greet page lists two services: Fast Track, a lane past the queues at security and passport control, and Meet & Greet, where a VIP hostess meets the passenger at the gate. The departure version adds a porter, an escorted check-in and the lounge beside Gate 101.
Almost no guest needs it. A few absolutely do. Here is how to tell which is which before you book.
What it actually is
On arrival, the hostess greets the guest at the gate and escorts them to the luggage zone, where porters take the bags. The airport’s agents stay with the guest until they are in their taxi or private car, and from there it is down to the car booked for the transfer. At the time of writing the airport lists the arrival service at 220.60 euros. Fast Track is sold separately, at 27.50 euros, and the arrivals hall page lists it at passport control on the way in.
On departure, the service is pre-booked and prepaid. A hostess and a porter meet the guest at the terminal entrance, escort them to check-in and the bag drop, take them through the Fast Track lane at security, and guide them to the lounge past passport control, beside Gate 101, which has an open buffet. That is also 220.60 euros; the lounge alone is 60 euros for three hours and open around the clock. The time saved on a departure is less dramatic than on an arrival; the benefit is the calm, though on a tight transit layover those minutes are the whole margin.
The service is the airport’s, and it is booked with the airport, not with whoever drives the car. For a guest travelling at this level the fee is rarely the deciding factor; the question is whether the guest needs what it buys.
When the premium pays back
1. Ultra-tight connections. Your guest has a 90-minute window between the inbound flight and a meeting in the city centre, with no flexibility. The passport queue that Fast Track skips is what makes the meeting.
2. Late-night arrivals with onward travel the next morning. After a 1am landing, every minute between the gate and the hotel comes out of the night’s sleep, and late-night pickups are already the second-trickiest slot of the day. For a guest with a 7am wake-up, a skipped queue is rest, not luxury.
3. Ceremonial arrivals. A wedding party landing together, a delegation that needs to leave the airport as one group. The service escorts guests from the gate to the car, which is the stretch where a group usually comes apart. Ask the airport how it handles a party of that size before you promise it.
4. Guests who should not be left to find their own way. A first-time visitor, an elderly parent, a guest who would rather not linger in a public hall. The service does not hide anyone, since the escort runs through the same luggage zone as everyone else’s arrival. What it removes is the wait alone at the belt and the search for a driver.
When the premium does not pay back
1. Routine business travel. A regular business traveller who has done this flight forty times, knows the airport and does not mind the passport queue. Booking VIP for them is performative and slightly insulting; they read it as fuss.
2. Off-peak quiet hours. A mid-afternoon landing on a quiet weekday in November, when the passport queue is short. The fee buys very little.
3. Guests travelling with significant luggage that needs the baggage carousel. The service does not make checked bags arrive sooner. The hostess escorts the guest to the luggage zone and porters handle the bags, but the wait at the belt is the same as everyone else’s. If the time question is luggage, not queue, the premium solves half the problem at full price.
4. When the brief is unclear. If you have not confirmed with the guest that they want this, do not assume. A surprise VIP escort to a guest who wanted to walk straight to the car feels like overproduction. Ask.
Booking it, and the car
The service is booked with the airport; the car is a separate booking. A few notes from your side:
- Book it with the airport early, and put it on the booking brief for the car as well, so whoever is meeting the flight knows the guest will come out with an escort.
- Have the passenger’s full name, as on the passport, and the flight details ready, and ask the airport what else it needs.
- For a group (wedding parties, delegations), ask the airport how it books a party, and send the same list of names with the car booking so the seats match: the V-Class takes seven guests, the other three cars take three each.
- For departures, the airport’s page says the Meet & Greet is pre-booked and prepaid; the lounge page carries its own reservation link.
SOIT’s part is the car at the end of the escort, at the published airport fare: 350 ₾ in the V-Class, 500 ₾ in the S-Class and 750 ₾ in either Maybach, confirmed in writing before the car is dispatched.
A short closing note
VIP arrivals is one of those services that, used in the right scenario, makes the guest feel handled. Used in the wrong one, it makes the brand feel like it is trying. The trick is honest reading of which the trip is. If a specific arrival needs a car at the end of the escort, write to booking@soitblack.com or tell us the flight.