LHR DTCI & Tristar any reason not to?

Hi,

Off to the States in a few weeks and pre-booked long stay car parking at Heathrow a few months ago, and the price hasn’t got any cheaper since then.

Out of interest the other day I checked my Virgin booking and clicked the link for Upper Class Transfers and got the price of a transfer from my home address to LHR and back again. The cost is only £15 in total more than what Heathrow are charging for parking.

Question is, having never used the DTCI before, is there any reason NOT to cancel my Heathrow car parking (for a full refund) and book an “Upper Class Transfer”, which I assume will be through Tristar? I can’t see any negative reports on here with them but thought I’d check.

Also, what do you do with regards to being picked up from LHR on return, the booking form has put the flight time of arrival down for the pick up time, do you just stick an hour on top of that to be safe, to give you time to clear immigration & customs?

I assume that if I know in advance the flight is delayed I can just phone them and get the pick up time put back as needed? If the Arrivals lounge had been open at the time we got in I could have just waited in there but unfortunately it's not.

Many thanks in advance,

Steve.

All the car services I've used ask me for the scheduled landing time and then they monitor it. They usually only start the waiting time clock 30 minutes after landing anyway but most will negotiate on that - basically tell them in advance and they will meet you when you want them to!

The only time I've added an hour on is when I wanted to use the arrivals lounge and they were quite happy with that.

In your case as the extra cost of getting the car is only £15 more than the car parking cost then I'd cancel. Always better for someone else to do the driving after a long flight and you'll be able to use the UC Wing on departure as well.

Tontybear,

Thanks for the info on this. Time to cancel the long stay parking at Heathrow and book a car and DTCI.

[buns]

Sorry for being late to the party on this

To add to what Tonty has already said, at Heathrow, Tristar has a pool of drivers waiting for VS flights, so they are well prepared for late/early arrivals.

Indeed, they have a dedicated desk to go to, should you not see your specific driver holding your name board.

buns

Buns,

Definitely no need to apologise, thank you for your information, you actually answered a question I had on my mind about being met too.

Steve.