Thistle Heathrow charging £8 for the driverless pods to T5 – but it can still save you money

One of the lesser known secrets of Heathrow airport is that guests of the Thistle Heathrow hotel can use the driverless pods to get to Terminal 5.

The hotel backs on to the pod parking car park.  The Thistle has added a door into the car park, and for a fee they will give you the PIN code!  Once you are in the car park, you can hop into a pod and be in Terminal 5 within a couple of minutes.  It also works in reverse, making the Thistle an easy hotel to reach if landing at Terminal 5.

We reviewed Thistle Heathrow T5 hotel here.  This is not a great hotel BUT using the driverless pods in the car park to take you directly to Terminal 5 is pretty cool.

We reviewed the driverless pods here, because we’re a bit sad.

I’m not sure when this happened, but the fee for using the pods has gone up from £6 to £8 per person.  The hotel claims that it passes the money on to Heathrow, so don’t blame them, although £8 each way is certainly getting a bit chunky.

Full details of the Thistle Heathrow’s pod access can be found on the hotel website here.

The pods operate from 4am to 12.15am daily.

If you need a hotel and parking, you can still save money here

Here is the website to book the pod car park at Heathrow. When you ask for a Terminal 5 parking quote, ‘POD Parking Terminal 5’ will be one of the options that appears.

However, as you can see on its website here, the Thistle Heathrow T5 hotel also offers ‘stay, park and fly’ packages. To quote the website:

If you’re arriving by car, our on-site parking has availability for 450 cars, and our Heathrow Park & Fly Packages are perfect if you are catching the red-eye or landing in the wee small hours. Stay with us and enjoy a good night’s sleep, knowing you’re moments away from your terminal.

And as part of this package, you can leave your car with us for 4, 8, 15, or 22 days at a discounted parking rate, when reserved with accommodation. Additional nights of parking are available from just £15.00 per car per night.

It is likely that a ‘stay, park and fly’ package at the Thistle will be cheaper than booking the pod car park and a hotel separately. Parking at the Thistle Heathrow T5 hotel is virtually the same experience as using the Heathrow pod car park at a lower cost.

You can find out more on the Thistle London Heathrow Terminal 5 website here.

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