LHR T5 Parking
 

For those of you who are regulars i'd appreciate your experiences as I cant believe the prices being shown and haven't driven for a while:

I need to drive to T5, arrive at car park at 13:00 on a Tuesday and will be leaving car park around 22:00 the next day, so basically 1 1/2 days parking. Am travelling 2nd Feb

Im getting Pod at £66, Short Stay at £96 and meet and greet £108 on official Heathrow website and £66 meet and greet with Purple Parking.

These prices seen absolutely ridiculous - is this normal? I was going to book today but I'm wondering if any of you use a tactic I.e not booking too far in advance / not too late. My preference is meet and greet as I want to get off my flight and get home without too much hassle.

Many thanks!

Try looking at www.holidayextras.co.uk That site will provide more options. For example, for the dates and times provided, I can see T5 long-stay at £43.

The pod price you quoted seems about right. Although sometimes I have noticed that the price for pod drops a fortnight before I need to use it. But, I think the general rule of thumb is the further out booked the cheaper it will be (not necessarily pod, that is).

H

Short Stay
 

I booked on Heathrow Parking site, through Quidco

I got 6 days parking, for £126 in the T5 Short Stay, so your price does seems very high!

That seems about in line with what it costs, I'm afraid. You're paying for 2 days parking (and would at any other London airport).

I would go with pod parking, it's barely harder than any "meet and greet" sort of service (as long as you can walk OK - but if you've managed to walk from the aircraft to the customs exit, it's probably less walking to your car from there than already done from the aircraft door). I have never had to wait more than a minute or so for a pod, and usually there's one waiting for you.

It sometimes gets cheaper by the day when you book something like 5 days but you can't leave 3 days early. Half the time, parking for the weekend costs as much a the flights etc. you're taking.

Last time I flew out of LHR, it was cheaper for me to park at Manchester Airport and fly down.

I've got flights next month and parking is a rip off if you want to be somewhere near the airport. Still a few £ cheaper than going by train though.

Pods are pretty fast anyway. Always been a few there and I wouldn't really want someone else driving my car to be honest.

I always use purple parking meet and greet. Great service, really speedy check-in/out and a decent price

I have a similar length trip to the OP and am seeing the same prices. An alternative is the Business T5 car park is about £55 and only adds about 5 mins to the total journey time (and drops off at the Southern end of departures which is better for premium check-in desks) versus Pods.

However, those are pretty much the standard drive-up prices for Business/Pod parking (28 and 34/day respectively) so no need to book in advance, unless an offer shows up in the days before your trip.

I've been using justpark.com and booking either in nearby driveways and getting an Uber to and fro (ca £30 for a week plus £14 Uber fares), or in the Thistle hotel and taking the Pod into the terminal. Slightly more complicated than short stay car parks but I reckon I have saved a few hundred pounds over the last few months compared with on airport charges.

The business park is fine. A few hundred metres further down the road from the Pod Parking.
I luckily got a space about 10ft from the bus stop near the entrance last time I used it early morning. Had a 2 min wait for the bus and closer to 10 on the return but easy enough to find it and get in and out.

Personally I would park in Hatton Cross Tube Station Car Park and then take a very quick tube ride to T5. It's £11.50 per day. Otherwise, there are plenty of places a very short walk from a nearby tube station:

Hounslow East - Parking in the side roads are outside he CPZ.

Hounslow Central - Ample parking around Bulsrode Avenue and Bulstrode Gardens and adjacent roads.

Osterley - North side of the Great West Road (A4) which is the same side as the station. Also to the south of the A4, the entire area is outside the CPZ. Osterley Station Car park is £6.30 per day.

Hounslow West Tube Station Car Park is 5.50 per day.

You will find using the tube much quicker than using an offsite Airport car park and shuttle bus.

LHR T5 Parking
 

Purple Parking Meet and Greet - usually £59 for that length of stay - great service in my experience

I seldom use Purple Parking now (I've largely given up driving to LHR, partly because of the cost of parking), but when I have done, the meet and greet service has usually been great - and occasionally it has even saved me from missing flights.

Hounslow West tube. £5 per day and no charge at weekends. Use it often on leisure trips.

If you are booking for short periods you don't get offers for the short stay/business car park. Am paying £31 for the POD tomorrow, but only as I have my mother with me so Hounslow West and the tube is not an option.

Is this still do-able?

Looking at options for next week for 3 days (Thurs, Fri, Sat).

£47 for business parking
£57 for POD parking
£100 to park at the Thistle + room + POD charges
£28 to park at Hatton Cross Tube Station.

Was looking at possibly driving down to LHR, arriving around 4:30am.

I always take my motorbike, park less than 50 metres from the door of T5 and it's free :cool:

Have T5 Meet and Greet got any deals on? Late last month I booked 17 nights for £95, commencing next Thursday.

Not when I want to go. The business parking is the cheapest.
It's not a bad as I have paid in the past but I'm sometimes cheap....£20 is £20 but I don't want to find the car park is full already and end up with nothing or have to pay loads more / look elsewhere.

Did book a few days through that goodtogo parking that was mentioned in another thread (today until Thurs although my flights this weekend got cancelled). Was going to see if I could extend it to Saturday night but it wouldn't let me amend the booking possibly as it was booking in the winter sale. Not sure if I could drive in 4 days or so after I should have arrived and then overstay by 2 days.

They're saying full if I try to add extra days although Heathrow itself will sell me those nights.

My advice would be Hounslow West tube. £5 per day, a 15-minute tube ride into the terminal, and I did gate to car in under 40 minutes last week. Only problem is that you can't park in some areas over the weekend, but it never gets really full.

There is also an office car park off High St Harlington which is closer, at £5 per day, but you're reliant on the busses (though it's within the free travel zone).

There are a couple of free options that are within striking distance by bus, but they are hit and miss, might cause annoyance to local residents, and the bus times at that time of the morning could be very hit-and-miss.

Any ideas which areas?

Also, do these station car parks require you to pay on arrival or exit?

Roughly the area inside the red box is reserved for a car boot sale after midnight on Friday.

http://i.imgur.com/zuWRCkS.png

You pay on arrival in blocks of one calendar day (so you don't have to worry about being an hour or two late) and I believe you could extend online i necessary, though I've never had to do so.

I interested here about why we see various costs in a different light. I seldom select anything other than the "Short Stay" parking, usually around £145 for the five day that I want. If that is unavailable or there is a big difference in price for the POD, then I might choose that, but otherwise I am not wasting my time waiting for tubes/buses etc and adding to the length of time it takes me to get home on return.

Why do you choose to worry about parking costs so much when spending so much on flights?

For me, it's a natural inclination towards good value. I don't have to, but then I don't like leaving money on the table, either.

A better flight gives me a tangible benefit; better parking saves me 20 minutes, after which I'm no better off. So, if unless I can earn £120 for 40 minutes' work elsewhere (the extra time to go to Hounslow West) I'm better off saving the cash in most instances.

:confused:maybe cos the cost of a car park is more than the flight! It's a car parking space. The costs generally in UK are shocking ...You obviously have money to burn

Europcar have 1 way rentals from many uk cities for £1 to LHR.Even with a car back home it can work out cheaper than parking.

I've got a 6 day stay coming up later this month and:

Heathrow long stay £113
GoodtoGo (same long stay car park as above) £51.99

Thistle hotel the night before + 8 days on site park around £104 (+POD cost).

7.45% cashback if need be on the parking.

Certainly a disparity in pricing here.

I used GoodToGo last week and they were great.

Couldn't fault them, and my car was moved less then 0.2miles (top speed of 12mph) during its 11 days with them!

M

Has anyone used the drop & go service with goodtogo?

Looking at parking for next month and it's £74.99 for drop & go Vs. £94.99 to park my own car.
Can't seem to figure out the exact process.

Do love their "from £4.26 a day" thing. Only £52.99 for the 1-3 days+ I was looking at.

I use GoodToGo... excellent. Not used drop and go tho as I would prefer to park myself :)

I always go to Martin Lewis Website - www.moneysavingexpert.com

Contains several links to different sites, with discount codes.

Can highly recommend Good to Go. Have used them several times. Same attendants that operate official Heathrow parking. Think the trick there is that your stay have to involve a weekend. Usually quite a bit cheaper than official Heathrow parking and excellent customer service!

As an alternative, for longer trips have you priced a taxi? By the time you've figured paying relatively large sums for parking, the wear and tear and fuel costs on your car and potentially driving while tired it can be reasonable value even when the up-front cost seems high.

I've always bookd meet and greeet at Heathrow through APH https://www.aph.com/. If you sign up you get discount codes. Most rates usually cancellable with 24 hours of parking and if you book in advance for me its always cheaper than a taxi each way and with 3 kids and luggage on family trips I find it less stressful driving myself to and from the airport!

I have an 10 day trip over xmas which is costing me £65 Meet and Greet in T5 which I think is great value. It usually ends up being with MBW or Drivefly but they all very much the same in my view

I've used their Meet & Greet service five or six times - and they have been brilliant.

Drivers always professional, easy to reach, and they stick to speed limits (according to my Tracker boxes in the car).

M

From the reviews and comments on here they do seem good but i've just priced up an xmas trip and they are £127 and MBW booked through aph.com are £64. You drive to the same car park in T5 and its an identical service. I've never had any problems and have used the service 5-6 times a year for the last 5 years+

Had a look at some of those and for my dates:

Goodtogo Meet & Greet £74.99
Goodtogo Self-Park £94.99
Heathrow T5 long stay £104.99
MBW £100-£105 (non-flexible / flexible)
APH £111 for meet & greet / £155 to park myself.

Interesting. What dates are those?

Bit late now as they've changed but it was the end of this month.

Anyway, how relaxed are Heathrow and Goodtogo on exiting and entering?
I've got a early flight around 7am so planning on arriving between 4:30am and 5am.

My return flight from Hong Kong gets in, hopefully, before 5am, so with any luck, around 6am back to the car park.

Since there's an 60-90min difference in entry and exit times, that adds an extra day to the total payable.

So would they be flexible with this or do flights have to be delayed?

I have never tried this but I understand (from previous posts here) you are likely to be fine with up to 2 hours.

Worst case, you'd just have to pay the extra day at roll-up rates. I've done that before when seriously delayed. So might be worth a punt.

Looking again at the "drop and ride" parking and it is available for my dates of 26th Oct-9th Nov, just time dependent.
You have to drop the car off across from the animal quarantine centre on Sanctuary Road.

If I put a 4am arrival time, it's not offered, only the £94.99 "Park & Ride" option.
Put 5am and I get offered "drop & ride" for £74.99 and "meet and greet" for £147.99.

Usually arrive about 4:40am so hopefully there's a few minutes flexibility here or I'll have to hang around / drive slower on the M25.

£4.85 cashback through TCB as well or around 500 Avios should I want to go that way.

Added:
No real problems with the drop & ride service bar missing the turning once due to it being dark and a bit misty.

Drove in, handed over the keys, signed the paperwork and the minibus took me to T5.
On the return, rang up and waited a few minutes at stop 24 for the bus back.

Changing topic slightly, are Thanksgiving flights to/from the US popular at MAN?
Got a flight on Friday 24th Nov, returning on Sunday 26th Nov.
Looked at MAN parking and they want £175 for the T3 long stay (no multi-story). Jetparks for £110.
Park at LHR and £55 with GoodtoGo and about £10 less direct with Heathrow Business Parking.