armouredant

The soulless bar does have a nice terrace for watching takeoffs and landings on 27R/9L.

They were definitely assertive the last time I was there. If you really want to hack it, and there's no one there to tailgate, just get buzzed through the pod gate, then walk all the way around the entire hotel complex, and enter through the front door at reception. This will probably take as much time, overall, as getting the free bus would have.

mikebg

That's not quite correct. The payment is for the Pod. There is only one access point from the Pod car park to the hotel. If you have paid for the car park they will waive the fee if you show them your still valid car park ticket. I actually did this once when I arrived early afternoon when the arrivals lounge was already closed and then had to drive a long distance to a meeting. I wanted to have a rest and get cleaned up first so I took a day room at the Thistle. My car had been in the carpark since the day before.

KARFA

Yes, I believe the £5 is what HAL charge the hotel for the pod, so the hotel is passing that charge on.

snaxmuppet

I would stay at the Thistle for the convenience of the POD for T5 but can't really do it on my next trip as I will have 2 big suitcases and after watching a video of the walk from the hotel to the POD station I decided that it wasn't practical for me to walk that far with 2 large suitcases + hand baggage. Next time perhaps in January.

Where is the POD station in the terminal? Is it a long walk from there to the First Wing?

corporate-wage-slave

The lift is at the Marks and Spencer's / Carluccio end of the building, so you would be walking in excess of half the length of T5, about 300 metres (but less than the Sofitel). The walking distance at the Thistle is only 200 metres, so overall there isn't much difference in walking distance between the Thistle and Sofitel.

belfordrocks

Update: just took the free bus, which was cheap and easy enough. Not worth doing all of the pod shenanigans for 5 pounds just to save 5 minutes.

Thistle is what everyone said, basic but convenient

corporate-wage-slave

So extra pointers for the Thistle.

- if you don't want to use the Pod, the usual answer is to get to hotel from T5 from bus stop 6 on the free Transport for London bus 423. The bus stop, the second one after departing T5 and The Square, is called the Thistle though it is actually in front of the Premier Inn.

- however the same bus stop 6 also has the 350 service, which stops on the other side of the Premier Inn, at Duke's Bridge, first stop after T5, so fairly close (400 metres). Because the 350 has a similar timetable to the 423 it doesn't add a lot of extra benefit unless you have just missed a 423 departure.

- Some rooms in the hotel have a fairly good view of T5A, T5B and the northern runway. These are odd numbers 151 to 179 inclusive, the lower numbers I think are probably better lined up. This is on the first floor, which is also the top floor and are the rooms along side the Runway View restaurant. The downside is that though the hotel is fairly quiet, these rooms will get a bit of rumbling from the operations.

- That said, if quiet rooms is what you want, then you best go to any of the recent build hotels in the area (Sofitel, Hilton T5, HGI T2, and the following at T4: Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn Express, Premier Inn). Almost all of them are unnervingly silent.

I am just going to link here some other Thistle threads while I'm here.

Slightly o/t - Thistle to T5

BA163 [LHR-TLV] 14Nov delayed by over 2hrs will BA rebook

belfordrocks

On an unrelated note, how does the Hotel Hoppa make money? Given I've seen a grand total of 2 pax across maybe 5 buses so far, I'm guessing the answer is it doesn't?

flatlander

The Hoppa is not primarily profit-making, it is primarily to reduce the road traffic around the airport and vehicle congestion in the pickup/dropoff areas at the terminals.

Heathrow is regularly slated for poor air quality and about half of the total air pollution (especially oxides of nitrogen) comes from ground transport near and on the airport. Therefore the Hoppa is intended to reduce the amount of hotel shuttle buses going back and forth. This is also why the public buses near the airport are free, to encourage people not to use cars to go to the airport itself.

HAL subsidises the public bus "FreeFlow" zone. I assume the charge to the Hoppa is to defray the costs somewhat, but it's definitely not run just for the profit.

In other emissions work, HAL is changing to electric vehicles for their operations and has a whole set of documents and persuasion to try to get airlines to buy electric ground handling gear (baggage tractors, belt loaders, scissor lifts, etc). The BA electric pushback tugs are one example of this (I'm sure BA also find their one-person operation to be convenient, but here I'm talking about environmental benefits). See https://www.heathrow.com/company/com...g-electric-gse

(This is why, in the ask-the-staffer thread, I was so incredulous that HAL isn't providing pre conditioned air but instead having aircraft use their APU. Talk about an own goal!)

fluffymitten

There is pre-conditioned air? I'll have to read the thread to see the exact scenario you're talking about but, whilst it may not be available on all stands, it certainly does exist.

tom139

If you’re travelling via the Pod to/from the Thistle with a group of 3, can you get away with one code?

KARFA

you only need one code. However they will see there are 3 people.

Funky Spike

I've only ever been charged leaving the hotel and there is nothing to stop you checking out alone, send the other two ahead, and puchase a single code.

Spike

omk298

You need to be able to open the gate from the pod carpark to the Thistle. One code will do each way - it changes every day I think. Probably best not all going to the reception desk to pay for the codes though!

There is no-one on duty at either end to count how many people are in the pod - the payment is essentially for going through the gate, which also doesn't have anyone on duty.

If you're willing to hang a round a bit you could fairly easily tailgate someone else through.

Obviously none of this is to say it's right to avoid paying

armouredant

The charge is too high, that's the problem. Anything up to £2 I wouldn't mind paying, but £5 per person, in a pod that can comfortably accommodate four? Come on.