Car parking Heathrow and avios?

flopsy1973

Hi Anyone know of ant cheap parking for Heathrow have tried usual sites but coming back quite expensive. I do have some old airmiles can you book parking to use those ? 

[Deleted User]

I use the official Heathrow parking as the others are unsafe. It does work out more expensive than Stansted or Gatwick, but I just buy into it as there is no choice. If you are a Heathrow Rewards member, you can get money off the parking, but it takes 1000s of points just to get £10 off.

eskbanker

[Deleted User] said:

I use the official Heathrow parking as the others are unsafe. It does work out more expensive than Stansted or Gatwick, but I just buy into it as there is no choice.

Sounds like massive generalisations, what led you to those conclusions?

phatbear

[Deleted User] said:

I use the official Heathrow parking as the others are unsafe.

blimey. 

well ive used purple parking for years at LHR and never had any issues so what are you basing this statement on?

Doshwaster

My preferred car park at Heathrow is Purple Parking on Bath Rd (next the the Premier Inn) and have never had a problem with them.

However a few months ago I used the official long stay as I had a discount code. Arrival was fine but when it came to driving home, the barrier wouldn't recognise my car number plate, nobody was answering the intercom, the customer services hut was closed and it took me 20 minutes on the phone to get through to a human who could open the barrier to let me out.

Another option is that if you have an early flight is that a lot of hotels offer room+parking deals which often aren't much more expensive the the room alone and takes the hassle out of driving to the airport at stupid o'clock in the morning.

DullGreyGuy

Doshwaster said:

Another option is that if you have an early flight is that a lot of hotels offer room+parking deals which often aren't much more expensive the the room alone and takes the hassle out of driving to the airport at stupid o'clock in the morning.

For awareness, many of these take the vehicle offsite after you leave if you are going for more than a night or two. In principle not an issue and you'd hope Hilton/Marriot etc choose reliable companies but some dont like the idea of others driving their car around and leaving it at an unknown location. 

flopsy1973 said:
I do have some old airmiles can you book parking to use those ? 

Do you mean BA Avios or Virgin Points or?

You used to be able use Avios held by Avios themselves (rather than BA) on carparking but that option has gone. You can still earn them with parking but not spend them.

Doshwaster

DullGreyGuy said:

Doshwaster said:

Another option is that if you have an early flight is that a lot of hotels offer room+parking deals which often aren't much more expensive the the room alone and takes the hassle out of driving to the airport at stupid o'clock in the morning.

For awareness, many of these take the vehicle offsite after you leave if you are going for more than a night or two. In principle not an issue and you'd hope Hilton/Marriot etc choose reliable companies but some dont like the idea of others driving their car around and leaving it at an unknown location. 

That's a fair point worth raising. My usual choice is the Holiday Inn on Bath Rd as I have status with IHG so always get upgraded but I have also used others. It's worth checking whether you get to keep your car keys or not. Actually, in some cases (such as with Purple Parking) I quite like to hand over my keys as its one less thing to worry about losing on your trip but I wouldn't with an operator which I didn't trust. I used an off-site at Gatwick once and the car came back looking like it had been parked in a muddy field.

DullGreyGuy

Doshwaster said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Doshwaster said:

Another option is that if you have an early flight is that a lot of hotels offer room+parking deals which often aren't much more expensive the the room alone and takes the hassle out of driving to the airport at stupid o'clock in the morning.

For awareness, many of these take the vehicle offsite after you leave if you are going for more than a night or two. In principle not an issue and you'd hope Hilton/Marriot etc choose reliable companies but some dont like the idea of others driving their car around and leaving it at an unknown location. 

That's a fair point worth raising. My usual choice is the Holiday Inn on Bath Rd as I have status with IHG so always get upgraded but I have also used others. It's worth checking whether you get to keep your car keys or not. Actually, in some cases (such as with Purple Parking) I quite like to hand over my keys as its one less thing to worry about losing on your trip but I wouldn't with an operator which I didn't trust. I used an off-site at Gatwick once and the car came back looking like it had been parked in a muddy field.

And the risk is not knowing who the operator is... are they moving it to their own offsite location or outsourcing to a third party?

Ultimately I care about getting my car back in the same condition with similar level of fuel and not too many miles on the clock. I tend to use onsite parking but one occasion when using a hotel solution (when I had my group 50 car) the car came back with much more fuel than when I left it and a hundred or so miles on the clock. No damage to the car, no PCNs/producers in the post so let it slide. 

flopsy1973

DullGreyGuy said:

Doshwaster said:

Another option is that if you have an early flight is that a lot of hotels offer room+parking deals which often aren't much more expensive the the room alone and takes the hassle out of driving to the airport at stupid o'clock in the morning.

For awareness, many of these take the vehicle offsite after you leave if you are going for more than a night or two. In principle not an issue and you'd hope Hilton/Marriot etc choose reliable companies but some dont like the idea of others driving their car around and leaving it at an unknown location. 

flopsy1973 said:
I do have some old airmiles can you book parking to use those ? 

Do you mean BA Avios or Virgin Points or?

You used to be able use Avios held by Avios themselves (rather than BA) on carparking but that option has gone. You can still earn them with parking but not spend them.

They are airmiles I think they were the old BA ones Tey changed to Avios I think. Can I use them the website not much help ?