Finally got an e-mail from Zipcar:

From 1st April, we will be moving our Heathrow operation to an off-airport location at the Holiday Inn Bath Road.

As part of the move, there is now a free, short bus journey between the terminal and the hotel car park. The bus departs from bus stop 25 at T5 and will shuttle customers to and from the airport.

The buses will be available 24 hours a day to ensure we cover all customer movements at all times of the day.

For the month of April, we won't be charging the £7.50 Airport Fee that we currently charge customers for using the drop-off and pick up in T5. We hope this gives you the opportunity to try out the new location.

Why are we making the move?

We want to scale our operation at Heathrow, and this gives us access to 4 times as many spaces as we previously had in the terminal.

We will be able to maintain and charge electric vehicles, helping us on our way to our 2025 vision of going fully electric.

This new location allows us to clean and service the vehicles on-site, removing 80% of the journeys needed to maintain our vehicles that come to Heathrow.

Pilot37

Disappointing that they're moving out of the T5 car park, and even more disappointing that they're keeping the £7.50 airport charge, despite customers now having the inconvenience of having to get a shuttle bus. I won't be bothering with zipcar to the airport any more.

The email says they won't be charging it for April, but presumably it'll be back after that as they'll almost definitely see a drop in LHR usage and will need to make the revenue up somehow.

In any case, this is the end of the line for me and Zipcar to the airport - I'd imagine they won't need to "scale their operations" at LHR too much as I bet I won't be the only one heading back to public transport/taxis after this. Also, it's pretty poor form to give only two days notice of such a significant change in the drop off/pick up zone...!

Yes, no charge for April to try and entice you to use the new location but then it will be back. I think they are going to lose a lot of customers. I've got to assume that it's a change that's been forced on them, because the benefits just don't stack up compared to the negative impact it will have on customers and subsequent fall in revenue.

I use this every time I go to LHR, even if I am flying from T3. I won't be going forward.

I've just asked them on Twitter if they plan to have a shuttle to the other terminals as well, not heard back yet. I could deal with it if the shuttle is frequent and there's one that goes to T3 as well. Google maps says there's a regular bus from near the new carpark to T3, but it also says it's ~15 minutes of walking all up. I guess I'll see on Friday 😅 !

The key benefits of this service have now been removed:

1. I could put heavy/awkward bags into a Zipcar outside my flat, and then put them straight from the car onto a luggage trolley at T5 for the short walk to check-in.
2. I could use Google maps to predict (pretty much) exactly what time I'll arrive at T5 check-in allowing me to plan my trip with certainty, and the journey took 45-60 minutes as opposed to 75-90 minutes by tube.

Now, I'll be faced with lugging heavy bags on to and off a shuttle bus, and there's uncertainly about how often the bus is and how long the transfer takes. It could add another 30 minutes onto a 45 minute journey.

Without heavy bags, I might as well go back to taking the tube as it won't take much longer from South London and I'll have more certainty about my arrival time, plus save a few pounds.

With heavy/awkward bags, or needing a very early departure, I'd now rather either take a taxi (which will be quicker) or use Airportr to take my bags and go HBO on the tube.

So I decided to take a Zipcar to Heathrow today to see how the new area was. My flight is from T3 so I thought I’d probably get an Uber/black cab from the Holiday Inn to T3 afterwards.

Easy enough to find it, but I’m so used to going to T5 that I had to really pay attention to the GPS. Holiday Inn was easy to get to and there were loads of Zipcars there waiting. Ended up getting a free Avis coach to T3, but unsure if we just got lucky with this.

I think *going to* Heathrow, I might continue with Zipcar, but will probably get an Uber back instead of getting a bus to the Holiday Inn etc. I’ll see how I feel in a week or so.

I used the new Zipcar location tonight after landing late at T5 on the way back from BER.

There’s no denying that the new location is less convenient than it was, but the shuttle worked well enough and I was in my car just under 15 mins from walking to the right bus stop.

So, a service I might use again late at night when the roads are empty and I can’t face sitting on the tube for eternity. But if they reintroduce the £7.50 charge in May, it will start to be harder to justify, particularly if and when direct Crossrail trains through London get going.

Mods - not sure this thread has much to do with BA to be fair!

Just a data point for potential users - zero flex cars at the new Bath Road site on a Saturday evening at 8pm (probably because nobody is using them to come to LHR) so I’d suggest to plan to not use them upon arrival at LHR because I won’t use them anymore on arrival. Worst decision they ever made to move away from T5!

Pilot37

More feedback.
I flew back from BCN last night and used the new 'service'. It's overall fine but not as seamless as it used to be. Not sure if i will use it going forward.
I went to bus stop 25 (at T5) and the Avis Shuttle came within 2 minutes - not bad.
The drive from T5 to the Avis parking took 8 minutes. The driver told me that there is a shuttle appx every 10 minutes.

As i wasn't sure about the driving time, i only booked the car when the shuttle arrived at T5 - which is not great considering that there were only 5 cars available.
On a separate note, they removed the Heathrow fees for the month of April, but the hourly rental rate has gone up from £14 to £16 - not great.

Another data point from my trip last night.

The bus stop (25) is conveniently located outside T5 , but with the usual rubbish signage.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c28e2ea9a1.jpg

I had read the ZipCar post about regular shuttle bus so this stuck on information at the bus stop is plain wrong, and with no reference to ZipCar at all. If you call the number for Avis/Budget you will of course find there are only 2 options, not 3 :D Not a good start.

Anyway the bus turned up 4 minutes later :tu: and took perhaps 6 minutes to get to the Holiday Inn and the Avis office at the back of the car park, quite a way from the hotel. Here's the problem - I wanted to use toilet prior to getting into the car and thought a quick walk into the Holiday Inn would work. Unfortunately there is no pedestrian access into the back of the hotel so you have to walk all the way around to the front to get into the reception. By the time I was on way back the 15 minute reservation period I had started when the bus arrived at stop 25 had expired - it's quite a walk from the Avis location! Alternative might be to collect the car and then park near to the front reception but spaces were all taken there so you'd have to potentially park in front of others and block them in. No easy waiting area I saw.

So I tried to reserve the same car again and was told I'd need to pay £2.00 as I'd reserved previously. I tried another car (there was about 5 VW Polo on offer) and that didn't require any additional cost.

The drive back was better than tube for sure and I don't think there was a pick-up charge, but when CrossRail opens properly the issues with the tube (duration, changes, space etc) will be negated for me. It was £16.00 for up to 1 hour.

In summary - worked 'OK' for us but all the convenience of the former siting has gone.

I used the Zipcar flex to come to LHR last week .. we were actually flying out of T3 .. so was expecting to have to get the bus to T5 and then drive back as this Avis site is I thought only for T5 , but the shuttle bus guy said no problem and dropped us at T3 ... I wouldn't count on that being a regular thing, but worked for me last weekend !

I will not be using Zipcar on the return as it's too much faff .. agree with the comments above that it's fairly likely that the move off airport will kill the service over time