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Zipcar Flex drop-off and pick-up now available from Gatwick Airport

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Effective immediately, you will be able to drop off and pick-up Zipcar Flex cars from Gatwick Airport.

It is a welcome addition to the long-standing drop-off at Heathrow Terminal 5. However, that service has been downgraded in the past months and has moved from its on-terminal location at T5 to the Holiday Inn London Heathrow which is accessible via shuttle bus.

It is not a total slam dunk. Anyone hoping to pick up or drop off a Zipcar at Gatwick will have to pay a £20 airport surcharge – not exactly chump change.

Zipcar Flex drop-off and pick-up now available from Gatwick Airport

How does Zipcar Flex work at Gatwick Airport?

The new Zipcar service will operate from Gatwick’s North Terminal, which is where most of easyJet’s flights go from. It is therefore less convenient for anyone flying from Gatwick South, including British Airways, although there is the free landside inter-terminal shuttle.

Here are Zipcar’s instructions for finding the facility:

“When approaching North Terminal drop-off and pick-up follow the signs for ‘Car Rental Returns’ the car park is located just off Racecourse way.”

‘Over 20’ bays are available, so you should be able to find an empty one.

The facility is a 2-3 minute walk to the North Terminal, or you can use the free airport shuttle for the South Terminal.

If you are arriving at Gatwick and want to pick up a car, simply follow the instructions in reverse. To exit the car park use barrier code 1066#.

What is Zipcar Flex?

Note that the service is only available with Zipcar’s Flex service and not round-trip car rentals.

Zipcar Flex is an extra service offered by the Zipcar car share club.

Most people in London will have seen parking bays marked ‘Car Club Only’, often containing a Zipcar-vehicle. In return for a modest hourly rate, you can rent these cars via the Zipcar app and return them to their parking spot at the end of the trip.

Zipcar Flex is more flexible but more random. In certain London council areas, Zipcar Flex vehicles can be parked in any street parking bay. You don’t take the car back to where you got it from. You open the app, hopefully find a car near where you are, book it and then drop it in a street parking bay at your destination. The only rule is that the destination also needs to be in a local authority area that supports Zipcar Flex.

When Heathrow Airport adopted Zipcar Flex, it meant that you could pick up a car from near your house and drive directly to the Terminal 5 short stay car park. You dropped the car in one of the Avis / Zipcar bays and that was it. As our review showed, I 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.

Zipcar Flex also works in reverse, of course. You could get off your aircraft, walk into Terminal 5’s short stay car park and jump in a Zipcar, as long as you lived in a Flex drop-off area.

Zipcar

Is Zipcar Flex to Gatwick good value?

That will depend on what you compare it to. £20 (one-way), on top of your total trip costs, is significantly more than the £7.50 that is charged at Heathrow, and quadruple the previous £5 charge.

Zipcar says that “We have taken on feedback from our operations at Heathrow over the last 3 years across both locations and believe it is fairly priced when compared with private hire and car parking fees.”

£20 seems hefty given that cars at Gatwick are likely to see a high turn-over. It is not like a normal one-way rental – there will be plenty of people arriving at Gatwick who will want to hire a Zipcar to drive back home into Central London, thus returning the cars.

There is also less value in taking a Zipcar Flex versus the train, unless your journey requires multiple changes. A Thameslink return ticket to Gatwick costs less than £15.

How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards

How to get FREE car rental status and other benefits via UK credit cards (April 2024)

If you hire a car in the UK, you can get special benefits (discounts, upgrades, free additional drivers etc) if you have elite status with a car rental programme. You can get elite status for free via certain American Express cards.

The Platinum Card and American Express Business Platinum

The Platinum Card from American Express and American Express Business Platinum come with two free car hire status cards. Your supplementary Platinum cardholder can also receive status in their own right.

From Avis, you receive President’s Club status in Avis Preferred. This gets you up to 25% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a guaranteed one class upgrade. For weekend rentals you will receive a two class upgrade, subject to availability.

From Hertz, you receive ‘Five Star’ status in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. This gets you up to 15% off standard rates, a free additional driver and a one class upgrade, subject to availability.

Hertz also offers Platinum cardholders a 4 hour grace period on rentals. Your final day is treated as 28 hours, so a 1pm pick up with a 5pm return the following day is only charged as one day, not two days. We wrote about the Hertz / Platinum 4 hour grace period here.

The Platinum Card also comes with full car hire insurance with no obligation to pay for the rental via American Express. You can refuse any attempts to sell you additional insurance at pick up. This benefit has substantial value if you rent on a regular basis.

You can find more details on the two Platinum cards, and apply, in our full reviews linked below. You can apply here for the personal card and here for the business card.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is an excellent card in its own right. You receive 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up (convert to 20,000 Avios amongst other things), four airport lounge passes and £120 of Deliveroo credit. Even better, your first year is free.

There are two car rental benefits:

  • you receive Preferred Plus status in Avis Preferred
  • you receive a special package with Hertz – 10% off best available rates at participating locations, a one class upgrade for rentals of 5 days or more, subject to availability, and no additional driver fees

Find out more about the benefits of American Express Preferred Rewards Gold in our review. You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Category

General

Comments (62)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Hb says:
    6 Sep6 September 06:04

    This could be great for one way travel between Gatwick and Heathrow…

    • Stuart says:
      6 Sep6 September 06:12

      Was thinking exactly the same

    • Lottie says:
      6 Sep6 September 08:14

      That’s exactly what I was thinking, although with the £20 charge not sure how much cheaper it would be than a taxi, taking into account the faff of the shuttle at Heathrow

      • Nick says:
        6 Sep6 September 08:41

        By the time you’ve got from T5 to the hotel and then the shuttle from N to S at Gatwick, it’ll be much quicker on national express. Perhaps worth it if you have a family of 3 or 4, but solo definitely not.

        • Andrew says:
          6 Sep6 September 10:12

          Plus National Express fares are often not entirely unreasonable. I’ve got a flight out from LGW returning to LHR in a few weeks and have bought a one-way fully refundable £27 fare (plus a £1 non-refundable booking fee) as a back-up option in case of a rail strike (in which case I’ll drive to LHR).

          Obviously if there’s no notification of a rail strike I’ll cancel NEX (and the parking) about 10 days prior and do the whole lot by train.

  • Chris says:
    6 Sep6 September 06:22

    Wow. £20 added to the cost of travel… That is pretty high. I do not think it is worth it for me. As a family it may still be cost effective, but for singles like me. No.

  • Bob says:
    6 Sep6 September 06:42

    I should note that Heatrow Zipcar is no longer at short stay park. You should park it at a nearby hotel and wait for the shuttle.
    This kills the value for Heatrow as it adds at least 20 mins to the total journey.

  • Andrew says:
    6 Sep6 September 06:45

    “Chump change” – from the get go I object to Americanisms creeping in…,

  • Peter says:
    6 Sep6 September 07:32

    Struggle to see who would use it? Too complicated for tourists, too expensive for singles, car doesn’t come with car seats so no usage for families with kids, for people like myself living in zone 6 could be a great option as I wouldn’t need to go to central and then back to mine.. but zipcar operates mostly in zones 1-2 really which is covered by train.

    • Bagoly says:
      6 Sep6 September 09:50

      I see quite a few families taking their car seats on flights, either to avoid outrageous car rental charges, or because they live/have family at both ends.
      Complicated if new to Zipcar, but some tourists come from other places with Zipcar so will already have an account.

  • Londonsteve says:
    6 Sep6 September 08:14

    £20 fee? Add the standard time-based charge and would an Uber not be cheaper from nearly anywhere in south London? I think a lot of the Flex cars are electric and the stretch of M23 to Gatwick will decimate the range of electric cars whose on-board range indicators are based on past use around town which is much more energy efficient compared to motorway driving.

    • Rhys says:
      6 Sep6 September 08:26

      I’ve driven electric cars to Heathrow several times (my preferred choice actually) and I think the range indicator is based on ‘average’ usage rather than past usage specifically for this reason. Never had any problems except one time when I cut it a bit fine with the range indicator!

      • Londonsteve says:
        6 Sep6 September 08:41

        Surely ‘average’ usage is the same as past usage? Thing is, Gatwick is significantly further than Heathrow and the stretch of 70 mph motorway is also far longer. I see a lot of scope for inexperienced users to look at the range reading in, say, Balham and think they have sufficient range, only to find that the car coasts to a halt between the M25 and the Gatwick exit of the M23. Even if the range in the app is based on a cautious estimate, the vehicle’s power consumption spikes on the motorway and at 80 mph it can be 2.5x urban consumption.

        • Thegasman says:
          6 Sep6 September 08:51

          Completely disagree with your figures! I consistently get 3miles/kWh doing 70mph on motorway in my EV. Doing 80 it’ll drop to ~2.6. Around town it’s ~2.

          These are consistent figures over 12,000 miles & multiple 200 mile+ motorway journeys.

          I drive an Audi e-tron so something Golf sized will do 30-50% better.

          • Londonsteve says:
            6 Sep6 September 09:03

            I think you’ve got a typo in your numbers. Urban use yields the best economy, not the worst. We get 4.2 miles/Kwh from our Leaf used around town. At a 56 mph (GPS measured) cruise it drops to around 3.5 and at 70 it’s similar to yours. Above 70 the consumption goes beserk, but it’s no different in a petrol car which is 30% less efficient at 80 compared to 70 due to the exponential effect of wind resistance.

          • Bagoly says:
            6 Sep6 September 10:13

            As Londonsteve says, high speeds use much more energy due to wind resistance effects being above-linear.
            For ICE, stop-start driving adds inefficiency at the other end of average speed.
            But for EVs, stopping and starting has little effect on efficiency, especially if there is regenerative braking.

        • Rhys says:
          6 Sep6 September 08:51

          I meant average as a pre-determined value by the manufacturer taking into account average city vs motorway driving etc, rather than average of past trips! Not clear I admit

        • Richie says:
          6 Sep6 September 08:56

          Excellent point Londonsteve, you’re highlighting a real risk.

        • Bagoly says:
          6 Sep6 September 10:07

          Excellent point. A good reason to choose a petrol car for longer Zipcar journeys.

  • Alex M says:
    6 Sep6 September 08:27

    Can someone please remind me the most cost effective way to get from Gatwick to Clapham by train? Is it ticket splitting at E Croydon?

    • Pete says:
      6 Sep6 September 08:48

      Usually. Plenty of split ticket websites you can check on

      • Alex M says:
        6 Sep6 September 08:57

        I did try to google “train split ticket London to Gatwick” and it sent me to websites offering flights from Gatwick to Split, hence the question here… 🙂

        • Bagoly says:
          6 Sep6 September 09:45

          To reduce that effect, in Google put double quotes either end of “split ticket”

    • lumma says:
      6 Sep6 September 09:05

      The absolute cheapest way would be to use contactless/oyster and go in and out of the barriers at East Croydon, although it only saves you around 90p over just staying on the train. Paper ticket would cost more.

      • ADS says:
        6 Sep6 September 17:29

        You can save up to £5.50 between Zone 1 and Gatwick – by doing the East Croydon gateline circuit trick during Peak hours

    • Richie says:
      6 Sep6 September 09:07

      Which Clapham station?

      • Alex M says:
        6 Sep6 September 09:21

        I should have said Clapham Junction. I have looked at the tfl single fare finder now and splitting at e Croydon saves 4.50 at peak time and around 2.50 off peak (admittedly, for Wimbledon, where I need to finish my journey, not Clapham).

        • Richie says:
          6 Sep6 September 09:27

          Money Saving Expert website has good information on split ticketing, worth a thorough read. If travelling off peak in the south east, split ticketing and using a Network Railcard can be good for some longer journeys.

    • Mikeact says:
      6 Sep6 September 09:48

      You really want to split tickets just for that journey…I can only assume you’re desperate.

      • Richie says:
        6 Sep6 September 11:20

        Your assumption is probably wrong. Imperfect knowledge comments really are pointless.

  • The real Swiss Tony says:
    6 Sep6 September 08:37

    I guess the reality this lays bare is the fact that the prices at Heathrow didn’t reflect the costs incurred. No point in starting this as a bargain basement scheme then having to up sticks and move to Crawley after 6 months because the numbers don’t add up. The Avis office in T5 was indeed a godsend, but shouldn’t they have been offering this as a premium service in the first place rather than (typically) pricing the same as the Bath Road office?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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