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Manchester airport parking

Manchester airport parking

Old Oct 2, 2015, 7:47 am
  #1  
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Manchester airport parking

Hi all,

Im planning on travelling by car to Manchester Airport from Lancaster. Ive never done this route before as Im usually down South and head to one of the London airports so I'm not too familiar with the setup in Manchester.

What do you think is the quickest option for getting to the bag drop desk the quickest from Lancaster?

1) Leave my car at one of the airport's long stay car parks and use one of the complimentary buses (happy with independent provider or official airport parking); or
2) Drop my car at the meet and greet valet parking at the airport.

I'm aware that valet parking would get me to security quickest after dropping my car. However, Id have to get my car to the valet parking place and I dont know how horrible it is to drive around the airport (e.g. perhaps there are road works that the complimentary buses would avoid, thus negating any time saving of valet parking). There is no real difference in price so I'm hoping to choose the quickest option with an arrival time at Manchester Airport during peak period (5-6pm, Friday afternoon).

I have thought about a third option of getting the train from Lancaster direct to Manchester Airport. However, I cant guarantee that Ill be able to get into the centre of Lancaster to get to the train station on a Friday afternoon from where I'll be. I'll be fairly near the motorway so thought the car option seemed more sensible.

Simon
Simon Schus is offline  
Old Oct 2, 2015, 9:49 am
  #2  
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
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Meet & greet everytime. Any substantial traffic to get onto the campus you'd have to get through anyway as all the official longstays are more or less on site. The unofficial ones are typically at least 10 minutes away, not too much of a faff out, but waiting for a bus on the way back is a PITA.

I use the M&G probably 5 times a year and always find it excellent, even for weird requests like flying out of one terminal and back to the other. getting to the T1 one is a bit weird if you don't know the airport, but so long as you pay attention to the signs you should be fine.
jebk is offline  
Old Oct 2, 2015, 9:49 am
  #3  
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I usually park in the T1/3 long stay cark park and walk to the terminal. If you are lucky you can park just across the road from the open-air section of T3 short stay car park and pay a lot less and the walk is less than 5 minutes to T1/3. I usually follow links from MoneySavingExpert.com which gives extra discounts with no credit card fees. I have also used the meet and greet service a few times. Dropping off the car is easy but you sometimes have to wait for the car on return.

I'm not familiar with T2.
NewbieRunner is online now  
Old Oct 3, 2015, 11:18 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Piedmont, Italy; Cheshire, UK
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The 'M&G' reception centres at T1 and T3 are well signposted so it'd be much easier in my view to find these than to faff about looking for remote car parks.

However, they're not Meet and Greet in the 'traditional' or literal sense: At the M&G barrier you are instructed in which row to leave your car. You then drop off your car key at the reception centre and walk to the terminal. On collection you are handed back your car key at the reception centre and have to walk to your car. At T1 it could be up to 200m away. Staff at both T1 and T3 are generally very courteous. I use them about twice a month.
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Old Oct 3, 2015, 4:29 pm
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M&G every time. You only get Fast Track if you pay for the VIP service - it can be worth it for a car full.
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Old Oct 13, 2015, 5:28 am
  #6  
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Thank you jebk, NewbieRunner, Up In the Air and MAN Pax Your insight and help has been really useful.

I always tend to use the MSE links to book airport parking, as you suggest - saves a lot The Meet and Greet that I have is not the official meet and greet of the airport, but is a third-party one. Apparently, I have to phone them when 15 minutes away and then "Drive to Terminal 3, and park in set-down area... and [a member of the team] will be ready to meet [me] at the kerbside."

Hopefully that will go okay next Friday (the 23rd November). I'm leaving Lancaster at about 3.30pm/4pm to get on the 7.25pm BA1407 down to MAN before heading onwards to the States. Usually, I wouldn't have any concerns but I rarely fly from MAN, I'm not familiar with the Lancaster area, and I think it is the first night of the school half-term. Hopefully I have allowed enough buffer time to get to T3 and this third-party meet and greet will help.

Thank you all so much again, and have a great afternoon

Simon.
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