Often, one of the the toughest things about flying is parking. Whether it means schlepping baggage over vast distances in crammed buses to and from long-term parking lots, or trying to figure out a way to make your car invisible when picking up folks from the airport, parking is often difficult, expensive, and sometimes the most stressful part of the trip.
Long-term parking lots are getting ever more remote -- at one airport I used recently, it was six miles from my parking spot to the terminal -- and for airport drop-off and pickup, security concerns have put an end to the tradition of idling in a sweet spot at the curb in front of the terminal until shooed away; now you will be ticketed.
But two new trends offer some relief for travelers and the saints who pick them up at airports:
For long-term parking, sleep-and-park airport hotel deals bundle a room in an airport hotel, several days parking, and a shuttle in both directions for a fraction of the cost of all three together.
For the short-timers picking up folks at the airport, the establishment of "cell phone lots" promises to put an end to endlessly circling terminal loops, idling illegally in front of the terminal or paying high short-term parking prices.
Park, Sleep and Fly
Many airport hotels have figured out that a parking spot and a ride, and not a bed and Danish, may be the best thing they can offer folks headed to the airport.
Since flight delays are typically fewer the earlier in the day you fly, morning flights have become popular among business travelers as well as with leisure travelers. Instead of rising in the middle of the night, driving to the airport in the dark and boarding your plane already near exhaustion, travelers are booking rooms with several days' "free parking" included.
On departure, they stay at the airport hotel the night before travel, sleep much later than they would otherwise and walk out the door of their hotel to board the hotel shuttle right to the terminal. On return, they take the same hotel shuttle back to the hotel parking lot, get in their car and head for home.
Prices tend to be very reasonable; at some hotels I tested, the cost of the whole package was identical to the cost of long-term parking in the airport hotel lots alone. Forget free parking -- that's a free hotel room.
Example: I recently took a morning flight out of JFK at the start of a five-day trip. The airport is 65 grueling miles from my house, so to get on a 7 a.m. flight I would have had to rise at around 3:30 a.m. at the latest.
Instead, I got a park/sleep/fly deal at an airport hotel for $119, which came with five days' parking. With long-term parking usually costing around $10/day, I figure the whole thing cost me about $70 more than it would have otherwise, but I got a night's sleep and didn't stand around in snow drifts at 5:10 a.m. waiting for a crowded airport shuttle.
At other airports, I've seen much better -- at the Miami AmeriSuites, for example, you get up to 14 days of parking with your room at a price of $69; it's like they're paying you to stay there.
ParkSleepFly.com is probably the best-known and best-stocked site for park/sleep/fly accommodations; the site offers deals in 115 cities in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. You can also sometimes find local deals by visiting airport Web sites, which list or link out to local hotels that offer the service.
Cell Phone Lots
There are few things as harrowing, dangerous or dull as driving endlessly around airport terminal loop roads when trying to pick up family or friends from the airport. You just want to stop and pull over -- but security concerns have put an end to surreptitious curb idling, and short-term parking is pricey, so there we are, circling and weaving, waiting to see our buds appear, or for the cell phone to ring with their exact location on the curb.
As much as it's just a bore of a chore, the danger factor is not inconsequential. A large number of airport auto accidents are the result of congestion caused by folks who drive erratically and stop quickly when making a curb pickup.
As cell phones become nearly ubiquitous, the quick call upon landing or luggage retrieval has eased the uncertainty and resultant misery of this process. Now airports are capitalizing on this trend with the establishment of very short-term, often free lots specifically for use by folks with phones doing airport pickups.
The new breed of cell phone lots are typically limited in size, within a couple minutes' drive of the terminals, and sometimes have limits on how long you can stay in the lot. The number of airports with the lots is in the low double-digits at present, but it seems like a new one shows up every few weeks, and where space allows, you can expect to see the lots are more airports all the time. Chicago's O'Hare has had one for 10 years (although it has been dubbed the Kiss and Fly lot).
Some airports that have or are planning lots at present:
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Houston Intercontinental (IAH)
San Diego International (SAN)
Los Angeles International (LAX)
Baltimore/Washington International (BWI)
Birmingham International (BHM)
Oakland International (OAK)
San Jose (SJC)
Palm Beach International (PBI)
Philadelphia International (PHL)
Tucson International (TIA)
Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Coupon Clippers
Finally, if you like to use independent, off-airport parking lots, and want to save some money, LongTermParking.com offers discount coupons for off-airport parking in many U.S. cities.
To discuss this and other Traveler's Ed articles, visit the Traveler's Ed Message Board.
Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
TravelersEd@aol.com
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler
Long-term parking lots are getting ever more remote -- at one airport I used recently, it was six miles from my parking spot to the terminal -- and for airport drop-off and pickup, security concerns have put an end to the tradition of idling in a sweet spot at the curb in front of the terminal until shooed away; now you will be ticketed.But two new trends offer some relief for travelers and the saints who pick them up at airports:
Park, Sleep and Fly
Many airport hotels have figured out that a parking spot and a ride, and not a bed and Danish, may be the best thing they can offer folks headed to the airport.
Since flight delays are typically fewer the earlier in the day you fly, morning flights have become popular among business travelers as well as with leisure travelers. Instead of rising in the middle of the night, driving to the airport in the dark and boarding your plane already near exhaustion, travelers are booking rooms with several days' "free parking" included. On departure, they stay at the airport hotel the night before travel, sleep much later than they would otherwise and walk out the door of their hotel to board the hotel shuttle right to the terminal. On return, they take the same hotel shuttle back to the hotel parking lot, get in their car and head for home.
Prices tend to be very reasonable; at some hotels I tested, the cost of the whole package was identical to the cost of long-term parking in the airport hotel lots alone. Forget free parking -- that's a free hotel room.
Example: I recently took a morning flight out of JFK at the start of a five-day trip. The airport is 65 grueling miles from my house, so to get on a 7 a.m. flight I would have had to rise at around 3:30 a.m. at the latest.
Instead, I got a park/sleep/fly deal at an airport hotel for $119, which came with five days' parking. With long-term parking usually costing around $10/day, I figure the whole thing cost me about $70 more than it would have otherwise, but I got a night's sleep and didn't stand around in snow drifts at 5:10 a.m. waiting for a crowded airport shuttle.
At other airports, I've seen much better -- at the Miami AmeriSuites, for example, you get up to 14 days of parking with your room at a price of $69; it's like they're paying you to stay there.
ParkSleepFly.com is probably the best-known and best-stocked site for park/sleep/fly accommodations; the site offers deals in 115 cities in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. You can also sometimes find local deals by visiting airport Web sites, which list or link out to local hotels that offer the service.
Cell Phone Lots
There are few things as harrowing, dangerous or dull as driving endlessly around airport terminal loop roads when trying to pick up family or friends from the airport. You just want to stop and pull over -- but security concerns have put an end to surreptitious curb idling, and short-term parking is pricey, so there we are, circling and weaving, waiting to see our buds appear, or for the cell phone to ring with their exact location on the curb.
As much as it's just a bore of a chore, the danger factor is not inconsequential. A large number of airport auto accidents are the result of congestion caused by folks who drive erratically and stop quickly when making a curb pickup.
As cell phones become nearly ubiquitous, the quick call upon landing or luggage retrieval has eased the uncertainty and resultant misery of this process. Now airports are capitalizing on this trend with the establishment of very short-term, often free lots specifically for use by folks with phones doing airport pickups.The new breed of cell phone lots are typically limited in size, within a couple minutes' drive of the terminals, and sometimes have limits on how long you can stay in the lot. The number of airports with the lots is in the low double-digits at present, but it seems like a new one shows up every few weeks, and where space allows, you can expect to see the lots are more airports all the time. Chicago's O'Hare has had one for 10 years (although it has been dubbed the Kiss and Fly lot).
Some airports that have or are planning lots at present:
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Houston Intercontinental (IAH)
San Diego International (SAN)
Los Angeles International (LAX)
Baltimore/Washington International (BWI)
Birmingham International (BHM)
Oakland International (OAK)
San Jose (SJC)
Palm Beach International (PBI)
Philadelphia International (PHL)
Tucson International (TIA)
Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
Coupon Clippers
Finally, if you like to use independent, off-airport parking lots, and want to save some money, LongTermParking.com offers discount coupons for off-airport parking in many U.S. cities.
To discuss this and other Traveler's Ed articles, visit the Traveler's Ed Message Board.
Go Anyway,
Ed Hewitt
TravelersEd@aol.com
Features Editor
The Independent Traveler