Would you ever leave your car in an airport car park?

[RyanMuller]

Through previous experience previous cars I have been in had dings or nice mud marks on the sills. I would be wary handing my keys over to a randomer!

Does anybody still trust the airport parking guys? Or am I just paranoid?

PS. I am the guy that parks in the furthest corner away from everyone else

 

[CaptainChaos]

I park mine myself in the airport car park. No different from any other large public car park.
I'd be less keen handing my keys over to some random guy to go and park it in a field somewhere.

 

[davidjpowell]

Yup. Although I tend to prefer the train nowadays as I do enough driving.

I will also only use the official car patks now. Having to park off site is not worth the hassle, even without the key issue.

 

[Dickie Fix]

I used to leave my car in many different types of car park when flying from LHR and only had a problem once. I'd left the car in the hotel (a large international chain) car park as part of a room and park deal as I was on an early flight. On my return a week later I found that some lowlife had punched a neat slot in the passenger door near the lock and had overridden the deadlocking. The scrotes had searched the car but found nothing of value, so presumably moved on to the next car. When making a report to the police in order to get an incident number, the man on the desk said that it was a regular occurrence, unlike the hotel manager who said the opposite.

 

[TripleD]

yeah, I use Stansted short stay and park at the furtherest point in the Orange Car Park, or when using Heathrow I park in Business Parking, there are a few spaces that means your pretty much on your own, if non are free I park out of the way again.

Wouldn't use valet unless I had a car that I don't give two ***** about!

 

[moonloops]

Or am I just paranoid?

^^this^^


I've used airport parking and valet parking for years without any issues.

 

[PenelopePitstop]

My SLK250 and C63 could probably drive themselves to Heathrow, as I drove there so frequently and left them too. Never had an issue but I never use valet, mostly business car parks and of course park away from everyone else. I even have my usual parking spots there

Recently, I started parking at hotel car parks because it tends to be cheaper than on official ones. Thistle T5 can be busy at times and it could be difficult to find free space. But Premier Inn T5 is ok and I can find place away from other cars or with limited exposure to potential damage.

BTW, Premier Inn T5 car park is only £5.10 per day when booked via JustPark and there's free public transport to terminal.

Avoid Gatwick short stay, if you have long car.

 

[lfckeeper]

I usually travel from Glasgow (family in Berlin) i always park the car myself .... did the same on our cruise earlier this year. I don't trust anyone with my car!

 

[zipdip]

I would never use Meet and Great, at Gatwick I use APH you arrive and book in and then with your key given a tag to where it must be parked in their own car park you leave it on the seat and one of their guys drives it away,transfer is 20 mins,I have used long stay car parks at other airports.

 

[RyanMuller]

One time we came back and found a large baggage trolley dent in our door, the airport didn't accept liability
the car only had its doors sprayed the week before :-(

 

[cedzz]

I used to use the meet and greet companies, but following leaving it with I Love Meet & Greet, where they scratched it, cost £300 to repair, and denied all responsibility, I now use the official long term car parks.
I quote the companies reply (N.B. the jumbled words are as in the carefully considered denial!):
"I can reassure you have that at no point did the damage happen in our care due to where it was parked for the duration of your stay."

 

[davidjpowell]

The only meet and greet I would use is the official airport one at Manchester.

 

[PobodY]

With the price of parking I usually just book a taxi instead. - It's just about break-even with something like the train for two people, and better value if you've got three.

 

[rockits]

Part of the reason I have an old XC90 that I don't need to worry do much about

 

[Wheelsnuts]

The only time I have had my credit card cloned was when I used it to pay for airport parking.

 

[flango]

I would never use Meet and Great, at Gatwick I use APH you arrive and book in and then with your key given a tag to where it must be parked in their own car park you leave it on the seat and one of their guys drives it away,transfer is 20 mins,I have used long stay car parks at other airports.

Meet and Greet Gatwick is fine used it 3 times this year no issues Heathrow M&G over 6 times and Manchester M&G over 10 times never experienced an issue since they started this service

 

[DSB SL AMG]

Used to park the CL500 and E55 at multi storey car park Manchester airport every week for about 3 years mon - fri, never had any issues and always checked the car on return for dings / dents...plenty of prestige vehicles parked in the multi storey +T1 you are straight into the terminal. Have used the valet parking but went in the Volvo (dog car), no problems but not sure if I would use for other stuff...use a great airport shuttle service now so no need to use airport car parks anymore

 

[Gareth Kent]

Gatwick onsite long stay, or if enough in advance you can usually get short term parking for a week for same price as long stay (give or take £10 or £20) The reason I prefer that is because you are are able to walk straight from arrivals to car in a few mins without having to negotiate around stressed out infrequent flyers lobbing suitcases around on buses and bickering with each other. After a long flight with my young family getting going quicker without all the hassle is worth a little premium (even if the parking spaces are a little tighter).

I used valet once at Heathrow, and they messed up as car was not ready and I had to wait 30 mins. Although I got a refund it was not worth the hassle, but I know others who use it all the time without issue.

Citi airport valet is ok as as its all onsite (I think).

Stanstead, onsite is fine, never used valet.

Luton, nightmare. Just one great big raging toilet of an airport from parking right through to departures.

 

[Bill513]

Hi, have used Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, mainly park myself! only used meet and greet once and found no problems pick up and return. However, I like to park myself and would like others park away from the crowd to minimise risks of dings etc !

 

[alzieboy]

Only ever used meet and greet once , wife had new Golf GTTDi , the guy who collected it tore off like a loony , spent the holiday worrying about the new car , wishing we had got a cab instead , on our return had to wait about 50 mins for car to arrive , when it did it was covered in dirt/ mud , SWMBO tore the fella a new ******** in front of people waiting for car collection .
After this nightmare at ( Gatwick) only ever use long term and take keys with us