Confirmed: Zipcar Flex drop-off and pick-up to move out of Terminal 5 on 1st April

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• Thom says:

  30 Mar30 March 10:28

  Well this is a shame; found ZipCar fantastic to and from T5. Once the Elizabeth line opens I guess driving to Acton Mainline / West Ealing could be a viable option.

• MJ says:

  30 Mar30 March 10:47

  “In certain London council areas, Zipcar Flex vehicles can be parked in any street parking bay.”

  I find this as misleading as Zipcar’s own marketing on this. The rules vary from council to council on what parking is available for zip flex rentals. For instance, in tower hamlets you get stung with pcns when dropping the car in pay and display bays whereas in Hackney it’s not a problem.

  • Bob says:

    30 Mar30 March 13:16

    they have info on their site inc pictures for each council and what’s valid

• will says:

  30 Mar30 March 11:11

  Having just returned from Dubai, I can’t really get my head around how you can both collect and drop a car off at Dubai within a stroll of the terminal building (on drop off departures is literally a pedestrian crossing away from the drop off) and yet at LHR the entire process is always busses and waiting.

  I guess that’s the downside of taking a small airfield and bolting bits on with no long term plan. Roll on the 3rd runway 🙁

  When will we actually make 5/10/50 year plans for infrastructure and population change in this country?

  • Dubious says:

    30 Mar30 March 13:44

    I thought Dubai started off the same way…there is a lot about DXB that is inefficient and part of the reason they built DWC.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    30 Mar30 March 14:41

    Lets see how well HS2 turns out.

  • BlueThroughCrimp says:

    30 Mar30 March 15:43

    Good question.
    Not putting HS2 to Heathrow is the classic example of how we just can’t plan properly.

    AMS, FRA, CDG all have attached Inter/EuroCity stations and have done for decades.

  • Londonsteve says:

    30 Mar30 March 17:54

    “When will we actually make 5/10/50 year plans for infrastructure and population change in this country?”

    Err, never. Forget it. If you’re looking for that sort of thing emigrate.

• sloth says:

  30 Mar30 March 11:34

  just received a price increase email from them but no mention of T5 changes…

  In response to the increasing costs of operating, our prices will be changing from 4th April. Despite absorbing as much of the increases as we can until now, the inflationary pressures mean we, unfortunately, do now have to pass on some of the increased costs we are seeing, particularly around fuel prices.

  Our Roundtrip rates will therefore increase by £0.50/hour and £5/day. Please note if you have an existing booking planned for after 4th April, the original rate will be honoured.

  Our Flex rates will align to our member rate plans, so as with Roundtrip rates, those on paid plans will now get a lower rate than those on our Basic plan. We have also introduced a slightly higher rate for weekend use, in line with our Roundtrip rates.

  As a Basic plan member, the weekday Flex rate will increase by £0.04/min and £2/hour and by £0.05/min and £2.50/hour at weekends. We have also increased the Flex day rate to be more closely aligned with our Roundtrip day rates.

  All additional mileage will now be charged at £0.29/mile, bringing alignment across all vehicle types in the fleet.

• Lady London says:

  30 Mar30 March 12:17

  Amongst all the advantages Avis is mentioning that will also lose them their USP of convenient T5 location, did Avis also mention it will now become a nightmare for people staying at the Holiday Inn needing to park their car?

• ADS says:

  30 Mar30 March 13:08

  “Rhys could get from South London to Heathrow in an an hour for £19 compared to taking 90 minutes and three different trains by public transport.”

  And from 1st April for travel TO the airport he would probably need to leave an extra half hour to catch the shuttle bus, and spare time in case there was a delay in the shuttle bus! Presumably Rhys will no longer use Zipcar to get to Heathrow?

  Although it may still be attractive for travel FROM heathrow – especially if landing fairly late in the evening. Which would rather screw up Zipcar balancing arrivals and departures!

  • Gavin454 says:

    30 Mar30 March 14:22

    I have the same situation from South London – I will probably go back to using the tube, and if I have unwieldy luggage (eg ski bags) then I’ll also use Airportr. For early departures, not travelling during rush hour, a taxi is probably better. I’ll probably use Zipcar coming FROM Heathrow only if I have awkward bags.

    When the Elizabeth Line opens it should make the journey faster and easier.

    Such a shame. The Zipcar service was so useful and convenient!

    • Londonsteve says:

      30 Mar30 March 18:00

      Beware: it’ll be a while before you can catch a train at Heathrow and travel on the same service to central London stations. As far as I understand your Heathrow train will continue to terminate at Paddington mainline platforms and to continue with the Elizabeth Line, you’ll have to navigate Paddington tube station to the low-level platforms from where trains will depart to Abbey Wood. An absolute pain and it introduces another change with luggage, so it will remain easier to take to Piccadilly Line for most people.

• Bob says:

  30 Mar30 March 13:15

  don’t have to rely on shuttle buses – https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/03/03/how-to-avoid-the-heathrow-hotel-hoppa-fee/ – local buses operate from the hotel to both T5 and T2/3

• e14 says:

  30 Mar30 March 16:07

  No airport fee for April, but what happens beyond that

  From 1st April, we will be moving our Heathrow operation to an off-airport location at the Holiday Inn Bath Road.

  As part of the move, there is now a free, short bus journey between the terminal and the hotel car park. The bus departs from bus stop 25 at T5 and will shuttle customers to and from the airport.

  The buses will be available 24 hours a day to ensure we cover all customer movements at all times of the day.

  For the month of April, we won’t be charging the £7.50 Airport Fee that we currently charge customers for using the drop-off and pick up in T5. We hope this gives you the opportunity to try out the new location.

  Why are we making the move?

  We want to scale our operation at Heathrow, and this gives us access to 4 times as many spaces as we previously had in the terminal.

  We will be able to maintain and charge electric vehicles, helping us on our way to our 2025 vision of going fully electric.

  This new location allows us to clean and service the vehicles on-site, removing 80% of the journeys needed to maintain our vehicles that come to Heathrow.

  To find out more, head to our airports page.

  Zipcar

  • ADS says:

    30 Mar30 March 23:20

    “we want to scale our operation”

    But by moving away from the terminals – they are ensuring that the customer demand will be reduced

    Bizarre

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