Review: the Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 hotel and the driverless pods to the terminal (Part 2)

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• Lesley Clare says:

  10 Mar10 March 04:23

  That’s amazing awesome and spooky all at the same time

  • JamesB says:

    10 Mar10 March 06:58

    What’s amazing Lesley? Have you not been on the DLR? The device you typed your comment on seems much more amazing to me 🙂

    • Simon says:

      10 Mar10 March 07:14

      I think it’s great tbh. And looks slightly different to the dlr!

      • Jamie says:

        10 Mar10 March 11:48

        The pod doesn’t require the occasional conductor to open the doors like on the DLR…

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      10 Mar10 March 11:27

      A big difference to the DLR is you specify your destination and the pod arrives on demand to take you to your destination. Currently the pod system only has 3 stations, T5 and zones A and B in the car park, but in theory (they did have plans, not sure if it’ll ever happen though) they can extend the system to other destinations.

      • Rob says:

        10 Mar10 March 11:33

        As the third runway will see the demolition of all the Bath Road hotels including the Thistle and car park I doubt much will happen.

• Robert Iles says:

  10 Mar10 March 05:44

  I was tempted by doing this for our next trip but the Hilton T5 and 8 days parking for £100 won the day

• Rich says:

  10 Mar10 March 06:33

  I quite often get a taxi to Heathrow when travelling with my family and I always ask them to drop me at pod parking where we have a ride on the pods first into the airport for free!!

• jane says:

  10 Mar10 March 06:52

  Although it isn’t particularly clear from their website, the family room for 4 is actually two rooms behind a single door with a lobby area. There is a standard double room and also a twin room. For just over £100 we thought it was good value. I did wonder if we had been upgraded as we hadn’t expected two rooms but reception claimed that was standard. All of the comments in the article about the decor and rooms otherwise apply though.
  We did eat in the restaurant, whilst not terrible it wasn’t good either. The added bonus was the roof terrace which has a great view of the aircraft taking off and had our kids screaming with excitement – luckily it the airplanes were so noisy no-one cared ! Pods were fantastic and despite being told it was £5 per person per direction we were only charged £10 total return for 2 x adults + 2 x kids.

• mark2 says:

  10 Mar10 March 07:12

  Rob did not experience the parking which was pretty good. We were fortunate to get a space just outside the door in the top picture. This would have been good if we had come back by pod but in fact we returned to T3 (open jaw) and the Hoppa back made the pods seem excellent.

• Paul says:

  10 Mar10 March 07:22

  I think £5 per person each way makes the pod more expensive per mile than flying First class! It really is a rip off but clearly there are people out there with more money than sense.
  The local buses stop right outside the Thistle and are free. There is a very good TFL app for all the details.

  I have used the POD Parking several times in the last few months and twice they have been affected by cold weather leaving dozens of people standing around the wind tunnels waiting for them to recharge at 7am!

  They are a novelty and kids of all ages love them!

• Sussex bantam says:

  10 Mar10 March 07:23

  The pods are fun – this is my default parking option at T5. Its more expensive than other options but it is quick and efficient and often I care more about getting in and out quickly than a few £

  Only thing I would add is that at busy times you often don’t get a pod to yourself and have to share. It’s no great hardship but not quite as nice an experience.

  • plastikman says:

    10 Mar10 March 11:28

    hell is other people

• John says:

  10 Mar10 March 07:51

  I heard about the pods on HFP maybe 3-4 years ago, and the very next time I had a flight out of T5 I arrived 30 mins earlier just to ride one for fun, so Rob really has no excuse leaving it for so long (and paying for the privilege) 🙂

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