Kamis, 26 April 2012

Parking at the airport can cost more than the price of your flight! Warning to travellers

Parking at the airport can cost more than the price of your flight! Warning to travellers

By Travelmail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:20 EST, 26 April 2012 | UPDATED: 08:03 EST, 26 April 2012


Parking you car at the airport can cost even more than the price of your flight ticket, holidaymakers have been warned.

Britons who fail to book their airport parking in advance can end up paying triple the price just to leave their car, with London's Heathrow Airport charging from £120 a week.

The report by Which? Travel found that more than a third of holidaymakers (36 per cent) drive to the airport, leaving them vulnerable to being stung by sky-high fees if they turn up without an advanced booking.

A plane landing at Heathrow Airport in London

Sky high: Airport parking can cost more than the price of a flight

In a bid to combat the hugely inflated prices, the consumer magazine has highlighted the best ways to keep prices down at the UK's 13 most visited airports.

The magazine advises travellers to always book in advance. Holidaymakers parking at Birmingham's long-stay sites can pay less than £28 a week if they book in advance, but that price rockets to £85 if they turn up without a reservation.

Car parks also use a system similar to low-cost airlines, with the cheapest tickets being sold earlier and a pricing system that means deals can change by the hour.

Which? discovered that some of the cheapest prices like Stansted’s Long Stay Extra Supersaver, were only available because a search was made more than 30 days before departure.

In other examples, prices went up in the space of just four hours between two parking searches.

Plane landing at sunset

Advice: Which? recommends passengers book their airport parking as far in advance as possible

A spokesperson for Which? Travel said: 'More often than not, we found private car parks outside airport grounds cheaper than on-airport car parks. Glasgow International airport’s cheapest deal was nearly twice the price of Airparks, four miles away.

'Off-site car park deals will include shuttle transfers, and these can be as quick as from the airport’s own cheapest car park. Check what security the car park has before you book, though.

'In some cases, official airport car parks may be cheaper as we found at Birmingham, Luton and Stansted. If you want to keep your car within the airport grounds, booking direct via the airport’s website is usually (but not always) just as cheap as going via other retailers.'



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Park at private houses near the airport I always do this when flying from Stansted. Hytron 5

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Luton and London City Airport short stay car parks are the rip off sites. Luton charges you a pound to drop off, charges for trolleys and charges approx £7.00 an hour. When it rains you get absolutely soaked as there is no protection for the weather. As for London City Airport they charge, just for picking up, £4.50 for 15 mins, 5.50 for half an hour and an eye watering £10.00 for 30-60 minutes!

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You don't even have to fly to get ripped off. Try going to collect someone at Heathrow terminal 5 and you are obliged to park and pay an exorbitant fee whether you want to park or not. The signposts direct you to short term parking and arrivals, but once you get up the ramp expecting to see an arrivals pick up like the departures drop off - that is where the similarity ends. Having gone about 400 yds with traffic behind you, you are obliged to go through a barrier and take a ticket. When I made a fuss with the 'management' (man in hi viz vest who could hardly string a sentence together), he told me there were warning signs, but they had been taken down because mini cab drivers were driving round and round waiting for planes to arrive ! Well, surprise surprise, what did they think people will do if it costs nearly £3 for half an hour and the plane is late ! Absolute rip off. Best to stay outside the airport and get your arriving passenger to phone you then pick up in departures.

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Here's what you do.....1. Book in advance. 2. Go to a car park that's off the airport site. 3. Do both or 4. Whinge and whine about rip-off Britain because you can't be bothered to do a little research and forward planning.

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We have always got a good deal when paying for long term parking through an airport hotel. We stay overnight before the flight, and we get the room, usually including breakfast and 2 weeks of parking, for a reasonable cost. Extra weeks can be purchased reasonably, too. This has been the case for flights from Manchester, Gatwick and Cardiff. The hotels also include in that price the shuttle to the airport, and they pick you up again on your return.Good value, if you do your homework, and saves a lot of stress.

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Its not even the nanny state anymore is it. Seriously, anyone over the age of 5...

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I booked at Stanstead 6 MONTHS in advance and still paid £92 in the car park near the terminal.

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Nothing new here - we all know how exorbitant the parking costs are - NCP have the monopoly - unfortunately. This has been the case for many years.

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Its a rip off if you go to Manchester airport to drop and pick up you have to pay just to do that cost on avg £3, why before the idiots that did the Scotland bombs in the airport it was free. Another money making scheme by a foreign company.We stop outside and drop off rip off Britain again.

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