IHG opens a Hotel Indigo on the French Riviera

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• Phillip says:

  20 Nov20 November 05:07

  POD parking – is that back on sale? Over the past year, every time I’ve looked for parking at LHR T5, this never came up as an option and it always seemed shut every time I drove past. Is the current situation with the bus the first time it’s opening since the start of the pandemic? Have others used the pods in the last 18 months?

  I had heard a rumour, and I stress this is a rumour, that staff working at the Compass Centre would be relocated to offices at T5 because the Compass Centre will eventually be demolished to make way for the third runway. I have to admit I was surprised to hear something like that given that the planning application has not even been submitted and unlikely to be for a number of years to come, but can’t help but feel that something is certainly being considered within the area of interest of the expansion.

  • Blenz101 says:

    20 Nov20 November 06:08

    Yes they had reopened. They are currently bookable on the LHR website as pod parking but do mention that a bus transfer is in operation.

    The change could relate to the new terminal drop off fee with the long stay car parks now being used as the 30 min free option. Wouldn’t shock me if they are making operational changes to the way the pods work to introducing charges to drop offs.

    Running a fleet of busses with drivers doesn’t feel like it is a saving to to the airport when the pods will still need to be maintained anyway.

    • Lady London says:

      20 Nov20 November 12:18

      …and the pods are driverless. Which certainly was taking away the major staff expense required by buses.

      Does anyone else think Heathrow’s claims of cutting services at the same time as introducing new denands for money to be “green”, just don’t add up?

  • Tariq says:

    20 Nov20 November 06:22

    Used it last Monday, car park seemed quite full. Ride felt a bit rough and erratic so do wonder if there are technical issues.

    • Nick says:

      20 Nov20 November 12:57

      @LL you’re absolutely right about heathrow turning themselves ‘anti-green’ while shouting the world about the opposite.

      But it’s mistake to think the pods were/are staffless or even particularly cheap to run. They can’t operate without minimum staffing in the control room, and there are significant operating fees payable to the contractors who manage it (similar to vanderlande and the baggage system). If they don’t have the passenger volume paying car park rates (or thistle fee) then it’s not worth it. A bus would be cheaper, if eco-unfriendly.

• Char Char says:

  20 Nov20 November 05:41

  Must be quiet if the autonomous driverless pods just got fired for a staffed bus route!

• Mike says:

  20 Nov20 November 07:01

  Does seem a retrograde step I would have thought driverless autonomous was the future

• Greenpen says:

  20 Nov20 November 07:34

  I am in the Thistle now upon the return from my holiday. Functional but liftless is the description I would use although the terrace in summer is nice for basic food whilst watching aeroplanes. I use the POD to avoid buses when I do not park in the connected short term. If they go I see no need to use the Thistle again.

  The PODs are a bit of magic that I enjoy using. The parking around Station B was full. Cannot say for the rest as it was late and dark when I arrived. Thistle parking, which I am using, is full; however, when I dropped the car to POD to T5 ten days ago the Thistle and POD parking were fairly empty.

  Maybe they will sell them off as BA did with bits from the B747s. I could then use a POD to take me from the back door to the bins on a rainy day!

  • ianM says:

    20 Nov20 November 08:48

    Liftless is not good if you have a room on the top floor

    • David says:

      20 Nov20 November 08:55

      IIRC there are only two floors anyway, ground and first (I’m not counting the little brass ramp to slide your case up the 5 steps on the ground floor)

• Tracey says:

  20 Nov20 November 07:43

  Worth mentioning that part of the Amazon prime offer is prime reading. You can “borrow” up to 10 books at a time from a reasonable varied list.

  • Keely says:

    20 Nov20 November 10:21

    I didn’t know this despite having prime. Thanks, I’ll take a look

• Richmond_Surrey says:

  20 Nov20 November 07:44

  I thought Thistle is closed, becasuse it doesn’t show up on the list of available hotels near Heathrow.
  Regardless of pods, it was cheap and there’s a bus stop in front of it, however not free any more.

• Nick says:

  20 Nov20 November 07:54

  POD Parking – I had a 24 hour booking on 10th / 11th November. On arrival at the car park at around noon, the pods were not working due to a technical issue but replacement bus service was efficient . On 11th I returned at about around 7pm and pods were out of action again. Sign said replacement bus service runs every 10 minutes. Queue grew longer and longer and after 10 minutes I started videoing it. It was a further 20 minutes before two minibuses arrived at same time by which time queue was over 40 deep and some like me towards the front had waited half an hour. A disgrace.

  • Paul says:

    20 Nov20 November 08:35

    It Heathrow! It not so much a disgrace as a national embarrassment on almost every level!

  • Lady London says:

    20 Nov20 November 12:23

    Hi Nick see my early comment above I hadn’t seen your comment at all before I wrote that.

    Sadly with Heathrow I didn’t have to be Mystic Meg to predict that future on Heathrow’s counter-green fake on demand bus service.

  • Terry says:

    20 Nov20 November 13:01

    We arrived at Heathrow slightly later than 7pm on 11th November, and the guy was taking down the ‘out of service’ signage. Thus, we are able to ride the POD to the Thistle Hotel (and back again on the morning of the 12th).

    Believe the regular bus fare is £1.55 per journey (our 2nd option).

• L Allen says:

  20 Nov20 November 08:43

  I used POD parking a couple of weeks ago. What a shame it’s being shelved again. The car park was quite full both when I arrived and on leaving a week later. The ride wasn’t entirely smooth and it was concerning to see the little display screens showing an ancient version of Windows instead of the usual cheery messages! Maybe all those months not being used has meant maintenance issues?

  • Bagoly says:

    20 Nov20 November 09:11

    XP?
    Maybe they have been hacked.

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