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

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• Paul says:

  28 Mar28 March 07:49

  “although £8 each way is certainly getting a bit chunky”

  Understatement of the day, I am going to use when next encountering anything that is ripping me off!

  Heathrow is a license to print money from the ludicrous
  £5 drop off fee,
  £8 for the Thistle pod
  £6.5 for 15 minutes car parking
  Heathrow express costs
  Elizabeth line supplement
  extortionate passenger fees,

  There is little you can do to avoid any of these charges but there are hacks!

  My favourite is setting up a business account for the drop of charge. NB individual accounts only allow one car to be listed business accounts all the family cars can be added.
  List all family cars under account and attach Amex card for the miles. Did this when charge introduced and to date would say around 1/3rd of drop offs don’t get charged. Don’t know why but they don’t! It was around 70% when first introduced and the failures are at every terminal!
  There are no fines or penalties because you are not avoiding the charge, you are not refusing to pay, they are not charging you!

  If flying solo I have been know to use the T5 long term car park drop off which is free and surprisingly fast!

  Those staying at Thistle and premier in do need to be careful about the 423. It is often packed in the morning and more than once I have seen large numbers of people get left behind. It’s not that regular a service which is why I prefer to get buses nearer the Nene road as you can get into the central area easily and transfer by train to other terminals.

  • Rich says:

    28 Mar28 March 07:57

    Nice one – thanks for the idea. I guess it’s either malfunctioning ANPR equipment or a coach / high vehicle is travelling next to / in front of you and hides your number plate from the camera.

  • Matt says:

    28 Mar28 March 08:43

    If you do find yourself not able to board the 423 then the pods could be an emergency back up. That said all of this only applies if you are staying at the Thistle.

    I have found 2 weeks secure parking in July for under £70 about 15 mins direct bus ride to T5 (with bus stop right outside parking) with YOURPARKINGSPACE.

• Bob says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:02

  I thought the pods were free? Or is that just you can get on at the terminal and do a lap for free without exiting?

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:14

    They are free.

    • Roy says:

      28 Mar28 March 20:51

      Well, they’re free in the sense that they’re included in the price of the pod parking.

      They clearly cost money to install and maintain.

• David says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:06

  I have used the hotel and pods for early morning departures. Hotel food options are poor so head off in time for breakfast in the Lounge. Word of note regarding parking. It is always difficult to find a parking slot and both the bays and the space between the row are very narrow. High risk if a ding on the door or bumper scrape. Hotel do not take any responsibility for damage. Increasing number of SUV,s adds to the problem. Otherwise it is a sensible option .

  • MattB says:

    28 Mar28 March 14:55

    We parked up in the Thistle last weekend., I’ve never seen it so quiet, probably half full. Quite a contrast to our previous visit which coincided with a wedding that had about 1000 guests and being told to leave the car ‘anywhere’. Thankfully I was able to move to an actual space in the morning.

    Price wise it’s always been cheaper to park and stay there vs just the onsite Heathrow parking. We’ve had bad experiences with justpark type operations so refuse to use them now.

  • Roy says:

    28 Mar28 March 20:57

    I don’t really see the point of airport hotel breakfast. I always find it less stressful to get though security and have breakfast airside (ideally in a lounge – but I’d do the same even without lounge access).

• Chris Cannon says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:30

  Really hope LHR are billing Thistle. We pay a premium for Pod parking and the last thing needed is more users at peak times

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:32

    They are – £8.

  • aseftel says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:36

    It was dead quiet the few times I’ve parked there. Have I just been lucky?

    • Matt says:

      28 Mar28 March 09:47

      Possibly. Last time we stayed in July we had no issue finding a space.

      I did park close to reception with my cat convertor side very close to a wall to minimise risk.

      Also on the afternoon we left some grotbags were chucking wood over a boundary fence on the way out.

      The stay and park package is the barometer I use when considering either other parking verse stand alone hotels or just parking.

      It scandalous what official parking, meet and greet services, and some drive hires charge. This year I looked at all the bus routes direct to T5 and then found parking close to a stop.

      Bus travel on Tfl is very good value so intent leveraging it going forward

• Neil says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:45

  Last time I paid for Pod Parking at T5, it was broken and I had to use a bus replacement!

  Anyway, in this instance what’s to stop you from paying £8 for one person, then just the entire family walking through the gate? Is it a turnstile?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    28 Mar28 March 10:24

    Honesty – both from you and the hotel who of course know how many guests are booked into the room and I’ll hazard would not want to get caught cheating LHR

  • Andrew. says:

    28 Mar28 March 10:34

    Same way as there is nothing to stop you hanging around the gate and shadowing someone through.

    Except, I’ve spotted people doing that and slammed the door behind me.

    • Thegasman says:

      28 Mar28 March 11:50

      Bit OTT to slam a gate on someone following you through. How do you know they’re not just assuming a polite person would hold gate ajar & have the code/separated from family?

    • executiveclubber says:

      28 Mar28 March 17:06

      Slammed the door behind you? Nice one Andrew, that’ll show them… (!)

  • Peter says:

    28 Mar28 March 11:17

    Isn’t that like a taxi? What stops your entire family getting in? – the size of the pod 🙂

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Mar28 March 20:27

      Get in the next one

• zapato1060 says:

  28 Mar28 March 11:38

  Just checking official Madrid temp parking right next to T4. 5p/min. £3 for an hour Even £4.50 per day if you stay 4 days. Shows what a racketeering is going on here 🙁

  • Londonsteve says:

    29 Mar29 March 15:05

    Yes, I dropped someone off at MAD T4 with a car and escorted them into departures. Parked for nearly an hour and fully expected the bill to cost an arm and a leg. Was very surprised how reasonable the charge was, but then I could pretty much say the same thing about the whole country. Spain is a very good value destination.

    The car parks at T4 are VAST, I wouldn’t be surprised if many people use the short term car parks instead of long term parking when flying simply because it’s a short walk into the terminal.

• Nick says:

  28 Mar28 March 12:06

  £1.75 on the bus from the front of the hotel, the stop is even called ‘thistle hotel’. If you’ve just missed a 423 you can walk an extra 2 min and take the 350 instead. The pod is very much a ‘more money than sense’ thing!

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 12:22

    Didn’t Margaret Thatcher say that anyone over the age of 30 who got on a bus should consider their life to be a failure?!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      28 Mar28 March 13:20

      I’m getting the bus into town later today so that I can go out drinking. I consider this evening’s plans very much not a failure 🙂

      • Gordon says:

        28 Mar28 March 16:02

        After a night out drinking, I took the bus to get home, that was a big mistake according to the police!

    • Paul says:

      28 Mar28 March 15:43

      But as history shows she was rarely right. Ghastly woman

    • Londonsteve says:

      29 Mar29 March 15:09

      Lady T said a lot of things, some of which were garbage. History has proven her views on public transport to be misplaced and downright harmful. Thankfully, more and more people are realising owning and using a car is not an essential item to prove your worth to the rest of society. I’m consistently amazed how little interest Gen Z shows in even passing their driving test, much less owning a car. For them it’s Oyster, Uber & Lime bikes all the way! Youngsters in the countryside meanwhile who really need a car to get around can’t afford the insurance on the minimum wage jobs available local to where they live.

• Matt says:

  28 Mar28 March 14:38

  Price is per person each way.

  https://www.thistle.com/heathrow-terminal-5/heathrow-pods

  It does drop you off in car park in T5 which is a longer walk than the bus drop off.

  Your kids will be free on the 423 bus and it will be £1.70 each for each adult. So the whole journey with return all 4 will be less than a single POD fare one way.

  Your kids will probably find the double decker 423 more exciting. If you track the bus using the TFL app when at thistle you can time it so the bus will run the pod pretty damm close from hotel to departures terminal on terms of time. On way back the most you will probably end up waiting is 20 mins

  • Londonsteve says:

    29 Mar29 March 15:12

    +1

    TFL needs money far more than HAL. I wouldn’t pay 8 quid for a pod ride on a point of principal. Surely for a family of 4 even an Uber would be cheaper and more comfortable as it doesn’t involve lugging suitcases from reception to the pod station via the access gate?

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