How do I park at an airport without overpaying?

Airport parking is one of the few travel costs where the same product costs wildly different amounts depending on nothing but when you booked it. The second thing worth knowing is that the cheapest headline price is often an off-site operator whose real cost is forty minutes of transfer time at each end with luggage and children.

Safety

Step by step

1. Book as soon as the flights are booked.Airport parking is priced like a flight: cheapest early, dearest on the day. Turning up and paying the drive-up rate is usually the most expensive way to do it by a wide margin.
2. Price the whole journey, not the parking.For a short trip, a taxi both ways or public transport frequently beats a week of parking. For two weeks with a family and luggage, parking usually wins. Work out both before deciding.
3. Understand what each type actually is.Short stay is next to the terminal and expensive. Long stay is on airport land with a shuttle. Park and ride is off-site with a longer shuttle. Meet and greet takes the car from you at the terminal and parks it somewhere you never see.
4. Add the transfer time to the arrival plan.A cheaper off-site car park with a fifteen-minute shuttle running every twenty minutes is realistically forty minutes from parking space to terminal door. Build that into departure time rather than discovering it.
5. Check the operator is accredited before booking meet and greet.Look for a recognised parking accreditation scheme and read recent reviews. Ask where the car is actually parked — a postcode, not 'a secure compound near the airport'.
6. Check your car insurance covers the handover.The operator will drive the car. Most reputable ones carry their own cover, but confirm it, and confirm with your insurer that handing keys over does not create a problem.
7. Photograph the car and record the mileage at drop-off.All four sides, the wheels, the interior, the dashboard showing mileage and fuel, with the time stamp. Repeat at collection. It is the only evidence you will have.
8. Empty the car of anything valuable.Sat nav, documents, sunglasses, anything with your home address on it. A car parked for a fortnight in a large car park is a slow, quiet target.
9. Save the booking reference and the return process offline.The number to call on landing, the collection point, and the barrier code. Landing tired with no signal and no reference is how a cheap booking becomes an expensive evening.
10. Check the cancellation and amendment terms.Flights move. A booking that can be amended free for a few pounds more is usually worth it.

Tips

• Off-airport hotels frequently sell park-and-fly packages that include a night's stay and a fortnight's parking for close to the parking price alone. Worth pricing for an early flight.
• Airport drop-off charges now apply at most UK airports. If someone is driving you, check whether the drop-off zone is charged and whether there is a free option further out.
• Comparison sites are useful for finding operators but book direct afterwards if the price is the same — it is simpler when something goes wrong.

Common mistakes

• Turning up and paying on the day — Drive-up rates are typically several times the pre-booked price for the same space.
• Choosing on headline price alone — The cheapest option is often the one with the longest transfer, which costs an hour of your day in each direction and a great deal of patience with luggage.

Questions people ask