HarryHolden68

Discuss.

£30 for the 2.9 mile drive to Holiday Inn, Sipson via the M25, M4 and Sipson village.

Lord knows what visitors must make of these con artists. If I did not know where it was, I would be thinking I had booked a hotel in Reading.

jerry a. laska

Slightly less expensive than the similar rip-off from LHR T5 to the Hilton at LHR T5:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...hilton-t5.html

antichef

From T5 or T4? Was it after 8pm as the fare increases then?
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...ares-guide.pdf

From T1/T3 that would be a rip off!

HarryHolden68

T5, at about 22:45

There was no blase up front £30. He just set off onto the M25 / M4 / Sipson village scenic route.

When I questioned what he was doing when he took the M25 spur, he ranted that the airport did not allow him to go around the Northern Perimter road and as such he would not be insured to do so.

Never heard so much drivel since the last time I conversed with a black cab driver.

antichef

Did you get his number? It was a blatant porky, and you should complain.

stut

Yes, I'd definitely report this. That is 100% nonsense.

It's sadly common at Heathrow, however, for shorter journeys where the destination is within Greater London. As there's no "short queue" for taxis to take passengers on short journeys, as with many other airports, passengers are often given the runaround for journeys around the Heathrow area (note that, for journeys outside Greater London, fares are generally negotiated, not on the meter - but Sipson is inside Greater London).

If you have any details, I'd urge you to go here:

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/pco/

chanp

Wow, that is expensive.

Reason077

Cab drivers pay substantial fees to BAA to pick up passengers at Heathrow, somewhere between £5 and £10 per fare. But TfL only permits them to charge passengers an additional £3.20 ex-Heathrow.

Also, black cabs are not permitted to refuse a fare when on a stand (provided the destination is within a reasonable distance). They may have waited quite some time on the stand for your fare, and if it's only a £10 or £12 short-distance journey then they may be making little or no profit, only to have to return the back of the queue and wait again.

Having said that, there isn't any excuse for this type of nonsense - Cabbies need to accept the odd small fare as part of the cost of doing business, rather than try to rip off their customers and bring their profession into disrepute. For every crappy fare from LHR I'm sure there are plenty of lucrative ones.

Do remember there are free busses from T5 to the Holiday Inn and all the Hotels along Bath road Stand 7 at Terminal 5.

Gagravarr

The last time I was staying in a Heathrow hotel, I came in on the last Piccadilly line train of the night, after helpful buses had stopped. The hotel gave me the number of a local minicab firm, and suggested I get off the underground at T123 for the shortest trip (they're on Bath Road). The suggested minicab company was great, I just had to call them when I left the station and they popped round to collect me from right by the underground (the phone call was because it wasn't an official collection place so I had to be there waiting!), and even with the after-midnight surcharge was only about a tenner.

Generally though, I find that hotels have simple but expensive options listed on their website for how to get there. However, if you ring/email and ask for advice, they normally come up with good suggestions. (Well, other than one US hotel I was in, where reception were sure there wasn't a bus into town and kept trying to help me rent a car or get a taxi, and I was sure there was one nearby-ish. In the end, I got them to ring through to housekeeping, who were very confused, but knew exactly where the bus stop was and gave me directions!)

irishguy28

Assuming this is the same hotel, the hotel's website gives the taxi fare from Heathrow as £25.

Is this hotel not covered by the Hotel Hoppa bus?

Silver Fox

Did he also say who he had had in the cab the other day? Or give his views on immigration? If not, I would say that was £30 well spent.

rwoman

Yes, the Hoppa goes to this property. £4.50 each way.

Disco Volante

Are you sure about this? There certainly used to be. I seem to recall this arising in the 90s in connection with an allegation of bribes being taken to admit drivers to the short queue.

stut

Not certain - and happy to be corrected!

Silver Fox

I think they can jump back in the "short queue" if they pick a fare up and are back within a certain time limit, I think it used to be 30 mins. I believe they have to get some sort of chit off one of the taxi monitor people to do this.