Airport parking.....ever had any damage done??

[Deleted member 131833]

Drive to Halbeath park and ride - free parking
Get 747 bus to airport, free with geriatric bus pass, 20 minute bus service.

Car keys safely in my pocket when on holiday.

Car park monitored 20 hours per day, so quite secure

Buses run 24 hours Per day so even Ryanair cannot stop you getting back to car and leaving car park.

Do not arrive back into Edinburgh late, aeroplanes cannot take off after arriving late due to noise so you will be parked on apron and bussed to the terminal building, not good, you have to wait for ALL passengers getting onto both buses before they leave together for journey to building, do not get second bus, it is unloaded after first bus has cleared, big queues at passport control. Why pay for speedy boarding?

Sorted

 

[Petrol Pete]

I'm with others on here, why in the fruck would you EVER give the keys to your car to a complete stranger so he could park it for you , Frucking madness.

I have been on more than 12 overseas business trips in the last 10 months, most times I have been chauffeured to the airport but on the occasions that I have used my own car I have endured the shuttle bus option rather than leaving the keys to my ancient C55 to some valet monkey just so I can be in the terminal building 20 minuets earlier (to do what exactly ?..shop ?) I don't even pay for it, I claim it back but I still don't do it. Only fools leave their keys/cars with theses shysters.

 

[Headhurts]

I once left my car at one of the airport parking facilities where you leave the keys with them and they park it somewhere on site.

On return from holiday I picked car up and it was not until I got home that I noticed a pizza box and jumper had been left in the car.

I always use on site airport parking now it is slightly dearer but you park your own car and retain the keys.

Robin

 

[400ixl]

Used offsite and meet and greet services hundreds of times and never had any issues whatsoever. Just be careful who the service is with and that they do really have their own secure facilities. Twice on previous cars I have had slight dings, but both of these were where I parked the car at either the long stay car park, or at a hotel where you took your key. Someone else there had no respect when parking their cars and damaged mine.

So my experience is the risk of damage is higher when not using a company who has a vested interest in both vehicles not getting damaged. I have done both on a regular basis and you could say on my experience the foolish thing to do is to use the self parking option as the person next to you has no interest in your car and what damage may occur if they don't care about their own.

Not once ever in those hundreds of times have I had any additional mileage on the car, for reputable companies it is not worth the brand damage to be found to be doing this. I do have specific companies I use though who I know what facilities they have. Just going for price with some unknown is asking for trouble.

APH is not one of the companies I would use, not looked into them though, so thats not because I don't trust them, just I have others I do trust for the airports I have used.

Fortunately last year I was able to use our local airport and do indirect flights to the customer which meant the car stayed at home and I got a cab to the airport. Always the best option.

 

[Wheelnut58]

Hi,I’ve got an on going saga with East Midlands meet and greet which came highly recommended by a family member,car came back as if it had been parked in the desert for six months and footage on dash cam shows that he had been doing 50 in a 30 and had driven off a tarmac road on to a rough building site road doing 25 mph even though a sign could be seen saying 5 mph,this has been on going since end of June,they take an age to reply to any correspondence yet take customer care as paramount ?.i use my own car usually for the convenience and normally go from Leeds and use a company called sentinel and have never had a problem,so in future will stick to flying from Yorkshire .hope you get a good result to your problem.
Paul.

 

[m80]

Bus or long term self park for us.
To drive is 40 minutes, plus parking and wait for the airport bus or walk, I usually drop Larisa at the terminal, park and then walk back.
If we're going skiing, with our own gear, the bus isn't an option.

The bus is 1hr 20 mins, plus a 10-15 minute walk to our town centre. I find the bus journey laborious so prefer to drive.

My concern with taxis is the conversation while being driven,
"where are you going....nice",
"how long for".

That's possibly good info if he has a criminal mate.

 

[Amy]

Bus or long term self park for us.
To drive is 40 minutes, plus parking and wait for the airport bus or walk, I usually drop Larisa at the terminal, park and then walk back.
If we're going skiing, with our own gear, the bus isn't an option.

The bus is 1hr 20 mins, plus a 10-15 minute walk to our town centre. I find the bus journey laborious so prefer to drive.

My concern with taxis is the conversation while being driven,
"where are you going....nice",
"how long for".

That's possibly good info if he has a criminal mate.

In which case, dont give them personal details .....but a professional driver wouldnt ask you anyway, so chose your airport transfer company carefully

 

[alabbasi]

I worked at NCP when I was about 17. They had the contract for Heathrow airport at the time and a similar service. I'd hear stories about people booting lister Jaguars , Aston Martins and wrecking the odd Porsche. From what I remember about being there, it was a poorly paid job that required long hours. I would not consider it

 

[Amy]

This is what I do. - In fairness; for one person it's more expensive, for two people it's about the same as paying for airport parking (and/or a train ticket), and if you've got three (or more) people it's definitely cheaper than a train.

Plus, door to door, bags loaded and unloaded for you, lost property returned to you immediately or securely held until you return, milk and bread bought ready for your return home so you can have a lye in the next morning (if applicable)
These are the common courtesies and professional traits of a caring company who have excellent customer care skills and who value their clients

 

[m80]

In which case, dont give them personal details .....but a professional driver wouldnt ask you anyway, so chose your airport transfer company carefully

You mean personal details like your address that they collect you from, and a boot full of suitcases being taken to an airport.
Then of course there is the collection where, as I remember from many years ago, they would want the flight number to programme the collection time (in theory).

 

[V6Jimbo]

My local airport is only 15mins away so always a taxi if a family member can't drive me. Failing that I'd rather walk than use airport parking.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[400ixl]

You mean personal details like your address that they collect you from, and a boot full of suitcases being taken to an airport.
Then of course there is the collection where, as I remember from many years ago, they would want the flight number to programme the collection time (in theory).

Only ever had one driver ask how long I was away for, response was, "I'm going home, I was staying with friends". They had no way to know whether that was true or not.

 

[Haven't a clue!]

Last meet&greet was Heathrow, came back early morning tired and I'll, car 3 rows back in poorly lit area, got home, stayed in bed for several days. Looked out and too late noticed significant 3 ripple effect on car roof line.
Total denial from heathrow, suspect hit by falling tree limbs wherever they had off-site parked it, so had anyway planned to hide damage and deny.
They were dealing with an irate damaged Audi owner when I had returned.

Now use onsite parking and key stays with me.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Over the last few years we have been taking more holidays touring around France and Spain.

We prefer ferries to planes for a more relaxed journey, touring allows us a freedom that one-stop holidays can't provide.

If I'm honest the thought of a flight on a packed plane coupled with coach or train transfers and a single destination beach holiday fill me with dread.

Having both worked from home for several years I don't think that me and the Missus are well equipped for mixing with lots of people/crowds.

 

[markjay]

I no longer leave my car at the airport - all this shuttle business is too tiring, and I am not one to let a stranger park my car if I can avoid it - but I used to in the past, quite frequently in fact, at Heathrow, Stansted, and Luton - and never had an issue.

Mind I only used the official car parks on the airport grounds (albeit run by private operators), not one of those cowboy firms that use nearby fields etc.

 

[markjay]

Incidentally, MB Temple Fotune have a tiny customer car park which is very densely populated by parked vehicles, so they have a valete parking arrangement, i.e. the car and keys are taken off you at the entrance to the car park.

I suppose that if you want to park a large number of cars very tight together then it's not a good idea to let Joe Public park their vehicles themselves; but in spite of the good intentions I don't like it and try to avoid going there for that reason.

 

[ash59fifty-uk]

Just to add to the horror stories... not my car but this was Birmingham Airport!

 

[clk320x]

In Heathrow I use POD Parking, highly recommended. Can only be used whilst on short trips though. Quite pricey too but worth it…

 

[Amy]

View attachment 79119 Just to add to the horror stories... not my car but this was Birmingham Airport!

This is the multistorey at BHX train station. Thanks to Uber and the antics of hundreds of mongrels on Fridays, the whole place is now double red lines

 

[RonFleet]

A courtesy bus driver at Heathrow T3 advised me never to park near the end of a row, but make sure I was at least three cars in. He'd seen numerous incidents where a driver had been travelling through the car park at speed and, for whatever reason, had hit the car at the end of a row, pushing it into the second and even the third car in. Probably a bit of scaremongering, but worth thinking about.