Re: Ncp airport. Can you pay for early time and arrive later?

moneysaver2017

I want to pay from 9am and arrive at 10:30 latest if traffic issues. Ncp aren't clear if I can do this. Also I've paid until 3:30am flight return, if I return earlier is it ok. It's not valet just using my own keys so no staff needed other than barrier 

la531983

I have always added far too many hours at the start and finish of any airport booking, it usually doesnt impact the price unless you go into a new 24 hour period, and they especially wont care if you are leaving early or arriving late if its not valet as they wont have to work out staffing based on bookings.

Some airport car parks will allow a grace period at the end of the booking anyway. Which NCP is it?

DullGreyGuy

moneysaver2017 said:

I want to pay from 9am and arrive at 10:30 latest if traffic issues. Ncp aren't clear if I can do this. Also I've paid until 3:30am flight return, if I return earlier is it ok. It's not valet just using my own keys so no staff needed other than barrier 

You need to read the terms and conditions of the particular carpark/website you are using. 

If you take Gatwick as an example booked in 24 hour blocks, so a 10 day stay is up to 240 hours. The clock starts running from the earlier of booked start time and your actual arrival (ie starts early if your early but no advantage of turning up late). Likewise your time ends at the later of the time you booked or the time you actually leave (again book with contingency and dont use it you dont get anything back). If you were to go over the paid for 240 hours, say you were 245 hours using the above rules, then you get billed an extra 1 day at the "on the day" rate (rather than advanced booking rate). 

TELLIT01

I always put an earlier arrival time and later departure time for the car park than I expect to need.  There has never been a problem.  It's booked and paid for unless you cancel it, so it's no loss to NCP if you arrive later and leave earlier.

zagfles

DullGreyGuy said:

moneysaver2017 said:

I want to pay from 9am and arrive at 10:30 latest if traffic issues. Ncp aren't clear if I can do this. Also I've paid until 3:30am flight return, if I return earlier is it ok. It's not valet just using my own keys so no staff needed other than barrier 

You need to read the terms and conditions of the particular carpark/website you are using. 

If you take Gatwick as an example booked in 24 hour blocks, so a 10 day stay is up to 240 hours. The clock starts running from the earlier of booked start time and your actual arrival (ie starts early if your early but no advantage of turning up late). Likewise your time ends at the later of the time you booked or the time you actually leave (again book with contingency and dont use it you dont get anything back). If you were to go over the paid for 240 hours, say you were 245 hours using the above rules, then you get billed an extra 1 day at the "on the day" rate (rather than advanced booking rate). 

That's not how it worked last time I used Gatwick, or any airport. Airport long stay carparks usually work on calendar days, not 24 hours. For instance booking from 10th-20th Sept is usually the exact same price whatever time of arrival or departure you select, so if you book 06:00 on the 10th to 23:00 on the 20th it's the same price as 17:00 on the 10th until 11:00 on the 20th even though the latter is clearly one less 24 hour block.

So I always book early morning on the arrival date to late evening on the departure date regardless of actual arrival/departure times. Also as mentioned above most have a grace period of IME something like 4-6 hours, worth checking if you have a late evening arrival and you want a bit of contingency.