andrelux

Over in the UK for six days and booked car hire through BA. Arrive, get on Avis shuttle bus. When I get to the office, I notice that my name isn't on the Avis Preferred screen. I go inside, where I'm told that the car's booked from T5.("BA bookings are always T5"). which is a different office.. Avis say the only way to book a car for arrival at the other terminals is directly with them (but of course, the trip then ceases to be a BA Holiday).

With quite a few BA flights arriving at T3 now (and a whole swathe of others moving there soon), this seems daft. You'd have to get the Tube to T5, THEN get on another shuttle bus.

Were the people at Avis correct in what they told me?

CT-UK

I thought it was all at the Holiday Inn now anyway on the bath road?

andrelux

Which, if you arrive at T3, involves the tube to T5 and another shuttle bus. The shuttle bus from outside T3 takes you to the main Avis office on the perimeter road.

And lots of BA flights come into T3.

corporate-wage-slave

But that location is nearer to T3 than T5, so why not just take the public bus to Newport Road (U3, 111, 105 etc)? The service interval is something like 2 minutes.

Misco60

I think "bus" is a dirty word to some on Flyertalk, "public bus" even more so.

andrelux

Snide comment. You must be so proud of yourself.

But let's take a step back:

I booked a BA holiday involving flight + car hire, My BA flight arrives and I follow the signs to the shuttle bus (note the word "bus") to Avis. But apparently the Avis office for the airport terminal BA have just flown me into is not the one they have organised the car from.

Yes, I can, if I know in advance that this is the case, get the Underground from T2/3 to T5, and then another shuttle bus to Avis T5 office. Or, if I am somehow blessed with encyclopaedic knowledge of the public transport system of an unfamiliar city, I could choose and pay for one of several buses which might take me close to my destination.

Alternatively, BA could just arrange for the car to be picked up from the most conveniently located Avis office for the flight arrival. They land at T3. There is an Avis shuttle bus at T3. What could be simpler?

crazy8534

Don't think it was meant to be snide, taking the bus is a meme on FT since a famous member was forced onto one recently, but I totally take your point about the car hire bookings from T3 on BA having done exactly the same as you previously.
But I guess it would be pretty complicated to implement the solution.
Doesn't excuse it, of course.

The brilliant thing about FT is that we already have our on-tap encyclopaedic knowledge from the many frequent travellers who post!
I'd recommend a trip on the bus for this one if you have it again in future.

Misco60

That's quite an over-reaction to a humorous quip of the type you see every day on the BA forum. I even added a smiley just in case someone missed the fact that it was light-hearted.

andrelux

Not really. BA know which terminal their plane is coming in to. It's much the same as knowing the flight lands at Gatwick and arrange car hire from there

fluffymitten

Sounds like there is a blanket rule that BAH car hires are all picked up from the Holiday Inn. I would have expected this information to be in your car hire voucher that you can download from MMB.

When booking a BA holiday, I always download and check those vouchers just to prevent this kind of surprise.

corporate-wage-slave

The good news is that you and fellow Gold cardholders (and those with status and those without) can sub-contract this particular element of knowledge scraping out to this forum. Even better, I would say it's actually easier to use this facility if landing into T3 - it's much closer and faster to get to Avis T5 from T3 than it is from T5. Yes there is a charge, unlike the blessed citizens of Luxembourg who have free public transport, but it's only £1.65 and a contactless bank card is all you need by way of a ticket. I would guess a 10 minute journey, all in?

747_not_777

I'm with you. Sounds crazy to me. If I book a car, I expect it to be at the same company's car rental counter at the terminal I'm arriving in, unless they use a shared car rental centre in which case we're all on a car hire company bus to that location... Needing "public transport" to get to it, seems crazy.

andrelux

I looked out for you last Saturday when I arrived but you must have wandered off somewhere.

And it's £1.65 x 3 (one with wheelchair) x 2 (return) so £10.

T8191

One reason I like rentals at Phoenix (PHX) … constant flow of (free) shuttle buses from all Terminals to a huge joint Rental facility. And return, of course.

Sadly LHR is, and always was, space constrained due partly to its age, layout and design.

tcdtcd

No more buses at PHX. Now a light rail train. Much much better - and much faster.