Before you jet off on your summer holiday, make sure you have the journey to the airport and parking sorted out.
Otherwise, it could cost you more than the flight – and in the worst cases your car could end up vandalised and sitting in a field. These are the latest parking fee swizzes you need to know – and tips to slash the cost of airport parking.
Curse of ‘kiss and fly’
This summer motorists will pay more than ever for dropping off or picking up family and friends at the airport – as much as 50p a second if caught unawares.
Airports have always charged motorists to use their car parks, but over the last four years most have introduced fees simply for stopping outside the front of the terminal building for long enough to drop off, or pick up, family and friends.
These so-called ‘kiss and fly’ fees have surged again this year.
Gatwick, Bristol and Leeds Bradford now demand £7 for you to wait ten minutes – and in Southampton for 20 minutes. Heathrow demands £6, as does Edinburgh, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool John Lennon. Luton charges £5 for just five minutes. Those sitting longer than the permitted time are typically charged between 70p and £1 for every extra minute.
This year, Stansted has ripped out its payment barrier, which means motorists can drive up to the front of the terminal, wait for as long as they need to and drive off again unencumbered. While more convenient, it makes it harder for motorists to remember to pay the charge – they must do it before they set off or when they get home. Until this year, you had to pay by swiping a debit or credit card at a barrier as you left the drop off and pick up area.
Amber Coleman, 26, picked up her boyfriend Owen Sallows, 27, at Stansted from a flight from Dublin at about 6pm on June 22.
The customer services assistant forgot to pay the fee for waiting a couple of minutes in her Volkswagen Polo for Owen outside the terminal. She only remembered after the deadline of midnight the following day so was hit with a £100 fine. If payment is made within 14 days of the fine being issued, the fee is reduced to £60 – which is what Amber paid. This worked out at 50p a second for her stay.
As a Bishop’s Stortford resident in Hertfordshire, who lives within ten miles of Stansted airport, Amber can pay a discounted £1 for dropping off and picking up passengers at the terminal. Non-residents pay £7 – or £25 if parked longer than 15 minutes.
The £100 penalty – a 9,900 pc hike on £1 – is higher than the cost of a many return flights to Dublin, which currently start from £31.
Amber says: ‘It is shocking the airport is allowed to exploit people who just want to pick up a loved one. As soon as I remembered to pay I rang up to plead my case. But after being kept on hold for more than half an hour I just had to give up. I feel a victim of a nasty greedy trick.’
Stansted is not the only airport catching victims using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) spy cameras. These cameras capture the details of each car number plate as they head in and out of an airport and fine them automatically if they don’t pay the fees. Others include Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Birmingham, where you get stung with a £100 fine unless you pay within 24 hours or by midnight next day.
Rod Dennis, of motoring organisation the RAC, says: ‘The sky seems the limit for charging to let friends and loved ones catch a flight with prices rising unabated.’
To beat the kiss and fly charge, pay online before you head to the airport by providing your car registration details and card details.
Opt for automatic payment and you need not worry for future trips. Such systems are already used for journeys such as when you enter congestion zones, where a camera reads your car registration, which is linked to debit or credit card details you have provided. It means money can be taken without you having to remember to pay.
Anita Harrison, customer operations director at Stansted airport, says: ‘The ANPR technology will make dropping-off and picking up passengers quicker and more convenient, reducing driver waiting times and helping improve passenger flows and that is why we are confident it will improve the overall experience for users.’
Beware a meet and greet
The idea of driving up to the airport terminal and handing your car keys to someone to park can be appealing – especially as they can charge about half the price of an official airport car park and may even offer a valet service, cleaning the car while you are away.
On return from your holiday, you call the car park company, an attendant returns your vehicle to the terminal and you drive home.
Unfortunately, this is an unregulated market, so although there are some great companies out there, there are also those that are not so reliable. Some firms have been known to take cars for a spin, dump vehicles in fields, and occasionally they have even been involved in accidents.
Police were called out to Burton End in Essex this April when 60 cars were reported vandalised – with tyres let down and paint thrown over windscreens – when left parked on a country lane by a meet and greet service. The vehicles were parked five miles from Stansted airport.
One victim wrote on review website Tripadvisor: ‘My experience was nothing short of a nightmare. This company took my payment and left my vehicle parked on the side of a public road in a nearby village, completely exposed and vulnerable. When I returned from my trip, I discovered that both my tyres had been slashed and the battery was completely dead, rendering the car undrivable. I was left stranded at midnight, forced to make my own way home.’
In a separate incident, involving Keir Allen Meet & Greet in April, another motorist Sophie Rose told the BBC her car was involved in a ‘hit-and-run accident’ 14 miles away in Harlow – while she was celebrating her 30th birthday in Dublin. Rose, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, said she was left with a £6,500 repair bill. The company GetAwayEssentials.com – which owns the Keir Allan brand – said that it did not cause the damage and was ‘not liable’. When asked about the cars parked in Burton End, it said: ‘We were renting land and had a problem with the entrance being blocked. We went to the High Court to get an injunction, and the police advised us to park on the street while the matter was being settled. Then all the cars got damaged.’
Those tempted by meet and greet should check reviews before booking and opt for operators that use a police-approved safe parking service, identified by a ‘Park Mark’ logo. You can also use a comparison website such as Parking4Less and Airport Parking Shop, where companies have been vetted.
Another option is to use a website such as Park On My Drive or Your Parking Space, where homeowners rent a space on their drive. You then take a taxi to the airport.
For example, Park On My Drive has locations less than a mile from Heathrow, such as in Doghurst Drive charging £7 a day. Your Parking Space also has off road parking locations less than a mile from Gatwick airport, such as in Upfield, charging £10.50 a day for your car. A taxi to the airport from both locations costs around £10.
Turn up and be ripped off
Official airport car parks should be safe and convenient – but motorists turning up on the day might pay double the price than if they had booked a fortnight ahead.
Picking a long-stay over a short-stay car park – where you can walk to the terminal – can also save you hundreds of pounds.
A long-stay may mean waiting up to 15 minutes for a shuttle bus to take you on a 15-minute ride to a terminal – so allow an extra half hour to avoid stress.
At Heathrow, turn up at an official short stay car park and you can expect to pay £94.50 a day. So, going abroad for a full week costs £661.50. Long stay – which Heathrow now calls ‘park and ride’ – is a free 15-minute transfer ride to the terminal via a shuttle bus.
Turn up and it can be £46.80 for one day and £37.40 for subsequent days, so, the same seven days is £271.20. But had you booked at least a fortnight in advance this summer, a short stay Terminal 4 car park might cost less than half price at £254.40 and for long stay £118.10.
Booking in advance is straightforward as all the airports have websites with links to the short, medium and long-stay car parks they operate.
Take your time tapping in details of when you wish to go, including the times of day you expect to arrive and depart, using their online calendars.
Consider parking… before flights
Compare the prices of parking before you book a flight to discover the total price of your travel. This will help you decide which airport you should use because parking can sometimes cost more than flights.
For example, a return flight from Heathrow to Paris Orly with Vueling going on September 4 and returning September 11 sounds a bargain at £72. But add £215.40 for a short-stay car park and the total rises to £287.40.
Pay £103 with easyJet for the same days of travel from Birmingham to Charles de Gaulle near Paris and you may feel it offers worse value. But although the flight is more expensive, if you opt to stay in car park 5, a ten-minute walk to the terminal, the same week parking costs £149.99. This is a total of £252.99 – so you save £34.41.
